Running a website is never a walk in the park. It might look nice when you open a web page and see how many visitors there are, and how much content a website has. However, in the background, there is well-oiled machinery working 24/7 to make it all happen. There is a number of daily and weekly tasks that must be completed, or the website will simply lose track of its competitors. One of the most important aspects of a successful online business is understanding how to organize content for your website. Hopefully, at the end of this article, you will have enough knowledge to tackle this assignment.
What is website content?
To learn how to organize content for your website, first, you must understand what that content represents. To put it simply, content is everything you put on a web page. Whether it is an article, a banner, a button, Google advertisements, or a video. If you look at it from the perspective of a customer, they might not be interested or attracted to everything you put out there. However, when put together, all those pieces send a clear full image of your website, and as such, they should be treated with the same level of care.
The first step towards better organizing of your website content
As with everything else in our lives, organizing website content requires a plan. In this case, your "plan" is a sitemap. And no, this is not a map that will help your clients better navigate your pages. The goal of a sitemap is to create a layout of content for all pages.
Think of it as a mind map, a chart with connected boxes that shows relations of pages with content. Every page on your website should have a separate sitemap. That is the crucial step that you shouldn't miss. If you have a clear layout of what goes to every page, you will save a precious amount of time.
The role of customers when creating a sitemap
Even though your clients will not see the actual sitemap, they will see the final product. With that in mind, you must always have your customer's needs in front of everything else. If an element goes on a page, that means that it has value for the customer. Never put unimportant content on a web page!
A big misunderstanding is thinking that the space on your website is unlimited. You can add as many pages as you want, and have as much content as you want. Well, that is a foolproof way to destroy your website.
With the amount of information you can find online, people are getting overwhelmed. They will not spend their time looking at everything. Instead, they concentrate only on the things of interest to them. With that in mind, decide what your target group is, and limit your content to that area.
Best content practices
The best way to organize content on your website is to apply some of the best practices:
- do not overburden main navigation with too many categories, better is to use subcategories
- set user access for your content and sales managers, so they can create landing pages
- organize content areas based on your customer's needs
How to manage content on your website
When your website starts to grow, you will have a lot of content. Furthermore, have in mind that the type of your content will depend on the type of your website. If you run a blog, you will have a lot of articles. If your website is video-based, like YouTube, you will have a lot of videos.
Managing content doesn't only mean uploading it on your pages. It also means storing it in online storage. The common practice is to make a mirror of your website, where your content manager can keep track of everything. There are multiple reasons to do this step:
- it is easier to migrate a website to a new address
- if your website goes down, you will not lose your content
- online storage is necessary to keep your website running smoothly.
Types of online storage
Depending on your content, you will want a different type of storage. For articles, documents, and any written content, Google drive is the best option. You can easily create folders and organize content for your website in any way you want.
If you are hosting video or audio files, have in mind that they can be large. It is better to host them on sites like YouTube or Vimeo, and embed them onto your page than to host them directly on your server. You might experience slowness when opening a page, and your clients will be frustrated.
Hiring a company to organize content for your website
Another challenge you will face when your website starts to grow is how to tackle the amount of work and simultaneously make sure that your website is running without any hiccups. You will realize that you need more people to help you run your websites. The most productive option is to hire a company to maintain your website.
For example, professionals like WP Full Care provide backups, software upgrades, and full website maintenance. It really pays out, in the long run, to invest money in your website.
Using social media
Do not limit yourself only to a website. Promoting content on social media is a requirement if you wish for your business to succeed. Digital marketing offers many affordable solutions, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. With that in mind, you should also allocate time to manage content on your social media.
It is difficult, but it can be done!
As you can see, running a website is difficult! It takes a lot of knowledge, skill, time, and effort to organize content for your website. Nevertheless, you shouldn't be discouraged! Take small steps, but make sure you cover everything. The reputation and success of your website are at stake!
