Developing content for your website can be a tough beast to tackle. Conducting research, paring down existing content, and creating new concepts can be quite overwhelming. To help you get started, we have outlined six helpful tips. From managing your process to utilizing templates, these tips will help you create new web content efficiently and effectively.
1. Create a New and Improved Sitemap
Your first step to developing new content is creating a new sitemap. Review you current sitemap (if you have one) and determine what can stay, what can be condensed, and what needs to go. Remember that a smaller sitemap is usually better. Fortunately, long-scrolling pages allow you to condense multiple content pages into one.
2. Develop a System for Tracking
When developing content for a website, you will discover that there are a lot of moving parts. Examples of things you need to keep track of include:
- Which pages you have created content for
- Revisions for each content page
- When and if you have received final approval
- Images needed for each page
To keep track of all of the moving parts, we recommend maintaining some sort of spreadsheet. Create a spreadsheet in Excel or Google Sheets and add columns for each step in the process. This will help you remember whether or not you ever got around to creating that Careers page or if your Manager ever approved the final version of the Contact Form.
3. Conduct Keyword Research
Once you have a general idea of what pages you need to create content for, you will want to identify the targeted keywords for each of those pages. Your targeted keywords will help your website to index higher in search results.
We recommend conducting keyword research in the following ways:
- Brainstorm with key stakeholders to come up with a list of common words and phrases
- Run those words and phrases through the Google AdWords Keyword Planner Tool to determine which have the highest search volume
- Utilize the Keyword Planner Tool to find additional keyword suggestions
- Take a look at what your competitors are doing!
4. Utilize a Structured Content Template
Setting up a template in which you will create all web content is very beneficial. This will ensure that all content is developed in a similar format. We recommend using a template that specifies the Header 1 (H1) for the page, the Meta Page Title, Meta Page Description, targeted keywords, and images needed. Once your template is created, it is time to start writing!
5. Add Bolding and Linking Last
After you have completed a page of content and it has been approved by the appropriate people, you can add bolding and linking. When bolding, here are two tips:
- Spot-bold important words for easy scanning
- Bold your targeted keywords once on the page for an SEO boost
As for cross-linking, we recommend including 1-3 internal links per page. These internal links point to other pages within your website and encourage viewers to move around.
6. Create Meta Data Once Content is Approved
Your final step, once all of your content is in its final form, is to create the Meta Data for each page. Each page on your website requires a unique Meta Page Title and a unique Meta Page Description. These Meta tags will be used by search engines to index your web pages. Learn more about creating awesome Meta Page Titles and Meta Page Descriptions.
If you need assistance with developing content for your website, please contact Informatics.
