How to provide content to your web developer

To achieve a successful website project, we need to know what the organisation wants to say, and that means content.

Most projects follow a simple process:

The organisation provides artwork (logo and style guide) and content (words and images).
We develop and deliver the solution.

Most of the time, content is what delays a project. People are often too busy to write their own content, or unsure where to start, or both.

We need a clear idea of what the organisation wants to communicate so we can plan user journeys and website layout. This is how we recommend getting started.

Start with a website outline

Using Word or Google Docs (when we work together, there is a shared folder for this), create a document called Website Outline with a general structure. For example:

Home
About Us
Services
- service1
- service2
- service3
Contact Us

Then create a separate document for each page, titled accordingly – Home, AboutUs, etc. Each document should contain any content that should appear on that page.

Do some research

Look at competitors’ websites. A small organisation can check the content used by larger players in the industry, because they have often hired professional copywriters and SEO specialists, and their structure and presentation of information can offer some good ideas.

Do not copy anything directly. Reviewing what others have done can help clarify the organisation’s own messaging and give a sense of what works well in the market.

Content formatting tips

Keep it simple

Formatting content in HTML is our job. Stick to headings, paragraphs, and bulleted or numbered lists. For consistency across pages, format headings the same way in each document.

Leave the design to us

Fancy formatting tools in Word or Google Docs don’t translate well to the web. For a popup, write [pop-up]. For a table, provide the data separately and reference it, e.g. [insert filename.xls table here].

Image preparation

Submit images separately

Send images as separate files and reference them in the content, e.g. [woman-holding-yellow-flower.jpg]. Images embedded in Word or Google Docs get compressed when they are extracted, which leaves them too low in quality for a website. For stock photos, describe what is needed in brackets.

Use high-resolution files

We can resize images down, but enlarging low-resolution images causes pixelation and poor quality.

Name images clearly

Use descriptive filenames like [mary-jones.jpg] or [flat-white.jpg] so we know what each image represents.

Structuring content

Break up long text

Long pages of text mean a lot of scrolling, which is hard work on a phone. Splitting content into sections or pages, and adding image references, makes it easier to read.

Think about shareability

An organisation with multiple services should consider creating individual pages with their own URLs. If each service only needs a short description, a single Services page may be enough.

Consider search and accessibility

Text is easy to index. Images are indexed by filename and metadata, so descriptive filenames help search engines and screen readers understand them. A photo of a boat named [image.jpg] is indexed as “image”, not “boat”.

Descriptive text matters for AI-powered search tools too, because they can’t summarise a page that is mostly images with no supporting text.