The average website lifespan is 2 years and 7 months. Meaning: If youโre not about to take on a website project or in the midst of one, itโs likely you will be soon.
You know you want a site that performsโone that brings in quality traffic, drives qualified leads, and establishes or cements your brandโs credibility. The key to each of these goals is, you guessed it, content!
Itโs incredibly common for companies to underestimate the โcontentโ aspect of their websites. Especially during redesign and development projects.
Because content is everythingโitโs copy, images, infographics, videos, ebooks, white papers, case studies, forms, interactions, buttons, and web pages themselves. For your website to be successful, itโs crucial to start thinking about content now, and bake it into every stage in the process.
Here are the most common content marketing mistakes we see in website projects:
This might be the biggest mistake people make on their website. Getting this piece right means that your site is effective, not just beautiful. Launching an effective website means:
Getting it wrong means none of that happens, and you have a lot of website rework ahead.
Your website must also be designed to bring in target audience traffic and convert potential customers. While brand marketers should have their say about visuals, user experience (UX) designers and developers should be as involved to partner on core functional aspects like:
On pages, letโs break down the individual elements of content. Depending on the content management system (CMS) your website is being built in, content elements within web pages may be called widgets, page blocks, blocks, containers, fragments, components, items, or something similar. Whatโs most important as a marketer is to be sure of two things:
(1) Blocks should be designed and developed with flexibility in mind. Think about the layout of information and how you want website visitors to interact with elements, or move from page to another, across various page and content types.
Instead of thinking about how youโd want something like a featured webinar (for example), to look, think, โwhen we feature any piece of content, weโll want to include a heading, an image, teaser copy, and a way to click to that content.โ Having those content guidelines will help the design and development team create a template that houses those elements seamlessly for all of your featured content.
This content block is promoting a webinar, but with a flexible design mentality, youโd want to use the same design to feature an ebook, case study, report, etc.ย
(2) Talk with your design and development teams about defining requirements for all page blocks. Youโll want to define requirements for both the author (the person updating the website) and the end-user (your site visitors). For example:
โAs an author, if I associate this block with a URL …
โฆ And I would like to be able to manually override everything but the link.โ
And
โAs a user, I need to understand what the featured content is about by seeing its title, a sentence or two about it, and an image. I then need to be able to click the button to get to the promoted asset.โ
Lastly, you want a website with content that can be updated by non-technical people. That means you should limit the need for HTML and CSS knowledge, technical understanding, and photo-editing skills for regular, ongoing site updates.
Even if your company isnโt focused on SEO, your site likely ranksโor is close to rankingโfor some terms. Check what your website currently ranks for, and which pages are performing, and coordinate content and development teams to preserve those rankings โ especially if the URLs will be changing.
There are several ways to find this information, including Moz and SEMRush, and also for free using Google Search Console. If you have GSC connected with Google Analytics, you can find ranking keywords under Acquisition > Search Console > Queries. (If you donโt have these tools connected, find out how here.)
I use Mozโs Ranking Keywords report. All you do is put in your websiteโs URL, click โAnalyzeโ and Moz spits out a report with every keyword your site ranks forโand the specific page thatโs ranking for each term.
On your new site, you probably donโt want to remove or dramatically edit these pages.
Pro tip!
You can also use this as an opportunity to identify potential keywords for other pages. For that, you just drop down to โKeyword Suggestions,โ put in your URL in again, and youโll get a report with a ton of suggested terms that you can save in the system and/or export to a spreadsheet.
Enter a term you want to write a page about in “Explore by Keyword.” Moz shows the estimated search volume, difficulty, and competitive insights about it, as well as a list of similar terms to consider.
Now that you know what terms and pages rank and what to preserve, what about everything else? A website redesign is a great opportunity to audit your websiteโs content and trim the fat.
Letting go of outdated, under-performing content does three great things:
What comes first, copywriting or design? In my experience, this is the web worldโs chicken-and-egg question.
Copy often needs to be a certain length for design, conversion and SEO purposes. Conversely, content needs will likely dictate page templates, page types and page block design tweaks. This is why your design and copy teams should collaborate closely.
Longform content tends to perform better in search. But modern design for core web pages favors short and punchy copy with lots of content blocks and visuals. Itโs important to think about this when planning your content mix and appropriate layouts for types of pages your site will have.
