Content Modeling

Have you ever found yourself struggling to locate specific text, especially if it's something you've authored in the past?

You may have faced the challenge of localizing a news story you published on your website some time ago.

This dilemma often arises when managing substantial volumes of text, such as company documents or website content—information that requires ongoing alignment and updates.

As this content grows, the risk of losing valuable data becomes increasingly likely.

To circumvent this issue within your organization, it's essential to consider the implementation of content modeling.

Defining a Content Model

A content model is a structured taxonomy encompassing various content types utilized in a project, whether a product website or an archive of documents. It provides comprehensive details about the elements within each content type and outlines their relationships.

Establishing these connections serves a dual purpose: it facilitates navigation of the document repository and assists end-users in locating relevant information effectively.

However, content modeling isn't solely about enhancing your information's visual organization and structure.

It also fosters collaboration among various professional groups, including developers, designers, and copywriters.

Elements can be represented visually using spreadsheets, charts, diagrams, or other visualization methods.

This allows developers to quickly comprehend and adapt the content model to align with their requirements.

For instance, your website's content model might be a tree chart, where the trunk represents the primary topic, and the branches signify related facts and details.

If certain information becomes outdated or redundant, a branch can be pruned.

For marketers and SEO specialists, content modeling offers further benefits. It provides a valuable tool for creating interconnections between components, encouraging visitors to explore topics of interest by clicking on relevant links.

This extended engagement on your website can significantly increase the average time visitors spend on your domain—an essential factor that reflects user engagement. Ultimately, this can lead to improved search engine rankings.

The Process of Content Modeling

Content modeling involves creating a taxonomy of all your content types and establishing relationships between them. These relationships can take various forms, including hierarchical, parallel, one-way, and interrelated connections. They serve the purpose of presenting your project in a way that aligns with your intended vision.

Consider a simplified example: the content model for a product (whether it's cookies, a salad, or beef stroganoff) may include blocks such as ingredients and preparation steps. Additional elements can encompass the kitchen appliances used, information about the chef, and more. This visual representation is commonly called a content map, as it offers a visual depiction of the model.

The illustrated model can also serve as a content creation template. For instance, it can be applied to cookies, a cake, or any other product. This illustrates content reuse in action, streamlining the process and saving time. Your team no longer needs to create a separate template for each product; they can replicate it as a whole or in part.

Elements of a Content Model

The example of a content model illustrates the relationships between various components. For instance, the choice of ingredients influences the selection of kitchen appliances used during cooking, while appliance choices may vary based on the chef's taste and experience. More complex connections can be established, such as the impact of preparation time on appliance specifications and the influence of ingredient choices on nutritional parameters.

Similar relationships can be extended to documents, sets of documents, or entire company archives. In such cases, relationships between elements (terms, definitions, abbreviations, etc.) are represented as indexes or internal links, aiding information retrieval. Furthermore, these connections can enhance the total time visitors spend on your site and improve your search engine ranking.

Content Model vs. Information Architecture

The content model's visual representation may bear some resemblance to information architecture (IA), and while these concepts share similarities, they are not identical.

IA primarily deals with structure, particularly in the context of a website. It involves structuring page names (e.g., Home, About, News, Contact) and organizing page-level content to establish an effective informational hierarchy. The central objective is to ensure user convenience and ease of navigation.

In contrast, content modeling has a more substantial marketing focus and closely aligns with the role of a content strategist. It is centered on content updating to increase publishing frequency and distribution to engage a larger audience.

IA revolves around site navigation, while content modeling focuses on maintaining up-to-date, relevant content for users and ensuring high visibility for search engines.

Advantages of Content Modeling in Technical Writing

Enhanced Search Capabilities

Content modeling improves the search experience, particularly in large organizations dealing with numerous documents. It simplifies the retrieval of information by indexing terms and enabling users to access relevant content, even across the entire document history of the company.

Text Reuse

Content modeling streamlines text reuse, a crucial aspect for copywriters adhering to SEO requirements. Repeatedly using essential text segments allows for creating internal links, emphasizing critical aspects of your product while also improving search engine rankings.

Efficient Updates

Content modeling minimizes the risk of inconsistencies when updating content. For instance, when a title block needs adjustment across multiple documents, content modeling ensures uniform changes, eliminating potential discrepancies due to human error.

Single-Sourcing

In environments with multiple content creators, content modeling ensures consistency and uniform formatting, eliminating content presentation and structure variations.

Creating a Content Model

To establish your content ecosystem, follow these steps:

Summarize: Begin by identifying the significant content within your information repository. Focus on highlighting key ideas or features you want to emphasize to your target audience. These concepts will serve as the foundation for your content ecosystem.

Prioritize: Once you have identified these elements, arrange them in order of importance, giving prominence to the most critical components.

Detailed Model Creation: With priorities set, create a high-level diagram that facilitates further work with the information. This stage may involve adding fields for attributes and establishing relationships between components.

Effective Content Modeling

Effective content modeling is integral to a successful content and/or SEO strategy. It ensures that content works efficiently to drive business profitability. Rather than haphazardly accumulating content, content modeling allows content to be strategically organized and leveraged to enhance search rankings and user engagement.