Web content development is the process of generating material that supports and promotes your online presence. Throughout the process, you will brainstorm, plan, research, organize, and create content for online publication. And then you’ll publish it. For a small business owner, this content should be designed with one purpose in mind: to advance the goals of your business.

It usually starts with your website, but web content can include any online content that represents you or your business. It consists of text, images, audio, and video that are accessible on the internet. Smart web content development can lead to online success, and if a business operates mostly or entirely on the internet, then web content can make or break it.

Businesses that take their online presence seriously and want to establish a strong hold in the online marketplace must treat their web content with a sense of priority.

The Five Phases of Web Content Development

The web content development process can be broken into five phases: brainstorming, planning, building, launching, and maintaining your content.

Each phase can be broken down into smaller stages, and each of these could take several days, several weeks, or several months, depending on how extensive your online presence will be. Let’s take a look at each of the five phases of web content development. Each phase is critical.

Phase One: Brainstorm (Conceptualize)

Every good plan kicks off with a brainstorming session.

During brainstorming, you’ll build a list of all the types of content that you’ll need (website, social media, ads, etc.). Then get specific about what content will need to be created (text, images, etc.). You can use a white board, sticky notes, or index cards. Use mind-mapping. However, a few large sheets of paper will serve just as well.

Make sure you have your computer handy too. As you build your list of ideas for web content, you’ll need to conduct research at almost every step. Brainstorming and researching takes time. You might need to spend several hours or days on this phase.

Visit sites that offer goods and services similar to your own and check out their web content. Be sure to review their social media profiles too. This is an excellent way to get ideas. Also, subscribe to some newsletters to get ideas for how frequently you should communicate with your audience by email, what material you might send, and insight on newsletter design and layout.

Here’s a quick guide to steer you through the process:

• Whether you’re selling widgets or trying to build a readership for your newsletter, know what your main goals are. Make sure every aspect of your content development plan contributes toward achieving those goals. If you have more than one goal, then identify your core goal and note lesser goals as well.
• List your core web content — this includes your website and its most essential pages (home, about, products or services, and a contact page). This content should contain information that is absolutely necessary to communicate your business offerings and message to the online community. Don’t forget that images, videos, and links are content too! Once you’ve figured out your essential pages, create a list of additional pages that could benefit your website. These could be articles, sales pages, or individual products and services pages. Remember that you’re in the conceptual phase, so write down anything and everything that comes to mind.
• Web content is any content you own on the web. This goes beyond your website and expands into countless opportunities for online exposure, such as social media, in which case you may need a custom header and a collection of posts to share, including graphics. Jot down all your ideas!. While your content may exist in various places on the web, its core purpose is to drive traffic to your site. Brainstorm beyond your website. What are some other places where you’ll publish web content?
• To drive traffic and potential customers to your site, you might choose to use ads. Compile a list of online advertising channels that you’d like to explore. Find out what type of content you’ll need and the specs (for example, some graphic ads or banners will have to fit particular dimensions).
• What other marketing campaigns will you launch that will require content? Are you going to publish a newsletter? You’ll need to fill it with content!

Phase Two: Plan (and Organize)

Once you’ve got a massive list of ideas for web content, your next step is to refine, prioritize, and explore further. If you’ve done your legwork, then you should have a good idea which content should be developed first. You will also have some ideas that don’t look like a good fit for your specific business offerings. Finally, there will be some ideas that are unclear or require further research.

Keep working at your list, organizing, prioritizing, and refining it until a concrete plan starts to emerge. You can always get started building your web content before your plan is completely finalized. For example, you may be trying to figure out how much you can squeeze into your budget in a single year and aren’t sure if you can do social media and an ad campaign. But you know you need to get those core pages on your website underway. Multi-task, and if you’re too busy, then delegate or hire out some of the work.

The planning phase is the most critical. If you put a lot of sweat into brainstorming, conceptualizing, and planning, then all the other phases of your web content development will go smoothly.

You might want to end up with twelve pages of website content, fifty-two social-media graphics, six new ads, and four newsletters. Make a list of the content that needs to be created and the set up a schedule to create it. Use time to your advantage and work within your budget constraints. By regularly allocating time or funds to your web content development, you can execute your plan over time and keep your online presence fresh.

Phase Three: Build (Execute the Plan)

Building is when you put your concept and plan into action. Depending on your skills and resources, you may need to hire experts to help you develop your web content. You might hire a single professional, like a website manager or web designer, who can handle the entire project, or you might hire a team with each team member performing specific, specialized tasks.

