Content-first websites
Need a new website? If you don’t have a website or if your website is out of date and you want to start afresh, why not consider our WordPress website offering?
We recommend what we call the content-first approach. As the term suggests, this means that you start by creating your content, and then design and build a website around your content. Resist the temptation to start with a fancy bespoke design and try to shoehorn content into it. You don’t have to finalise all your content before you can start designing a site. You will, however, get a better result if you first have a good overview of what the content’s going to look like.
We can guide you through the whole process. It looks something like this:
1. Define your needs »
You need to start with a discovery phase or statement of purpose. It doesn’t have to be very complex. Your discovery phase might entail a half-day workshop with stakeholders or maybe all that’s needed is a phone call. It depends on your requirements.
As long as the outcome is a clear idea of who it’s for and what it’s for, that’s what we’re after. Who are your target site visitors? What do you want these people do do or think as a result of visiting your website? What does success look like? How will you measure how well it’s working? These things need to be documented. We can guide you.
Do this first. Everything else follows logically.
2. Evaluate your existing content »
If you already have a website you will probably be able to reuse your content to some extent. A content audit – analysing your existing website and any other assets and documents – will show whether you’re looking at:
- Like-for-like migration
- Reworking of existing content
- Starting from scratch
Or – probably – some combination.
3. Create new content as needed »
Now you’ll have a good idea of what you need and what you’ve already got. So you can see what’s missing. You can set about planning and creating the rest of the content you need.
Don’t underestimate the importance of this step. We can help you edit existing content and write new content.
4. Decide on a design theme »
We’ll review some WordPress themes with you and find one that will work for you. The theme is a starting point. We customise it in accordance with your brand.
Incidentally, many well-known brands and businesses use WordPress.
5. Build the website »
There is almost bound to be some overlap between content creation and the build of the site – it’s an iterative process. We’ll keep you informed, we’ll let you see some work in progress, and we’ll consult you on any additional functionality where there’s a choice of ways of doing things.
We look after the basics of metadata and SEO (search engine optimsation) as part of the service.
6. Launch the site »
We’re comfortable working with your existing web host, if you have one. Or we can help you find a suitable hosting company. Once you’re happy with the site in the staging (pre-live) environment we’ll make it live and do all the pre- and post-live checks that need to be done.
You’ll probably want Google Analytics. We’ll organise this as part of the go-live process.
If you’re migrating content from an existing website you’ll need redirects set up so that your old web pages don’t get lost or broken and you don’t lose your search equity. We use something called a 301 redirect for this. It’s all part of the service.
7. Monitor and keep up to date »
So now you’ve got a new website up and running. This is just the beginning. You’ll probably want to monitor your site visits. You may want to make frequent content updates. You’ll have access to your WordPress CMS (content management system) to make your own updates, or we’ll be happy to quote you for maintenance if you don’t want to do it yourself.
We’d recommend at least a periodic check and review – to assess how well your site is meeting the objectives you set for it, and plan any future actions.
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