You want to write new content for your web pages but are unsure where to begin. You already have your value proposition, mission and vision statements, brand voice, and guidelines and understand your target audience. How do you take that information, along with detailed information about your company and services, and turn it into effective, optimized web content?

Start by creating a content brief for every page. It sounds like a lot of work (it’s not), but it will help you organize your thoughts, important information, and calls to action and create a roadmap for web content development.

What is a content brief?

A content brief is a document that acts as a roadmap to guide writers in creating content. It can be used for creating all kinds of digital content, including blogs, social media posts, landing pages and website pages. In this post, we are focusing on creating a content brief for writing webpage content.

Content briefs can be short (one page) or several pages, depending on the project. At Circlewood Creative, we keep our blog and web page content briefs short and simple. The following example allows us to get the meat and potatoes from the client so we can write the content and fill in all the blanks.

Why bother with a content brief?

Having a directed plan gets everyone on the same page, guides the creative direction, and helps set clear expectations between the writers and the client. It also ensures that every digital asset has brand consistency, is of the same quality, and does not miss any information.

Simple content brief example

We recently created a simple content brief for a client who was unsure where to start! They had their branding, value proposition, and a general idea of what they wanted to communicate through their website. This straightforward content brief example helped them fill in the blanks and allowed Circlewood Creative build it out into effective, compelling, and search-engine-optimized web pages.

Here are some things that we included in that brief:

Page Purpose:

Define the purpose of each page. Is it to introduce the company and share its story, values, and approach? Or, is it to share important information about a product and service, share solutions and drive sales?

Key Points to Cover:

Create a bullet point list of points that the page must cover. For example, an About page might have the following key points to cover:

  • Company history and background
  • Mission, vision and values
  • Who they are and what sets them apart (keeping brand voice in mind)
  • How they serve their clients

Questions to help build out the content:

Create a list of questions for the client to answer to help provide the information the writer needs to develop the web page content. For example, questions to help create a main service page might look like this:

  • Can you list the services you offer in simple terms?
  • Do you specialize in any service?
  • What problems do your services solve for clients?
  • How do you typically work with clients (describe the process)
  • What is your service area?
  • How would you describe your pricing approach?
  • What should clients know about what it is like to work with your company?

Call to Action (CTA)

Every page should have a clear call to action. You can have the CTA in several places along your content. Your CTA can contact you for a free consultation or quote, sign up for your mailing list, click through to more information, or visit an online shop. Whatever the CTA, make it as easy as possible for web users to follow through.

Circlewood Creative takes care of search engine optimization (SEO).

Our clients can help us gather information for the web content pages by filling out a simple brief like the one provided above. However, we do the hard work to optimize that content for search engine results. We will conduct a keyword search and analysis and ensure each page is optimized to reach your goals.

We will write all the essential metadata, including optimized page titles, meta descriptions (the snippet you see under a web link in search engine results), meta tags, URLs, and internal and external links. We’ll also ensure that other components of your content, like your graphics, images, and videos, are optimized.

We understand what factors influence search engine ranking. So, we’ll ensure the final content is relevant to search terms, readable, and shows the client’s expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). What is E-E-A-T?

Start developing your new web content

Contact Circlewood Creative to start your new web content project. We’ll develop an effective content brief, expand it into engaging content, and ensure it’s optimized for search engine results. Contact us!