Planning Your web content

Presented To IABC Waterloo

March 21, 2013

Jonathan Woodcock

Overview

Provide a summary of major work tasks for developing effective website content

Provide information about resources to help with website content planning and development

Major tasks

AKA: 10 easy steps to effective web content

1.Identify target audiences (visitors to your website)

2.Conduct web content analysis (content audit/inventory)

3.Conduct competitive analysis

4.Define website visitor content requirements

5.Specify area business requirements

6.Plan web information architecture (sitemap/navigation)

7.Prepare website content

8.Obtain required training

9.Prepare project management plan

10.Create web content update and maintenance plan

Identify target audiences

Identify the target audiences of your website: Who are your current visitors or who is this website for?

• List target audiences• Organize content by target audiences• Write audience-specific content• Create and use personas

Your website is not for you!

Create personas

Name: made-up name, representative of audience

Picture: representative stock photo, or shadow image

Relevant demographic information: age, major interests/responsibilities, other relevant info

Main goals and tasks: what s/he is trying to achieve on your website

Conduct web content analysis

Helps you:

•Know what content you have and need

•Identify content audiences, topics and types

Tip: Who should do the content analysis?

•Also called a web content audit or web content inventory

Content Analysis

• Assess what content exists (ROT = Redundant, Outdated, Trivial)

• Itemize what content needs to be generated

Conduct competitive analysis

Assess the competition• 3-5 comparators is often enough• Can be as simple as 3-5 things that you like/worked, and 3-5

things that you don’t like/didn’t work

Identify patterns for user expectations• Navigation• Specific content• Standard terminology

Establish common language for stakeholders

Encourage thinking as a user

Don’t reinvent the wheel

Define content requirements

Know your website visitors’ questions

•Conduct needs assessments/focus groups/surveys

Know your website visitors’ language

•Ask your coworkers what questions they get asked regularly by phone or email by the same audiences (visitors)

•Check your analytics on existing sites for common search terms

Draft preliminary content

Question: What are the requirements for admission?

Heading: Admission requirements

Answer: The admission requirements vary by program. List of links to admission requirements by program.

Content Plan

• Page tables used to establish priorities at a page level, assigning components of the strategy to each page

• Can serve as a writing brief as well as a record

• Update and maintenance plan included

• Less content intensive sites could use the Content Inventory revised to include further detail

Specify area business requirements

Identify what website visitors need to know but don’t know they need to know

•Connect their language to your information

•Solve the common problems by leading them to the correct information

Include relevant ‘about us’ information

•An about section on your site is probably the most work for the least traffic – but still required.

•Emphasis on the relevant to your audience

Plan website information architecture

• Define your web information architecture (sitemap/navigation)

• Make sure that your information architecture works with the web design

Obtain required training

Technical Training

•Are you using a content management system (CMS)? What implications do your content types have for your writers?

•Who needs what access? Who is managing access?

Training for web content

•Are your content maintainers web writers?

•Are they aware of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and it’s implications for the web?

Prepare website content

Now you are ready to prepare your content!

•Use your sitemap (information architecture) to guide your website content writing

•Use your website visitor requirements to create your website content (this is the starting point)

•Write/add the other content that is required (business area requirements; content analysis)

•Remember key web writing guidelines - write accessible, scanable, SEO content

•Obtain images/create graphics for your website

Prepare a project management plan

Our typical Web Content PM Plan contains:

•Project Schedule

•Content Strategy

•Content Inventory

•Competitive Analysis

•Information Architecture

•Content Plan (Page Tables or Inventory)

Content Strategy• High level overview, answering:

• Who are our audiences?• What do we need to say to them? • How do we need to say it?• What are we trying to do?

• Provides a reference point for content questions

• Provides a framework for measurable goals

Project Schedule

• Identify key tasks and dependencies• Assign work-time estimates• Review with stakeholders• Establish real timelines

Create web content update and maintenance plan

How often should the website be updated?

• What are your business cycles?• What are your user patterns over time?• Are you committing to dated content like blog, news or

events?

The Web is never done.

• Make content somebody’s job.• Manage your content (Hint: this is different from your content

management system)• Include maintenance in the project management plan and

schedule to keep it mind throughout development.

Key Lessons

Communicate with ALL stakeholders early and often

• Establish clear priorities and expectations• Establish clear understanding of timelines and revise with

input from key dependencies

Key Lessons

Photography and graphics are content but should be treated as special

• Include as separate work tasks in schedule• Establish separate inventory• Capture art direction guidelines where appropriate

Key Lessons

Internal stakeholders love their FAQs

• “We get great feedback about our FAQ!” • Almost always from internal users needing a reference

document, that belongs on your intranet.

• “We collated all the user questions and organized them by user type and theme, it’s even searchable!”

• There’s already a name for this: a website.

• Remember: Your website is not for you!

QUESTIONS?

Jonathan Woodcock

@jbwoodcock

jonathanwoodcock.me