What Is Web Content?

     So when I’m talking about a Web content strategist and Web content projects, just what am I talking about? This is actually not a trivial question, and the answer may vary depending upon whom you are talking to. Technically, Web content can be anything that appears on a website, including words, pictures, video, sounds, downloadable files (PDF), buttons, icons, and logos. For the discussions in this book, when I refer to Web content, I’m usually talking about the editorial content—the paragraphs, sentences, and words on a Web page. A content strategist may be involved in tracking and locating some of these other types of content, but for the most part, we will be talking about the processes surrounding the identification, creation, and approval of the words on the page.

     Other types of Web site content will be covered individually as they come up. But let’s not oversimplify this either. As Web users have become more and more sophisticated, their expectations for Web content have become higher. Just having a lot of content is no longer enough. The content has to be well organized (this is usually the information architect’s job) and it must hang together in a coherent way and communicate value and a good story (this is the content strategist’s job).

     Editorial content becomes more than just words on a page. As a content strategist, you will also need to consider:

• How is this information relevant to what the user is doing? A user who is just beginning to think about buying a product needs very different information than someone who has done a lot of research and just wants detailed specifications. These users have different criteria for what relevant product information might be. This is often referred to as the user’s context in the site. 
  
• Is the content comprehensive? Is everything present on the site that a user might want to know so they can successfully accomplish whatever they came to the website to accomplish? 
  
• Is the content appropriately labeled and defined? These labels and definitions of the content are referred to as metadata—data about data. Keywords or tags for searching might be metadata, as could a list of countries for which the content is appropriate. Metadata makes the content able to be manipulated automatically by computer systems based on business rules. For instance, products labeled as “book” should only appear in certain areas of the site. 
  
• What is the most efficient way to develop this content? Ultimately, someone is going to have to write, import, or copy and paste existing text into some kind of data repository for the site, usually a Web content management system (WCMS) of some sort. What tools will be used? What workflows and approvals are needed? If there is a WCMS, how easy are the input forms to use and should the content strategist help design them? Is there enough time in the project plan to create all the needed content? The team will look to the content strategist to help answer these questions.

     All of these elements become as much a part of the Web editorial content as the words and sentences.

Working In the Web Design World

     What I found out very quickly is that working in the Web design and development world is very different from working in software development. I had serious culture shock. The kind of work is very different, the level of exposure is much greater, and there is a whole new cast of characters with whom you will have to learn to work.

     The Web design and development world is divided into two groups: in-house development groups, and Web agencies. In-house teams work for a company and take care of its website. They work on the same site all the time. An example would be Amazon. It has a large internal Web development team that does most of the work on Amazon.com. Web agencies like Razorfish or Sapient work on lots of different websites.

     The kind of work done is pretty much the same between in-house groups and agencies. The big difference is that agencies have to do a lot of work on proposals and selling to get new clients and new work. In-house groups don’t have this problem, but they have to have a process to prioritize possible projects and decide what to work on next. The kinds of jobs and roles are pretty similar in both groups.

What Are the Projects and Who Are the Players?

     In the Web design world, work is divided up into projects. There are a lot of different kinds of possible projects, but most of them fall into one of these broad groups: 

• New Websites – There are fewer of these kinds of projects than there used to be. Most companies already have a website at this point so most of the brand new sites are for brand new companies. These are big projects that have large budgets and take a long time to complete. The content development effort is substantial. 
  
• New Mini-site Development – Website owners often have content that is just needed for a short duration for a specific product launch or campaign. In this case, they may choose to not place the content inside their larger website, but to create a small site that they can direct customers to while the campaign is running and that can be easily removed once it is over. These sites often have a short, easy-to-remember URL that is referred to as a “vanity” URL. For lots of Web agencies, these sites make up a large portion of their project load. These projects almost always need completely new content written and have tight deadlines to match a product launch or ad campaign. 
  
• Existing Website Re-design – There are a lot of websites out there that are starting to show their age. The look and feel of a website and common user expectations have changed a lot since many of these sites were created, so there is a lot of work to be done completely redesigning and re-launching existing, out-of-date websites. Despite the fact that there is existing editorial content for these sites, quite often the new design will force much of the content to be re-written and reformatted. These are big projects that often get lumped in with developing new features and improving the technical architecture of the site.  
  
• New Web Application Development – Most pages on the Web are what is known as static content. These pages just display words and graphics for the user to read and view. Web applications are Web pages that accept some kind of input from the user and/or then return something to the user. For example, features like online shopping, or online bill pay are Web applications. They are computer programs that live in a Web page. This is also very popular now as companies try to find way to keep customers on the site longer. This kind of work is done both in-house and by Web agencies. The content needs for these projects usually include text for help pop-ups and other page content surrounding the application itself, as well as any text needed inside the application.

     Web application development projects are usually large and complex projects with lots of people moving in and out as needed. Every project has different needs, but most have someone acting in these kinds of roles:

• Sponsor/Client – This is the person who is paying the bills and who ultimately will accept or reject the entire project. For an in-house development group, the sponsor/client is the person who is sponsoring the project, usually an executive, and this person is the one you have to keep happy. This is the person you go to in order to get the final answer to questions about requirements. It is critical to establish just who is in charge.
  
• Project Manager – Sometimes also referred to as a Producer (though aProducer may have more financial responsibilities), the project manager (or PM) creates the project plan and tracks tasks performed by all the people involved. Each group (technical, design, content) may have its own, detailed plan, but the PM keeps up with big project milestones to make sure that everything is running on time and that the project will be delivered within the terms of the contract, or requirements. They usually schedule meetings, keep track of issues, coordinate between departments, report up to clients and senior management, and generally make sure that everything is moving forward. Project managers are very busy people.  
  
• Art Director – Sometimes this person may be called a Creative Director or graphic designer. The Art Director’s job is to design and create, or oversee the creation of, the graphical look and feel of the site. These people pick the color pallet, and design how the pages look and fit in with the client’s existing brand, and brand standards. They will work on the project very early to create examples of how the site might look (comps) so the customer can select a look they want. Once development begins, this person is usually just involved as graphical design problems come up during programming and testing. 
  
• Technical Lead – This person might also be called a Technical Architect. This person’s job is to plan and oversee all of the technical parts of the project such as server software selection, hosting, programming languages, etc. If a new content management system is being developed as part of the project, the content strategist would be spending a lot of time with the technical lead. 
  
• Information Architect – The information architect (or IA) is responsible for designing how the user moves around the site and how the information is arranged and displayed. IAs design the site navigation structure (which pages link to which other pages) and usually design the user interface for any Web applications. IAs are sometimes called User Experience Architects or experts. The IAs are usually on the critical path for the project, other things cannot be done until they complete their work. Often there is some overlap between what the IA does and what a content strategist could do.
  
• Content Strategist – Obviously we will spend the rest of the book talking about the roles and responsibilities of a content strategist, but the short description is that this person is responsible for estimate, planning, tracking, and overseeing the development, translation, and approval for all the editorial content on the site. This process may involve everything from information about the company and its management, to thousands of product description pages, one for every item the company sells.

     A Web site content strategist will have to deal with all of the people and roles listed above at various times in the project cycle. Of all of these people, the most important in the content strategist’s life is usually the information architect. Establishing a good relationship with the IA at the start of a project will make everything easier and more enjoyable. The next chapter has a whole section on how to figure out who does what when there are conflicts with the IA.