Self-Help Guide

Content Strategy: Plan & Maintain Website Content

Content is one of the main components of a great user experience. This self-help guide walks you through the process of planning the right content to meet your website's goals. It also provides some considerations to help you maintain your website content.

Content Strategy Website 1 [1]

Plan Your Content

KNOW YOUR GOALS

Establish Objectives

Identify Stakeholders (Lynda Video 2:01)

https://www.lynda.com/Content-Strategy-tutorials/Identify-understand-stakeholders/473877/509291-4.html [2]

Setting Successful Website Goals and Objectives

https://www.blitzmediadesign.com/blog/2014/05/setting-successful-website-goals/ [3]

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Identify Audience Members

Determine Audience, Outcomes, and User Needs

https://alistapart.com/article/audiences-outcomes-and-determining-user-needs [4]

Define an Audience (Lynda Video 1:53)

https://www.lynda.com/Content-Strategy-tutorials/Define-audience/473877/509292-4.html [5]

Develop Fact-based Personas (Lynda Video 3:40)

https://www.lynda.com/Content-Strategy-tutorials/Develop-fact-based-personas/473877/509294-4.html [6]

Understand Users' Needs

A Five-Step Process for Conducting User Research

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/09/23/5-step-process-conducting-user-research/ [7]

Complete Beginner's Guide to Design Research

http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-design-research/ [8]

User Research Basics

http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/user-research.html [9]

Conducting a Focus Group

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~rkrueger/focus.html [10]

Define Audience Requirements

Illustrating the Long Tail

https://moz.com/blog/illustrating-the-long-tail [11]

Web Analytics for Content Planning

http://meetcontent.com/blog/web-analytics-for-content-planning/ [12]

IDENTIFY CONTENT NEEDS

Inventory and Audit Your Content

How to conduct a content audit

https://uxmastery.com/how-to-conduct-a-content-audit/ [13]

A Complete Content Audit and Spreadsheet Template

https://blog.bufferapp.com/content-audit [14]

6 Steps to a Comprehensive Ongoing Content Strategy Audit

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/content-audit-checklist/237731/ [15]

Automated Link-Checking Tool

http://validator.w3.org/checklink [16]

(w3c.org)

Conduct a Gap Analysis

The Content Gap Analysis

https://www.sitecore.net/company/blog/421/part-2-the-content-gap-analysis-identifying-the-gap-between-the-content-you-have-and-the-content-you-need-4085 [17]

Super Quick Content Gap Analysis

https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/content-gap-analysis/ [18]

Select an Appropriate Platform

COPE: Create Once, Publish Everywhere

http://blog.programmableweb.com/2009/10/13/cope-create-once-publish-everywhere/ [19]

DEVELOP A WORK PLAN

Define Roles and Responsibilities

Defining Roles and Responsibilities

http://contentstrategy101.com/contents/implementation/methodology/defining-roles-and-responsibilities/ [20]

Get Your Content Out of the Drawer with Governance

http://uxmag.com/articles/get-your-content-strategy-out-of-the-drawer-with-governance [21]

RACI Chart Template

http://racichart.org/raci-templates/ [22]

Project Team Roles and Responsibilities

https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/project-team.html [23]

Discuss Measures of Success

Web Analytics for Content Planning

http://meetcontent.com/blog/web-analytics-for-content-planning/ [12]

Choose a Web Analytics Tool

https://www.lifewire.com/top-blog-statistics-trackers-3476176 [24]

Understand and Use Google Analytics

https://it.umn.edu/technology/google-analytics [25]

Content Strategy Website 2 [26]

Create Your Content

ORGANIZE YOUR CONTENT

Design Your Content Structure

Understanding Your Site Structure

http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/3-information-architecture/3-site-structure.html [27]

An Intro to Metadata and Taxonomies

http://blog.braintraffic.com/2012/03/an-intro-to-metadata-and-taxonomies/ [28]

Card Sorting: A Definitive Guide

http://boxesandarrows.com/card-sorting-a-definitive-guide/ [29]

A Simple and Indispensable Template for Content Marketing Distribution

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2012/05/content-marketing-distribution-template/ [30]

How to Put Together an Editorial Calendar for Content Marketing

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2010/08/content-marketing-editorial-calendar/ [31]

Building the Case for Taxonomy

http://boxesandarrows.com/building-the-business-case-for-taxonomy/ [32]

Planning a Taxonomy Project

http://boxesandarrows.com/planning-a-taxonomy-project/ [33]

Curate Sources

Considerations for Special Higher Ed Content Types

http://meetcontent.com/blog/considerations-for-special-higher-ed-content-types/ [34]

Make Page Tables

Creating Better Web Content with Page Tables

http://www.kendallcopywriting.co.uk/content-strategy-applied-creating-better-web-content-with-page-tables/ [35]

