A content strategy provides a plan for how to use content to simultaneously meet user needs and support business goals (Casey, 2015). When redesigning a website it may be very tempting to just transfer all of the content from your old site to your new site – after all, it already exists, right? The problem is that just having content doesn’t mean it’s successful at doing what you need it to do for your business.
Even if you have an existing content strategy it’s useful to reevaluate it and your current content before making decisions about the content strategy direction for your new site. If you don’t have a content strategy when redesigning a site there’s a good chance you’ll simply be placing subpar content into a prettier container. Visual design is important, but content is key. While an appealing-looking site can make a good first impression, it won’t buoy a user’s positive attitude for long if they can’t navigate easily, understand information, or find what they came for.
For this post, I’ve created a sample content strategy proposal for a redesign of Fairmont State University’s (FSU) main website. In the request for proposal (RFP) provided by the university, the stated goal of the site redesign is to use it as a more effective marketing tool for increasing enrollment. Based on this information, the content strategy was built to support related business goals and content objectives.
Outlined in the report, is a content audit and alignment examining current FSU content, recommendations and direction for a new content strategy, a competitive analysis, the beginnings of a content design, and next steps the university would be required to undertake to implement this strategy if accepted.
Read my full content strategy proposal to learn more about FSU’s content and the direction I recommend it go in for the redesigned site.
References
Casey, M. (2015). The Content Strategy Toolkit [Kindle version]. Pearson Education. https://www.amazon.com/Content-Strategy-Toolkit-Guidelines-Templates/dp/0134105109
