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Give your website content the time it deserves!

Treating your website content as an afterthought is going to limit your website’s success when it comes to delivering concise and impactful information to your target audience.

Producing good quality content can certainly be a challenge, therefore leaving content production to the last minute can cause problems to arise mid-project.  However, if you start thinking about content early on you can mitigate the risk of issues occurring further down the line.

Underestimating content production can lead to:

  • Poor design decisions if there is little to no information on the type and amount of content you have
  • Project roll-out delays, the site is complete but you are still playing catch up with the content
  • Content is rushed which leads to poor quality content on the website
  • A poor user experience through lack of targeted and meaningful content
  • Over run on budget as rework is required

Follow these simple rules for effective content planning:

  • Give yourself enough time. Don’t underestimate the amount of work required!
  • Establish who will be responsible for the site content and identify who will be the main point of contact from your organisation with Frank.  
  • If you have a site already, review the content to ensure old or outdated content is not migrated over to your new site
  • If you anticipate you are going to have problems early on with gathering content, prioritise the content needed for the launch. You can always add/tweak the content later, once you have been trained to use the Content management system (CMS)
  • If you are low on resource consider using a professional copywriter, Frank may be able to recommend one to you

It is important early on to establish who in your organisation will be responsible for the website content and confirm who this will be with Frank. 

We strongly recommend one point of contact for content from your organisation so the process is easily managed between both parties.  You will be given access to our project communication tool ‘Basecamp’, where you will be able to upload all of your new and edited content.

What should you consider when writing your content?

In order to produce successful content for your site it is really important to understand what you are trying to achieve with your content so that you can make intelligent and strategic decisions around your organisation’s long-term goals for your website.

Considerations:

  • Target Audience
  • Tone / language
  • Structure and Format
  • Source
  • Quality
  • Volume

If the content is being written by multiple people, it is worth assigning someone to review all the content to ensure a consistent 'voice'.  Simple, plain English is always best.  Think short sentences, use sub-headings and simple vocabulary. 

Future proofing

You will need to make sure there is a plan in place for maintaining the site’s content once the site is live, therefore it is useful to think about the launch of the website not as the end of the project, but as the beginning and as an evolving platform to build on.

Consider who will be updating the site and how often to avoid deterioration of the site over time and damaging the user experience.

Accessibility

Make sure you follow the accessible content guidance in relation to:

  • Correct use of Headings (if Frank are uploading the content, make it clear which sections are Headings and Sub-Headings)
  • Alternative text for images (if Frank are uploading the images, title the file with alternative text)
  • Avoid using posters / images with lots of text
  • Appropriate use of links (make it clear in the text itself where your link is going to)
  • Don't use abbreviations or acronyms

Search Engine Optimisation

Well written content will boost search results, including using key phrases, keywords and applicable metadata. 

Formatting your content in the correct way is vital to ensure that we understand your requirements in terms of where on the website your content will sit within the site and how the content is broken down for each page.  Here are some handy tips on how to format your content and submit it (if Frank is doing your content upload).

Existing web content

  • If the content on an existing public facing website is not going to change, this can be provided to Frank by putting the existing page URL into the sitemap template
  • If the content is on a restricted website (e.g. an intranet) Frank will need to be supplied with log in details, or the data extracted and provided to Frank in another way 
  • If the content is going to change, then it is better to copy this into a Word document where this can be edited and submitted to Frank once agreed

New content

  • New content should be provided as Word documents or using spreadsheet software such as Excel if providing data.  We do not accept .pub or .pages files, PowerPoint slides, handwritten content, photos of your content or verbal content. 
  • Provide content that is finalised and signed off. Sending earlier iterations or documents with edits/notes can cause confusion and may result in out of date or incorrect content uploaded to your website
  • Make sure that all text content has been spellchecked and proof-read for grammar mistakes. Frank will carry out Quality Assurance checks prior to the site going live, but the final content published on the live site is ultimately the responsibility of the client.
  • If you do need to update your content please ensure you have implemented version control by labelling your files so it is clear that there is an updated version which supersedes the previous version
  • Each page of content should be provided as a separate file.  Please include:
    • clear page titles
    • headings and sub-headings (e.g. H2 or H3, see our Accessible Content Guide if you aren't sure)
    • if content should be placed in accordions
    • any related files or images that should be uploaded to the page
    • any related meta data, such as alternative key words (meta tags), page description or other attributes discussed as part of your build
  • Upload the content to the ‘Files’ area of Basecamp, each content file must be clearly labelled with its page name, for example “About us.doc”.  If you have a large site, create sub-folders for each Level 1 section

Never lift content from other websites or sources unless you have permission from the owner.

