Content modeling for a marketing site

The content model decides whether a headless CMS feels like freedom or like filling in forms. Get it right and marketing builds new pages without a ticket. Get it wrong and every page needs a developer.

Three layers

Most marketing sites fit into three kinds of content.

• Collections. Things you have many of: blog posts, case studies, integrations, team members, jobs.
• Pages. One-off pages like home, pricing, or a campaign landing page, built from blocks.
• Settings. Navigation, footer, default SEO, and anything shared site-wide.

Blocks are the core

A block is a section editors can add to a page: a hero, a feature grid, a logo strip, a quote, a CTA. Each block is a small, typed schema that maps to one component in code.

• Keep each block focused. A "hero" with 25 optional fields should be five blocks.
• Limit design choices to what the brand allows, like two background tones instead of a color picker.
• Give every field a description that tells editors what it's for and how long it should be.
• Reuse blocks across pages and collections. A case study and a landing page can share a quote block.

Use references instead of copies

If a thing appears in more than one place, make it a record and reference it. Authors, products, testimonials, CTAs, and pricing plans are the usual ones. When the product name changes, you change it once.

SEO belongs in the model

Every page and collection item should have the same SEO fields: title, description, social image, canonical, and noindex. Put them in a shared group so templates render them the same way everywhere, with defaults from settings when they're empty.

Test with real pages

Before building the whole model, rebuild three real pages with it: the homepage, a landing page, and a blog post. If an editor can rebuild the landing page without help, the model works. If not, change the model, not the editor.