Keywords and beyondA practical guide to creating and managing web content to reach your customers and market your business

We’re going to talk about web content

★ Itʼs the “stuff” on the web site★ Written word★ Imagery★ Videos★ Itʼs how the content is organized

Why does this matter?

Your content is the most important asset of your site

Why does this matter?

Your content is the most important asset of your siteItʼs how you influence people, get customers, make sales

Why does this matter?

Your content is the most important asset of your siteItʼs how you influence people, get customers, make salesItʼs the whole reason we view websites

But what about the CMS?

But what about the CMS?the design?

But what about the CMS?the design? or SEO?

SEO only gets people to your site

★ Search engine optimization helps people find your site; itʼs not why theyʼre there or what they do there

★ The Google and Bing crawlers are not your customers

★ Search optimization shines when it works with and through good content strategy

We arrived- now what?

Design sends its own message & shapes how content is understood

★ Design influences image, including authority and professionalism

Design sends its own message & shapes how content is understood

★ Design influences image, including authority and professionalism

★ Design both guides and colors how we understand content

Design sends its own message & shapes how content is understood

★ Design influences image, including authority and professionalism

★ Design both guides and colors how we understand content

★ It must do all of this based on, and through, good content

“Ja, it’s beautiful, Lars, but how how can you drive it?”

A CMS without content strategy is bad news

★ A prerequisite for a content management system is content

A CMS without content strategy is bad news

★ A prerequisite for a content management system is content

★ The purpose of a CMS is to provide a system to put your content strategy into effect

A CMS without content strategy is bad news

★ A prerequisite for a content management system is content

★ The purpose of a CMS is to provide a system to put your content strategy into effect

★ It will enforce and automate whatever strategy you have, even a haphazard non-strategy

With his new tractor Dave was the most efficient dirt farmer in the whole state.

Our starting point: the Ideal Situation

★ Youʼre starting a web project★ Youʼve engaged a web designer★ And youʼre planning out your content

against your business plan, with the web designer

Okay, we’re probably past the ideal situation

“We launched it a year... three years ago?”“Content? The web designer showed me where to type what I wanted.”“We did SEO, thatʼs all that matters, right?”“An industry colleague reviewed the content and said it all made sense to her.”

There’s a word for that

The typical web project is not content aware

★ Hire designer, make some design decisions, create site with standard pages

★ Delay launch (3 weeks, 3 months, or yet longer) while you get your content together

★ Stare at content holes in your site and try to fill with stuff copied directly from existing marketing material

Content strategy helps keep your content meaningful

★ Guide rails on how to write the copy, what images to include

★ Guidelines for how and when to update

Meaningful content lets you intelligently interact with your audience

★ Just as design is consistent across the site, so should the content be consistent (choice of language, images, etc)

★ Clear content★ Coherent content

So how do you approach this beast?

Start with basic communication strategy

★ This is an investment, know your goal★ What outcome do you want from your

site?★ For people to understand what you do★ For people to understand your

expertise★ To make sales online

Anchor on your goal and know your audience

★ Consider the whole point of your site (site goals)

★ Consider who your audience is★ Consider what your audience wants★ Consider why your audience wants that★ Consider where your audience is

Your content should address your audience

★ Know who your customers are★ Your content should be filtered through

their domain before your own★ It should make sense for readers,

directing them based on your site goals★ You may need to balance different

audiences

The most important person is the one viewing your site.

Make your content address what they want

★ What information they want and how much of they want

★ Are people coming to research thoroughly? To get a concept of who you are?

★ Think “features”

Make your content address what they need

★ Why do they want what they want? Not a Zen question

★ This is the question that will guide not just want they want, but what they need

★ Think “benefits”

Address your audience’s context

★ The missing “where” question★ Device, geography, moment★ Are they spontaneous, incidental, or

directed visits? New, rare, or regular?★ This question mattered little 10 years

ago, will matter even more in 1 year

They have different expectations & needs

That restaraunt might have catering. I’ll research how they explain their approach and experience.

Give me a minute, I’ll try to find their hours and see what their menu is like.

They sound incredibly professional and expert in this kind of event.

OMFG. A Flash intro? The menu is in PDF!? WTF. Let’s just try that other place...

Who is your site audience, what is their purpose in visiting, what is their motivation, and what is the context of these visits?

But what can I start doing today?

Know how people are viewing your site

★ Analytics: not just for search marketing★ Cheap (free) and easy to install★ Simple stats about where people are

coming from, why, what theyʼre reading, and whether your content is “sticking”

★ Google Analytics, Piwik, + many more

Identify what content you have and where

★ Conduct a basic content audit★ What pages, sections, images, videos,

interactive modules are you using?★ Describe each one including its

message and voice

Choose your tone and message

★ Your tone should reflect you and your business

★ The message should pertain to your goals

★ Tone and message should be consistent★ Both should also take into account your

audience

Write for the web

★ Basic, good copy writing rules apply★ To be concise is to be wonderful★ Good marketing copy does not sound

like marketing copy★ Your website is not a whitepaper★ Cut out the bullshit

Structure your site around what you actually want to say

★ Remove extraneous sections and pages from the site tree (navigation links)

★ Break apart logically distinct sections

Create a plan for how you will update

★ Not all content needs to be updated★ But if it does, establish guidelines ★ Decide which content will be updated,

when, and by whom - and be realistic

El fin

Wellfire Interactive is a web design and development firm in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

At Wellfire Interactive we design and build websites and applications for our customers with their business - and their customers - in mind.

Our clients include non-profits advocating for better democracy and businesses working to bring new services to life over the web.

We often use Django, we always use current web standards, and we definitely like a challenge.

We’d love to help you with your web content, no matter where you are in the process: from content audit and strategy to deploying an appropriately designed CMS.

Contact us at wellfire@wellfireinteractive.com or 571-482-8801 @wellfire

Credits

Owner & Producer: Wellfire InteractiveAuthor: Ben Lopatin

Permission is granted to save, copy, print, or otherwise redistribute.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

All photos are used courtesy of their owners under Creative Commons attribution license or are public domain.

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