5 Steps for Content Writing During a Website Redesign
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If you have ever been involved in a full-scale website build or rebuild, you know that multiple moving parts need to fall into place before the launch. From UX and design to testing to tracking, there is a lot behind a successful website redesign.
One aspect of a site launch that may be overlooked is the content itself. While writing an ad and short-form copy can benefit from iteration and testing, writing web content demands additional oversight and organization. It requires writers to employ storytelling tactics across multiple pages to portray what your brand is about. This multi-layered approach also involves optimizing content for search engines so people can find it in the first place.
Your website is the first thing that many of your prospects interact with. So, telling a cohesive brand story across your entire site is essential. This means writers must connect the dots between disparate pages—from service and product to about and contact pages.
When you write content for a new or refreshed website, there are five important components to keep in mind.
5 Steps for Content Creation During a Website Redesign
1. Establish Your Website Goals
Before getting started with actual writing, you need to set your goals. This means aligning expectations with all stakeholders to avoid issues down the road. Asking questions can help everyone get on the same page:
Why are you redesigning your website?
What isn’t working for your current site?
What are your new requirements for the site?
What are you hoping to achieve with your new product?
What does a finished project look like to you?
It’s important to establish your goals to figure out the best step forward in terms of content and the website layout. Do you want to attract traffic? Or are you focused on lead generation? What audiences do you want to target? By identifying your goals from the onset, you can set appropriate benchmarks and timeline
2. Audit & Analyze Current Content
A website relaunch is the perfect time to assess and analyze existing content. Look at all your content, including every web page, blog post, and landing page you’ve ever created. Performing a content cleanup may seem daunting, but it can help you in the long run.
A proper content inventory gauges the quality of current content and proves it’s accurate and topical. It helps ensure that what you port over to your new site embodies your current brand voice—and that it supports current goals. You may uncover content that is outdated or doesn’t resonate with your brand today.
We recommend splitting your content inventory process into four categories:
Keep: What content is strong enough to transfer over in its current form?
Modify: What content should be moved over but needs to be updated?
Remove: What content is underperforming and not necessary for the new site?
Create: What gaps are there? How can we fill them?
A content inventory can uncover whether end users are engaging with your content or not, which can then help inform your future content strategy. It’s important to involve SEO in the early stages of a website launch to confirm all on-page factors are optimized for search engines as well.
3. Wireframe & Brainstorm
Much like a creative brief guides a copywriter through a campaign's concept and strategy phases, wireframes serve as a roadmap for web projects. A wireframe is a visual mockup that demonstrates the structure of a forthcoming webpage. It outlines what elements, including headers, body copy, forms, and calls-to-action, will live on each page.
Knowing the layout of each page is helpful when writing new content, so you know how to organize everything.
4. Develop Website Content
At a certain point, you just have to start writing. This is the time to do so.
Writing for the web is a fickle process. Unlike other campaign-oriented content such as ad copy, blogs, and ebooks, your audience may not be as clearly defined. For example, if you work with a variety of industries, there is a delicate balance of keeping your website content general while also addressing specific challenges. It’s important to write for an essential audience to get meaningful leads and conversions.
Keep things short and sweet—including your headers and supporting paragraphs. Simple content is digestible and can be scanned and skimmed by readers. Keeping jargon and technical terminology to a minimum also helps extend your reach.
5. Refine & Align
After writing the content, it is time to review, refine, and align your efforts across the entire team. Use your initial goals as a benchmark:
Are you accomplishing all of your predetermined objectives?
Are you embodying your new and improved brand identity across your copy?
Are you catering to the needs of your persona?
This is also the time to bridge the gap between creativity and strategy. Work with your SEO team to target relevant keywords and phrases across header and body copy. Page quality is influenced by experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, which means your web copy must be easy to find and understand. Effective SEO research helps uncover what your end users are searching for, and comprehensive website content helps them understand what you have to offer.
Optimizing Your New Website
Site launches can be beneficial for your company - as long as you are following the right guidelines. Do you need help getting your new site ready to launch? Learn more about our SEO site launch services.
This blog post was originally published on October 9, 2019, and was updated and republished on September 11, 2024.
