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Executive Summary
The City of Calabasas has decided it is time to redesign their website in order to better serve
users. This is the perfect time to also create a content strategy for the site going forward. This
content strategy was created with four business goals in mind:
1. Increase the number of residents who submit payments, forms, and applications online
2. Increase participation in town evets
3. Increase the number of people who want to move to or visit Calabasas
4. Increase the number of people who watch CTV
By creating all content with these goals in mind, the website can accomplish these goals. The
current content is not working towards these goals and needs to be repurposed. A lot of pages
contain links instead of actual content. This encourages users to contact the town hall instead
of using the website.
This strategy lays out the priorities, organization, and presentation for the content. It’s easy to
fill the website with content that does not fulfill users’ needs. For each goal, there is a core
page that users are looking for that accomplishes their goal. If the user wants to submit a
permit application for a new addition, the page with the form is the core page. Thus, we must
build those pages first, as those are the most important.
We will measure success by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs). These include:
conversion rate, number of pages viewed per visit, and top exit pages. By tracking these and
observing other factors (such as how many people call town hall), we can understand the
success of this content strategy.
The following strategy lays out the steps to accomplish these goals.
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Table of Contents
Introduction 4
Background 4
Importance of a Content Strategy 4
What the City of Calabasas is Looking for 4
What the City of Calabasas Already Has 5
Comparison with Other Cities 5
Prioritization 9
Business Goals 9
Core Strategy Statement 9
Messaging Framework 9
Content Matrix 10
Strategic Alignment Summary 11
Key Performance Indicators 13
Metadata 13
Organization 14
Content Model 14
Site Map 15
Presentation 16
Core Pages 16
Wireframes 18
Writing Style Guide 18
Conclusion 22
References 24
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Introduction
The City of Calabasas has approved a content strategy redesign to accompany
their website redesign. This is important in ensuring the website is optimized for
user experience and search. First, we will review background information and
research and then move into the content strategy.
The only way a content strategy can be successful is by remaining consistent
throughout the website and taking a different mindset. What are users looking
for? What do we want them to see? We will build the content and website
around users’ goals.
Background
IMPORTANCE OF A CONTENT STRATEGY
Content strategy is important, especially during a website redesign, because a
new design is not able to create a good website when the content is bad. Content
is king. Hubspot defines content by saying that, “Content keeps us informed,
answers our questions, entertains us, makes us smile, guides our decisions, and
more” (Perricone, 2018).
Good design does not inform or answer questions. It can assist with entertaining,
making us smile, and guiding decisions, but it does not do these things without
content.
The following content strategy was created to assist the City of Calabasas in their
website redesign. It was created using the following steps: prioritization,
organization, and presentation.
WHAT THE CITY OF CALABASAS IS LOOKING FOR
The City of Calabasas is looking for a website redesign, which is the ideal time to
review content and implement a content strategy.
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• Content Migration – The City of Calabasas is looking for content
migration/conversion.
• Implement a System for a Non-Technical Staff to Maintain and Update –
The great thing about a content strategy is that it is a guide for all content.
The strategy includes a writing style guide, messaging framework that all
content works toward achieving, and an overall guide to consistency.
• Implement an Updated and Consistent Look and Feel – Creating consistent
content will help to ensure that the website is consistent and branded.
Without good content, the design is meaningless.
WHAT THE CITY OF CALABASAS ALREADY HAS
The City of Calabasas already has an idea of what they want to be important. They
view the CTV as important and valuable to residents, so it’s important for
residents to be able to find it. They also have the capability to submit forms,
payments, and applications online and would like to encourage more residents to
use this resource.
Another thing the City of Calabasas does really well is provide information for
emergency situations. They use the home page to display this information and
other important information for residents. It’s not the most visually appealing
content, but that will be fixed in the website redesign.
One of the biggest problems with the current site is that there are a lot of pages
that should have content when instead it is just a list of links. For example:
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COMPARISON WITH OTHER CITIES
Cities and towns throughout the country have a wide range of websites. Some
were created 10 years ago and have not been updated, while others spend
money to make sure their site is updated. According to the 2010 census, there
were 24,075 residents. The City of Caduhy is also located in Los Angeles County
and in the 2010 census had a population of 23,805.
