A Guide To Modern Website Strategy

People's perceptions of the web have altered dramatically. Websites are no more just a collection of published pages; they are full-fledged programs in and of themselves. The finest websites are engaging, tailored digital experiences that are powered by data and augmented by cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence or machine learning. And context is critical since consumers are increasingly consuming material on a broader variety of linked devices than ever before.

As a result, corporate executives are rethinking how they think about their websites. They understand that digital experiences must not only satisfy people but also be tightly aligned with corporate objectives. Websites must always change in order to satisfy changing expectations and provide value to consumers, partners, workers, and other stakeholders. As more corporate firms prioritize software development as a strategic goal, they are building and running their web domains in a product-centric manner alongside other software efforts. 

Traditionally, engineering firms created or updated their websites as a single large project with a fixed budget, timetable, and launch date. They may update website content gradually after launch, but they generally make a minimal investment in the site as a whole until the next big site refresh.

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Contentful employs several global content delivery networks (CDNs) such as Cloudfront and Fastly to offer regional access and API payloads in the sub-100 millisecond range in order to swiftly publish content throughout the world.

• Flexible: Design content models that are specific to your app's requirements, then build in your preferred language.
• Fast: Give your digital team the tools they need to release and iterate digital goods across websites, apps, and devices as quickly as possible.
• Connected: Integrate your content with current corporate platforms and cloud services.
• Ubiquitous: Extend your content's reach and relevancy by expanding it into new mediums and locations.
• Unified: Manage your digital product portfolio with a single, reusable content platform.
• Low-risk: Begin small, utilize what you need to demonstrate value, and then grow confidently on a future-proof foundation.
• Empowering: Recruit and retain talent by allowing them to ship continuously using their preferred contemporary tools.

Not Just Content, But Also Usability And Functionality

It's easy to get caught up with "primary content," such as business-critical product descriptions, viral brand videos, or an essential campaign poster. But what about the tiny pieces of material, such as microscopy, that can contribute to a positive user experience?

Form labels, help text, error messages, navigation buttons, and other UX language that improves usability and supports a smooth user journey are examples of this. These bits of material, like their more visible equivalents, must be created, often translated, experimented with, published, and maintained. Your Contentful content model also provides structure to them.

Traditional content management systems (CMS) are built to handle massive amounts of main information and are not well-suited to managing short text strings. It would be expensive and hard to consistently expose these strings to editors inside the standard CMS framework. Your microscopy is regulated by your content model and maintained as a separate set of content types in Contentful. 

Download Contentful's whitepaper to learn more about website strategies and how a modern content platform accelerates digital products.