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Jacob Mcmillen, COPYWRITER & Content strategist“The true goal of a website page isn’t to look good or even read well. The goal is for that page to be a complete conversion asset. Most designers and copywriters, even the best ones, aren’t comprehensive conversion specialists. They each bring different strengths to the conversion table. If you create the design first, you risk boxing in your copywriter and diluting their effectiveness. Similarly, if you have the copy written first, you can limit the potential of your designer.ย This is why I always recommend that pages are put together collaboratively by both the designer and the copywriter. This allows both sets of expertise to influence the page direction.” |
Think about how different your content needs are for a simply designed page, like a blog post:
Compared to something like a product detail page with images, product information, related content and product recommendations, and need-to-know details:
But donโt go overboard. Templates that are flexible and can be repurposed are your friends. Having too many content templates will make content management a bear once the website launches.
New websites mean lots of eyes internally. People are passionate about their roles in the business and want to be involved. Your CMO or even CEO may need to approve some pages.
Not to mention, if youโre trying to write copy to rank in search, expect lots of messaging conversations with the service line, product and/or brand teams.
Content production for your new website is going to take serious collaboration. You need a strong leader, clear goals, and a solid internal project manager to coordinate it in order to adhere to your timeline and budget.
Every page should have a title, meta description, etc. for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. Though Google may not always use your page titles and meta descriptions verbatim in search results, thatโs often whatโs pulled through to validate to a searcher what theyโll find on a page. These SEO attributes not only help you rank in search for your target termsโthey can also help convert a searcher to a site visitor.
This is the back-end of a blog post in WordPress, where weโve input the page title, URL, and meta description.
This is how that same blog post appears in Google search results.
And donโt forget about social shares! If youโve ever wondered where the image and descriptions for these come from, itโs called the open graph. Talk to your developers and make sure that open graph is installed across your website, and you know what the defaults will be set toโespecially for social share images.
Images: You need a lot of them, sized appropriately, in multiple formats. And depending on design timelines, you may not know the details until later in the game. Start sourcing images early, and donโt lock yourself into a design with complicated image requirements.
Based on some of the decisions you made about metadata, see if your CMS can auto-size images from a single file for common use cases like page hero, teaser, and social shares. Also, talk with your development team about image size compression and content delivery networks, so your image-heavy pages donโt take forever to load.
Pro tips!
Depending on the complexity of your site, standard pages will typically take anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours to create. Someoneโor more likely several peopleโneed to have the time to do this. If your site is particularly large and complex, a project manager dedicated specifically to content management can be a huge help.
Pro tip! Since youโre documenting all of your site content, use this as an opportunity to keep track of new (and old) content regularly. Youโll never have to do a massive content audit again.
Who โownsโ the site, or elements within it? Is there content that needs to go up the ladder for approval? Before your website launch, you should clearly understand who needs to approve what, and by when. Plan for revision rounds, and be sure that anyone who needs to review content is aware of their deadlines in advance.
You might consider having several people responsible for various pages and site elements. For example:
Additionally, you might want to include a web development or technical person who signs off that the coding is correct and the content is still visible even after a user filters out explicit content off their device. This is especially important if your website caters to kids and teens.
“When creating content, you always think about your target audience. If your website has products for children, there’s a large portion of your audience that classify themselves as parents. Nowadays, it’s easy for children to get exposed to harmful content online. Parents invest in their children’s safety, so there are chances that they enable parental control apps on theirs and their kid’s devices.” Sean Clifford, CEO, Canopy
For high-profile or high-priority pages, you may need to plan for additional layers of approval. Example: Itโs likely your CMO and CEO will want to give the homepage their stamps of approval.
Assign one person or committee that designates the priority of various types of content, website sections, and individual pages. Particularly at larger organizations, youโll likely have multiple teams vying for prime navigation or homepage real estate.
You need a decision-making body to intake and assess these requestsโand be empowered to make the final decisions for the whole of the company. Otherwise you could end up catering to the loudest voices, which can compromise your websiteโs user experience and ability to meet its goals.
Speaking of โฆ
Determine what questions you want to know the answers to, how youโll answer them, and how often those reports will be needed. Define your key performance indicators (KPIs), and put some numbers down that you want to achieve so you have something to work toward.
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amanda milligan, marketing director, FRACTL“When laying out your content plan for a website, you need to identify what the goal of each page is and how you’re going to measure it. Say your category pages need to draw people further into your product pages. You could measure that success by CTA clicks to those product pages. However, a buying guide on another page might be more focused on rankings and driving brand awareness. This could be measured in organic traffic increases.ย Thereโs no one-size-fits-all, which is why itโs crucial to define your objectives and how youโll measure the success of your content efforts.” |
As Amanda mentioned, different pages and page types serve different purposes. A blanket measurement plan isnโt going to give you enough insight to truly know whatโs working. I recommend creating goals and determining KPIs by site section, page type, and possibly even individual pages for high-potential performers.