We will look at the City of Cudahy’s website to see what they’re doing correctly.
Their simple navigation is very effective. They have a tab called “How do I…?”
which makes it easy to find a task online. They also have “Cannabis Application”
listed on the home page, which means it must be popular.
Their content strategy is not implemented throughout the website, but they do
have some strong pages. On the page “What is the General Plan?” they lay out
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the document that plans for future development. Below the summary there are
bullet points about ongoing strategies.
Below the bullet points are “General Plan Documents” which list relevant links.
Then at the bottom it lists who to call for questions. This page is effective,
because it says what the plan is, provides updates in easy-to-read bullet points,
and then lists who to contact, which is also who is in charge of the website.
This is from the City of Cudahy’s website.
Miami-Dade County in Florida is a similar county to Los Angeles, and the City of
Palmetto Bay had a population of 23,410 at the time of the 2010 US Census. We
will look at this site as well to see what they do correctly.
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Because the City of Calabasas wants more residents to submit forms online, we
will look at a page on the City of Palmetto Bay’s site that asks residents to submit
forms online. The page for “Golf Cart Registration” does a great job of breaking
down what residents are allowed to buy, what safety rules they must follow, and
the steps they must take to own and operate a golf cart, including the registration
form online.
This is from the City of Palmetto Bay’s Website
Two important things to note about this page are: the sections are very clear
based on the formatting and headers, and that they list the breadcrumbs of how
users got to this page. This allows users to know where they are on the website
and not feel lost. It also allows them to backtrack easily. One obvious thing they
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could have done is provide links to other relevant content, especially other forms
or applications they might want to do online.
Prioritization
By analyzing the website and understand the town’s goals, we have created goals,
a core strategy statement, and a messaging framework. We are defining what is
important and what we would like the content to ultimately achieve. From these,
I created a content matrix. Every piece of content should work towards achieving
a business goal, align with the core strategy statement.
BUSINESS GOALS
1. Increase the number of residents who submit payments, forms, and
applications online
2. Increase participation in town evets
3. Increase the number of people who want to move to or visit Calabasas
4. Increase the number of people who watch CTV
CORE STRATEGY STATEMENT
According to Content Strategy, Inc. the core strategy statement is, “a guiding
statement that connects business goals to audience and/or employee needs. In
practical terms, your core content strategy statement should inspire and align
your content team. It keeps the strategy clear and the people on board” (Team
CSI, 2017). All content should relate back to this statement:
To decrease the number of people who call, visit, or mail something to
the town government, we will provide clear, concise content that allows
users to take action online.
MESSAGING FRAMEWORK
According to Meghan Casey in her book The Content Strategy Toolkit, a messaging
framework, “clarifies what you want your audiences to know and believe about
you, and tries to prove that this message is true (Casey, 2015). The messaging
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framework is written from the user’s perspective, while the core strategy
statement is written for the organization. It starts with a first impression of how
users feel immediately when interacting with content. It then moves to a value
statement that describes the value the content provides.
First Impression: This is informative
Value Statement: The City of Calabasas website is an accurate and valuable
source for information about being a resident and visiting.
Proof: Their content is relevant and up-to-date. I can quickly find information I
need without clicking through the website or calling the town.
CONTENT MATRIX
A content matrix divides content into four categories based on what serves the
town’s needs and what serves users’ needs.
User Need
Business Value
While content such as history, departments, and government info is still
necessary to include, it does not work to achieve business goals. Only a small
percentage of website users will be looking for that information, so it does not
achieve most users’ needs either.
Guide
Services
Focus
Submitting forms/applications
Paying Online
Meh
History
Departments
Government
Drive
CTV
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Strategic Alignment Strategy
The City of Calabasas’s website is currently full of links. Below is a screenshot of
the top of the “Services” page. This page is very long and requires the user to
scroll. At first glance, this page is full of links to other pages, but that’s not
accurate. If you click on these links, you will be taken to a section on the same
page that lists contact information.
For example, if you click on “City Services” you will this the following.
