Content Strategy and UX

Users come to your website looking for content. They don’t really care about how pixel perfect your layout is or how it was made, so long as it grants them access to great content. ‘Content is king’ said Gates in 1996 referring to how he believed success on the internet would come from the content offered by websites, not from the manufacturers of computers and internet suppliers. This is why it is important to have a ‘content strategy’ to plan how and when you are going to release your content.

The term content strategy refers to content creation, delivery and management of content. It has been common in web development since the late 1990s and some large organisations may hire or contract content strategists to help them with this.

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) in April 2016 found that almost two thirds of companies don’t have any form of content strategy. This may apply to you as you may think content is not as important as the business plan or the product, however the 75% most effective teams do document their content strategy (CMI).

In recent years user experience designers have moved away from simply thinking about the design of a website to working with content creators as the images, text and layout of the content affects the overall user experience.

Here are some of the reasons why creating a content strategy can help design a great user experience.

1. Make content easy to scan – with the increased ubiquity of the web, users are consuming information in different ways than before – they skim and replace words. This means most users welcome content that can be understood in a glance.

This doesn’t necessarily mean making articles shorter but make it a pleasure to read and be understandable. Designers should make sure there is a clear structure with appropriate headers and support.

1. Create information architecture – organise content so that it makes sense when accessed by the user. This can then be created by emphasising how the content should look on a particular page. When content is laid out properly it will improve user comprehension.

1. User personas – as with most UX ventures, keeping users at the forefront of your mind when creating content will improve its success. Before creating content it is useful to create user personas to understand what types of people are looking for your site’s content.

1. Conversion rates – if your business relies on e-commerce sales then a smooth user experience will mean it is more likely for conversions to increase. With a clear content strategy keywords can be used to target customers and content can be created for these users. One-way of doing this is to get your customers in and ask them questions to understand what they would like in each section of the purchasing process.

You may already do all the things mentioned above but having a strategy will help with delivering a steady supply of good content. Fantastically designed websites are nothing without good content and without a plan can be let down with content delays. A content strategy can address these problems and can be used to measure the success of content.

When content is released on your site the main aims should be to maximise your reach and commercial gain. With importance placed on every bit of content you release it will force you to make the best content possible and make your designers think about how to best layout the content.

Channel Dynamics can help create a content strategy with you by assessing what your business is trying to achieve, creating measurable success milestones, performing user research and suggesting the best structure for your site. Or take one of our training courses to set you and your team up for successful testing in-house.