Set up your analytics environment to capture the data thatโs important for you to measure successโand to identify areas for improvement and testing post-launch.
Pro tips!
You probably have a team dedicated to launch the new website. But what happens after launch?
If someone wants to change page copy, are they allowed? What if a team needs to create pages for a new line of business, and they want prominence in site navigation? Who writes the content, and who makes the call about where it lives in the siteโs information architecture?
The time to define content ownership and governance for individual site sections and pages is before the new site goes live, or youโll be living in operations hell until you figure it out.
Pro tip! Have a plan to take in website feedback post-launch, from messaging to functionality. I recommend one track for true bugs, and one for comments and suggestions. Have a plan (and team) to triage and respond to feedback, and expect a lot of it.ย
Consider things like:
Building a new website can feel like running a marathon, but day one (OK, maybe day two) post launch should be the start of a next. How are you going to make your website work for you?
Website design and development projects are focused on getting a new and better site live while balancing analysis, speed, budget, and results. To meet those requirements, you probably launched a minimal viable product, and have a longโand thoughtfulโโletโs do that nextโ list. But now you need a plan to tackle it.
In tandem with your website project should be an operational exploration. Do you have the right teams and team members to make this website the high-performing, dynamic business tool it was built to be? Consider how your needs for the following have changed, and either build the right internal structure or partner with an agencyโor bothโto meet your new digital marketing demands.
The best websites leave room for improvement once they see real-world visitors and customer behavior. And one of the biggest content marketing mistakes you can make is to launch a new website and rarely touch it.
Digital ink is never dry. Users, markets, and businesses are constantly changing. Your website and web strategy need to continually adapt to stay competitiveโand get ahead.
Put content first and you can avoid the biggest mistakes people make with their websites.
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Laurel, you hit me between the eyes on the first line.
I am just now redesigning my 2014 website. Which means I’ve missed two redesigns, by your calculations. Worse, I’m redesigning only the back-end for now. Gotta speed up the old jalopy, give it some good ol’ Kikapoo Joy Juice.
That said, my next step really should be your point #3. I’m really good at adding content. I’m also really good at tweaking key pages and keeping them up to date. I’m not so good at wading into content that might no longer serve a purpose. So, thanks for the reminder.
A huge aspect of web design has to be usability as well! It ties into friction, conversions, lead / customer happiness, and a ton more. Love the depth you went into, and appreciate actionable insights .vs. just information, and yours is definitely actionable! Good stuff Laurel…
The research stage may not be the most popular part of any marketing, PR or communications strategy, yet it is arguably one of the most important. The amount of time and effort involved in finding the best sources has a direct impact on how effective your digital campaign will be. I would consider the research component to be an important part of the digital, brand, marketing. For brand strategists for example, it should drive strategy and should be a core component of their role. When I am researching for my clients we are fishing for potential content ideas that we can leverage strategically across a number of channels โ from social media to newsletters to events etc.
I completely agree! Website’s design and a strong content can convert visitors into customers just by visiting to the website.
Laurel, I really enjoyed reading your blog and you touched on a few really important points.
Thanks Marianne! I’m glad you found it useful.
Agree with you Laurel, functionality and effectiveness must be considered in equal parts if not more. Visually attractive website to tend to engage some visitors, however for others its all about being able to navigate and take an action. It’s an great article, thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Jatin! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I really wonder why other marketers ignore metadata and ultimately just focus on the whole design. Thanks for this helpful post.
I think the metadata aspect is new, or newer, to some. It’s also easy to overlook since it’s “hidden” and not part of the visual aesthetic. As websites, search, etc. get more complex – there’s more for all of us to think about, and/or find the right people to collaborate on. I’m glad you enjoyed the article – thanks for commenting!
Thank you for this point 1. Designing without regard to functionality and development. That is why I absolutely love using WordPress for corporate websites. Website management is very important for non-tech or low-tech persons.
I’m surprised that I don’t see an emphasis on marketing research here – specifically audience.
Hi Elizabeth, of course research is important when embarking on a project like this! This article was really intended to focus more on tactical, content-specific issues we see though, not strategic ones. ๐ Do you have any questions about website audience research that we can help with?
I would consider the research component to be an important part of the digital, brand, marketing, content strategy phase. For brand strategists, marketing strategists, etc., the research should drive the strategy and should be a core component of their roles.