CONTENT GUIDE
Good content prep is the foundation of a good site. This guide covers everything you’ll need to get your assets ready. If anything’s unclear, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
By now you will have received a link to a Google Drive folder. Once you’re in, organise your files following the folder structure below. It doesn’t need to be perfect — just consistent enough that we can both find what we’re looking for when the time comes.
A well-organised folder makes a real difference — for you when you’re pulling things together, and for me when it’s time to build. Organise files by page or section rather than by file type, so everything is easy to find at a glance.
A simple structure for a typical project:
[project-name]/
├── global/
├── home/
├── about/
├── work/
├── project-one/
└── project-two/
├── contact/
└── copy/
├── about.docx
└── work.docx
If a file is used site-wide (a logo, for example) put it in a global/ folder at the top level.
You’ll also receive spreadsheets for each CMS collection to fill in. They cover the key information needed for each section or work — title, year, location, images, and any descriptive text. This is the primary place to supply most of your content.
A few things to keep in mind:
- Fill in one row per work or section
- The Slug column is generated automatically — leave it as-is unless you’d prefer something specific, in which case let me know in the Notes column
- The Notes column is for anything you’re unsure about or want to flag — it won’t be published
- Images aren’t uploaded through the spreadsheet — follow the image guidance below first, then note the filenames in the Images column for reference
When you’re done, save and send it back — either as an email attachment or via the shared Google Drive folder. There’s no rush to have everything perfect — a partially filled sheet sent sooner is more useful than a complete one sent later.
Before supplying images, they’ll need to be resized and compressed for web first. How you do this depends on what you have available.
⚠️ Before you start: make copies of your originals. The steps below will replace your original files. Ensure you duplicate the folder first and work with the copies.
If you have Adobe Lightroom
Export directly from Lightroom with these settings:
- Format: JPEG
- Quality: 80–90
- Resize to fit: Long edge, 2000px
- Resolution: 72 (this doesn’t affect quality on screen)
Save these as an export preset — it handles everything in one step from then on.
If you don’t have Adobe Lightroom
Option 1 — (Mac) — Resize in Preview. Select all the images you want to resize in Finder, right-click, and open with Preview. Once open, select all thumbnails with Command + A, then go to Tools > Adjust Size. Set the width to 2000px with “Scale proportionally” checked. Save.
Option 2 — (Mac) — Compress with ImageOptim, which can be downloaded for free here. Drag your resized images or the whole folder into the window. It processes everything automatically — no settings needed.
Option 3 — (All devices) — Use Squoosh in your browser. Open your image, leave the settings on WebP at quality 90, and download.
Once your images are ready, make sure they’re named consistently before sending. If you exported from Lightroom, you can set a filename template there. Otherwise, feel free to use my renaming tool — everything runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded.
File names should ideally be lowercase, hyphenated, and descriptive. No spaces, no special characters, no generic names like IMG_4823 or final-final-v3.
A consistent format to follow:
[project]-[description]-[number]
The number is optional for when multiple images are featured and a specific order of appearance is preferred.
Good: smv-project-01.jpg, smv-about-profile-img.png
Not so good: IMG_4823.JPG, Hero Image FINAL.png, photo (1).jpg
For artwork or dated content, you can include the year: smv-artwork-2025-title.jpg
For general assets, skip it — the folder structure provides enough context.
A consistent naming convention makes files easier to find, easier to hand over, and avoids issues when uploading to a website. Browsers and servers can be fussy about spaces and capitals.
All copy is best supplied via the content spreadsheet. However, it can be helpful to draft texts in a Google Doc or Word document first and save it in the relevant folder. This gives you a clearer picture of what belongs where, and preserves any intended formatting (if supplied as rich text) before it’s transferred across.
Please don’t supply copy as PDFs (unless the PDF itself is a file to be included on the site), screenshots, text embedded in a design file, or voice notes.