Many of our clients have questions about the content that they need to get together for their new website or for a redevelopment. The type of content needed (and how it is presented) will vary some based upon industries yet the suggestions noted below will be beneficial to most businesses and organizations.
The first thing to recognize is that ample content helps with the search engines since it improves keyword density and relationships. In addition, a website will look more established and complete if there is diverse content presented in a professional way. When creating your own content we encourage you to review our list to ensure that you haven’t missed anything important.
Content Assessment and Readiness
When getting your content together it is important to be as thorough as possible to ensure that a potential client is able to find the information wanted, is engaged, and ultimately trusts your business.
Domain name registered with access
– The best domain is keyword and region specific, kept short (2 to 3 words), with the .com extension for business (.org for organizations).
– Popular domain registrars include NameCheap.com and GoDaddy.com
Business name defined
– With tagline/slogan if applicable
Current logo if available.
– If you don’t wish to use the current logo please note this.
Primary services of business (or benefits of organization)
– List these, with a brief description of each
Primary Keywords for your business / industry
– These should be the words or short phrases that are most commonly entered in a search query to find your business type.
Short description of business and the services provided
– This is used in the description meta-tag and for other SEO purposes
Longer description of business and the services provided
– This is used on the home page as a “welcome” introduction.
Target locations
– Area of services: Main city/cities for which you provide services.
Business contact information
– Phone and fax
– Contact email/s
– Mailing address
Business credentials
– Business license number
– Professional membership, associations, trademark, etc.
Social Media pages you have for your business / organization
– Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, etc
Review Websites where your business is listed
– Yelp, Angie’s List, Judy’s book
Promotional videos of your business and/or products
– YouTube / Vimeo / Self Hosted
Website Site-Map
– List the specific pages for your website (8 top-level links or less), and how they are to be named.
Note: links names for menu should be kept short, and no more than 3 words where possible. Longer links names can be provided in a menu drop-down (submenu) or on an additional sidebar navigation.
Quotes to be added
– Cited quotations can be effective for some websites / organizations
Testimonials / Reviews to be added
– Clients comments, testimonials, and reviews with the date provided, where available online as applicable, and person’s name and title.
Images available for use
– Images of outside / inside of business, staff, products, etc.
– Do images need to be sized, cropped, repaired, background removed, or optimized for web (color, contrast, file size)?
Resources to be included on pages
– PDF’s, Word Docs, PowerPoint presentations, Excel files, links to other websites, etc.
Text copy for the web pages
– Where possible text should be “web ready” (proofed for spelling, grammar, and completeness).
Addition resources used for marketing
– Digital copies of brochures, catalogs, press releases, whitepapers, newsletters, etc.
Design and Layout Assessments
How your content is presented will have a big impact on how it is perceived. It is a good idea to start thinking on how, and where you want your page content to be added.
Static website or Content Management System (CMS)
– If you intend to have a blog, or intend to make changes to the website in-house then a CMS website will be needed.
Websites examples of design styling preferences
– URL’s of websites with notes on what you like about each (colors used, header design / slider, navigation’s look, typography, use of images, visual accents, etc)
Website examples of layout preferences
– URL’s of websites with notes on what you like about how the content was added to the pages (where applicable).
Full-width or boxed layout
– Both layout types are responsive and will utilize the same width of the page for content inclusions.
Logo alignment and relative size
– Aligned left or centered
– Presented small or large
Slider type and use preference
– Modern layouts will typically provide a few different slider options; single image, layered images, text overlay, etc.
– Number of slides to be shown on home page
– Additional “small” sliders for other pages?
Use of top bar
– Common options include phone number, email address, tagline/slogan, and social media icons
Use of footer section
– Common options include brief overview of business, target cities, quote, dynamic tweets, social media icons, short contact form, links, thumbnail pictures, newsletter signup form, member login form, payment button, etc.
Image Gallery / Portfolio
– If a gallery or portfolio is to be added, preferences on how this is provided for; image title, description, detail page, additional images, link/s, etc.
Content choices for Contact page
– Contact form, auto-response message, Google map inclusion, initial text before form, etc.
Specialty page types or functionality wanted
– FAQ, event calendar, visitor polls, surveys, e-commerce, forum, member only pages, etc.
Development Needs
Once all the content is ready then you’ll want to ensure that you have hosting and domain access. For a developer to assist you they will request the following.
Hosting access information
– FTP (for file transfer), and administration access or PHPMyAdmin for database installation and management (CMS websites only).
Note: Linux hosting (PHP) is needed for CMS developments (WordPress and Joomla), not Microsoft (ASP).
Domain access information
– For linking hosting account “nameservers” to domain provider.
Common Page Types
The specific pages needed for each website will vary some since the purpose of a website, and the target audience is not the same for each. Of the many page types, most websites will incorporate the following.
- Home (required)
- about us (company history, mission/vision, credentials, affiliates/partners,. etc)
- faq aka frequently asked questions
- services (one or more pages)
- contact us (typically with a contact form and an embedded Google map)
- privacy policy (required when any data is collected, such as for contact forms)
- image gallery and/or portfolio
- media (videos, press releases, etc)
- blog
- resources (links, pdfs, videos, etc)
If you have any questions on what I’ve included here please feel free to contact me by phone or email. Best of luck with your website!
