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The Guide From Semalt: Nine Steps To Planning Website Content

It gets difficult for website owners to plan and develop content for their users, while collaborating with others. However, it is still always possible to manage website content efficiently

Max Bell, the Customer Success Manager of Semalt, advices following nine steps as a guide for getting and publishing the right content

1. Evaluate Current Copy

Before anything else, an evaluation of the current copy is prudent as it identifies errors or things that need to be updated. Classifying the content and assigning specific objectives for these groups makes it easier to ensure that the site delivers valuable material only.

2. Identify the Target Audience

A business should know who it is speaking to before creating content. Understanding or identifying the target audience help to provide clarity during the planning. It gauges whether the information one intends to include is necessary or clear enough. It also identifies the primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences to ensure that the site caters for all its visitors.

3. Use Sitemaps

Sitemaps act as blueprints. Without it, a site may not accomplish all its objectives or assign content to its relevant page. Many different programs and software suites exist to help design and organize information on a website. Such examples are such as the Organization Chart in Microsoft Word and the free cross-platform XMind tools. Begin with bulk content to see if a single page can contain it all or may need subpages. By doing all this, it becomes possible to prioritize and rearrange items on the website.

4. Collaborating with Others

Involving other people in reviewing and editing guarantees that content contains no grammatical errors and makes sense to others. Collaboration allows other parties to contribute. Single files for all content limit the possibility of these interactions and content developers need to avoid it. Google Docs and JumpChart are website content collaboration tools that allow multiple users to provide feedback.

5. Telling Versus Selling the Story

Some people feel that their websites present a chance to talk about the business's story. Contrary to this, it should tell the stories of other people who may have benefited from engaging with the products or services offered on the site. All that matters is evidence and said in an understanding manner. The product or service needs to fill a need gap, with easy-to-read points as to the benefits that accrue to the user.

6. Write for Humans and Search Engines

The business should not insert many keywords in content, to the point that it loses its meaning or becomes unreadable. Including these terms throughout the text naturally ensures that readers will see the content. Also, using semantic keywords to replace core keywords does not change the original meaning of the material.

7. Make an Action Oriented Copy

At the end of the content, there should be a text telling visitors what step they should take next. An email address or contact page link allows an easy action for consumers while the business is still at the top of their minds.

8. Visual Appeal

Including supporting images, charts, and illustrations ensures that the copy looks as good as it is useful. Breaking text with larger pull quotes or testimonials, or using bullet lists comes in handy for users that opt to look through texts. The typeface of the copy has a significant role to play in ensuring the legibility of the copy.

9. Deadlines

Setting concrete deadlines for individuals and teams makes sure that projects remain on track. One way to do this is to group content creation into relevant chunks and work on one at a time. The about section should be among the first since it sets the tone and identifying what to focus on as the project progresses. Deadlines help establish when to submit the work for review with stakeholders, and when to compile all content into the site.

Conclusion

Website planning requires time to plan and implement the strategy. Through this way, it gets easier to present quality and error-free content on a site.