A few months ago, Brandon presented at the MCA Foundation’s Tech Tuesdays: Fueling Innovation Marketing Series. His thoughtful presentation was both useful and humorous as he shared how the first two websites he built at age 14 — simple fan sites where he manually input final scores for local teams — earned him appreciation from fans around the country and a cease and desist letter from one of the team’s owners. Brandon’s programming knowledge and the capabilities of the internet have come a long way since then, but one simple fact remains: people visit websites for content.
EASY TO UNDERSTAND
Building a great website starts with making sure the content visitors seek is readily available and easy to understand. A well-planned content strategy addresses the information your visitors will be looking for and ensures it’s written in a way that is clear, concise, and matches the tone of your brand. Determining the content before design and programming allows your design and programming teams to better understand how to visually display the information and what key pieces should stand out or be highlighted.
EASY TO FIND INFORMATION
A clear content strategy should address not only what information is available, but also how to find it. Help visitors find what they need by organizing your content in an intuitive way. Reviewing how brands similar to yours arrange their content can provide a guide for how to set up your sitemap and plan the pages in the navigation. Using AI tools like ChatGPT can also help you plan the sitemap and give you insight into a good strategy for information hierarchy.
KEEP IT CURRENT
Finally, maintain your great website by owning and controlling your content. It’s vital to your organization and your audience to keep information and resources current. A content management system (CMS) will allow you to update the website content as frequently as you need to reflect changes in your organization, services, policies, and more. Frequently updated content can also support search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and help improve organic search rankings.
The foundation of all great websites starts with content. The success of your website will be heavily influenced by your content strategy, including how you write the content and how it’s organized, and how well you can maintain and update your content. Set your website up for success by starting with content and ensuring you can own it.
At Hello Amigo, we specialize in developing custom websites. We take the lead on content development and organization, taking the pressure off you. Our custom websites are integrated with a content management system (CMS) to give you control over your content and the ability to update it as often as you need. Contact us today to learn more.
