Mommy, Where Does Content Come From?

Hands down one of the biggest issues on website projects is the actual content – all the information, images, charts, words, stats, stories, etc. that fill in the structure. It happens with other projects, but somehow websites catch people off guard. It's easy to underestimate the amount of information needed to fill it.

As a first step on a website, we have a discovery meeting with the client. And this is a deep dive – what should it feel like, who is it for, what is the budget, how does it need to function, what are the technical requirements – all those kinds of questions and many, many more. Those answers help determine the structure of the site. We then proceed to wireframes or mockups that represent types of information. Once the mockup moves into development, the real information needs to be used. There are probably sections of content that the agency will be creating as part of the plan. But getting all the other information from the client can become a sticking point, and hang up the timeline. Why is that?

🗞️ The Blog

A blog or news section is a very common request. A lot of people don’t realize how much work is involved in writing an article per week. Or they didn’t think about who on their team might have time to do it. On top of that, what will this person be writing about that is informative or engaging? "I need a blog" came from SEO strategy, but a lot of SEO things are changing right now, and frankly there are just so many company blogs out in the universe that are either dormant or hanging out there clearly for SEO. I get it, everyone and their cousin has a Substack (shoutout to Ghost 👻). A blog doesn't have to be a given – what do you want to accomplish with it?

🗑️ It's Actually A Marie Kondo Project

It may have been a long time since anyone has really gone through all the company information and updated/edited/organized it. This can be a huge project in itself for the client-side. People realize quickly that they didn’t have the at-the-ready content they thought they did. I know, hunting down files can be a real time suck. 

Even if you're refreshing a website, that can be like cleaning out your kitchen junk drawer. You might realize a) there’s a lot of content you don’t need anymore b) a bunch of stuff in there needs to be updated c) here is that one photo you have been desperately looking for. 

A website project forces you to analyze all your company information at one time and put it in one place. No small feat.

💁 More Q's Than A's

Often website projects bring up as many questions as answers. For example, you want to have all your social icons as links in the footer. Cool. Are you currently using all those channels? Do you want to continue using all those channels? It's a great time to audit things like that.

If you are looking at a new or revamped website project anytime soon, you might want to start to think about these things. While it’s a website creation project for agency-side, for client-side it’s a content collecting, auditing, editing, updating and organizing project.

Designers and writers are here to help with brand, imagery, words, editing and content suggestions. But there is always some amount of information and writing that needs to come from the client because only they have the deep cultural knowledge of the company. Only you know that image of Barbara standing in the middle of a field has significance. What's great about advertising is I get to learn all kinds of things about all kinds of companies. But only you know yours this deeply. And to do the best job for you, we need you to share it with us.