Prepared for Buffalo WordCamp 2012, these slides outline a strategy and process for developing content for your blog or site in non-technical terms.

1. Content Strategy
Presented by Adrian Roselli
#wcbuf

2. About Adrian Roselli
• Co-written four books.
• Technical editor for two books.
• Written over fifty articles, most recently for .net
Magazine.
• Member of W3C HTML Working Group, W3C
Accessibility Task Force, five W3C Community
Groups.
• Over a decade building and supporting CMSes.
• Founder, owner at Algonquin Studios.
• Learn more at AdrianRoselli.com.
• Follow on Twitter @aardrian.

3. Content Strategy
• People go to web sites for content.

4. Content Strategy
• People go to web sites for content.
• Sure, sometimes it’s for a neat trick or to see
how broken it is, but generally they go to see
content.
Text, video, reviews, downloads, tutorials, pr
oducts, photos, recipes, tweets, streams, flig
hts, etc.

5. Content Strategy
• People go to web sites for content.
• Sure, sometimes it’s for a neat trick or to see
how broken it is, but generally they go to see
content.
Text, video, reviews, downloads, tutorials, pr
oducts, photos, recipes, tweets, streams, flig
hts, etc.
• The reason you build a web site is to house
and present content.

6. What is the goal for your site?

7. What is the goal for your site?
• Is it a blog? Marketing site? Resource site?
• Who do want to see it?
• What do you want them to do?
• What is your “call to action?”

8. What sources do you have now?

9. What sources do you have now?
• Dedicated copywriter?
• Contractor?
• Interested members/staff/community?
• Just you?

10. What can you repurpose?

11. What can you repurpose?
• Is the web site the sole venue for all your
content?
• Will this content be used elsewhere?
• Does this content come from elsewhere?
• How can you save time/effort now or later
as a result?

12. With what frequency do you create
content now?

13. With what frequency do you create
content now?
• Daily
• Weekly
• Monthly
• Randomly

14. Uses

15. Uses
• Consider how your content will be used.
• Will it be printed? Emailed? Bookmarked?
RSS feeds?
• Will people read on the go? Will they sit
down to really process it?
• Will it be read on small
screens, TVs, Instapaper, blimps?
• Pushing to social media outlets?

16. Now consider if your goals match
what you have historically done
and what resources you have
available.

17. Once you have your goal(s) you
can make a plan to get there.

18. Do Not:

19. Do Not:
• Commit to a daily/weekly/monthly/annual
press release if you have never done it
before.
• Commit to a daily/weekly/monthly/annual
blog post if you have never done it before.
• Commit to a daily/weekly/monthly/annual
article if you have never done it before.

20. Timing

21. Timing
• Develop a schedule for content publication
(daily, weekly, monthly).
• Build in necessary lead time to author and
edit the content.
• Identify your resources and if their
schedules can accommodate.
• Identify any recurring items
(launches, renewals, etc) that can help set
timelines.
• Be flexible.

22. Topics / Categories

23. Topics / Categories
• Identify the main topics or topic areas (even
for press releases).
• Identify your resources for each topic.
• Pre-construct general themes or ideas to
help bypass writers’ block.

24. Style Guide

25. Style Guide
• Create or adopt a style guide
(AP, Chicago, etc.).
• Your style guide should help ensure a
consistent voice and language.
• It should also standardize how to refer to
your site/product/service.
• Define document outlines, flow, word
count, etc.

26. Assets

27. Assets
• Develop a library of assets (typically images
or video).
• These can be standard images, client
logos, product shots, etc.
• Use these for content where appropriate.
• A lead image, for example, can be used as an
“icon” for RSS feed
viewers, aggregators, FB, etc.
• Define naming conventions.

28. Design

29. Design
• If you are re/designing your site, let the
content lead the design.
• If you have content already, use it as
placeholder for your design, not “lorem
ipsum.”
• Use good typography to make the content
easier to read (themes may decide that).

30. Findability

31. Findability
• SEO.
• On-site, such as site
search, navigation, cross-linking.
• Human-readable page addresses
(permalinks).
• Social media.
• Link shorteners.

32. SEO

33. SEO
• Don’t fall for SEO scams.
• Use consistent terms.
• Spell out acronyms/abbreviations.
• Human-readable page addresses
(permalinks).
• Create page abstracts.
• Don’t forget about Bing (25.3% of organic
searches in July 2012).

34. Internationalization

35. Internationalization
• Will your content ever need to be
translated?
• Into what languages?
• Make sure platform, templates, process, etc.
are truly multi-lingual.
• Don’t rely on machine translation.

36. Accessibility

37. Accessibility
• Specifically for users with disabilities.
• Cognitive disabilities.
• Visual disabilities.
• You may be fit now, but in 20 years you’ll be
lower vision, lower mobility.
• No “click here.”
• Alt text on images is not an SEO tactic.

38. Adapt

39. Adapt
• Use analytics software to watch activity.
• Identify popular subjects.
• Identify sources of inbound traffic.
• React to negative change, capitalize on
positive change.