Why you must plan your SEO and content strategy before you build your website

Without  a carefully worked out plan, your shiny new website may be doomed to failure before it’s even been launched. Understand why you need a content and marketing strategy first.

Truth is, most small businesses fail to plan a detailed content strategy when they decide to create a new website.  Often, design gets the largest part of any focus together with a simple list of the key sections (site map) and some of the features identified, such as “we think we need a blog”.

The website is designed, built and then, as the target launch date approaches, there is a mad panic to get the content (copy, images etc) added. And because it’s rushed, it’s already heavily compromised. Then, only after the website goes live do we turn our attention to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).  But it’s usually not the fault of the small business owner. It’s surely the job of the web consultant to educate his or hers customers about the importance of having a clear content strategy and goals. Sad fact is, I find this is often not the case.

So, before you instruct your next web agency to build you a shiny new website, you really need to ask yourself if you have undertaken any research and have a detailed Content and Marketing strategy defined. After all, you would not ask a builder to build you a new house without the architectural blueprints or materials agreed, or would you?

First, do you already have a website? If you do, have you identified which existing website pages are the most visited, how long visitors stay on each page, what tasks the content on that page helps the visitor to complete and how it enhances your brand values. You’ll also want to establish what inbound links (other websites linking to your web pages) link to this page, the PageRank and exactly what keywords are working for you.

Just by making a simple spreadsheet of your existing web pages you can identify and record this information easily. You can also review each web page to decide if it will be kept, scrapped or modified to address user needs. Another benefit of recording this information is that you will know which pages will need a 301 redirect to the new web pages ( 301's redirects a old URL or web address to a new URL so people don't get a "page not found" and any existing PageRank is passed to the new page).

Sample spreadsheet used to record existing site information | See the spreadsheet

Whether you have an existing website or you are planning to launch your very first website you should carry out as much research as possible and carefully plan every piece of content. Let's say during your customer research you have established that visitors would benefit from a video that explains a product you sell. Ask yourself who will produce this video; will it be created in-house or will you hire a video production expert. Where will it live on your website and how can you optimise this video for better search engine rankings?

Now you might be thinking a professionally produced video is expensive, but actually it has never been more accessible and affordable. Also, do make sure you consider the benefits of being able to promote your product 24 hours a day and the ability for 1000s of potential customers to watch it compared with the costs of a sales team travelling to your prospects' offices to demonstrate your product. If your competitor’s website does not have a promotional video - and I am pretty certain most will not - you have secured another major advantage. Always be mindful that people are busy, so use the right media to make it really easy for them to understand your advantages quickly.

Once created, not only can you add this video to your own website but you can upload it to YouTube, Vimeo or other video hosting services improving your ability to reach more people. You could even make it available on a promotional USB stick.

Video is just one type of content; there are lots of ways to engage with your audience and create strong calls to action. The point is that all content on every web page should be planned. Ideally carry out some research or engage with a web marketing and content strategist first. That way, you will end up with a clear plan and can start writing your copy first, or engage the services of a skilled web copywriter, well before the website build is even started.

When you plan, you are planning for measurable long term results. So unless you plan to do your own optimisation yourself, involve an SEO consultant early. They can do the research on which keywords will likely bring the greatest returns and work with you and your web agency to define a clear search marketing strategy. In fact, I always like to point out that it's the results for each keyword that really matter, not how much traffic you get but how much income or how many sales leads you generate per keyword. When you know the best keywords and search marketing strategy you should adopt, you will know which keywords to include in your copy and headlines.

It's your web agency's job to design the layout of the page templates, making the SEO friendly but easy for visitors to find, to navigate and to read your great articles, videos, images and engage with your brand. Whilst for you, you should find it easy to update with the flexibility you need.

Once you do go live with your new website, your SEO consultant will be working with you on an ongoing basis to grow sales, traffic and results. As they have now been involved from the start, everyone will know what goals need to be achieved and you will avoid expensive website code changes later on because you missed anticipating something earlier that was important for SEO.

Conclusion

In wrapping up I urge everyone to always remember that your website is a powerful marketing tool and you owe it to yourself to provide the best content and experience you can for your visitors. Executed well, with the correct SEO and content strategy, your website will enhance your brand image and give you a real competitive advantage. However, if you just retrofit content - with little planning - into a pre-designed off-the-shelf web template and/or do not choose the right CMS (Content Management System) you might just be handing your main competitors an easy advantage, resulting in the loss of sales opportunities.

David Egerton is a web designer and marketeer that has been involved in the IT industry for over 25 years. He is the co-founder of Commotion Creative Limited, a growing web agency based in Hemel Hempstead, UK and Pensocola USA that specialises in building websites and ecommerce solutions for small and medium sized business and the not-for-profit sector.
 
Email: david(at)commotion.co
Web:  http://commotion.co