Here is a sampling of tasks that will likely need to be tackled:

• Web design/management: The single most important piece of your web presence is your website. Your web designer is responsible for designing and building your business website. The designer may have his or her own team of writers and artists. Once the site is built, someone will need to manage it on an ongoing basis.
• Written content: People tend to get caught up in design and imagery and forget the importance of written content, which is where key communications with prospective customers happens. You’ll need professionally written content for your website, blog posts, newsletters, emails, and social media posts. Boost your business with catchy slogans and taglines for your brand, products, or services.
• Graphic art: Professional-looking logos, banners, backgrounds, and social media profile images as well as imagery for blog posts are all important components of your online presence.
• Audio: If you plan to use audio (most likely for podcasts or audiobooks), you’ll need vocal talent, recording equipment, and editing software and skills.
• Video: Video can be used for anything from explainer videos to ads (commercials) and video podcasts. As with audio, developing video content requires talent (performers), recording equipment, and editing software and skills.

To get all this work done, you may need to hire some professionals: a website manager, online marketing coordinator, social media specialist, advertising expert, graphic artist, and copywriter can all help with your content creation. Many of these professionals wear multiple hats and can assist with various media types. Most will also work with you on an ongoing basis to not only build but also run and manage your marketing campaigns.

Tips for Building and Coordinating Your Team

• Everybody involved needs to know what everybody else is doing. Otherwise, tasks may get duplicated or valuable content may go to waste. If your copywriter is creating content for your business blog, your social media manager may be able to leverage it. But if they don’t know what each other is doing, they can’t make the best possible use of your content.
• Each teammate’s responsibilities should be clearly established.
• Break down large projects into smaller tasks and ensure that expectations are clearly set.
• Elect one person to be the central coordinator. This person should have a clear understanding of your business, industry, and overall marketing plans and strategies. The coordinator makes sure everyone stays on schedule and all content is in alignment with your brand and ties back to your website, which is your online headquarters.

Phase Four: Launch (Publish and Publicize)

It happens in a flash. After months of web content development, website design, and content writing, it’s time to launch (or relaunch) your website or start publishing your new content to the web.

Launches can be elaborate. You’ve probably seen a store throw a grand opening surrounded by a bunch of a hullabaloo. This is typical of a launch that involves a big release: a new business, a fresh product line, or a radical makeover in brand, products, or services. But most launches are quiet. If the content you created was an ad campaign for existing products and services or a series of social media updates, you won’t launch the content so much as you will publish it.

Whether you’re launching something exciting and new with a bunch of fanfare or publishing smaller pieces of web content designed to promote or support your business, there is no guarantee that anybody’s going to visit or view it, which is a why a launch or a publication must be coupled with an effective marketing plan.

Launch Activities

I’ve seen small business owners launch a website and then sit around waiting for visitors to magically show up. Others publish a new blog post but it’s buried on their site and nobody knows it’s there. Or they share a pice of content on social media, ignoring the fact that they have few (if any) followers or that their social media followers are not receiving the updates. Make sure the platforms where your content will be published are primed to receive your content: check on your follower counts, and make sure it’s easy to subscribe to your blog or newsletter.

If your site is already established with functional marketing platforms in place and you’re merely publishing new content, then clicking the publish button may be all you need to do. But in many situations, a launch or publication of new web content must be coupled with a coordinated marketing effort that drives people to that content. Furthermore, the marketing effort should be targeted, which is to say that it should attempt to draw people who are a match to your business offerings.

A Coordinated Plan

Let’s say you’ve created twelve graphics to promote your business throughout the year. You’re also getting ready to launch a new product, and you’ve created a series of blog posts, a small ad campaign, and a batch of social media graphics. You’ve also put together an announcement that will go out to your mailing list.

Prior to launch, you’ll need to create a schedule that designates where and when each piece of content will get published. Most of this content can be uploaded and scheduled in advance. For example, you can upload posts to your blog and most social media accounts in advance and set a time when they will be published.

I often describe any given marketing campaign as an ecosystem. Multiple components make up a campaign, and they all boost and reinforce each other. Make sure your launch is carefully planned and coordinated.

Hit the Button!

Once your content is loaded up, you can hit that button to schedule or publish your content.

Phase Five: Maintenance (Update and Track)

After the launch, it might feel like all the hard work is over. That would be wrong. Everything on the web needs to be maintained. Some websites are maintained weekly or monthly. Some social media accounts are updated several times a day. Making updates and proactively managing your online presence and web content are critical to the success of your online presence. Make a plan to audit your website (review all pages) annually. Review your social media profiles to ensure all the information is current. You’d be surprised at how fast graphics look old or some sentence or phrase in an ad is no longer relevant. Set dates to replenish your content and add new material on a regular basis.

Your content should be monitored and tracked so you know how it’s performing, so check your analytics to see how the content is performing. You should also add new content to the mix on a regular basis. You might be able to reuse some pieces of content, but make sure you add new material too.

Finally, be sure to revisit your content plan and set it up for long-term success. Make sure you plan includes future updates, redesigns, and adding fresh content.

What’s Your Web Content Plan?

Developing web content can be fun or tedious, but one thing’s certain: it’s essential for your business’s online success. Whether you’re building a website, creating a social media campaign, or launching a series of ads, you’ll need to content to show your prospective customers and clients. Follow these five phases, and you’ll have rock-solid content to give your business a sturdy presence on the world wide web.

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