How to Create a Content Plan for Your Website

For many businesses, their content is the main tool they are relying on to bring traffic to their website. Used to inform, educate, entertain and sell, it makes sense to create and stick to a content plan for your website. In this article we are walking you through how you can create a plan for your business website.

What is a Website Content Plan?

As known as content marketing, a website content plan maps out what content your site will get during the year. This includes information such as:

• blog topics
• new products
• page and product re-writes
• special events and discounts
• types of images
• keywords and phrases

Basically, if it is on your website, or going to be, then you need a website content plan. Not only does this mean knowing what content you are going to add, but also the existing content you are going to edit. A good website should never remain static, but should grow and adapt according to the target market's preferences.

Steps to Creating Your Website Content Plan

In order to create great website content, you need a plan. At the heart of this plan is your business and it's target market. This means if you haven't created a business plan or identified any goals, do that now! Then you can move onto the next steps of:

• research your audience - what information do they want and what will they need? How will they move around your website? Where will they arrive and where do they go next? What are the specifics of your audience (age, gender, finances, likes, dislikes, hobbies etc)?
• analyse your content - what content do you have on your site already? Which pages are getting a lot of organic traffic from search engines? Which pages recieve traffic from other pages in your site? Which pages are not performing well in terms of ROI? What is old outdated content which needs revising? What links no longer work? Create a schedule of what pages to revise and when.
• plan your year - when are you going to have a sale? What special events or celebrations will your business be using/promoting?
• create a list of topics you believe your audience would like to read about. Prioritise them in order of importance, identify the best time of the year to publish each one and from here you can write a list of when to write each blog.

Finally, you can combine your new pages or articles list with your list of pages and articles to revise into one master schedule.

Writing Your Website Content

After you've created your content schedule, next comes the actual writing of it. This is where many people start off with a roar, then stop after a month once life and work kicks in. For others, they become overwhelmed with it, and fail to start at all. Or they want to do it, but struggle with the writing and need advice. Here are some suggestions on how to overcome all of these issues:

• create a plan for each page or blog you will write. This includes identifying the keywords, title, image and resources you will use to write the content with.
• keep all your information in one place, such as on Google Docs. This allows you to share with others if needed, plus gives free cloud storage to ensure your information is not accidently deleted.
• use storytelling and not storyselling. People don't want to be given the hard sales push. Tell a story about how someone benefited from using your product or service.
• use good SEO strategies, but write for people too. This means writing for both search engines and your target audience. For tips on this, check out the article 8 Easy SEO Tips to Get You Started Today.
• give your readers a call to action on each page. This can be to tell them to read another page, buy a product or contact you to learn more.

For additional support in creating a content plan (or writing the content), seek help from a copywriter!