FIGARODIGITAL.CO.UK
HUAN SONG
Content Project Manager, The Cogworks
Eliminating Your Content Debt Applying common sense rules to streamline your content management strategy
T
he term Technical Debt is a well-known concept in programming, which refers to the extra work
that a development team accrues when quick iterations or proof of concepts are applied to issues instead of using best practice over a long period. The idea of Technical Debt has also been extended to UX Debt which involves both design and development decisions. Likewise, Content Debt occurs
when content editors make decisions that may save time in the short term but may accumulate content issues that could result in a complete overhaul of the Content Management System (CMS) in the future. Although the three examples given in this article are from experience working with Umbraco, these points are general good practice that can be applied throughout diff erent content management systems.
Follow URL Conventions
If you think of a website as a hospital, then the content management system determines where every room is located and where everything is stored in each room. In the Umbraco CMS, the site structure can be viewed through the content tree. Make sure that the tree is organised and each node or page in the tree is named correctly and without any special characters. Taking the time to properly encode the URLs through the content tree is like properly labelling every wing of the hospital so you can easily access the right content under the right pages both in the back offi ce and on the front end of the site.
Organise The Media Library
A multinational company may have a CMS that manages multiple sites, serving every market where it operates. It is not uncommon for a CMS to serve tens of diff erent country pages. Each country may have localised imagery or video content. On top of the sheer amount of information stored in the CMS, it could also be managed by staff from each local team. Before you know it, the media library is a mess and it’s impossible for anyone to fi nd any fi les easily. In certain cases, a disorganised media library could even slow down the CMS so much that the only solution is to move all content to a brand-new CMS and start over. Not only is this process a logistical
nightmare, not being able to access media fi les easily could even lead to legal ramifi cations. For example, a new warning may be issued for a product and you will need to fi nd and replace those product pack shots with an updated version. You will need to easily access that image in the media library. It is important to
establish an easy to understand fi le naming and organisation convention across the whole team and constantly make sure that the rules are adhered to.
Mind The Formatting
If you are copying content from an old CMS, a MS Word Document, or some other formatted fi le,
make sure to not carry
over any existing styles by pasting with Ctrl+Shift+V or using the Remove Formats Button. Copying old styles could
slow down your page loading time and make your text styling inconsistent. Best practice would be to adhere to the style guides set by the designers. This may mean that you will need to remember to apply a certain style attribute to a specifi c page type. In the case of Umbraco, this could also mean that the editor will need to set a specifi c CSS class to diff erent grids.
Armed with these tips, you should
IF YOU THINK OF A WEBSITE AS A HOSPITAL, THEN THE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DETERMINES WHERE EVERY ROOM IS LOCATED AND WHERE EVERYTHING IS STORED IN EACH ROOM.”
be able to eliminate some of your content debt and ensure that your website is performing well from a content perspective. Regardless of which CMS you use, it is always helpful to read the latest version of the content editor manual, which will always off er more in-depth knowledge on how best to use the CMS. Additionally, many CMSs, such as Umbraco, will have active online communities or forums that can off er further support.
thecogworks.com
26 issue 30 summer 2017
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