What is content architecture and why you should care

Have you ever moved elements around a webpage to highlight key information, crafted a navigation menu, or organized content into distinct sections within your content management system?

If so, you've been engaging in content architecture. These actions not only enhance the layout but also significantly improve the overall content experience for your customers.

Read on to discover the importance of content architecture.

What is content architecture

Content architecture refers to the way you structure and distribute your content in a scalable manner. Content architecture aims to improve content development by organizing content logically to support the UX.

This allows you to:

Give your content structure and attributes, so it's easier for systems to reuse it
Integrate multiple channels to provide consistent customer experiences
Automate and integrate smart features for personalization
Create a website that fulfills content authoring, management, and publishing requirements

If I draw a parallel with a CMS, content architecture represents the backend of your content strategy. While the front end emphasizes content style, customer profiles, and aligning everything with the customer journey, the backend includes other elements like content models, metadata, and the organization within the CMS.

So basically, content structure is all about setting infrastructure within CMS, to understand it better, you first need to understand the difference between content architecture vs information architecture.

Content architecture vs information architecture

These two are closely related concepts, but they have distinct focuses. Content architecture deals with the organization and management of content, while information architecture focuses on designing systems that enable users to find and navigate information efficiently.

Unlike information architecture, which focuses on the front-end UX, content architecture examines content distribution on a broader scale, taking into account both the front end and the backend. As a result, content architecture encompasses both information architecture and CMSs.

Here's a comparison to highlight their differences and connections:

As a whole, both concepts aim to provide a seamless UX.

Since information architecture is just one of the elements, now is the time to learn all the key elements important for robust architecture.

Key components of a content architecture

Besides information architecture, here are some of the key elements that shape content architecture:

Content models
Semantics/ Taxonomy
Metadata
Navigation
Wireframes
Structured Content
Workflow

Content models

Content models are content modeling basics that define the types of content that will be used and the attributes associated with each type. For example, a blog post content model might include fields for title, author, publication date, body text, and tags. Content models help ensure consistency and standardization across all content items.

Learn more: Structuring BCMS by content types

Semantics/Taxonomy

Semantics and taxonomy involve the classification and organization of content using a structured system of categories and tags. This helps in creating a logical hierarchy and relationship among different pieces of content, making it easier for users to find and understand the information. Taxonomy can include various levels of categorization, such as genres, topics, tags, and keywords.

Metadata

Metadata refers to data that describes other data. In the context of content architecture, metadata includes information about content items such as title, author, date of creation, keywords, and descriptions. Metadata helps improve searchability and organization, making it easier to manage and retrieve content.

Learn more: Handling HTML Meta tags

Navigation

Navigation design is the creation of menus, links, and other elements that allow users to move through your website. Effective navigation ensures that users can easily find the information they need without becoming lost or frustrated. This includes primary navigation menus, sidebars, breadcrumbs, and footer links.

Wireframes

Wireframes are low-fidelity visual representations of a webpage. They outline the basic structure and layout of content without focusing on design details. Wireframes help plan the placement of content elements, navigation, and other functional components, providing a blueprint for the final design.

Structured content

Structured content is organized into discrete, reusable components, often defined by content models. This approach allows greater flexibility in how content is presented across different platforms and contexts. Structured content can be easily repurposed, updated, and delivered through various channels, such as websites, apps, and social media.

Workflow

Content operations workflow involves the processes and stages through which content is created, reviewed, approved, published, and maintained. A well-defined workflow ensures that content goes through necessary quality checks and meets organizational standards before being published. Workflow often includes roles and responsibilities, timelines, and tools for collaboration and approval.

Summary of key components:

Content models: Define types and attributes of content.
Semantics/Taxonomy: Classification and organization of content.
Metadata: Descriptive information about content.
Navigation: Design of menus and links for better UX.
Wireframes: Visual layout representations.
Structured content: Organized, reusable content components.
Workflow: Processes for creating, reviewing, and publishing content.

These components work together to create a well-structured and manageable content architecture that supports both user needs and business goals.

Let’s see these components benefits in action

All these components together, improve both, website visitors' engagement and SEO. It’s a win-win approach for both the content team and website visitors. Let’s see what that looks like in practice.

Website structure

A well-planned content architecture makes it easier for visitors and search engines to find, understand, and navigate your content.

Information architectures commonly used on websites are based on topic clusters or theme pyramids.

The pyramid-like structure of this approach starts with one or more broad subjects and branches out into more specific subtopics.

The website homepage acts as the pyramid's root.

The website structure is organized like this:

It enables search engines to discover and index all the pages on your site.
This facilitates visitors' search for content.
It distributes authority across your web pages through internal links.

Speaking of internal linking, architecture like this makes internal linking even more effective.

Internal links: Connecting all pieces together

Internal links provide structure to websites. Linking from one page to another provides Google and viewers with more detail about that page. And the ability to navigate to the connected page.

Internal hyperlinks are the connections that ensure an information architecture functions properly.

In most cases, they are created in two ways: a primary navigation menu and contextual links within content. The following diagram shows both.

Navigation links examples and best practices

Navigation links are links placed in menus or other prominent areas of a website that help users move around the site. These are typically found in headers, footers, sidebars, or as part of a main navigation menu.

Best practices:

Keep it simple and intuitive.
Use clear, descriptive labels.
Ensure consistency across all pages.
Include a search function for better navigation.

Internal links example and best practices

Internal links are hyperlinks that point to another page or resource within the same website. These links connect various pages on a website, providing a structure and hierarchy to the content.

Best practices:

Use relevant anchor text that describes the content of the linked page.
Avoid excessive linking, which can appear spammy.
Ensure links open in the same tab to maintain user flow.
Regularly check and update links to avoid broken links.

Ok, so far you have all the important info about content type and establishing relationships within your content architecture, you need a tool or platform that can support your content strategy, that is where your CMS plays a crucial role.

If you ask me, the perfect choice would be headless CMS.

How headless CMS helps build content architecture

A headless CMS acts primarily as a content repository. It allows content creators to manage and deliver content without being tied to a particular front-end.

Simply put, headless CMS doesn't care where the content goes, it creates a single source that can be used on multiple channels at once.

Another fact that you should not forget is that the core essentials of headless CMS are structured content and content modeling.

So you get the technology that breaks down the architecture into small, reusable, and independent components, that are standardized by the content modeling principles.

At the same time, you get standardization that is flexible and leads to greater flexibility and scalability.

That means that headless CMS supports content architecture by default.

Leverage the BCMS headless CMS for content architecture

Besides BCMS being a headless CMS, some guides and tutorials can help you overcome all possible obstacles when it comes to setting up your content architecture.

So if you want to have wider knowledge here are the sources:

Or, if you feel ready, hit this button below and get a robust foundation for your content architecture with BCMS.

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