Here’s what I do as a Content Strategist on a web development project—more or less, depending on the size of the organization and site, the project budget and schedule, and team members’ skills and experience. For example, I may do more writing and/or information architecture (design sitemaps and page layouts—i.e. “wireframes”) on some projects, less on others.
1) Admin Set-up
- Meet with client to connect with project team members, subject matter experts, other info sources
- Learn team communication channels & system
- Learn team authority structure (who decides what)
- Learn, get access to, set-up project-tracking applications and documents
2) Discovery
- Website business goals?
- Organization’s current branding attributes & messaging?
- Do a competitive analysis
- Conduct user research (demographic, market, analytics)
- Develop website visitor personas (prioritized)
- Learn search engine optimization (SEO) status, process
- Learn about client’s content development workflows, style guides, metadata status, content management system (if any)
- Assess all relevant, current content (types, quality, quantity, etc.)
- Identify preferred voice and tone for Web writing
- Current social media strategy, implementation?
- Current mobile strategy, implementation?
3) Planning
- Contribute a content strategy report (results of Discovery)
- Contribute plan to measure content success post-launch
- Consult on content management system options
- Contribute to SEO plan
- Consult on social media & mobile strategies
- Consult on budget, schedule (re: content development)
4) Design
If working with an information architect (IA):
Consult on sitemap (top-down structure)
- Consult with IA on mapping of high-level pages
- Verify link label compliance with SEO plan
Consult on Wireframes (bottom-up structure & navigation)
- Content mapping and page tables
- Collaborate with IA on navigation labels, form field labels, etc.
- Help test, socialize, analyze content experience
Content design
- Content model(s)
- Work with IA on taxonomies and metadata (as needed)
- Consult on content management system modifications (if any)
- Develop content migration plan and editorial calendar
- Create or supplement editorial style guide
If NOT working with an IA (none on team) – all above design work plus two essential information architecture tasks:
- Design and facilitate approval of site map (top-down structure)
- Design and facilitate approval of wireframes (bottom-up structure & navigation)
5) Development
Content
- Create, write, edit content
- Finalize, implement editorial workflows
- Consult on SEO implementation
- Help migrate content to content management system (as needed)
Information Architecture
- Monitor and consult on IA implementation
- Consult on SEO implementation
6) Quality Assurance (QA)
- Consult on final IA
- Assure content quality (tone/voice, grammar, alignment with brand attributes and messaging, SEO implementation, etc.)
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7) Success Measurement
- Consult on content (and IA) success measurement (analytics, user feedback, etc.)
- Consult on any follow-up user testing that includes content evaluation
8) Content Maintenance
- Audit, evaluate (analytics, surveys, etc.) existing content
- Plan new content
- Archive or trash old content
- Develop, manage ongoing editorial calendar
