Doing a Content Inventory
alt tags - The Content Inventory: Roadmap to a Succesful CMS Implementation
- when a company is setting up a content management system, there’s a tendency to focus too much on the technology and design of the CMS, and not enough on the content itself
- inevitably, when it comes time to populate the CMS, the company runs into trouble – hence the need for a content inventory
- things to list in your content inventory:
- all content on the current website
- content that is to be migrated to the new site
- web-based applications or transactional systems to be integrated with the new website
- information to capture for each piece of content:
- description
- content owner
- content type
- format
- location
- update frequency
- status
- general notes
(via Column Two)
Here are some additional resources on how to do a content inventory:
- New Architect - Taking A Content Inventory
- adaptive path - Doing a Content Inventory (Or, A Mind-Numbingly Detailed Odyssey Through Your Web Site) – includes an Excel worksheet that you can download and use
- SIGIA-L - summary of content inventory responses
- MCPS Web Services - Web Site Content Inventory Process (PDF, 274 kb)
The following are examples that you can look at or download:
- Perspective Software and Design - Content Inventory and Tracking
- Contentology.com Toolkit – includes three Excel spreadsheets: a Content Evaluation Matrix, a Content InventoryAssessment, and a Content Requirements Plan
- PageSolutions - Web Content Inventory – includes content inventory, preparation, and migration worksheets
Update: See also Bloug - Applications to Aid in Content Inventories?, for ideas and pointers to tools for performing content inventories in large, distributed enterprise environments.
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