Planning Your web content

1. Planning Your web content Presented To IABC Waterloo March 21, 2013 Jonathan Woodcock

2. 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

3. Major tasks • AKA: 10 easy steps to effective web content • Identify target audiences (visitors to your website) • Conduct web content analysis (content audit/inventory) • Conduct competitive analysis • Define website visitor content requirements • Specify area business requirements • Plan web information architecture (sitemap/navigation) • Prepare website content • Obtain required training • Prepare project management plan • Create web content update and maintenance plan

4. 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!

5. 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

6. 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

7. Content Analysis • Assess what content exists (ROT = Redundant, Outdated, Trivial) • Itemize what content needs to be generated

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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

13. Plan website information architecture • Define your web information architecture (sitemap/navigation) • Make sure that your information architecture works with the web design

14. 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?

15. 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

16. 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)

17. 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

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

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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!

23. QUESTIONS? • Jonathan Woodcock • @jbwoodcock • jonathanwoodcock.me