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This is true for many pages on the site. Business Goal #1 is to increase the
number of residents who submit payments, forms, and applications online. The
current strategy does not align with this goal. The website is not providing any
information about the service and is encouraging users to call someone at town
hall.
Business Goal #3 is to increase the number of people who want to move to or
visit Calabasas. The strategy is not achieving this goal either, because they are not
showing potential residents the benefits of their services.
The City of Calabasas should take the time to create a page for each service with
details about the service, contact information, and photos. This can be done easily
by creating a core page or template that will be used for each service. There are
core pages on pages 15 and 16. The “Services” landing page should be simplified,
so that users do not have to scroll.
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This content strategy should be repeated throughout the site, so that users have
all of the information they are looking for online.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS TO MEASURE SUCESS
Key performance indicators are a way to measure the success of the content
strategy. According to Bernard Marr, KPIs “provide a way to measure how well
companies, business units, projects or individuals are performing in relation to
their strategic goals and objectives” (Marr B. , 2018).
Based on the strategy and business goals, I recommend the following KPIs:
1. Conversion Rate – The amount of people who submit forms, applications,
and payments online will show how successful the website is. This is an
easy way to measure the success of business goal #1.
2. Number of Pages Viewed Per Visit – Since the goal is to simplify the website
and allow people to do tasks online, the number of pages viewed per visit is
important. If people view too many, they most likely cannot find what
they’re looking for. If people view too few, they most likely did not
complete as many tasks as they could have.
3. Top Exit Pages – This metric will show at what point users are exiting the
website. This is important, because we want people to submit forms online
and sign up for events. This will allow us to know if visitors are reaching
those pages or where they are stopping and can indicate where calls-to-
action should be.
METADATA
As we are creating new content and repurposing the old, it’s important to also
update the metadata as well, which is data that users cannot see. Search engines
use metadata in their algorithm that ranks search results. You want to be at the
top of the ranking to be seen first, and optimal metadata can improve the
ranking. Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a program that can crawl through a website
and break down the metadata to determine if it is updated. The results for the
City of the Calabasas show that there is room for improvement.
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Currently, most of the page titles are either missing or its duplicated. Meta
descriptions and meta keywords are completely missing. By creating unique page
titles, H1 tags, meta descriptions, and meta keywords, we can ensure that the
website is optimized for search engines. This will only help users to get to the
content they want to find faster.
Organization
Now that we have defined goals and decided which content will achieve those
goals, we must organize the content. Content is king, but context is God. The way
content is organized is just as important as the content itself. Information only
makes sense in how it relates to other information.
Organization will help achieve content goals by making a users’ experience on the
site easier. They want to find information that is relevant to them fast.
CONTENT MODEL
According to Rachel Lovinger of Razorfish, a content model, "documents all the
different types of content you will have for a given project. It contains detailed
definitions of each content type’s elements and their relationships to each other.
You can capture a high-level version in an org chart-style diagram, or use a
spreadsheet to capture a more detailed version. The level of detail in the model is
determined by the purposes you need it to serve” (Lovinger, 2012).
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SITEMAP
A sitemap is basically the outline of a website. It is a visual representation of the
hierarchy of the site. It goes from the main navigation to core pages. Creating a
sitemap is vital to understanding how the content relates to each other. It allows
us to group content that is related to each other, as well as decide which content
should be displayed prominently.
This is the sitemap I have created for the site:
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Presentation
Now that we have decided what’s important and created a strategy, it’s time to
talk about presentation, or how we are going to display the content. It’s
important to plan how the site will look and how pages will look in order to
ensure that the content is optimized for the site. By deciding what needs to be on
each page ahead of time, it will save time and ensure that important content does
not get left off. Before we design pages, we must know what pages are most
important to users.
CORE PAGES
According to Ida Aalen in an article for A List Apart titled “The Core Model:
Designing Inside Out for Better Results,” core pages are, “pages or workflows
whose content fulfills a clear overlap between business objectives and user tasks”
(Aalen, 2015).
This means that the core pages are the pages that users are actually searching for.
If they want to know how to register their dogs with the town, the most likely will
search directly for that. A lot of users do not use the home page, and some will
not even see it.
