Ideate your website prepare copy and assets

Introduction

When starting a new website, it is important to “Ideate”, or start planning your website’s content and assets before you begin designing. This will help you best plan your layout and what Elementor tools you may need.

Every great website needs a great story

The content and assets needed for your Elementor Cloud Website depends on the type of website you need to create. Every book tells a different story, and we now need to write our story.

You may ask “Where do I write this story?” 

Since you may be still unfamiliar with writing content directly on your page with the Elementor Editor, you may find it helpful to start by writing your content in a word processing software like Microsoft Word, or Google Docs. This will make it easier for you to copy and paste to your web pages later on.

Your website is a story of who you are, and what you are offering to your audience. Each story has chapters. These chapters become the pages of your website.

A few different stories

• Personal: These typically consist of a home page, about me page, portfolio (artist, photographer, musician), blog, and contact page.
• Small Business: These typically consist of a home page, about page, services page, portfolio page, and a contact page.
• Mid-Sized Company:  These typically consist of a home page, about page, staff page, portfolio page, location page, legal page(s), and contact page.
• Restaurant*: These typically include a home page, about page, menu page, ordering options, location(s) page, and contact page.
• Online Store*: These typically include a home page, about page, shop page(s), cart page, checkout page, account page, returns policy page, and a contact page.
  

Note: Online ordering requires additional functionality for payments and other e-commerce needs. Additional add ons may be required to achieve your goal if your website requires these functions.

Preparing your written content

Once you have decided on the chapters (pages) of your story, it is now time to create the written content of your website. Each page should contain the information that your audience will need to know or be curious about. It should be clear and well written but also not too long as to lose the attention of the reader.

You may say, I am not a writer, or I am a business owner who does not have the time.

If you are not a very good writer, or do not have the time to write the content of your website, you may hire freelance writers to help you. Consider hiring an Elementor Expert as they are well versed in the type of content that will help you succeed.

Writing tips:
When writing your content in Microsoft Word, or Google Docs, try to use the headings and table of contents (Google Docs) the same way your website will be using them later on. This will provide you with good structure and benefit your overall SEO. You may also wish to use the Elementor Table of Contents widget in the editor later on in your design. This widget uses your pages headings to automatically create a table of contents for your visitors.

Example:

• Heading One (H1) This is the title of your post or page.
  • Heading Two (H2) This will be a parent chapter in the post or page. It may also be the beginning of a new section on your page visually.
    • Heading Three (H3) This will be a subchapter of the parent.
      • Heading Four (H4) This is a subchapter of the child 
  • Heading Two (H2) This is a new chapter heading
    

Preparing assets

You may have heard the saying, “A picture tells a thousand words.” This is also true for your website. A website needs images for the audience to see.

Options for website assets

Stock Images/Video: These can be obtained from many providers. Pricing varies based upon the provider and the licensing of these assets. While these may be very high quality, chances are that they are used on many other websites as well as yours.

Hiring a Photographer/Videographer: This option will provide you with the highest quality assets that are specific to your needs. You can provide your audience with the best representation of what you offer (A stock image of a cheeseburger is not “your cheeseburger”). 

Using your own: Most smartphones are capable of producing images and video that are adequate resolution for your website. If you enjoy taking pictures and videos of your food, pet grooming, repair work, and products, then this option will work great for you.

Summary

You are now ready to take some time to prepare your story and assets. It can then be applied to your Elementor Cloud Website by using the Editor.

What’s Next

Need more information about writing website content so you set it up for success? 

Ready to start adding this content to a page or post?

Thinking about selecting a pre-made template?