Content Development is the gathering and editing of information for publication on a website. The content may consist of prose, graphics, pictures, recordings, movies, video clips and other digital assets that can be distributed by hypertext or viewed by any viable web browser. In the early years of the World Wide Web, web developers either created the content of their websites themselves or took existing documents and coded them into HTML (hypertext markup language).
As the World Wide Web rapidly expanded over the years, web sites began to encompass many technologies and it became more difficult for website developers to maintain so many different skills. This is when the field of Content Development began to be a viable skill in the ever-expanding market of the World Wide Web. Content developers are specialized web site technicians that use content generation skills such as, graphic design, multimedia development, professional writing and documentation to integrate original and interesting content on to a new website. Content developers may be Internet Marketing professionals as the internet has millions and millions of new sites launched every year and clients looking to start a new website will need someone with expert knowledge in the realm of marketing to be more competitive.
A current issue in the realm of Content Development is key word stuffed content. This means content prepared solely for the manipulation of a search engine. The idea is to write content intended for algorithms instead of people or the online community so that a given website will appear at the top of your search results. This practice is painting Content Development professionals in a negative light and some consider it to be unethical.
There are a number of methods to get started in Content Development. Considering that there are over 250 million sites on the World Wide Web, it would be wise to focus on a specific niche that you have a lot of knowledge in or present common information in a new, dynamic way in order to stand out from your peers. It is also important to try and utilize more than just one form of content, i.e. prose, video, graphics, and so on.
Written by Christopher Meisenholder
