Responsible Content

Ins and Outs of Backing up Facts on Site

[paynt]

When publishing content on a site how do you go about backing up your information? Are visitors assured by your facts and figures or accepting of your commentary? What are you using to back up your facts to ensure credibility? Then, what format (examples: graphs or offsite linking to documentation, PDF downloads) works best to present them?

Have you ever run into having to present facts on a site for a client and questioned the facts or your responsibility in presenting them?

Anyone here want to share experiences both pro and con?

[stevenha]

Its not difficult to put a "References" numbered list at the bottom of the page, which contains the data sources you used. I have many pages like that, and I think users just scan past them really quickly... but it does establish your overall credibility.

When the data source is your own creation, you can create extra content pages to hold your charts, tables, observations, etc. Most users never check them, but I think helps when seeking listings in Directories like DMOZ.

Your references could link directly to the external sources, but concerns about PageRank might prevent you from doing so.

Will users ever question you or criticize? Yes, rarely. I once got a few critical emails about some health-related content on my site, but when I put up a poll to find out more, I learned that 99% of people were very appreciative. So don't let the rare criticisms bother you too much. AND, after I put the poll results on a webpage, I stopped getting critical emails.

[paynt]

Some other questions came up for me regarding website credibility that you may want to jump in and help me with.

What about copywriters? Do you test their credibility when you hire them to write copy? How do you determine the parameters to assign them to get back credible and legitimate content?

Does having out-of-date content affect the credibility of a website? What safeguards do you put in place to ensure that your content is accurate and current?

Last I found The Web Credibility Project [webcredibility.org], a research project conducted by Stanford University, which I feel, warrants a link and some discussion. Does anyone have thoughts about this study?

[stever]

Does having out-of-date content affect the credibility of a website?

Absolutely, especially in e-commerce. If there is imperfection or inaccuracy on the web site (careless spelling, out-of-date information, opinion masked as facts) who knows what they might be doing with my credit card details.