What is Web Content?

There’s a lot of talk on the Internet about web content. You should have it. It needs to be good. You can share it, market it, and sell it. Manage and maintain it. Have a plan – develop it. Use it to build your business. Use it to succeed.

Plenty of people sell web content and related services. You can hire a web content writer, developer, or manager. You might bump into web content consultants, specialists, or experts. You may even happen across someone who creates and then either publishes or sells web content as their entire business model.

But what is web content, anyway?

Defining Web Content

Generally speaking, web content is anything that you find on the web. It can include text, images, audio, and video.

In the early days of the Internet, which weren’t so long ago, web content was extremely limited. You could share files, but it took a long time for them to transmit. Text and light images comprised most of the content online.

Today, thanks to high-speed internet access and ever-evolving technology, web content has grown to include high-definition (HD) video, streaming audio, and clearer, crisper images, including photos. Innovations in web programming are constantly changing the way we build and access web content, and it just keeps getting better, broader, and more accessible.

Your Web Content

So, if web content is everything on the Internet, then which portion of that is yours? Is your web content limited to the contents of your own website? What about your social media presence? Your emails? The message boards you frequent?

In short, anything online that serves to represent you (or your company) in any way, shape, or form, would be construed as your web content. This is not limited to the material on your website. If you upload a video to YouTube, that’s your web content. Your photo and bio, and your entire Facebook page is also your web content, as is any message you leave on a forum or any comment you leave on a blog, and of course, any tweet you post to Twitter.

Basically, if it’s on the Internet and it can be tied directly to you, it’s your web content.

That doesn’t mean you own it, however. Let’s say you write an article for a well-known blog and they accept it, so you get a publication credit. That’s your web content, but it also belongs to the blog where it’s published. Specific details about the (copyright) ownership of the material may vary, depending on the publishing contract between writer and publisher.

You may also have some web content that the public cannot access, such as password-protected sections of your website, friends-only access to your social media networks, or private networks (intranets) not accessible except through internal, secure means.

Why This Matters

Understanding what constitutes as web content is important for anyone with an online presence for several reasons:

• For marketing purposes, it’s helpful to understand the many places where you can publish web content and therefore promote your work.
• Conversely, be wary of misrepresenting yourself or poorly representing yourself. If it’s online, people may find it, and if it casts you in a negative light, that could mean trouble for you and your business.
• Once you know what web content is, you will begin to understand that though it’s simple by definition, it’s complex in its capacity. There is no end to the ways in which web content can be created, shared, and used.

Anyone with an online presence, and especially those who use the Internet to conduct business, would do well to protect their own web content and keep a sharp eye on how the web is used to represent one’s work or business.

Web content is a wondrous thing. What used to take days or even weeks, now can be accomplished in just a few minutes. Want to watch a video? Listen to a song? Read an article? Chances are, you can find what you’re looking for online in a matter of moments.

This means that for professionals, the marketplace has expanded, and so has the marketing field. You have countless new opportunities to promote your product, but there are also countless new ways in which you can get yourself into trouble – either by not having a solid plan for web content, or no management system in place.

In future articles, we’ll talk about web content development and management, and discuss why having a plan and maintenance method are essential to online success.