People tend to think of website usability as a structural issue: it’s about intuitive organization, navigation labels that make sense, reasonable page lengths, natural linking. And it is about all those things. What often gets overlooked, though, is content’s relationship to usability.

In a word, it’s integral. Does the content deliver what the navigation promises? Does it cover what people are most interested in? Do top-level pages provide a clear summary of the main points in a section? Are calls to action clear and prominently placed? Is frequently sought information positioned so obviously that it practically smacks users between the eyes?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, your website isn’t as effective as it could be at engaging users, and it may even be driving them away. A few clues that content issues may be dragging down usability:

• You get frequent calls about topics you think are well explained on the site.
• Response is lacking to calls to action.
• Site statistics show that people quickly bounce from one page to the next, or off the site altogether.

These clues could indicate other problems as well, but a content evaluation is an excellent place to start investigating–especially with sites that have been around a while or are both broad and deep (as university sustainability sites tend to be).