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robbrown robbrown
 
M$1.10 September 07, 2009 01:49 PM

What should EVERY How To page have?

Ironically, I've been spending my long labor day weekend working on authoring a block of new How To articles.

I've noticed that there is a basic set of information that exists on many how to pages even when the topics are completely different.

Here are the ones that I have noticed:

Tips

Fast Facts

Further Resources

Related Mahalo Pages

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Am I missing any important sections? Of course every how to page has sections above and beyond what I've listed here. Are there any other sections that every great How To page has?
Interesting Question?  Yes (2)   No (0)   

Interesting: tchachra M$0.05, gpthestar M$0.05

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ssmacd ssmacd
 
 September 07, 2009 02:06 PM
The guide note.

This is a brief description of the search term, and should include the exact search term title in a sentence...such as "This guide will teach you how to write a great how to page" or "have you ever wondered how to write a great how to page. The first few sentences of the guide note will be shown as the abstract of the page when it's indexed by Google.
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robbrown robbrown
 
September 07, 2009 02:14 PM
I forgot to write down the basics of the guide note and the introduction. Thank-you.

Speaking of which, what's the difference between a guide note and an introduction?

I've seen a lot of existing SERP's with the guide note a straight copy-and-paste from the introduction. I've been changing that on every page I've found where that has happened.

I can sort of see why this happened. The guide note and introduction seem to be very closely related. What's the difference?

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ssmacd ssmacd
 
September 07, 2009 03:24 PM
The guide note is a description of the search term - the Introduction is an overview of the page (usually). So whereas the guide note can be a brief teaser, the intro should be a little more like "tell them what you're going to tell them".

The duplicates you're seeing may be one of the bugs with how tos brought over from M1, where the guide note, and tips were duplicated at the top of the page body-- there should never be a page where the actual introduction and the guide note are identical.

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mahaloman mahaloman
 
September 07, 2009 02:06 PM
I think that covers everything, but all the great How To Pages have something unique and specific about the How To that makes it better then other pages.

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robbrown robbrown
 
September 07, 2009 02:13 PM
This is a great point, Mahaloman... can you show me an example?

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mahaloman mahaloman
 
September 07, 2009 02:51 PM
I found a good example How To make a pizza it has unique pictures of course. In step 6 called beyond the basics they go beyond expectations with other ideas for pizzas. Then at the bottom there is a section about pizza's for special diets which is a great extra tip. Anytime there is added information thats unique to the How To, not required, but should be on the page makes great How To Pages.

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tchachra tchachra
 
September 07, 2009 02:08 PM
In my how-to pages I always include an introduction and a small section describing what the reader is looking at. If they are interested then they move on and read the sections that detail the how-to.

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krystyne20 krystyne20
 
September 07, 2009 03:18 PM
I like to also add a video section. There are a lot of video tutorials on YouTube that can provide additional instructions for people visiting your page.

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ssmacd ssmacd
 
September 07, 2009 03:27 PM
Videos are great, as they will keep the user on your page longer. You need to be careful to watch them before adding them, however. If the video gives advice that conflicts with what you have written on the page, you can use the "description" section of the featured object box to point out the difference-- and why the way you wrote on the page is better. (I am not implying that this is the case with your videos @krystyne20- you do awesome pages!!! Just thought I'd add the clarification for someone who wasn't as familiar with how tos)

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philipy philipy
 
September 07, 2009 05:47 PM
What I think is useful for most if not all How To's:

- Who is this article aimed at? (Beginner, techie, etc)

For example the page I made on How to Play Omaha is aimed at people that already know how to play poker, esp Texas Hold 'Em. On the other hand the How to Play Poker page I claimed is aimed at a complete newbie.

- Why do this thing? Or why not?

Perhaps we could assume that anyone that's reading a how-to already has an interest in doing the thing. But maybe they just stumbled on it, and maybe they don't know what the pros and cons and alternatives are.

If nothing else, it's always good for a person to focus and motivate themselves before starting anything by remembering what the purpose of it was.

- What you need before you get started

- Common Pitfalls to Avoid

None of those things necessarily need a section of their own, but they're worth covering somewhere.

One thing I'm not sure that all how-tos need is the explciit Step 1, Step 2, Step 3. I removed those terms from my Omaha article because the different sections don't cover things that you do in sequence, but rather things you need to understand in order to play.

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nhs4you nhs4you
 
September 08, 2009 12:46 PM
Apart from video, how about embedding some other applications like SlideShare?

SlideShare relally contains some very good and useful presentations. If somehow one can add/embed those directly into 'How To' page , I think it will be useful.

Thanks,
Nis--th

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