Content Strategy Is A Cross-Discipline Practice

As a term, content strategy is a relatively new one to the production of interactive experiences; in particular, website redesigns and new-builds. Too often in the past, the process of creating a content strategy has been to draw a roadmap for content development. As a result of strong editorial practice or from well-meaning search engine optimization practices, many websites have lots of content, but little of it is effective for the visitor nor well-managed structurally. The phrase, “content is king” has echoed through the years, but this has produced content on the web more notable for it’s quantity than it’s quality or experience.

Content strategy, as it is beginning to be known, is a cross-discipline practice that seeks to strike a balance between user experience and SEO, persona development and site architecture, meta-data and editorial calendars, keyword research and traffic analysis. The concepts and protocols are being defined by key practitioners like Kristina Halvorson and Erin Scime and are expanding the definition of content strategy at a key moment when the web is also diversifying both in terms of platforms and applications, and in terms of standardization and conventions.

In her insightful essay on content strategy for A List Apart in December of 2009, Erin Scime lays out the conceptual overview of the content strategist as a digital curator. For me the term “digital curator” is a bit too academic. While it is true that curators, “use judgment and a refined sense of style to select and arrange art to create a narrative, evoke a response, and communicate a message,” there seems to be room in the new definition to include the role of the environmental designer and the exhibition designer as well. It is not just the contextual thread that runs through the exhibit that interests the visitor in a website, but the ebb and flow of the content, the container of the exhibit itself, and the development of visual cohesion.

Still, Scime lays out a number of elegant, competent arguments for this expanded definition of the content strategist starting with defining and assessing the current content and needs of a project, and ending with editorial strategies and the establishment of organizational guidelines and protocols. As she says, “…content strategy engagement is site-level and long-term…” and she is right. Content strategists need to work with stakeholders and marketing people to understand the trajectory of the project and its place within the larger brand and message. They need to work directly with SEO and SEM departments or vendors to uncover searchable terms and incorporate them into every aspect of the website’s development and digital marketing. Likewise, content strategy will directly effect UX and IxD and the kinds of visual structures and cues they will create for the visitor. And now, content strategists must also navigate social media and be responsive to both external audience and internal needs.

The new content strategist is involved in every conversation surrounding an interactive project; if not in the actual development and production of the interactive experience, then certainly in the mapping of the content and the structuring of it within the larger framework. Content is not just king, but it is the map and the territory.

a version of LLBean's extensive site map

Stumbling upon a discussion about Site Map Design Best Practices on IxDA.org’s website, I was encouraged to find Jared Spool’s comments about site maps, user experience and search. Here are the highlights:

• People don’t want site maps – they use site maps when the website have poorly-designed navigation and bad user experience.
• Site map users are really making last-ditch efforts to find what they want.
• Analyzing site map traffic tells you what really isn’t working in your navigation NOT how to make the site map better.
• Really understanding web standards and web accessibility is more beneficial than plunking a site map down and calling it a day.
• Site maps are not SEO – if the website has a well though-out strategy, efficient architecture, proper coding, great content and linking structures, site maps won’t add anything.
• Site maps ARE needed for poorly-designed websites – there is benefit to adding one in this case.

You can read more about why Jared Spool thinks site maps are a design cop-out and some nice case studies by clicking the link above. The biggest point he makes (and I agree) is this, “Users don’t want site maps.” And they don’t. They want engaging experiences. They want tons of great content they can count on from authors they trust. They want easy-to-use architecture and intuitive organization.

They don’t want site maps.