The importance of coming up with website content could be compared to writing and developing your company’s mission statement, values, goals, etc.  When you’re starting a new business or endeavor you ask questions to create and solidify a mission statement for purpose for what you are about to embark on…your values are included as a way to help define that mission and how you will operate…this adds to your philosophy or theory or set of beliefs…and like a funnel we end up at your core beliefs. From that understanding comes our decisions, actions, communications, etc. Ultimately this should define you and your business and the message you give. Your website should be an extension of you. Your website’s content should communicating you…from your core or foundation.

Let’s define what I mean by content…is more than words, but they should be a key ingredient. Content can be words combined with images and media that help shape the websites message and the navigation and the design should compliment all of the content. Designer’s can get into the trap of creating a cool design or trying out a new widget or plug-in on a client’s website, but even the very “cool” gadget can look out of place and fall short of enticing visitors to come, stay and stick to a website.

Why share all of this? Because without good thought out content (remember your core beliefs or “guidelines”) you can come across as unsteady, floundering and confusing. Not only to your website visitors, but to yourself. I know, I lived there for a long time. I had dreams, ideas, but was as bad a small boat bouncing around in the choppy sea when it came to making decisions and communicating who I was and ultimatley what I could do for my clients/customers.

Anemic content for a web designer, can cause a project to go south really quickly and can even become difficult to embrace and produce something a client got be with if there is little input from that client. Designers can ask basic questions on colors, themes, styles they can even ask if there is a website out there that their client likes, and they can give input and suggestion. Ultimately, if thought through content is missing, in most cases so is the ability to produce the best possible website in a smooth and timely manner. A client may want a certain website look and full of pages, images with or without “bells and whistles” then provide a single paragraph as if a designer has a magic wand to make a few sentences turn into an entire website. That is asking a lot from a designer.

How do you come up with the content? Think of your content has a brainstorming meeting  where a group of individuals are sitting around and creatively expressing the content or ideas that lay before them within the words and thoughts for a good foundation of content. If you can actually do this with certain members of your team, by all means organize the event. You’ll be glad you did and so will your designer. The goal is to create a bedrock of creative ideas and expressions. Then from there go through ALL the ideas mentioned and begin to pull together solid, concise and articulate communication. It will some time and effort, but in the long run you’ll be glad you did.

Which brings me to another important aspect of content driven website design. You’ll find, with today’s website visitors that it has become very easy to build relationships with those that drop by your website. (A topic for another post.) So keep in mind that you want to speak clearly and truthfully. Your website can look like you can everything, but if can only do one thing well, then you’ll eventually lose  a vistor’s faith or trust and they probably won’t come back. You can pretend for awhile, but not forever.

Here are some beginning steps to developing and writing good content. You may not need to do each one of these, but do as much as you can and even if you come up with more than is needed by your designer, they will be appreciative of your efforts and what you hand off to them.

1. Take Time. Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you are in a hurry to have a website, put up a landing page with your contact information and logo if you have one and spend some time at Starbuck’s just thinking through who you are and what you do.
2. Write your Mission Statement, values and other identifiying documents. If you are just starting out, just start. They don’t have to be perfect or what you end up with, but they can get the ball rolling.
3. Practice the “Elevator Pitch” on yourself and someone you trust. Heard of this exercise? If I was in the elevator with you and I found out you had a business (or a website) and I asked you what you could do for me, but I’m getting off on the 12th floor…you’d better be quick and articulate about yourself and what you can do for me or my company. Once you have it down and can run it by someone…then turn that into website content.
4. Ask Yourself What You Want. Why are you doing this website…this business? Be honest. If it’s to make a million dollars…it’s to make a million dollars. Be honest.
5. Ask Yourself What They Want. What do your visitors of your website want or feel they need. Are you conveying that to them and how you can help them get that?
6. Begin to think through the visitor website experience and map out where they could go. This is a hard one, but it can be helpful in determining how your content that you’ve written so far relates to pages and locations that visitors may travel and why. Have a goal of where you want them to go. If ultimately you want them to go to your online store, or your contact page to reach out to you, then direct them there in several ways and in several locations. But stay close to what you believe the answer is in 5 above.
7. Finally, (well we’ll stop here anyway) use alternative forms of communication based on what you’ve written. What images come to mind based on your content? What icons? What bullet points could be created based a paragraph or two of what  you’ve written? Media? Does a photo or a characture drawing amply or finish off what you’ve been writing? Write anything down and share this with your designer.

You can count on other posts relating to content in the future. I hope what I’ve shared is helpful and if you have any questions or comments please list them below.

Happy writing and happy soul searching so you can lay the best possible foundation to build upon.