Facttactic

Corporate and technical writers

Facttactic’s Blog

the need for website speed

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Next month, Google releases a major update to its search tool by ranking website speed. Yawn, I hear you say! But, no, hang on, take note of this one.

The update will — put simply — make the speed at which your website’s pages load a significant factor in how well your site ranks in Google search.

Page load speed has always been a very important factor in visitor website satisfaction. All the reputable stats show that if people wait for too long for a page to load, many will leave a site before the page displays. Slow sites lose sales.

Now, Google is to make speed even more important, and all website owners should be aware of what that means for them.

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benefits of online user guides

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If you’re writing a user guide or policy manual, or similar, and its target readership (staff or customers) is spread over different locations, I often recommend moving away from a printed document (such as Word/PDF).

Instead, I steer clients towards creating online (HTML or XML) documents.

That sounds like it’s introducing new complexities but, really, the learning curve is not steep, and the benefits strongly outweigh what is largely, and simply, concern of the unknown.

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new resource for Māori writers

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I was privileged to build an online magazine called Mata Media (http://matamedia.co.nz/) last week for Aotearoa Media Collective.

Mata Media has been set up as an online platform to publish Māori journalism and opinions from Māori perspectives, targeting specifically writing that may not find a home anywhere else.

It’s a great concept (and not a bad-looking site!!), and I’ll look forward to reading the work on it as it grows over time.

the Auckland and all-over technical writer

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The great thing with the growth in web-based communications and tools is that a technical writer can very successfully work remotely with customers.

I do plenty of technical writing for customers in Auckland, for example, while based in the lower North Island.

In fact, between 2017 and 2019, I helped clients with technical writing or web writing in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Zurich (yes, the time difference is a killer!), Singapore, and outside the main centres: in Paremata, Otaki and Levin.

[Read more…] about the Auckland and all-over technical writer

not enough small businesses online!

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It’s estimated that only around half of NZ’s small businesses have a website.

In today’s online-dominated business world, that’s far too few — businesses not online are missing out on many opportunities.

A website is a 24/7 advertisement / shopfront to the world. They’re inexpensive to run and, for a basic small business site, inexpensive to build. 

Rushed as small business owners are just operating their businesses day-to-day, putting up a website or some sort of online presence should be a priority.

So: it was pleasing to see two more small Kiwi businesses getting their shopfronts online this month:

And good to see Mighty Atom Marketing helping them get there.