Website Content Population and Migrations
After the site is built, we populate it with your content. If you have an existing website we can migrate the content for you or train your staff on the content management system.
How to Provide Content
Word Documents
Define specific goals to measure your website's success.
- Provide one file per page of content.
- Embed links to existing web pages in the text.
- For links to pages that don't yet exist or you that can't link to directly, use square brackets [] or highlighted text to provide notes to the content managers or developers. This is avoid confusion with regular parathesis "()" which may be mistaken for text.
- Organize sections of content into folders.
Google Docs
Define specific goals to measure your website's success.
Our favorite method is Google Docs (aka "Drive"), mostly because documents can be revised, marked up, and commented live without having to send files back and forth. It has all the same benefits of Word documents without the hassle.
Database
Define specific goals to measure your website's success.
Where the content is available in a database format, content can be exported from the current platform and imported into the website. All data will be preserved, such as page content, page titles, URLs, and meta information. Page URLs will either be preserved or forwarded using a 301 redirect (to preserve SEO placement and links from other websites/user bookmarks). Media content such as photos, videos, and documents will be imported into the media library to make them available for content managers to update or re-use as needed. Media URLs will be updated to reflect the new location on the server.
Tips
It Doesn't Have to Perfect
Website content can be easily edited when using a content management system. In fact, it's encouraged to review your content regularly after launch and make edits to optimize for your search engine visibility and conversions.
Send content in batches
Work through your site map one branch at a time.
Content writing can be daunting and time consuming. Start with content you may already have available, like your company profile or short biographies of each of staff, then work through the content one section at time (services, products, etc).
Use a file sharing service
Avoid sending multiple copies of the same file
Use a file sharing service like DropBox or Google Drive so all parties involved always have the most up to date copies. These types of services also include comment features so we can ask for clarification or suggest edits directly on each document prior to publishing it on your website.