Preparing Content for website development projects

After discussing with a new client in a meeting today the content requirments as we move forward into a medium sized web design and development project, I have the following advice for people in the same scenario.

There are typically three scenarios under which content is made available to a web design and development firm during a website project.

1. The client provides and prepares all content
2. Both the client and the web development firm share in the content creation responsibilities
3. The web development firm either creates the content wholly themselves or outsources the content creation to a third party

It is important to not that web design and web development firms typically use sample content to scope the information architecture and complete the concept designs so clients should have some concept of their content ready.

Having said this, working with your web design and web development firm can really help in preparing the sample content and the following guidelines are relevant:

• The content should be short and straight the point,
• The content should not be overly verbose and should be directly related to your purpose,
• The content should utilise keywords and phrases that you wish to be found in search engines for

Ultimately, you should remember that in all scenarios, it is important to realise the burden that can be created by content production late in web development projects if it is not thought out and properly planned early in the project.

Please give me a call on 9978 8804 if you would like to discuss anything further.

James Cox