Web content planning

Plan for your website content with users in mind.

Varies depending on what research is needed. Expect the planning phase to take as long (if not longer) than writing the content itself. Good content takes work. Avoid rushing it.

Thinking through content before you create a new website or web page.

Identify a content need, gather information from stakeholders and content providers, and conduct user research to check your assumptions. For example, you might want to:

If you're planning a larger content project, like an entire website, check out other methods like content inventories for outlining your content architecture and card sorting for creating user-friendly labels and categories.

The basics:

For large organizations and distributed content teams, also consider:

Try adapting this content planning template for your content project.

Identify your audience for the content. Try to be specific, for example:

Depending on the content, you might have a primary audience and secondary audience. For example, if you are creating a research assignment guide for an anthropology class, you might identify:

For more on defining your audience, see personas and empathy maps.

Whenever possible, conduct user research with your audience rather than relying on assumptions. With user research in hand, identify the primary questions the content will answer and primary tasks the content will help users achieve.

For example, the anthropology assignment guide might answer these primary questions:

And the primary tasks might be:

Some content will benefit from a clear call to action. Is there a single, specific action the user will want to take? If so, you'll want this to be clear and obvious as possible. For example:

If you're creating a website or web page, the name of it is critical to findability. Try using plain language terms that your audience would use to search for the content.

The name of the URL can also be important, and can give the user hints about related content or where the content lives in the information architecture of the website.

Consider how and where users will be looking for the content. Identify primary access point(s) on your website, including where the page lives within the information architecture of your website. For example:

Assume people will find your content through other sources beyond your website, such as search engines and related organizations. Consider requesting links to your content if appropriate, and customize the description for the content so that it has good search engine optimization. This is often what users will see if they are searching on Google. On a web page, this might be your "metadescription." Also consider an image that represents the content, as this might also display in search results.

Follow best UX writing practices so your content is useful, understandable, skimmable, relevant, and inclusive. There are whole books on this stuff, but some tips:

Identify who will be keeping the content up to date, any calendar dates where the content will need updating (e.g. end of semester), and if there is an end-of-life where the content should be retired and how that will happen.

Before publishing the content, consider running a quick usability test or feedback session with potential users or colleagues. For example, to check if the content suits its target audience, you can ask:

To check if the call-to-actions on the page are clear, ask questions like:

You can also use feedback from usability testing to help you decide where to put the content and where to link it from, by asking questions such as:

Content planning template (adaptable Word doc)