This can be confusing, because many people might think you should design the
home page first, then the main navigation pages (in this case: tasks, why you
should move here, information, things to do, and CTV), and then the pages that
come below that. The opposite is true. We should start from the core pages. For
example, for a task, we should start by designing the pages that are applying for
permits before we design a general task page. According to the content model,
the core pages that achieve our content goals are a task page, an event page, a
service page, and a CTV episode page.
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WIREFRAMES
To design these pages, I have started with a wireframe. According to Experience
UX, a wireframe is, “is a way to design a website service at the structural level. A
wireframe is commonly used to lay out content and functionality on a page which
takes into account user needs and user journeys. Wireframes are used early in the
development process to establish the basic structure of a page before visual
design and content is added.
Below are wireframes of how these pages should be designed.
Core Page: Task Core Page: Service
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Core Page: Event Core Page: CTV Episode
WRITING STYLE GUIDE
Writing style is important for any website, but especially for a city website that
must remain neutral, post a lot of content for multiple audiences, and include
information that might be a little complicated.
Because there is so much content on the City of Calabasas’ website and likely
multiple writers and editors, it’s important to use a writing style guide that
ensures content is easy to read and consistent across the website. According to
the Government of Australia, “Readability is about how easy or hard it is for a
user to understand text” (Commonwealth of Australia).
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Web readers are different from print readers in that they spend less time on the
content and prefer to scan. Content should be written in a way that easy to
understand and can be scanned easily.
Here are some suggested guidelines:
• Use the AP style guide
• The tone should be friendly and conversational but also professional
• Use plain English to improve readability
• Use bullet points when possible
• Use the active voice and not passive
• Use shorter words and shorter sentences when possible
• Aim for reading level of grades 3-4
• Use first and second pronouns
• Use contractions
• Keep most important info at the top
• One idea per paragraph
• Use meaningful headings
• Use the Oxford comma
• Left align text
These guidelines will help to improve the readability and ability to scan the
content on the website.
Here is an example of the current writing style on the City of Calabasas’ website.
It is taken from a page highlighting the city’s green initiative about building green
homes.
“Whether you are building a new home or remodeling the one you live in, there
are several things you can do to build green. Compared to years past, building
green has become reasonably affordable and any added mortgage costs are
usually offset by savings on reduced building operations costs (such as savings on
water and energy bills) and avoided health claims. Plus you will enjoy other
benefits such as added comfort and a feeling of well being that comes with living
in a cleaner, healthier environment. Click HERE to learn about sustainable design
and construction options for remodeling your existing house or building a new
one.”
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There are a few opportunities to improve this text, but overall, it’s not terrible. It
uses the active voice and speaks in second-person.
These are the readability statistics pulled from Microsoft Word for this paragraph.
The ideal Grade Level is 3 or 4. This piece of text is a 13.4, so this text can be
simplified to increase readability. One good aspect of these statistics is that there
are 0 passive sentences.
Here is updated text:
“Whether you are building a new home or remodeling, there are several things
you can do to build green. Building green homes has become more affordable in
recent years. The costs are usually offset by savings on health claims and energy
and water bills. Plus, you will enjoy the benefit of living in a cleaner, healthier
environment. Learn about sustainable design options to build green.”
This in comparison is a grade level of 7.8, which isn’t ideal but much closer to a 3
or a 4. I also changed the text that hyperlinked, so that it doesn’t include “click
here.” It’s important to start link text with a verb and start with something more
meaningful than “click here.”
A lot of the content on the website was uploaded as PDFs. This should be changed
as much as possible. There are multiple pages that almost exclusively include links
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to PDFs or outside sources, such as http://www.cityofcalabasas.com/fire-
resources.html.