From Page Tables to Content Templates

https://marketeer.kapost.com/from-page-tables-to-content-templates/ [36]

Example Page Table

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KCOL-uSsL4ywHklSLBucx7YNxTNlNzwHOH_zc5QJwyU/edit [37]

(Google doc with template)

WRITE FOR THE WEB

Establish Voice and Tone

Choose Your Voice and Tone

https://content-guide.18f.gov/voice-and-tone/ [38]

Finding Your Voice and Tone

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/08/21/finding-tone-voice/ [39]

The Impact of Voice and Tone on Users' Brand Perception

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/tone-voice-users/ [40]

Use Plain Language

Plain Language Checklist

http://centerforplainlanguage.org/5-steps-to-plain-language/ [41]

A Process for Using Plain Language

http://www.usabilityinciviclife.org/plain-language-is-a-process/ [42]

US Government Standards for Plain Language

http://www.plainlanguage.gov/ [43]

(plainlanguage.gov)

Outlaw the Phrase "Social Media" at Work

http://www.webinknow.com/2012/11/outlaw-the-phrase-social-media-at-work.html [44]

Write Actionable Content

https://health.gov/healthliteracyonline/write/ [45]

Using Appropriate Words

http://www.kingcounty.gov/help/editorial-style-guide/plainwriting/appropriatewords.aspx [46]

Create Usable Content

Creating Valuable Content: An Essential Checklist

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/04/valuable-content-checklist/ [47]

Hemingway Editor

http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ [48]

Write the Best Titles for Content Marketing

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2012/12/checklist-content-marketing-titles/ [49]

5 Reasons Why No One Is Reading Your Email Newsletter

https://www.copyblogger.com/email-newsletter-response/ [50]

Testing the Usability of Text

https://gathercontent.com/blog/testing-the-usability-of-text [51]

Federal Government Content Guide

https://pages.18f.gov/content-guide [52]

(developed for the government but useful for everyone)

APPLY STANDARDS

Make Your Content Accessible

Accessible U

http://accessibility.umn.edu [53]

University of Minnesota Accessibility website

Accessibility Basics

http://www.contentstrategy101.com/contents/creating-useful-information/accessibility/ [54]

Government-wide Section 508 Accessibility Program

http://section508.gov [55]

Accessibility Evaluation Resources

http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/Overview.html [56]

Free Accessibility Tools Roundup

https://medium.com/bread-crumbs/free-web-accessibility-tools-round-up-b83a33797789 [57]

Accessibility Quick-Reference

http://webaim.org/resources/evalquickref/evalquickref.pdf [58]

Experiencing Dyslexia: An Example

http://geon.github.io/programming/2016/03/03/dsxyliea [59]

Adhere to Regulatory Compliance

Copyright Information and Resources

https://www.lib.umn.edu/copyright [60]

Adhere to Brand Standards

University of Minnesota Web Standards and Best Practices

https://university-relations.umn.edu/resources/web-standards-and-best-practices [61]

University of Minnesota Brand Standards

http://university-relations.umn.edu/our-brand [62]

LAUNCH YOUR CONTENT

Test with a Soft Launch

Soft Launch - Defined

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_launch [63]

Go Live

Site Launch Timeline and Checklist

https://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/business/the-ultimate-website-launch-checklist [64]

Content Strategy Website 3 [65]

Sustain Your Content

ASSESS YOUR PROGRESS

Do a Project Debrief

10 Things to Include in a Project Post-Mortem

https://www.business2community.com/strategy/10-things-include-project-post-mortem-0968906 [66]

Measure Your Results

How to Measure Your Content Strategy Success (Lynda.com Video 3:37)

https://www.lynda.com/Content-Strategy-tutorials/Measuring-success/473877/509316-4.html [67]

6 Metrics Every Website Needs to Track

https://www.square2marketing.com/blog/6-metrics-every-successful-website-needs-to-track [68]

IMPLEMENT ONGOING WORKFLOW

Create a Maintenance Plan

Content Calendar Tools, Templates, Tips

https://blog.bufferapp.com/all-about-content-calendar [69]

Establish a Content Maintenance Routine

http://uxmag.com/articles/content-maintenance [70]

Workflows (Lynda.com Video 2:49)

https://www.lynda.com/Content-Strategy-tutorials/Workflows/473877/509310-4.html [71]

Apply Your Content Lifecycle

Content Lifecycle: Closing the Loop in Content Strategy

http://johnnyholland.org/2010/10/content-lifecycle-closing-the-loop-in-content-strategy/ [72]

Maintain Quality Control

Content Quality Checklist

http://content-science.com/products/content-quality-checklist/ [73]

Social Media Templates for Realtime Content

https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-templates [74]