Planning and preparing an effective WordPress site.
A properly planned website is more effective, ranks higher and is easier to manage moving forward.
The best websites spend almost as long on a spreadsheet as they do in design.
There is more to planning a website than a list of pages.
If you want your site to surface in the search results, you need to plan a much more comprehensive range of things, and this should all be done before anything gets built.
We like to plan sites on a shared spreadsheet so all the team have access and everything can be considered before the project goes too far down the line.
The reason for this is simple: you don’t want to make too many changes to your site once it’s gone live and Google (et al.) has indexed it.
If you change your site’s structure every other day, the search engines will wonder what’s wrong with it.
Measure twice and cut once.
Constantly changing your site means there are changes each time it’s indexed.
If this is article updates or new content, it’s not a problem, but if it’s URL changes, category deletions and the like, you will get into 301 redirects, and very quickly, the site becomes a complete mess.
Remember that search engines exist to serve up what they consider to be the best content for the search term; if you make significant changes all the time, you will quickly find your site dropping in the search results.
More time spent planning means less messing about with potentially rank-damaging changes later on.
If you like a spreadsheet, you’ll love this.
If you don’t like a spreadsheet, take solace in the fact that your new site will be organised within an inch of its’ life.
All our website projects are managed on a shared Google sheet.
This lists all the stages of the project, the progress, when things are expected and who is doing what.
The sheet has several tabs that cover the progress, menu structures, URLs, and so on so everyone on the project can see where we are and what is still to be completed.
We share every part of the project.
We don’t see the sense in not sharing every part of the project cycle with our clients – if everyone understands every stage of the process, everyone knows what’s going on.
We have a simple rule: we don’t progress to the next step in the project process until the previous ones are complete.
Nothing gets missed, there are no nasty surprises, and you are always 100% on the project.
What goes on in the planning of one of our WordPress websites?
1. Content Strategy
- Target Audience: Identify your primary audience and tailor content to their needs, preferences, and expectations.
- Content Goals: Define the purpose of the content—whether it’s to inform, entertain, sell, or educate.
- Content Types: Decide on the types of content you will produce, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, case studies, or eBooks.
- Content Pillars: Establish core topics around which all your content will be centred.
2. Content Structure
- Site Architecture: Plan how your content will be organised—consider the hierarchy of pages, categories, and tags.
- Navigation: Ensure that your content is easy to find through a logical menu structure and internal linking.
- Silos: Consider creating content silos (groups of related content) to improve SEO and user experience.
3. SEO Considerations
- Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for.
- On-Page SEO: Plan for optimised headings, meta descriptions, alt texts for images, and keyword usage in content.
- URL Structure: Choose SEO-friendly URLs that reflect the content and are easy for users and search engines to understand.
- Schema Markup: Consider using schema to help search engines understand the content better and improve rich snippets.
- Internal linking: Make sure your site’s pages and posts link to each other with meaningful and SEO-focussed anchor texts.
- Tags and Category archives: People often forget that titles, meta, and descriptions must be optimised for SEO.
4. Content Creation
- Editorial Calendar: Create a content calendar to plan and schedule content in advance, ensuring consistency.
- Content Length and Depth: Determine the appropriate length and depth for different types of content.
- Tone and Voice: Establish a consistent tone and voice that aligns with your brand identity.
- Content Updates: Plan for regular updates to keep content current and relevant.
5. Content Optimisation
- Readability: Ensure content is easy to read and accessible, using proper formatting, bullet points, and subheadings.
- Media Integration: Plan for the integration of images, videos, and other media to complement the text.
- Mobile Optimisation: Ensure that content is optimised for mobile devices.
6. Content Management
- User Roles and Permissions: Define who can create, edit, publish, and manage content.
- Version Control: Implement a system for managing different versions of content.
- Content Review Process: Set up a review process to ensure content is accurate, well-written, and aligned with your goals.
7. Legal and Compliance Considerations
- Copyright and Attribution: Ensure that all content complies with copyright laws and proper attribution is given.
- Privacy Policy: Include a privacy policy to comply with GDPR or other relevant regulations.
- Terms and Conditions: Draft terms and conditions for user interactions on your site.
- Accessibility: Ensure content is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, by following WCAG guidelines.