Here is another example of content:
EMERGENCY NOTICES -
There are three services that you should register with that provide emergency
notices in the City of Calabasas:
1) Alert LA for LA County - This system is used by the County Sheriff to notify
residents and businesses of emergencies or critical situations and provide
information regarding necessary actions, such as evacuations. This system
has the ability to reach land-lines but you must register your mobile
numbers, VOIP land-lines and email
addresses to receive notifications on those devices
2) Nixle - used by Los Angeles County Sheriff and Fire which provides emergency
notices and alerts. To sign up, visit Nixle or text zip codes you want alerts from to
888-777
(Note: Calabasas zip code is 91302 - California ZIP Code List)
2) Calabasas City Notification System - The Blackboard Connect system is used
by the City of Calabasas to provide Calabasas specific information in
emergencies and for notifications on issues like road/freeway closures and
pertinent community information. In major emergencies Calabasas will
provide supplemental information to that of the Sheriff and Fire
Department. This system has the ability to reach land-lines, but you must
register your mobile numbers, VOIP land-lines and email addresses to
receive notifications on those devices.
Here is an updated version:
Emergency Notices
Three services can notify you in case of an emergency:
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1. Alert for LA County – The County Sheriff uses this service to notify
residents and businesses of emergencies. This will provide information
regarding necessary actions, such as evacuations. This system can reach
land-lines. Register your mobile numbers, VOIP land-lines, and email
address to receive notifications on those devices.
2. Nixle – The County Sheriff and Fire Department provides emergency
notices and alerts through text. To sign up, visit Nixle or text 888-777 with
the zip code you want alerts from. (Note: Calabasas zip code is 91302)
3. Calabasas City Notification System – The City of Calabasas uses the
Blackboard Connect system to provide specific information on
emergencies. This also notifies you of issues like road closures and
community information. In major emergencies, Calabasas will provide more
information than that of the Sheriff and Fire Department. This system can
reach land-lines. Register your mobile numbers, VOIP land-lines, and email
address to receive notifications on those devices.
Some appearance changes were also made to this text to make it easier to read.
The most obvious is getting rid of the red text, which can be difficult to read. I also
made the text align left instead of center. In terms of text, I simplified and
shortened sentences. I changed a couple of sentences to the active voice.
By sticking to the writing style guide provided, the City of Calabasas can ensure
that their content is consistent across their website. Increasing the readability and
making it easier to scan will help users to understand the content faster. I also
highly recommend the City of Calabasas convert their PDF links to html text using
this guide.
Conclusion
A website redesign is the perfect time to visit the content and prepare a strategy
for the future. By focusing on the users’ experience and understanding what
pages and content they are actually looking for, we can create a website that
accomplishes the four business goals.
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Consistency is key. Using the core page wireframes to build out pages will ensure
that the content is beneficial to users.
This content strategy will ensure that users are accomplishing what they want to
achieve as well as what the city wants them to achieve. Measuring the key
performance indicators will allow us to judge how successful the content strategy
is and adjust if necessary. It’s important to note that while this is a formal
strategy, it is also flexible based on what is actually working.
I believe this content strategy will allow the City of Calabasas to accomplish their
business goals and create a website that is beneficial for residents and visitors.
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References
Aalen, I. (2015, January 6). The Core Model: Designing Inside Out for Better
Results. Retrieved from A List Apart: https://alistapart.com/article/the-
core-model-designing-inside-out- for-better-results
Casey, M. (2015). The Content Strategy Toolkit: Methods, Guidelines, and
Templates for Getting Content Right. United States of America: New Riders.
Commonwealth of Australia. (n.d.). Writing Style. Retrieved from GOV.AU:
https://guides.service.gov.au/content-guide/writing-style/
Lovinger, R. (2012, April 24). Content Modelling: A Master Skill. Retrieved from A
List Apart: https://alistapart.com/article/content-modelling-a-master-skill
Marr, B. (2018). RBGE: Executing And Measuring Public Sector Strategy. Retrieved
from Bernard Marr:
https://www.bernardmarr.com/default.asp?contentID=1118
Marr, B. (2018). What is a KPI? Retrieved from Bernard Marr:
https://www.bernardmarr.com/default.asp?contentID=762
Perricone, C. (2018, August 7). The Ultimate Guide to Content Creation. Retrieved
from HubSpot: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-creation
Team CSI. (2017, October 23). Roll your content strategy up into one sentence.
Retrieved from Content Strategy Inc.:
http://www.contentstrategyinc.com/getting-core-content- strategy/
