About Structured Content

Structured content is a different way of thinking about managing and editing text than what you may be used to. Let’s contrast it to…

Styling text

In Word processors, a lot of attention is given to how text looks: the font, the color, the size, the leading, the spacing between letters, etc. Oftentimes editors can get lost in thinking about the style of the text, only to have the content play second fiddle.

Structuring text

In contrast, in structuring text, our attention is primarily given to how the text is outlined: the headers, sub-headers, and blocks of copy below them. In structured text, we don’t necessarily “care” about how a header is styled: that job is handled, consistently through the entire site, by a style-guide.

With this approach, you have less worries about styling text — and greater focus on the outline of the text. This is great for readers, since they typically scan copy on webpages, as opposed to reading it word by word, all the way through.

This is also useful for search engines, which use the outline of content on the page to determiine what the page is about, and establish semantic hierarchies.

And this is really great for future editors and redesigns of the site. If you content is structured well, we don’t worry about editing the content to change a header from blue to green, for example—that is all handled by the style guide.

Considerations

• When working on a page, think first about the outline. What falls under what? Determine that first.
• A page does not have to begin with H1. That might be too bold for your needs. Just cascade your headers from whatever you choose first.
• Make a distinction between bolded text — often used directly in a paragraph, from a header. A header should almost never, ever be bolded text.
• Have fun! With less burdens on your shoulders, you can work to make content easier to understand for readers.