You’re redesigning your website. Fabulous! Who’s taking care of the content?
Yes, yes, of course, you need more intuitive navigation, and your design is tired and needs a facelift, but what about your content? In too many web redesigns, planning for content comes last, when it should come first.
Users visit websites for content – to read, to learn, to assess, to compare, to buy. And they’ll return, time and again, if the content is useful, relevant, interesting, entertaining, up-to-date. We all know it’s true: Content drives readership on informational, promotional, and e-commerce sites.
So why is it that planning for content in a redesign happens late – or sometimes doesn’t happen at all? Why is it that the bright shiny new website gets populated with dingy old worn-out content that no one’s paid attention to for months, maybe years.
“After we finish the design templates, we’ll populate the site with content,” someone on the redesign team will say, as if fresh content just exists – somewhere – ready to go. In big, easy-to-assemble slabs. On shelves in some enormous storeroom.
“Hey Ed! Go get that content from the storeroom. We’re ready to load it into the site.”
What content?
It doesn’t exist.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Why does this happen? In the drive to redesign, too often the focus is purely visual. There are dazzling new designs, clean grids, fresh photography, appealing colors. And no content.
The redesign becomes a book without words. A business plan without a business. “There is no there there.” (Gertrude Stein)
Don’t get me wrong: Redesigns are essential. And when design is combined with content and functionality, everyone wins. Especially the end user. Here are some examples of strong, successful redesigns that included a good hard look at content:
Crisco. Promotions, recipes, tips, videos, and contests keep this content fresh and engaging.
Best Buy. An engaging corporate site that captures the energetic personality of the brand through lively content.
Albertsson Hansen Architecture. Magnificent images (which are themselves, the key content) combine with warm, approachable content to avoid the pomposity so common on residential architectural sites.
These sites aren’t perfect. There’s always room for improvement, the next redesign phase, and the continual process of content creation and maintenance. The point is this: In each of these redesigns the content was considered, planned for, analyzed, created, and managed as part of the redesign.
I’m sure you have examples, too. Please share.
Content is an asset
In their influential book Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow That Works, Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler acknowledge the all-too-common practice of leaving content to the last minute:
“Late content is consistently one of the biggest reasons for project delay…”
“The task itself and the resources needed to complete the task are severely underestimated.”
Goto and Cotler’s advice for dealing with late content?
“Accept it. Plan for it. Charge for it.”
That last statement – “Charge for it” – is particularly telling. Goto and Cotler are writing to Web designers, so, purportedly, these Web designers will be charging their clients as they wait for this “late content.” It’s holding everything up. And costing more because of it. The proverbial bottleneck.
It seems as though the creation of Web content has fallen into the seam, somewhere between the Web Design Agency and the Client – and neither is responsible.
There is a different way.
Plan for content – deliberately
Instead of planning for content to be late, as Goto and Cotler warn, plan for content:
- Get content experts on the redesign team from the beginning.
- Analyze the content that already exists: is it current, relevant, complete?
- Analyze competitors’ content: what can you do better?
- Interview subject matter experts.
- Work hand-in-hand with the information architect and the design team.
- Clarify how content will address user needs.
- Determine what new content needs to be created: everything from key messages to product stories to detailed explanations to white papers.
- Create interesting, relevant, appropriate content – that appeals to end users, search engines, and, of course, the client.
- Create a plan to refresh the content going forward.
Yes, it’s a big job. Maybe that’s why it’s easier to redesign the content you already have. Rather than rethinking it. But be careful. If you redesign your site without rethinking your content, you cannot achieve the success you seek.
It all boils down to the purpose of the site: Is it a functional site designed to facilitate a transaction or a process? If so, content might get in the way. Is it a site designed to educate? To build a brand? To entertain? Then there’s no question: content is indeed king. And queen. And sometimes even court jester.
It’s all about the stream of content. Many businesses spend way to much time pouring concrete, building a great swimming pool. They fill it with water and then leave it there.
