In our previous post we explained what Content Strategy is, why it’s important and how it ties in with your website design as far as specifying features such as content models, metadata and work flow. A website content strategy (WCS) is the method that is adopted to check, control and organise content, and research has shown that projects driven by these strategies are completed in up to 25% less time than design centred projects.
So what can WCS do for you?
Well, developed and implemented effectively, it helps to:
- Identify key themes and messages
- Facilitate discussion between key stakeholders
- Drive metadata creation and assignment
- Engage, inspire and motivate your visitors and ensure that you attract the right audience
- Enhance your rankings in the search engines
- Tell your story
- Answer questions your visitors might have
- Drive people to make decisions
- Give life to your brand
- Build customer trust
It’s been established that relevant SEO web content is one of the key ways that a business can improve its chances of being found when a person searches for information online. This came about after a study by iCrossing Inc. revealed that 40% of adults who conduct online research use an internet search as their first form of investigation.
Web Content Strategy sets a benchmark for all content-related decisions and embraces all web publication elements from text and graphics to video and audio, and examines each of these to see how they impact the overall customer experience.
When a company is developing its WCS, it has to consider its objectives and at the same time address its customers' goals. The company needs to determine:
- Who is the target market?
- What content they want to create?
- Why they want to create it?
- How will they go about creating it?
- What will happen to it once it’s live on the site?
Any content that fails to meet these objectives and goals can be considered a waste of space. Therefore it is vital that one plans strategically, scopes realistically and scales according to time and budget.