Content matters.

It is the most important part of your website. Words especially – because they reveal your company’s voice, tell visitors how and why to act, and guide people through the site. Words form the most part of the user experience – how it feels to use your site overall (and crucially, whether or not to come back).

So why, when you create a new website, does the content get left until the last possible minute – or never produced at all?

Suicide!

How come you have opinions about the colours and what you would like the site to do – but you have no idea what goes in ‘About Us’ or what the main message needs to be?

The good news is – that’s normal. Most businesses don’t have a clue what they want their website to say. That’s what a content strategist is for. Our work is essential because:

Content doesn’t just happen. It must be planned, created and implemented. Existing content needs to be audited. And once you’re live, ongoing content needs to be governed to prevent dog’s dinner syndrome.

You can’t do it yourself. Bottom line: you can’t write for the web, you won’t write for the web. Writing for the web is a skill. Don’t delay your whole project by pretending that you can write content that will never materialise.

Articles are only the tip of the iceberg. Do you know what a good error message, link, Google search result, navigation button, or tool tip should say?

Simple is hard to achieve. See that website that communicates a simple message clearly? A content strategist did that. You are too close to your own ideas to know what to leave out.

Experts work with other experts. Content is king but it cannot stand alone. Content strategists knit it together with design and function by working with designers and developers from the beginning.

So that’s what I do. I am the content strategy part of a complete web service.