The bulk of a website is in its content, which needs a good structure and a feeling that evokes the branding.
From gathering and restructuring current content, to creating new content that improves search results (SEO), this phase is the most underrated and underestimated part of a website. While content should be created at the beginning of a project, many times, the content came much later. Having a content strategy and a general structure of the content will at least provide enough information to continue onto wireframes and mockups, but the actual content provides another way to emphasize branding and trust for the users.
Gathering and structuring content is key to knowing what to design. Content inventories, card sorting, and sitemap creation based on balancing user and project goals defined in the Discovery phase.
Gathering content can be like herding cats, but one of my favorite parts of a website is creating structure with sitemaps and navigational options. I like to use competitor research to find out which navigational terminology are used for certain types of websites. I organize content into logical groupings that help people find what they are looking for.
Sometimes content needs to be adjusted for the web, or a rebranding is required, so a content strategy helps to guide clients on what content is needed.
A content strategy can really help with large organizations that have multiple departments and complex websites. I usually work with the project manager to find a way to gather, track and organize content, as well as provide training to create content for the web and within the constraints of the website and/or organizational brand. Even a short descriptive strategy can help smaller organizations to work on content while I continue onto design.
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