Last modified: January 17, 2025 at 11:13pm

Content modeling is all about organizing your website’s content so it works smoothly for your audience and your team. A solid content model keeps your site user-friendly, whether you’re working with 10 pages or 10,000. Think of it as creating a blueprint for the information your site needs to manage.

Here’s what it involves:

  1. Understanding your site’s goals and your audience’s needs:
    Start by defining what your website needs to achieve. Consider your audience, your organization’s unique requirements, and how the content will be managed. Think about things like how content editors will update the site and what kind of experience you want visitors to have.
  2. Identifying types of content your site needs:
    Break down the different kinds of information you’ll be working with. These might include:
    • Content types, like articles, events, or products
    • Media, like images, videos, or audio
    • Taxonomy, or categories for grouping and organizing content
    • User roles and permissions – what kinds of tasks users can do on your site or what pages they can access
  3. Defining the details (fields):
    For each type of content, decide what specific details you’ll need to store. For example:
    • An article might need a title, body text, and an image.
    • Fields can be simple (like plain text) or more structured (like selecting from a dropdown list).
  4. Connecting the dots (relationships):
    Connect content to reflect how they relate in real life. For example:
    • A wine tour (content type) might belong to a region (taxonomy term).
    • A blog post could be written by an author (user) and related to a wine tour (content type).

Why does this matter?
A well-planned content model makes life easier for everyone:

  • For your audience: Content is easier to find and more enjoyable to use.
  • For your team: Editors can add and update content more quickly and with fewer mistakes.
  • For your website: Consistent formatting creates a polished, professional look, and your site can grow seamlessly without breaking existing content.

The choices you make while developing your content model will inform and influence how you’ll use many of Drupal CMS’s features.

How does Drupal CMS help structure your site?

What’s possible for your content model is limited – or expanded – by the tool you use to build your site. Drupal CMS provides best-in-class tools for building out your content model and bringing your content to life. Here’s some key Drupal CMS terms and features you should know about as you think through the possibilities of your content model.

Content types

Content types are like templates for different types of content you’ll create, like articles, wine tours, or testimonials. Each content type has its own set of fields (e.g., title, image, description).

Fields

Fields are the building blocks of your content types. Fields store specific pieces of information like text, images, dates, or references to other content.

Example:Tour content type could have fields like Tour nameRegionPrice, and Description.

Taxonomy

Taxonomy helps you group and categorize content. A taxonomy consists of a vocabulary which contains taxonomy terms. A reference field can be set up to point to a certain vocabulary, so that the content editor can choose from terms in that vocabulary when categorizing a content item.

Example: You can use taxonomy to organize tours by region (e.g., Napa Valley, Willamette Valley) or type of wine (e.g., red, white, sparkling).

Entities

Drupal organizes its data types into entities. You’ll encounter this concept when you need to connect or reference different types of data.

Example: Content types, taxonomy terms, users, and even media files are all types of entities.

Entity reference

An entity reference (or simply reference) is a field type that allows you to link one piece of content to another. This allows you to connect content of different types.

Example: A wine tour can be linked to a specific region or include a featured image. The region field can use a wine region taxonomy vocabulary, allowing the wine tour content editor to choose a region from a list. Images can also be added to content as references, enabling you to maintain a media library and avoid duplicate images.

Views

Views is a powerful tool that lets you create lists or displays of your content. Views are flexible and allow you to filter, sort, and present content dynamically.

Example: A page that lists all wine tours, and allows the visitor to filter the list by region.

Media library

The media library is a central place to manage your images, videos, and other special files like documents or SVGs. Use the media library to find and reuse media uploaded to your site.

Example: Add an image through the media library, then you’ll be able to reference it in any content that has a media field.

Menus are used to create navigation links for your website.

Example:Wine tours menu item that links to a page listing all tours.

Blocks

Blocks are reusable content containers that can be placed in specific regions of your site.

Example: A content display of two upcoming featured wine tours displayed in the sidebar.

Pathauto

Pathauto is a built-in module that automatically generates SEO-friendly URL aliases based on your content structure. When editing content, look for the URL alias section in the sidebar to view or edit the automatically generated URL. 

Example: A wine tour named “Napa Valley Experience” could automatically get a URL like /tours/napa-valley-experience.

Content moderation and workflows

Content moderation and workflow tools allow you to manage drafts, approvals, and publishing processes for your content, making it easier to collaborate with a team.

Example: Copy for wine tour content needs to be reviewed by the winery owner before it can be published.

Responsive image styles

Responsive image styles enable you to optimize images for different screen sizes and devices, saving you the trouble of manually resizing images for mobile or desktop. Responsive images allow you to ensure images are visually appealing and pages are more optimized for performance. Drupal CMS comes with preconfigured responsive image styles, or you can add your own.

