Content obesity – an organisation’s silent killer

Web publishing used to be a secret art form that only a select few knew how to do. Developers had control of when and where content was published. The average employee didn’t understand code or FTPing – and didn’t particularly want to.

Website content was taken from existing brochures, and Google was still an idea in a couple of college boys’ heads.

Haven’t times changed?

The rise of content management systems, and the general explosion of digital communication has turned everyone into a publisher. It’s easy to whack another page on a site. In many organisations content can be sent live without any input from a trained content writer.

This is leading to a rise in content obese organisations – organisations so bloated with irrelevant content that it is making them unhealthy.

Signs of content obesity

• Web teams are so busy maintaining out-of-date content that they can’t proactively produce new content.
• There are no expiry dates on content – it’s just left to slowly decay until the next redevelopment project.
• Internal search engines are useless as they bring up a stack of old content, instead of what you are looking for.
• The shiny new content management system had all of the old content migrated into it, rather than starting from scratch.
• Web teams find it hard to say ‘no’ to new content.
• Usability, design, information architecture and copywriting are treated separately.
• There are daily battles over what content should sit on the home page.
• New campaigns have fantastic short-term content, while the long-term pages are never reviewed.
• The organisation has a profile on every social media platform imaginable – yet none are fully utilised as there are no resources behind them.

Sound familiar?

Of course – like the real obesity problem – there are no quick fixes to content obesity. It takes time, planning, and some serious analysis. But those organisations who are lean content machines have a distinct advantage over those who are drowning in web pages.

Is your organisation overweight with content? Share your stories below.

Do you need a diet plan for your content? Ask me to write you a plan.