Fed Thread

A successful business website gives visitors the information they need and helps the business reach its goals. Sounds simple enough, right? The challenge is deciding which pages you need and what each one should do.

We’ll explain how to plan your content, build a page list that supports your business goals, and choose the right tools for the job. You’ll also learn how to review your plan after launch.

What Is Website Content Planning and Why Does It Influence Your Content Strategy?

Website content planning means deciding which pages your website needs, what each page should achieve, and who it’s for. You do this before writing the content or building the site, so you have a clear plan to work from.

That plan affects your content strategy by helping you decide what to publish, who to target, and which business goals each page should support. Take a pricing page, for example. It should explain your costs, what affects them, and what potential customers need to know before making a decision.

Without a clear plan, though, you can end up creating pages your audience doesn’t need while overlooking information they’re actively looking for. Your website might explain your company’s history in detail but leave visitors struggling to find your prices, compare services, or get answers to common questions.

Planning also helps you decide which pages to leave out. That way, you don’t spend time and money creating content that serves no clear purpose.

How to Decide Which Pages Your Website Needs

At our agency, we use three steps to plan website content, from identifying the right audience to deciding which pages a business needs. We’ll walk you through each step below, based on our experience planning content for business websites.

Define Your Content Goals and Target Audience

Start with your business goals. Are you trying to generate enquiries, increase sign-ups, or help customers find answers without contacting your team? These goals help you decide what your website needs to achieve.

Next, describe your target audience in plain terms: what they know, what problems they face, and what they’d search for when looking for a solution. Keyword research helps you identify the phrases they use and the questions your content should answer.

Together, these insights give you a basis for deciding which pages to create. You can then focus on the information your audience needs to take the next step.

Map Out the Business Website Pages You Need

Now that you know who you’re creating content for and what you want your website to achieve, it’s time to decide which pages you actually need.

First, the basics. That means a homepage, an about page, service or product pages, and a contact page. Depending on your business, you might also need case studies, FAQs, pricing information, or a blog.

But don’t add pages just because other businesses have them. Think about what your potential customers want to know before they choose you. If customers regularly ask the same questions before buying, an FAQ page could help answer them.

To find out what your customers are searching for, you can use keyword research tools like Ahrefs and Semrush. Both offer free tools with limited features. Just enter a service or topic related to your business to find related search terms and questions people ask. Use these insights to decide which topics deserve their own pages and what information those pages should cover.

By the end, you should have a list of pages with a clear purpose, rather than a collection of pages copied from another business’s website.

Planning Content for Each Website Page

Deciding which pages your website needs is only half the job. You also need to decide what each page should cover, what information visitors need, and how to guide them towards the next step. Since you’ve already mapped out your pages, you have a starting point. Now, let’s look at how to plan the content for each one.

Give Each Page a Clear Purpose

Before you start writing, decide what you want each page to achieve. Is it meant to introduce your business, explain a service, build trust, or encourage visitors to get in touch? That way, you’ll have a clear direction when deciding what to include.

Keep that purpose in mind as you plan the content. For example, a service page should explain what you offer, who it’s for, and how customers can get started. A case study, on the other hand, should show how you’ve helped a client and what results you achieved.

Decide What Information Visitors Need

Think about the questions someone might have when they land on each page. What would they need to know before taking the next step? What concerns might stop them from contacting you or making a purchase?

For a pricing page, visitors might want to compare packages, understand what’s included, and check for additional costs. Meanwhile, a service page might need examples of past work, answers to common questions, or an explanation of your process.

You can use customer enquiries, sales conversations, and keyword research to find these questions. The aim is to give each page enough useful information to help visitors make an informed decision, without adding content that doesn’t serve their needs.

Create a Content Brief for Each Page

Once you know what each page needs to cover, put your plan into a short content brief. Think of it as a set of instructions for whoever writes the page, so they know what to include before they start.

Your brief should cover:

• Page purpose
• Target audience
• Primary keyword
• Questions to answer
• Main sections
• Call to action

These details help your writer understand what the page needs to cover, who it’s for, and what it should help visitors do.

And you don’t need fancy software to create a brief. Open Google Docs or Google Sheets, add the six items above, and save the document as your content brief template. When you’re ready to plan another page, make a copy and fill in the details for that page.

Website Content Planning Tools and Templates

By now, you should have a list of the pages your website needs and a brief outlining what each page should cover. The next step is to keep those plans organised so you can track what’s ready, what’s still being written, and what needs reviewing.

You don’t need an elaborate tool to do that. The right choice depends on how you plan to organise your pages, briefs, and deadlines. The table below compares three options and what each one is best suited for.

Tool	Best for	Watch out for
Google Sheets or Excel	Tracking website pages, target keywords, content owners, and progress in one place	You’ll need to set up your own reminders and status tracking
Notion or Airtable	Connecting page lists, content briefs, and drafts in one organised workspace	Setting everything up can take time
Asana, Trello, or monday.com	Coordinating writers, reviewers, and deadlines across a team	Some features require paid plans, especially as your team grows

If you’re planning a small business website, a spreadsheet may be all you need. You can create columns for each page’s name, purpose, target keyword, assigned writer, status, and deadline. As the project progresses, update the status so everyone knows which pages need attention.

If several people are involved, a project management tool like Trello or Asana can make handovers easier. You can assign tasks, set due dates, and track reviews without relying on scattered messages.

We suggest starting with the simplest tool that fits your workflow. You can always move to a more advanced platform when managing briefs, drafts, and reviews becomes harder to coordinate.

Keeping Your Website Content Plan on Track After Launch

Publishing your pages doesn’t mean your content plan is finished. Your services might change, customers might start asking different questions, and some pages might perform better than others. Reviewing your plan regularly helps you spot these changes and decide what to do next.

Here are three ways to keep your plan up to date:

1. Check Your Website Performance Regularly: Use free tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your website’s performance at least once a month. These tools show you which pages attract visitors, which search terms bring people to your site, and how your pages perform in Google Search. Use these insights to identify pages that need updating or further investigation.
2. Review Your Existing Content Twice a Year: Go through your page list and check whether each page still reflects your current services, pricing, and business goals. Update outdated information, fix broken links, and remove content you no longer need. If two pages cover the same topic, consider combining them when one useful page would serve visitors better.
3. Update Your Plan When Your Business Changes: A new service, a pricing change, or a question customers keep asking might mean you need to update an existing page or create a new one. Review your page list regularly so it reflects what your business offers and what customers need to know.

Pro Tip: Plan your reviews ahead of time by adding a monthly performance check and two content reviews a year to your calendar. Assign someone to handle each one. That way, reviewing your content becomes part of the work rather than something you remember only when a page starts causing problems.

Start Planning Your Website Content Today

There you have it. A website content plan starts with knowing your business goals, identifying the pages your audience needs, and deciding what each page should cover. From there, you can organise the work, assign responsibilities, and review your plan as your business grows.

Now it’s your turn. Start by listing the pages your website needs, then work out the purpose of each one before you begin writing. You don’t need to plan everything perfectly from day one. Get the essentials in place and build from there.

If you’d like help deciding which pages your business needs and how to structure their content, FedThread can help you plan your next steps. Visit our site to find out how we can support your website content planning.