Are you building a new website or working on a website refresh? What a great opportunity to pause and think about how you are using content to engage your audience! Every great website begins with a solid content strategy. It’s not just about beautiful design, a great website is also thoughtful and intentional with the words on the page, as well as in how that content is organized.
Three questions to ask before you write a single word for your website:
- What story do you want to tell your readers?
- What questions do you want to answer for them?
- How will your content draw your visitors in and make them want to engage with your brand?
To help answer those questions, here are five simple, quick-hitting tips to get started.
1. Define a Call to Action (CTA) for the website.
What do you want your visitors to do when they visit your site? Once defined, try to guide users through the site and towards your desired action — whether that’s to complete a form, purchase a product or schedule an appointment.
2. Put yourself in your Visitor's shoes.
Identify what the user will be looking for when they visit your site. Ask yourself: “Why would a user visit my site? Are they looking for my location? My menu? Do they need to contact me?” Asking yourself these questions will help you figure out what answers you need to provide. They can also help you figure out a plan to drive your customers to take the action we defined in step one. If you have more than one audience looking for vastly different answers, you may need to create a different plan for each audience.
3. Outline your main content areas.
Look at all the content you want to share and put it together in related groups that help you tell the bigger story. These big buckets will drive what becomes the primary navigation on your site. But step back and remember — there’s a difference between what you want to share as a business owner and what your visitor wants or needs to see. For example, you may be very proud of your company history and mission, but your user may not want or need that background information and just wants to get to your list of services as quickly as possible. You’ll want to make sure your content categories, aka your navigation, clearly directs users to what they’re looking for.
4. Organize your content areas into pages.
Once you’ve identified the information you want to cover and what your big content categories will be, you can more easily determine what pages – and how many pages — you need to include in each section. Take the “About” section of a site for example. Some companies have a single “About” page that includes background about the business, as well as leader or team member profiles. Other companies might place bios on a separate page and link to it from “About” instead. The goal should be to keep it as simple as possible while ensuring your users can get information easily and are compelled to take the next step.
5. Put all your content together in a website sitemap.
Now that you have your content defined, grouped, and you’ve thought through what pages you need to create, it’s time to develop your site map. Here is where you can make decisions about what pages actually appear in the navigation. Or if you want a secondary level of navigation. A sitemap is the first critical step in creating a user experience designed to meet your goals. Ultimately, a well-planned site that is easy for users to navigate shows you’ve thought about their needs first and they’ll be more likely to stay and engage!
Get Inspired
Need some inspiration to help you organize your website content? If you’re looking for a site that will make mouths water, check out the site we built for Wasserhund Brewing Company. Have a B2B site to build? Visit the Iron Sheepdog site for a deep-dive into this tech-centric brand in the construction industry. Head over to our Websites page to check out even more examples of sites we’ve built for our amazing clients.
If you like what you see and you’re looking for help on where to get started with your own site, we can help! We are passionate about all things web and would love to help you tell your story and get the results you need from your website.