It’s easy for digital properties to quickly become digital filing cabinets. So, what should stay and what should go?

This is one of the biggest questions during any redesign, rebrand, or reimagining of a digital property (my personal digital properties are no different). It can be an intense process for organizations/brands to sort through thousands of pieces of content. Noone really enjoys having debates with colleagues about why content’s there and why it needs to stay or should go. Often times the people who put the content there are no longer around, so no one really knows why it was put there in the first place. All of this sounds like a headache right? A daunting task that will take forever and never truly finish. It’s true, slimming down digital properties is not a small feat, but I have a few tips that I hope can help.

You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers.

Think about why people are visiting your digital ecosystem. Are they coming just for the hell of it? Are they looking for something specific? Are they just killing time at the airport?

When I start working with an organization who needs to do some digital cleaning I always start with the basic questions. The things that every digital property should answer for users. These questions may not be the same for all users, but should at least provide some themes that content should fit into across the digital experience. Here’s a sample list to start with:

• Who owns the digital property?
• What does the organization/brand want users to do?
• When does the organization/brand do it?
• When did the organization/brand start doing it?
• Where is the organization/brand located?
• Why does the organization/brand do what they do?
• Why should the user care?
• How does the organization/brand do what they do?
• How can the user get involved?

All of my content fits. Now what?

Once the basic questions are answered, it’s time for the data to allow informed decisions to be made. Usually, I look at data for a year at a time. This allows me to get an understanding of cyclical patterns and get a large enough sample size to make some decisions.

Let’s face it, most digital properties are a communication tool for the user to communicate with the user. This means the focus should be on the user so that the communication is successful. This means getting to know users are super important. Anecdotal data’s great, but real user data often tells a different story — Do I need to mention the 2016 Presidential election? How many polls projected a President Trump?

There’s no magic number, no data threshold that means keep it or lose it. With that in mind, there should be a conversation about pages that are underperforming and how they could perform better. I’ve never been a part of a redesign, rebrand, or reimagining that did not include, editing, merging, rewriting, or creating new pieces of content.

So, should it stay or should it go?

I’m a pretty practical person when it comes to digital content. This stems from my transaction mindset when it comes to digital ecosystems and why users visit and never return or become frequent users and champions of a digital ecosystem. I think all content should have 3 basic qualities that someone in the organization/brand can easily identify (More to come on these in another post):

1. All content should have a goal.
2. All content should have two next steps.
3. All content should have a conversion.

Content is king, but users want content in a way that allows them to access it efficiently and in a way that works for them. Sometimes that on an iPhone at 3 am, other times that’s on a retina monitor in their office, or using a voice assistant. The list can go on and on and is why it’s important to know your target audience and ensure they know the value of your content.