Content Model Overview

Before you can create content for your website you should take the time to define the site’s content model. For our purposes, we will think of the website’s overall content model as the collection of unique pages and components that we will refer to as content types. Defining a content model provides a structured method for creating content that provides for a consistent user experience.

When using a content management system (CMS), defining the content types is often a required step before you can start entering content. While most CMS platforms have default content types ( components, widgets, blocks, etc) you will find these will not always meet your needs. In this case you will need to create your own custom content types.

Content Models

Start here to get a brief overview of what a content model is and why they are important.

Content Types

A Content type is the specific implementation of a content model that defines a unique component of your website. This article will help you understand the basics of what they are and how they are created.

Creating Content Models

The Creating Content Models article dives deeper into how the content model and types are created. Starting with a sample wireframe, this article walks through the steps of defining the unique content types.

Naming Content Types

As part of creating your content model and defining the content types, it is important to name your content types in a meaningful way.

Consolidating Content Types

There are many content types that may be very similar in structure which creates the opportunity of combining them into a single type. This article will help you determine which content types you can combine as well as content types that you may want to keep separate.

Content Model and Component Tips

There are common scenarios that everyone runs into when developing their content model and implementing content types in their Content Management System. This article reviews these scenarios and provides recommendations on how to handle them.