Universal principles and practical strategies for scalable content models

In Part 1, we explored why content modelling deserves serious investment during sprint zero, and how early architectural shortcuts compound into technical debt. Now let's examine the specific principles and strategies that create robust, maintainable content models across any CMS platform.

Universal principles for structured, scalable content models

Regardless of which CMS you're using, it's always the same principles that lead to robust, maintainable content models. Let me break down the approaches that work across platforms.

Composition vs inheritance

Modern content modelling favours composition over deep inheritance hierarchies. Instead of creating monolithic content types with dozens of fields, you build discrete, reusable components that can be composed into larger structures.

The monolithic approach (please, don't do this):

Product Page contains:

·      Title (text)

·      Description (rich text)

·      Hero image

·      Hero …

·      Feature 1 heading

·      Feature 1 …

·      Feature 2 heading

·      Feature 2 …

·      (continues for 50+ individual fields...)

The compositional approach (do this):

Product Page contains:

·      Title (text)

·      Description (rich text)

·      Hero section (allows a reusable Hero Component)

·      Features list (allows multiple reusable Feature Components)

·      Content modules (links to various reusable Content Modules)

Hero Component contains:

·      Heading (text)

·      Subheading (rich text)

·      Call to action button (links to a reusable CTA Component)

·      Background image or video (links to Media)

Feature Component contains:

·      Heading (text)

·      Description (rich text)

·      Icon (links to Media)

·      Display style (choose from: default, highlighted, or compact)

CTA Component contains:

·      Button text (text)

·      Link destination (URL)

·      Button style (choose from: primary, secondary, or tertiary)

·      Tracking identifier (text)

This compositional approach means your Hero component references a CTA, rather than embedding it. When CTA requirements change (and trust me, they change more often than you'd think), you modify the CTA Component definition, and all Hero components inherit that change.

Semantic vs. Presentational Modelling

This is perhaps the most critical principle, especially with the rise of headless CMS and omnichannel delivery. Your content model should describe WHAT the content is, not HOW it looks.

Presentational modelling (wrong):

Card Component contains:

·      Title (text)

·      Description (rich text)

·      Background colour (colour picker), introducing unlimited potential for editors to cause accessibility issues

·      Padding top and Padding bottom (number). By leaving these as open variables, the editors can create visual experiences vastly different to others across the site

·      Border radius (number). Values like this should really be uniform and constrained to a select set of values across the site

Semantic modelling (correct):

Card Component contains:

·      Title (text)

·      Description (rich text)

·      Media (allows a Media item)

·      Display variant (choose from: standard, featured, or compact) ✓ Semantic, controllable and scalable

·      Emphasis level (choose from: normal, high, or critical) ✓ Semantic, controllable and scalable

·      Spacing (choose from: none, small, medium, or large) ✓ Semantic, controllable and scalable

·      Category (links to Category content) ✓ Semantic, controllable and scalable

The semantic model describes the content's meaning and importance, while your presentation layer (CSS, React components, mobile app views, etc) determines how it renders. This separation enables:

·      Streamlined editor experience

·      True omnichannel content (web, mobile app, digital signage, voice interfaces)

·      Design system changes without content migration

·      A/B testing of presentation without content duplication

·      Proper separation between content team and design team responsibilities

·      Future white labelling is made easier from a CMS standpoint

Practical recommendations for your next project

Based on everything we've covered, here are concrete recommendations for content modelling success, regardless of your CMS choice:

Before you create a single content type:

1.Map your domain: What are the actual entities in your business domain? Not pages and blocks: products, articles, events, people. Model those.

2.Define your composition strategy: Which content structures should be reusable components? Which should be top-level entries? What's the hierarchy?

3.Establish naming conventions: Content types, fields and relationships, everything should follow a clear naming scheme. This pays dividends for maintainability, testing, and consistency.

4.Plan for localisation: Even if you're not multi-language now, model as if you will be. It's much harder to retrofit.

5.Consider your rendering targets: Web only? Mobile app? Digital signage? Voice interfaces? Your content model needs to serve all of them without presentation coupling.

6.Document your design system constraints: What variants exist? What styles are allowed? Encode these as enumerations and validation rules, not documentation.

What does all this mean for my organisation?

Content modelling in modern CMS platforms isn't just about creating schemas or defining types. It's about architecting your entire digital experience with foresight, understanding how today's decisions impact tomorrow's capabilities.

The introduction of headless CMS, visual editing tools, and AI-powered content generation doesn't make content modelling less important, quite the opposite, it makes it more critical. These tools amplify both good and bad architectural decisions. A well-structured content model enables visual editing to shine and helps AI generate meaningful, on-brand content. A poorly structured model creates friction at every turn.

So, the next time you're pressured to "just get something working" or "just build the Figma", remember in the world of content modelling, fast is slow, and slow is fast. Invest the time upfront. Your future self (and your Content teams) will thank you.

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