Example content document

You may wish to add images to pages of your website alongside your text content - this can add interest and set a tone or mood. 

  • Images must be high in quality – no grainy, blurry or pixelated images as this can reduce the overall quality of the website
  • All images must be the client’s own (i.e. taken themselves), or purchased from Royalty Free stock websites such as iStock. There are also some free image websites, such as Pixabay and Pexels which release images free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0 – however, the range of images available can be quite limited
  • Images must be labelled with the name of the page they are to appear on, for example “About us 1.jpg”, “About us 2.jpg”
  • Images shouldn't include text  as the subject of the image unless alternative text is provided (this is for screen readers)

Images must never be taken straight from Google Image Search

Banner and carousel images

  • These should usually be at least 1600px wide, but your developer will confirm the ideal dimensions during your project build
  • Images must be high in quality – no grainy, blurry or pixelated images as this can reduce the overall quality of the website
  • Images must be landscape, rather than portrait
  • If possible, try to select images that will not become obscured by other elements of the carousel, for example text obscuring people’s faces. We can advise you on suitable image choices if you are unsure - just ask!

Thumbnail images

Thumbnails are reduced size images attached to a page.  They appear when you share a link, or on the page in thumbnail grids and box links. 

  • Your developer will confirm the ideal dimensions during your project build, but these can be smaller
  • They should be cropped to square dimensions

Hosted videos

Frank recommends that any videos are uploaded to a third party provider, such as YouTube or Vimeo, as opposed to being embedded on your website.  This will ensure the videos are accessible to more people, and will help keep your website loading at optimum level, by reducing the amount of ‘bandwidth’ that is required to display the video file to multiple users.

If the videos are uploaded to your YouTube Channel, this will also help to improve your visibility to Search Engines and enhance your presence on Social Media.  Google, for instance, will improve your rankings if you have videos hosted on YouTube that link through to your website.

Frank will ask that you upload videos to your own channel.  Files types accepted by these channels are below.

For YouTube these are: MOV, MP4 (MPEG4), AVI, WMV, FLV, 3GP, MPEGPS, WebM

For Vimeo these are: asf, asx, avi, divx, dv, dvx, m4v, mov, mp4, mpeg, mpg, qt, wmv, 3g2, 3gp, 3ivx and 3vx

Thumbnail images

Youtube and Vimeo will automatically create a thumbnail image for the video. This appears on your website in the video block. Sometimes the automated image can be of poor quality, pixelated or at a random interval.  Instead Frank would advise that you provide your own thumbnail for Frank to upload via the website video block as this will look a lot cleaner.  (Note that if you are uploading your own content, you will need to do this yourself).

Basecamp is the Project Management software we use to keep on track with all of our projects.

Basecamp allows Frank and our clients to share messages and files in one area so that assets are accessible to all at any stage of the project. This tool is really useful when it comes to uploading documents and image content.

You will be sent an invitation to join and will be prompted to select a password, which you can use any time you wish to log in.

Once logged in, you will be able to view the project’s Dashboard.

Here you can quickly access a project overview showing all recent uploads/interactions, Messages, To-Dos, Calendar, Writeboards, Files and a list of all the people involved in your project.

You can also use the quick links “New message”, “New to-do list”, “New event” and “New file” to upload information with one click.

You will receive the emails directly into your mail inbox and can reply without having to login to the Basecamp site, just click "reply" as normal.

Summary

  • Start thinking about writing content early on in the project. Don’t under estimate the time required to write your content!
  • Ensure you have appointed a content manager to manage the whole process from initial draft to final approval
  • Plan and build a sitemap based on your current content situation whether you are starting from scratch or migrating content from your old site to a new one
  • Write your content for each page taking into account target audience, structure, format and accessibility
  • Format your content correctly, taking time to ensure your content is approved for use, you have the correct permissions and licences for any text and media content.
  • Upload your final approved content to our project collaboration website Basecamp