So what is a website content strategy and why do you need one for your website?
This series of articles aims to introduce you to the field of website content strategy by briefly explaining what it is and why every website needs it.
To start with we’ll need to define what content is in terms of a website. Quite simply; website content is anything that communicates meaningful information to people on your website. This includes everything from words, photographs, graphics, videos etc.
Developing a website content strategy means standing back and figuring out which types of content should be used, what they should communicate and who should make them. When done successfully a website content strategy:
- Helps businesses understand what kinds of content their target audience is looking for.
- Defines how you’re going to use content to meet your business goals and satisfy your customer needs at the same time.
- Aligns communication and marketing efforts across your digital and other channels.
- Guides the decisions about content throughout its lifestyle, from conception to deletion.
- Sets a benchmark by which you can measure the effectiveness of the content that you produce for your website.
- Cuts costs by setting boundaries on what content should and should not be produced, eliminating extraneous content from being produced.
- Prevents website projects from being derailed by underestimating the time and effort that goes into creating great content.
Now that we have a basic understanding of what website content strategy is I’d like to tell you more about what makes website content, great website content. In her book “The Elements of Content Strategy” (1) Erin Kissane describes seven basic principles that define good content:
- Appropriate Content
- Useful Content
- User Centred Content
- Clear Content
- Consistent Content
- Concise Content
- Supported Content
Over the next seven articles I’ll illustrate how those principles work for successful businesses using real life examples so that you can learn the secrets of making great content for your own website.
(1) Erin Kissane, The Elements of Content Strategy, (New York: Jeffrey Seldman, 2011), 4
