Why You Need a Content Strategy

Content is the sole purpose of a website being a website, without content there is no website. Try to conjure up an image of a website in your head where content does not exist…it’s impossible to because a site without content is the digital incarnation of a newspaper without print. Each and every website that is successful in retaining you as a repeat visitor, has a plan – a strategy – behind their content. Allow me to explain the need for a content strategy.

A content strategy is one of those things that when done well is hard to notice as it is seamless, it becomes one with the site and its goals. I have worked on content strategy in London for a number of years now, and very few people – agency or client side are able to grasp what a content strategy is for. The way I’ve found it best explained, is to think of your most respected television channel, think of the order and the flow of programs throughout the year and what regular features occur at certain stages throughout the year. Romance films around Valentine’s day, young-teen targeted shows throughout the mornings of school holidays, festive programmes at Christmas, none of this is an accident, it’s all planned, managed an delivered. Why should your site be any different?

The view I take on it, is that there are two different levels of content strategy; one as mentioned above is the annual events that occur throughout the year that every site – ecommerce, content or affiliate should prepare and produce content for, and the second is the production of content based on KW research conducted to find out what is popularly being searched for in your particular sector.

The first section I mentioned should always take precedence, this is the staple of your diet as a content providers, as an informer, an entertainer, a website. Neglect the key events of the year at your peril as it can almost be guaranteed that your competitors won’t. The second is content to further throw your brand and tone of voice out there, engage your users and give them some additional content to consume, whether video, article or imagery – anything extra is always welcome.

If you do have the means and the inclination to go a step further and produce extra content then do so, but do so in a structured way, simply diving into commissioning content for the sake of content will fragment your tone of voice, will add extra workload to your team’s schedule and without the proper planning and integration can prove incredibly wasteful. Here’s my brief guide on steps to follow.

– Research – determine what content to produce based on KW and search term popularity

– Commission – find an agency or source of content you trust in producing, and issue your titles and requirements along with your brand guidelines

– QC – quality check everything that comes back from your third party source, if it’s below par, reject it and request it be re-done

– Deploy and integrate to your site

– Analyse and report on how the content has performed, define your metrics such as bounce rate, path to conversion etc. Where you find patterns take your learnings and carry forth to the next content project

The above is my brief introduction as to the importance of building and deploying a content strategy. Content is, and always will be king. Poor quality content means not only will you receive no love from Google, but you will not impress those users who do find you.