But a pool isn’t the Web. The Web is a stream. Folks need to invest in a stream of content – a firehose of content, that continually pours out rich and inviting content for their ideal site visitor.
My wish:
folks would stop worrying about design and get on with creating great content.
This is so true… We do site re-designs for people & companies. They are amazed when we start with what they want the site to accomplish (which tells us what type of content would be necessary). We work through a flowchart showing every page, it’s type of content, and where it fits in the site. Then, once we know why we’re doing things, what things need to be where, and what content we need to generate, we figure out what it will look like. It keeps the focus on the content & functionality, without sacrificing elegant design and interfaces.
This is a great reminder to all of our publishers at: http://www.PlayOnGolf.com to put relevant content first and foremost. Good Content is unique, compelling and non-existent on most Golf content sites-our’s tries to be different. PlayOnGolf.com “Connecting You to The Game”
Gwyneth – thanks for highlighting this all-important issue!
The practice of planning for content is called content strategy. This is an emerging discipline that invites – no, requires! – participation from marketers, publishers, and web professionals.
I recently wrote an article on this topic, specifically calling the web professionals community to action. It’s published here:
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/thedisciplineofcontentstrategy
Also, Joe Pulizzi (Junta42) and I gave a presentation on this topic just last week at the Online Marketing Summit – the deck is posted here:
http://www.slideshare.net/juntajoe/web-content-strategy-how-to-plan-for-and-publishing-online-content-for-maximum-roi
So, yes. There *is* a better way to plan for content. Simply having someone who “owns” the content at the table from the beginning of any web project would solve so much!
Oh, yeah. Whether we call it “Purpose Analysis” or “Content Strategy,” writers, designers and developers must insist that clients answer these basic questions before they invest precious resources into a “redesign.” It’s for their own good!
Craig – Content as King, Queen, Court Jester. I love it! I’m sure DF readers have some great examples of great *Court Jester* content– C’mon everyone, share
Todd – Yes, sadly, content does get left to stagnate. But I don’t think folks should stop worrying about design, just keep it in perspective, and not let it overpower the content. Design is important. We’ve all endured sites with great content and really sorry design. The two must be balanced. It’s a delicate dance.
I think the architecture site I referenced in my post shows how design plays a critical role: http://www.aharchitecture.com/
This site required a jaw-dropping design to attract new clients. But still, the creation of the site began with content.
I agree with both Gwyneth and Craig. All content needs should be identified during the planning phase. Sometimes this means writing articles that are appealing to the audience, and sometimes the goal is to create inviting labels and descriptions to get people to use a tool — where long-form content will just get in the way.
Web Redesign 2.0 is a great book, by the way, and I highly recommend it to anyone who might be involved in a web redesign project.
It’s like the really swell, over-designed portfolio case with all the bells and whistles and mediocre work inside. Design is about content, functionality, site structure, visual aspects, etc. all working together. Dolor sit amet!
I’m with you on the content thing Gywneth. I work for a CMS software provider that targets small biz. We handle everything start to finish, and often, content is the last thing to be delivered by the client, despite our reinforcing the necessity of it early and often.
The same could be said where SEO is concerned. Often, with the emphasis being the aesthetics of the site, little thought is given to whether the “other” audience (search engine spiders) can appreciate it. Again, that goes back to the content issue.
Content is STILL king and there’s no reason you can’t have both great design AND great content.
BTW, I’m passing this along to our production department. I know they’ll appreciate it, as they wrestle with this issue on a daily basis.
Mandy – Content first, design second. Couldn’t agree more! The reverse and it’s back to where many of us responsible for content have uncomfortably found ourselves: replacing the greek text on a perfectly designed (non-functioning) page. Or, in the print world, creating a headline and body copy for an ad that is already designed, but has no words.
