Content strategy is a plan for the structure, tone, appearance, and production of the content on a website. That content includes everything from home page imagery to blog text.
Good Content Strategy
- Maintains a consistent tone across a site.
- Reflects the character of the topic or brand.
- Ensures the clarity and focus of messaging.
Bad Content Strategy
- Commits the content creators to more work than is likely to get done.
- Does not include adequate editing or quality assurance.
- Does not have clear goals.
Content Strategy Concerns
Audience
The content of a website will have the most impact if it is chosen and created with a specific group of people in mind. Reading level, attention span, generational language, political orientation, and stylistic preferences are all important to consider.
Summary
Content should usually put the most important information first and then provide the details. This is called the inverted pyramid. It allows people to quickly understand the main point and then choose whether to keep reading.
Attention Span
People simply don’t read much on websites unless they have already navigated to something that specifically interests them. Landing pages like your home page should avoid long paragraphs of text. Most visitors won’t read them. Large blocks of text on pages and posts should be broken up by other elements like headings, images, lists, quotes, charts, tables, and adequate spacing.
Headings
Headings help people scan your content, find the sections that interest them, and stay oriented as they read. They are also a critical part of SEO.
Media
Strong images, graphics, and videos often get attention faster than text. Some visitors would rather watch than read, so planning for media content can be very important. It’s also important that the media match the tone and appearance of your brand.
Production
Your content plan should match what you can realistically produce. A smaller publishing schedule you can maintain is better than an ambitious plan that quickly falls apart.
Editing
Typos, broken links, and unfinished content can make a website feel less credible. The most critical requirement is that you always look at content after you publish it.