A Sitemap is Not a Content Model

Rethinking website content organization during redesigns or CMS migrations offers an opportunity to improve content structure and increase return on investment by adopting content modeling over relying on existing sitemaps. While sitemaps provide a hierarchical listing of webpages, they're limited in making content future-friendly, as they often align with current web structures rather than conceptual representations. Content models, on the other hand, document types of content and their relationships, offering a broader view that supports multi-channel use and efficient content governance. By identifying content types as entities that can stand alone or be broken into components, organizations can create flexible, entity-based content models that allow for diverse sitemaps or menus while maintaining content consistency. This approach encourages looking beyond current web content to identify potential offerings, involving stakeholder interviews and competitive analysis, ensuring the content model aligns with both current and future audience needs.