The Case for Web Content Planning – Part 1

If you’re new to the wide world of the web, or even considering the relaunch of an existing site, then you should really be giving some thought to a strategy for content.

A lot of sites around today happened without a content plan: they simply grew organically from the germ of an idea and the basis of a design. That’s all right for hobby sites, but when it comes to content for a purpose wishy-washy organic won’t cut it.

Obviously, you want a richly-populated, deeply interesting site; one which will attract those all important back links from popular sites because it has something interesting to say. Like a novel, every good website content needs a plot. And while that plot may develop over the coming years, it should always fit perfectly with your business objective at any point in time: there should be no gaps, no awkward pauses, no pages that are hinted at but just aren’t there.

So from the get go, you should have a plan for web content so that as your business grows, the content grows with it. Get it right and within five years you’ll have a huge resource on your hands with a minimum of effort. Get it wrong and you’ll be left with a nightmare of time-consuming revision, rewriting and damaging contradiction.

Back-Breaking Back-Links

And there are great SEO benefits in well-planned and seamless content. Right now you’re probably thinking about cross-linking campaigns and not looking forward to the prospect. It’s a laborious enterprise and more trouble than it’s worth, not least because the websites most likely to reciprocate are those with the smallest page-rank and hence the least clout SEO wise.

But, if your site is full of interesting joined-up content, there’s more chance that sites with good page rank will link to you automatically. You don’t have to be a TIME, Wikipedia or a BBC to be interesting enough for TIME, Wikipedia or the BBC to link to you: you just have to be relevant, original and authoritative.

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