Content first. This is one of our favorite phrases. While we can provide you with some fantastic technology and offer usability advice for your website, your website will be nothing if it doesn’t offer your users useful content.

This is possibly the most important step, and it’s a task that rests squarely with your agency. You are the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) of your agency, and you’ll need to put together a team (even if it’s just a team of one) to decide what information should be on your website, and how it should be written.

“But I already have a website FULL of content.”

Maybe you’re not building a website from scratch. Maybe you’re just migrating an existing website over to GovHub. Your job is over, right? The content is already written, right?

Wrong.

Think of this website migration as if you are moving into a new house. The new house is pretty. It’s clean. It doesn’t have squirrels living in the attic. You’re excited to move, and as you pack, you’re starting to realize that you probably don’t really want to bring everything from the old house. Do you really need that broken toaster? What about that chair with the broken armrest and musty, outdated fabric? It’s time to take inventory, and make a trip (or three) to the dump.

In the same way, a lot of the content on your current website is most likely old and outdated. Maybe it's just disorganized after years of changes and different people adding information to it. It’s gotten bloated over time. So this is the perfect opportunity to take a content inventory and decide what stays, what goes, and what should be rewritten.

Inventory Your Content

A Download this xls file. content inventory is a great way to get a sense of what you have and what you need. It’s a listing of everything on your site — yes, everything. This is a manual process, in which you build a list of web pages and the status of those pages by looking at each page on your site and taking notes about them.

If you don’t currently have a website, the content inventory will be a list of the materials you plan on including on your website.

Either way, you may find it easiest to put this in a Download this xls file. spreadsheet , with the following headings:

Level

Page Name

Link (URL)

Content Type

Owner / Author

Keep? (Y/N)

Notes

Page ID or Navigation level (1st level, 2nd level, etc.). How deep is this in the site?

Title of page

URL of page

Is this an article, a PDF, link to an image, a calendar, etc.?

Who wrote it or who maintains it?

Is it still relevant? Should you move it to the new site?

This is a good place to note whether you need to rewrite it, etc.

Using an existing Site Map will give you a good head start on putting together this inventory, but you will probably find that your site links to pages that aren’t in your Site Map. You’ll only find them and understand them by clicking through each web page.

As you’re digging through your site, be honest with yourself about its content. If you have analytics data, now is the time to dig through it to see if you can identify pages that get very few visits, and decide how to handle those pages - if it’s important information, should it be placed more prominently on the new site? Or can you remove it altogether? Also, make notes about what should be rewritten for clarity and readability. Read the How to Read Your Google Analytics web guide for more info.

Rewrite Your Content So People Will Read It

Now that you know what you’re working with, you’ve hopefully identified a lot of information that would benefit from a rewrite. On the web, less is more. Your readers don’t read web pages as much as they skim them, so get to the point and make your pages easy to scan. Here are some tips for writing your content:

  • Break documents into separate topics

  • Use bullet lists whenever possible

  • Use short paragraphs.

  • Use short sentences.

  • Break up sections with subheadings

  • Don’t assume your readers know about the subject or have read related pages on your site. Clearly explain things so each page can stand on its own.

  • Never use "click here" as a link — link language should describe what your reader will get if they click the link.

  • Write clearly. Provide information that is concise and factual.

  • Use plain language — avoid jargon; use the active voice, “you” and other pronouns.

For more tips on writing for the web, visit our state guidelines on Editorial Content.

Gather Images and Graphics

You can use images to set the tone of your website, and give your site its own personality. As you gather your graphics, make sure they’re an appropriate size and style for your site. Some things to consider:

  • Image size - large graphics should be no more than 620px wide and 400px tall. You can also use the graphics tools in Drupal to resize images even smaller as needed, but the largest image versions still shouldn’t be any larger than what you will use on the pages.
  • Graphics style - Illustrations should be clean and crisp. Icons are encouraged, but stay away from clip-art style graphics. And while they may seem fun, animated graphics will distract your audience from the real content of your page, so avoid them. This includes animated gifs and Flash animation.
  • Photo style - Photographs should be of good quality, and portray your agency and the state of Georgia in a positive light. Use professional photography when possible, and when using photographs of people, be sure you have permission to use their picture on the website.

You may also be interested in our state Graphics guidelines for a more in-depth look at appropriate graphic usage.

Gather Any Files (Such as PDFs) You Need to Make Available

A lot of the information you have ready to use is probably in a Word document, PowerPoint, or Adobe PDF. Whenever possible, this content should still be rewritten, and its content displayed directly on web pages rather than linking to these files. Your audience doesn’t want to have to download a file in order to get what they’re looking for on your website.

So after you’ve figured out which of your files should be put online as simple web pages, you will still have a list of files that need to be uploaded as they are. Whenever possible, you will want these to all be saved to PDF format before you upload them to the site. Not everyone has Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel on their computers, but the Adobe PDF format is readily supported.

If you don’t have software on your computer to convert these files to the Adobe PDF format, you may want to look into Adobe’s online Create PDF service.

For more tips on when to use a PDF, you may want to read our state guidelines on Alternate File formats.

Take Advantage of GovHub’s Other Content Features

Don’t forget! Along with offering the basics — pages of text, file uploads, and press releases — GovHub also has content types that support things like event listings, photo galleries, video embedding, and interactive forms. Make a list of any of those features you will use, and gather any resources you will need to get started on them.