Happy New Year to you all, and may 2021 be so much better than 2020.
Today, folks, I want to touch on the content publication process.
You know, Content Managers sometimes have a hard time with the CMS they work with.
Publishing content on a site is not as straightforward as publishing content on a social media platform.
There’s a lot more Content Managers have to work around to have content the way it is on a site.
Not to mention the variety of disciplines they have to deal with in the process of publishing content.
I say this to say Content Managers, when it comes to the publication of content on a website, have an element of Project Management, or should I say, Process Management, to their work.
The job tends to become more difficult when SEO comes into the mix.
You see, just like a tech audit creates work within the Dev department, it also creates work for Content Managers.
This is of course, assuming the day-to-day handling of the CMS is operated by Content Managers.
The same sense of annoyance Devs have with SEO, Content Managers also have with SEO.
They may have their set workload, their goals, their priorities.
And guess who comes along to impact the work that’s carried out…?
SEO, baby. SEO!
Sometimes, we come across as being so disruptive to departments. (Maybe this is why people don’t like us so much…?)
Anyway, Content Managers having to update the content on a variety of pages for the sake of SEO can be an annoyance.
Imagine having published 50 pages throughout last year – all without SEO.
If SEO suggests optimising all 50 pages, you’ll need to go into each and every one of those pages to update!
As annoying as this unforeseen upkeep of the pages may be, it’s bearable.
It can be made into a project and worked through.
The disconnect between Content Managers and SEO is in the publication of new pages.
Specifically, the disconnect is in not knowing where to fit SEO within the content publication process.
You see, the unfamiliarity of SEO can be managed in the early stages of optimisation.
This is where existing pages are optimised.
An optimisation project is formed, and this is incorporated into the department’s workload.
When creating new pages, however, there is a tendency to have SEO separated from the process.
So, for example, the optimisation of a new page will have SEO blocked towards the publication of the page.
In certain cases, SEO may even be brought in after the page is published.
Why after the page is published?
Because this is more familiar – to have SEO isolated, as a standalone project, rather than having to deal with it – it being something that’s unfamiliar.
Folks, an optimisation pitfall is having SEO scheduled to do their ‘SEO thing’ on pages right before the pages are published.
This will either lead to SEO being a bottleneck, or will lead to SEO not having a chance to optimise the pages before publication.
Either option means the opportunity to improve organic traffic is massively reduced.
Here’s why…
If SEO is brought in post-publication, it will be like stunting the development of SEO for your business.
The channel will have a hard time gaining momentum to grow.
SEO will continue to be isolated, and treated as a standalone project, rather than a necessary aspect of the publication of content.
If SEO is a bottleneck, there’ll be a tendency to take shortcuts.
The vast majority of shortcuts will revolve around trying to avoid other departments amending what they have produced.
Take Copy, for example, suggesting the Copy on a page be updated will involve the Copy team having to make this update.
This will involve Content Managers having to update it in the CMS.
When the total number of pages needing revisions are factored in, having SEO segmented right before publication almost always leads to a decision to have SEO ‘do their thing’ post publication.
SEO cannot be blocked off at the end to optimise pages – not for 1 page, not for 2 pages, not for 100 pages.
It’s far better to have SEO interwoven into the content publication process.
By this, I mean SEO should be engaged with from the very beginning of the content briefing.
This way, SEO can be integrated within the workflow, in a way that leads to the goal of optimisation.
You see, folks, there is a lot more to SEO that makes it a spectacularly unique marketing channel.
Optimisation boils down to making improvements.
That’s it! SEO is simply about making improvements.
Whether the increments are big or small, it’s improvements.
When SEO comes in to optimise pages after they are launched, improvements can be made to them.
However, you’ll get a lot further, and quicker, if improvements are made throughout the journey of the publication of pages.
This starts way before the publication process.
And yes, committing to optimising content does mean the workflow of content planning, production and publication will need to be adjusted.
The benefit to doing this, however, is that you’ll be addressing the biggest hurdle to optimisation.
This hurdle is in improving the communication and interaction between SEO and Content Manager.
