You need an appropriate content model, which is an early draft of how content will be structured with its attributes and shared relationships.

But you can’t flip a switch and pop out a content model for your organization. It requires lots of research, interviews with stakeholders and users, and soul-searching in order to prioritize the proper things. It also must map onto your Content Management System. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to use it to structure your content.

Ideal content models are like DNA: no two organizations have the same one. A content model that works great for one organization will cause mass confusion (or worse) at another organization. Trying to import a foreign content model is like trying to transfuse the blood of a horse to a human and expecting everything to work properly.

So how do you find the right way to structure your content? Like Goldilocks trying porridge, we want it just right.