Slipstream

Here’s a follow up to our post last week regarding Content Strategy, and building good, well performing SEO, by thinking about your writing (and another excuse for a digital agency in Southampton to feature Don Draper, Mad Men’s king of content and design). Following some questions, here is a little bit more detail about the new world of content, that we, as a digital agency, care about as much as any design and content management system in our process.

Firstly the facts about content:

• Content isn’t copywriting.
• Content is at the heart of your site
• Content requires strategic consideration.
• Content requires care and feeding.
• Content is a critical business asset.

Secondly a recent article summary from Top Rank Blog:

“Why not write less and give more, then for sure you will gain credibility and credits. The problem isn’t being able to reach the first page, but reach the audience and the rest will follow.”

Taking these comments as our core strategy, how do you approach your copy? Did your site start with a great, potentially award winning, design, but built around Lorem Ipsum (the designers friend) as the copy? Many do, and without content taking a lead in the design brief this is where you winning design will start and end.

We realise this is 2011, and 99.9% of businesses will have a website in place, so before thinking of the next sales campaign, or design refresh, think about the content. No matter what role you take in the website ownership process, you are well placed to perform a content audit, noting each page and element of content that exists, and reviewing this against it’s clarity (to the stakeholder or customer) and it’s concise approach to describing the role of the product, service, or information page.

Can your content affect your SEO? Yes, of course, in the process of creating clear, concise and easy-to-understand copy, structure, and links, you will be naturally improving the way Google sees your site, naturally improving your home-curated SEO without any need for a specialist SEO Agency or review (of course, in a highly competitive industry you may employ these services to work your site even harder).

So, in conclusion, how does this affect us in the client to Digital Agency relationship? Don’t be surprised if we recommend and work with you to produce a content inventory, audit and question the benefit of each piece of content, and pare each page of the site back to it’s barest black and white base. By doing this before working up an campaign or site strategy we can ensure the content drives SEO, social media follows a solid, well thought out message, and customers no longer struggle to find our understand your brand.

What do you think?

What to do next:
To read:
http://24ways.org/2010/a-contentmas-epiphany

To buy:
http://www.abookapart.com/products/the-elements-of-content-strategy