Anyone who's ever taken delivery of a new website will know the joys of Lorem Ipsum - it's sample text.  It's great for showing how a page 'could look' but it also indicates there is a huge amount of work to be done converting a blank site into your company site.

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Content is one of the hardest parts of creating a website. What to put up and what to leave out. It's often left until the end and then it becomes a roadblock to sending the site live. 

Here's some, hopefully, helpful tips and tricks for getting your content ready for the big launch. 

Planning

Do not leave this to the last minute, website launches can creep up on you...

Timing

The Web Production company will give you a sitemap that outlines the sections and pages on the website. This should happen at the start of the project.  It's very easy to approve the site map and then forget about the content until closer to the time it's required. 

DO NOT FORGET ABOUT THE CONTENT.

Once the sitemap is finalised review the website timeline, look at when the content population is due and work backwards to determine how long you have to prepare the final content for the site.

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Current Site Audit

If you already have a website don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Evaluate the site and content in detail. Determine what needs to be added, edited, expanded upon, or removed.

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Other content

The website is not the only place a company has content.  Collect all the content and collateral that's been created.

  • Do you have printed materials with current marketing information - brochures, catalogs, manuals, handbooks, etc? If so, gather everything together as potential resources of information for use on your website. If possible, gather the original digital files to avoid having to re-type any data.
  • Have you received awards or recognition from professional organizations?
  • Do you have a list of customer testimonials?
  • Does your company or organization have historical data available?
  • Does your company or organization have a "story"?
  • Do you have sales speeches that could be converted to online information?
  • Do you have staff bios & photos for key staff?
  • Do you have current or past advertising campaigns? These can contain useful text and imagery for use on your website.
  • Do your suppliers offer digital information and photos for products? Many times, suppliers will have high quality images and data for helping you to sell their products.
  • Do you have paper forms that you would like to include on the website in digital format or for downloading?
  • Do you have written directions to your office location(s)?
  • Do you have press releases that could be included on the website?
  • Do you have a company newsletter?
  • Do you have a list of current job openings?
  • Do you have a list of customer feedback and/or questions that could be incorporated into an FAQs page?
  • Does your company or organization do any charity work, or donate to non-profit organizations?
  • Do you have a high resolution copy of your logo, and any photos or graphics that you own and would like to include on the website.

Content writing 

Home or Away. Do you DIY or outsource? For many people writing content is hard or they are time poor.  There are many professionals that can assist.  If you can't do it - outsource it.  Give the writer a specific brief and deadline.

If you are writing your own content make sure you have adequate time.  You don't want to delay the launch waiting on your copy.  As above, give yourself a brief and a deadline.

SEO

Do you really need a specialist for Search Engine Optimisation? You know your business best. SEO is at its base level is matching the words and phrases you use to the words and phrases a person would use to search for your goods or services. e.g. a person searching for Lawn Mowing is not going to search for Horticultural Artist. By all means call yourself an Horticultural Artist but also include the term Lawn Mowing on your website and ensure it's used as a Heading.  Google likes pages with Hierarchy.

A useful tool is the Google Keyword Tool. It can help research alternate terms for your goods & services. 

Approvals

This is a common hiccup. The content is done and and uploaded and THEN people start reviewing it.  This leads to many rounds of changes and wasted time in the lead up to launch.

Ensure your content is approved before uploading.

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Collating

Getting all the content together can be an administrative pain. Here's a couple of quick tips to save time and frustration. 

Images

Create a folder structure for images e.g.

  • Images > Home
  • Images > About Us 

For SEO purposes save the images to be used on a given page using the name of the company, then page name with a description, e.g., “Kindleman-about-headshot.jpg”

Text

To avoid copying weird MSWord formatting save your copy in text files.

Create content in MS Word/Text document and save the document using the same name of the corresponding web page, e.g.”about.doc”

Content Population

At Kindleman, we like to do the first round of content population. This allows us to ensure the content fits into the correct templates and looks good. From then on clients can update the content themselves following the already set up pages and headings.

The Happily Ever After

A website is not a destination but a journey - update and optimise.

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