Middle East Directory - e-Business Column

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According to a recent research conducted by Forrester Research, high-quality content is the number 1 reason cited by users for returning to their most frequently visited sites.

Indeed, according to a recent study carried out by Princeton Research Associates, the Internet is rapidly becoming viewed as a more important information source than the press or television.

	Internet	Television
Most interesting information	67%	18%
Most in-depth information	63%	16%
Easiest way to get information	65%	24%
Most up-to-date information	57%	29%
Most accurate information	51%	21%

The same survey revealed that Internet users believe information on the Web to be more interesting, fresher, in greater depth and easier to use than that available from other media:

	Television	Radio	Newspaper	Internet
Where would you go for the most up-to-date information?	29%	5%	6%	57%
Where would you go for the most accurate information?	21%	5%	15%	51%
Where would you go for the most interesting information?	18%	4%	8%	67%
What would be the easiest way to get information?	24%	5%	4%	65%
Where would you go for the most in-depth information?	14%	2%	16%	63%

The Princeton Research Associates survey also revealed several factors that users cited as crucial attributes for a site. These were adjudged to be more important than features such as Flash animations, online games and chat rooms:

Fresh Content: Visitors regard outdated or stale information as a major negative.

Content Quality: Badly presented or written content proved off-putting to users.

Unique Content: Users want new information they cannot get elsewhere.

Ease of Use: Visitors want to find content quickly or move on.

High Relevance: Users require information that is pertinent to their interests

It is therefore obvious that as a web site administrator, you need to focus on getting the right content for your site, written by professionals who know best.