Example: Automatically display a smaller image for smaller screens, only displaying the largest image on a large screen.

Why these are useful

  • Content types, fields, and taxonomy help you structure your content logically.
  • Reference fields and views (relationships) allow you to connect and display related content dynamically (e.g., listing tours by region or type).
  • The media library and menus make managing visual and navigational elements intuitive.
  • Pathauto and content moderation simplify SEO and content management processes.

Responsive image styles keep the site visually appealing and faster to load on all devices.

Example content model: wine tour site

Let’s take a look at an example content model for a wine tour site.

Content types

  • Wine Tour
    • Purpose: Represents an individual tour offered by the business.
    • Fields:
      • Tour name (Text (plain))
      • Description (Text (plain, long))
      • Content (Formatted text)
      • Featured Image (Media)
      • Tour duration (Text or Number, e.g., "2 hours")
      • Price (Decimal or Text)
      • Availability dates (Date range)
      • Region (Reference to Wine region taxonomy)
      • Included wineries (Reference to Winery content type, multiple values)
      • Booking link (Link)
  • Winery
    • Purpose: Represents the wineries featured on the tours.
    • Fields:
      • Winery Name (Text (plain))
      • Description (Text (plain, long))
      • Content (Formatted text)
      • Featured Image (Media)
      • Location (Address or Geofield)
      • Website URL (Link)
      • Region (Reference to Wine region taxonomy)
      • Wine types offered (Reference to Wine type taxonomy)
  • Blog Post
    • Purpose: Share updates, wine tips, or regional insights.
    • Fields:
      • Title (Text (plain))
      • Description (Text (plain, long))
      • Content (Formatted text)
      • Featured Image (Media)
      • Published Date (Date)
      • Related Wine Tours (Reference other Wine tour content)
  • Testimonial
    • Purpose: Showcase customer feedback.
    • Fields:
      • Customer Name (Text (plain))
      • Testimonial Text (Long Text)
      • Related Tour (Entity Reference to Wine Tour content type)

Taxonomies

  1. Wine region
    • Example terms: Napa Valley, Willamette Valley, Sonoma, Rioja
  2. Wine type
    • Example terms: Red, White, Rosé, Sparkling
  3. Tour category
    • Example terms: Private tours, Group tours, Weekend tours

Relationships

  • Wine tours content are linked to one or more Wineries content.
  • Wineries and Wine tours content are categorized by Wine region taxonomy.
  • Wine types categorize the wines offered at each Winery.
  • Blog posts can reference specific Wine tours as related content.

Dynamic displays (powered by Views)

  1. Tour listing page
    • Lists tour name, featured image, price, duration, and booking link
    • Filtered by region or tour category
  2. Winery directory
    • Lists winery name, location, and wine types offered
    • Filtered by wine region
  3. Featured blog section
    • Displays recent blog posts on the homepage with title, image, and excerpt.
  4. Testimonial carousel
    • Showcases testimonials linked to their respective tours.
  5. Region pages
    • Displays tours and wineries within a specific wine region.
    • Filtered by wine region.

Additional tips

  • Use Responsive image styles to ensure images look great across devices.
  • Create Pathauto patterns for SEO-friendly URLs:
    • /tours/{tour-name}
    • /wineries/{winery-name}
    • /blog/{blog-title}
  • Use Content Moderation to manage drafts and approvals for blog posts and updates.

Create a Winery Owner role with permission to edit only their own Winery content type to allow owners to manage their own listing.

Next steps

Let’s look at content modeling from different lenses such as layout, views, optimizing for SEO and social media, and editorial workflows. By considering each of these perspectives, you can ensure that your content model is complete and your site will meet your needs and goals.

Wrap-up

Content modeling is the process of organizing your website’s content to ensure it meets the needs of both your audience and your team. It involves defining your site’s goals, identifying the types of content you’ll manage, detailing the specific fields for each content type, and establishing relationships between them. A well-planned content model improves the user experience, streamlines content management, and provides a solid foundation for scaling your site. 

Drupal CMS offers powerful tools to support content modeling, including content types, fields, taxonomy, references, and dynamic displays with Views. These features make it easy to create structured, connected, and visually appealing websites while simplifying navigation, SEO, and editorial workflows. By thoughtfully designing your content model, you can create a site that is flexible, scalable, and tailored to your unique goals.

Additional resources

The art of content modeling is a skill that takes practice, and goes beyond what’s covered in this guide. This list includes additional resources to help you continue learning and developing your content modeling skills.

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