Website is the first digital impression that your business leaves on your audience. This makes a website an important matter and the redesigning of a website an even important matter. Because we redesign majorly for the sake of our audience only.

While redesigning could require a great deal of time, research and money but the results can be enormous. What really needs to be taken into account is that not every aspect of the website needs to be changed – just the foundational elements that are in line with the updated content strategy.

So we have many articles out there that really tell the importance of content but what about the actual measures, steps or examples? Well, lucky for you we have a robust example of executing an epic content strategy of how Peace Corps did it.

Step 1: Check the inventory

To start with, the current standings of Peace Corps were taken into account. Using Google Analytics, “All Pages” were configured in an effort to find a list of URLs but there were just so many to handle. For automated approach, a cleanup is expected but there were just too many search queries, 404s, list pages etc. A dire need for removing trashy URLs was required, that too manually.

Step 2: Conduct an audit

On conducting an audit, Peace Corps wanted to keep a few pages. The word “Keep” here implied to reference the existing content of their choice for producing new content. This means that you need to figure out the client’s needs prior to anything. So what can you conduct an audit upon? Content type, whether its relevant, a file audit, reference guide to help in creating new structures on the basis of old foundations. Also be wary of the purpose of conducting an audit. If you are aware of the audit goals, it would be easier to come up with relevant findings.

Step 3: Produce relevant content

Understanding the voice, tone, overall experience of content and defining workflows for the content team are important aspects to be considered prior to actually begin producing the content. Get your content creators to work with the client in an effort to empower them. If they (content creators) are at peace, you will have quality content that will help in keeping the site healthier, longer. Ensuring smart communications when announcing any change to their workflows will also help a great deal in the matter. This is what aided Peace Corps in coming up with fresh content that worked for them. Their workflow was as under:

1. Structure in progress

2. Ready to start!

3. Initial draft

4. Ready for office review and approval

5. Ready for COMMS review

6. Ready to be published

Step 4: Review and revise

Perhaps the true essence of content creation is ensuring that it’s the right fit. Before you actually submit the final draft to the client, it is best to review and revise the content. If you have empowered your content creators, like the team behind Peace Corps did, you will actually have a smoother editing experience.

Remember, the first step in solving every problem is the identification of the actual problem. Once that is done, only then can you go further into creating objectives and the way forward from there. Implementation becomes a lot easier if the foundations and expectations are set correctly. So take notes from the example of Peace Corps content strategy and embark upon a website redesign journey that can prove to be incredibly useful in times to come.