Tim – Thanks for the comment. Speaking of content, I’d like to repair a typo or two on PlayonGolf if you will be so kind as to email me: g.dwyer@larsen.com
: )
Kristina – Always lovely to chat with you, in person or online. Awesome breakdown of the content-related disciplines in your article “The Discipline of Content Strategy.” Heck, most folks just lump it all into a category called *writing* and hope that it will magically take care of itself.
David – I really like the statement on your site: ” If there’s one glaring need for specialized copywriting skills in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace, websites have to be near the top of the list.
Gwyneth – your article is so obvious, yet refreshing! I work for an interactive agency, and sometimes we run into the situation where content changes weren’t anticipated in the strategy phase, and therefore cause a backup in both the launch and post-launch marketing of the website.
To take it a step further, I believe it’s important to put a big emphasis on the RIGHT content for users as well as search engines. We even dedicated our January newsletter to Effective Content – for users and search engines. (for anyone interested, you can read the article here: http://www.bostoninteractive.com/newsletter/feature/Five-Keys-to-Effective-Website-Content-012009.asp).
So, thanks for this breath of fresh air article. Maybe the next could talk a bit more about creating website content for effective search marketing as well? Balance is the key.
Thanks everyone for the great discussion here.
Cam – Everyone I know loves the book Web Redesign 2.0. It’s the bible. It’s just that section on content that has me troubled…
Peter – It’s interesting that the word “design” has been narrowed to mean visual design. And I use the word in that narrow way in my post. Your comment suggests that we view design, instead, as the overall PLAN for the site, which, of course, includes content. As Charles Eames said, “Design is a plan.”
Paul – Yes, search engine spiders are an important audience. Gotta satisfy 1) the client 2) the end users 3) the search engines. And sometimes it’s tough to make all three happy.
Victoria – I, too, have run into the proverbial content crisis, and it could have been so easily prevented with better planning … Hey, please provide a different link to your article. (Maybe tiny url? These comments get hung up on long links) And Boston! My old hometown (Lived on Beacon Hill, walked to work in in Back Bay. Heaven.)
“It’s just that section on content that has me troubled…”
I like your solution. It’s similar to the one we prescribe, based on the goals of the website and the resources of the organization.
It’s easier to assess those things in the beginning and get them to commit to them than to either hope for the best or try to shoehorn in something later.
The content is king and always will be. There are many sites that have great graphics but lowsey content as well as the other way around. But for real long lasting success it pays to have good idea,concept or content.
Erik
http://www.freefor15.com
yahhhhhh! of course after designing or re designing the website, contents are the main things which need to be updated regularly, and need special Focus and concentration to handle contents of the website.
What I call the “broken RFP process” reinforces this bad behavior. When you have three or more agencies working like mad for 2 or 3 weeks flat out to create that “jaw dropping” mock-up, to blow the clients out of their seats, Lorem ipsum rules.
The winning agency then has no incentive to get serious about content (altho one could argue that the losing agencies might do a gut check and say “hmmm, what if we had put in some real content in the pitch – maybe we would have won”).
In other mprofs forums, I’ve half-jokingly called for an “RFP Task Force.” Based on your post, I’d now add a mandatory section in the RFP “template” that requires the client to DEMAND specific examples of content from each bidding agency in the redesign.
Gwyneth,
Thank you for tackling the subject I find most difficult to get clients to understand! Content *must* be designed with the look/feel and architecture from the beginning. Otherwise, you end up with a site that only works for right now and doesn’t have legs for the inevitable add-ons that occur in the 2-4 years before a full redesign becomes necessary.
I may go out and buy a laminating machine just to print out your article and hand it out. My compliments!
Easy trap to fall into. Getting the focus from looks to content isn’t always easy but the list of plain non visual sites that I regularly visit speaks for itself. There aren’t very many whizzybang all singing all dancing sites that I repeatedly visit.
It was good to see your post. It is such an important topic and ignored by so many, even professionals. I thank you to help making people more aware of possible issues. Great stuff as usual… Thank you