Website Redesign: Content Strategy Phase

Posted: April 10, 2023


The content strategy phase of the website redesign has recently closed. Content strategy will define how storytelling and dynamic content will work across the website. This phase was an important first step in beginning the undertaking of rewriting and optimizing all website content. The content strategy will be used to inform the content refresh project underway and the content strategy upon site launch.

Key deliverables included:  

  • A full content audit of the site’s 20,000+ web pages, which highlighted critical content needs to address in the refresh, including an inconsistent use of visuals, program details, navigation and content components, along with thousands of redundant/duplicate pages.  
  • A messaging architecture to define storytelling and dynamic content across the new website. Four key messages were identified as brand pillars of SU’s identity.

  • Overall content strategy report, which detailed specific recommendations on how to activate the brand messaging throughout the site, including through showcasing diversity of student life, testimonials and statistics, powerful employment data, and thematic imagery that matches the written copy.  

What’s Next:   

We will be using the content audit and the accompanying content inventory to parse through the 20,000+ web pages to begin organizing the content refresh effort. In tandem, MarCom will use the messaging architecture combined with the content strategy guide to begin developing new website copy and visual content in collaboration with campus partners. The work done during the content strategy phase will serve as a guidepost for writing and optimizing new content to ensure more purposeful communication across all the web pages. 

This work will take place over the next several months while the website redesign moves toward completion of the visual design phase and toward development and implementation phases. We will begin working more closely with campus partners in identifying unique and specific opportunities to optimize respective content pages. 

Stay up to date: Visit the website redesign site for more information on the redesign and watch for periodic updates in SU Today as the process continues.