15 Oct Content is King
Part 6 of 6
“Content is king.” That’s the title of an article Bill Gates posted on the Microsoft website in 1996. In the same article, he said, “Many companies are laying plans to create content for the Internet.” Thirty-five years later, we fully realize the impact of his words. What a visionary!
In a digital age, a content strategy is imperative. Content is marketable. Customers rely on website content to manage a big part of their daily lives. Companies should treat their content as the asset that it is.
The most important part of content strategy is using it to help a company achieve its goals. Every company wants to attract and retain customers, and a good content strategy can make that happen. Keeping useful information updated and accessible is important.
But how do you know if your content is getting traffic? Analytics. Use them and often. Keeping track of the traffic on your website will tell you what information customers are searching for. If a page gets heavy traffic, link to it elsewhere on the site. People search for information differently, so cross-referencing is helpful.
I recommend archiving material that may be used cyclically. If a page receives almost no traffic over a period of time, it may need to be retired. When I retire pages, I often save the information offline.
I prefer to have information available in a variety of formats if at all possible (docs, PDF, audio, video, etc.).
I maintain an editorial calendar, even when I am working alone. I want to know when my content needs publishing and when it is scheduled to come down. I discovered Trello this semester and fell in love with it. It is a fantastic planning resource for project management.
Another important content strategy is to know your material and where it is on your site. If you don’t keep material updated, customers lose interest.
Is your site well organized? Customers are not the only ones interested in your site architecture. Search engine spiders/crawlers/bots use them to index your site. Because of this, I highly recommend a solid metadata strategy using descriptions and keywords throughout your site.
These are a handful of things relating to content management I recommend. So what would I avoid? I used to say bad boyfriends until I met my husband, but when it comes to content management, my main no-no is letting dated material expire. That’s why I keep a publishing calendar. It lets me know when items expire and need removal.
The other pitfall I avoid is not tracking analytics. You must be able to measure your content performance in order to see where the traffic on your site is going.
I should also mention that every website needs a form or other means of contact to allow customer feedback. I am also a fan of offering forms for users to report broken links, even though regularly running spider software usually catches those.
Also, don’t forget those users who have disabilities. I worked with two men who were colorblind, and I was always thinking about color combinations. Using fonts that are too small or have poor contrast with the background is also a consideration. I suggest a WCAG check of your site to see if your accessibility features are in compliance.
For many years I was the lone website content strategist for my organization, and then I got into a technical writing program. Working on a project in a team environment is really refreshing. Don’t get me wrong—it’s been quite a learning curve, but I was amazed to find out I was already doing most things right. I still have a lot to learn, but I’m enjoying it.
Four months ago, my journey began with a simple desire for an academic certification in technical writing. This month, I found myself applying for graduate school. I expect to earn an M.A. in Professional and Technical Communication by this time next year.