Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Website Planner

🎯 Role Definition

The Website Planner is a strategic, cross-functional role responsible for defining website structure, content strategy, user journeys, and technical requirements to deliver measurable business outcomes. This role partners with product, design, content, engineering, marketing, and analytics teams to translate business goals into site architecture, feature roadmaps, and prioritized delivery plans. The Website Planner focuses on discoverability, conversion optimization, accessibility, analytics instrumentation, and maintaining a scalable, maintainable site ecosystem.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Web Producer or Web Coordinator with hands-on CMS experience and content governance exposure.
UX Designer or Information Architect focused on user flows, wireframes, and IA.
Content Strategist or SEO Specialist who has managed site migrations or content programs.

Advancement To:

Senior Website Planner / Lead Website Strategist
Digital Product Manager or Head of Web / Head of Digital Experience
Director of Content Strategy or Director of UX & Site Experience

Lateral Moves:

UX Researcher or UX Design Lead
Technical SEO Manager or Web Analytics Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead the definition and continuous improvement of the website information architecture and navigation models, creating clear sitemaps, taxonomies, and navigation systems that support discoverability, user journeys, and conversion goals across desktop and mobile.
Develop and maintain the website roadmap and release plan in partnership with product, design, marketing, and engineering teams; prioritize initiatives by business value, technical effort, and user impact.
Create detailed site requirements, epics, and user stories with acceptance criteria to guide designers and developers, ensuring alignment to business objectives and measurable KPIs.
Produce wireframes, low-fidelity prototypes, and annotated page templates that translate audience needs into practical page-level designs and content blocks ready for implementation.
Own content strategy and governance for the site: lead content audits, identify content gaps and duplication, define content lifecycle, and set editorial standards and metadata guidelines for consistent content publishing.
Define SEO requirements (technical SEO, on-page optimization, metadata, structured data/schema), and partner with SEO specialists and engineers to implement, test, and measure organic performance improvements.
Set up and maintain analytics and tracking frameworks (GA4, Google Tag Manager, event tracking, conversion funnels); define and monitor KPIs such as traffic, engagement, conversion rate, bounce rate, and lifetime value.
Plan and run iterative experimentation (A/B and multivariate testing) on key pages and flows to increase conversion, engagement, and retention, and translate results into prioritized product changes.
Drive CMS platform strategy and governance: evaluate CMS options, define content models, oversee template and component design, and enforce workflow, review, and publish policies for consistent output.
Lead stakeholder workshops and discovery sessions to capture business objectives, audience segments, and success metrics; synthesize findings into prioritized feature and content plans.
Coordinate cross-functional execution including developer handoffs, QA acceptance, launch checklists, rollback plans, and post-launch performance reviews to ensure timely, high-quality releases.
Define accessibility requirements and ensure product decisions meet WCAG standards; coordinate audits, remediation plans, and accessibility testing with QA and design teams.
Develop and own global/localization strategies for multi-region or multi-language sites, including content translation workflows, hreflang implementation, and localization testing.
Oversee site migrations and platform transitions: plan redirects, map legacy content to new structure, mitigate SEO risk, and build rollback/validation plans to preserve organic traffic and rankings.
Maintain and document design systems or component libraries as they relate to page templates and content modules; ensure components deliver consistent UX and support marketing/feature needs.
Collaborate with performance engineering to optimize page speed, image delivery, and front-end rendering to improve Core Web Vitals and overall user experience.
Translate market research, user behavior data, and competitive analysis into prioritized initiatives that improve conversion funnels, reduce friction, and increase average order value or lead quality.
Create and maintain stakeholder-facing artifacts: site maps, journey maps, PRDs, release notes, onboarding guides for editors, and executive dashboards reporting website performance.
Provide editorial and UX review of marketing campaigns, landing pages, and product pages to ensure messaging alignment, on-brand experiences, and effective conversion paths.
Manage external vendors, agencies, and contractors supporting site design, development, SEO, or content initiatives; define scopes, SLAs, and acceptance criteria and measure vendor performance.
Ensure regulatory compliance as it affects site content and user flows (privacy, cookie consent, industry-specific disclosures), working with legal and privacy teams on implementation and documentation.
Provide training and hands-on support to content authors, product owners, and regional teams on CMS best practices, metadata, SEO basics, and content governance processes.
Monitor emerging web technologies and industry best practices (headless CMS, PWA, server-side rendering, personalization engines) and recommend adoption strategies aligned to business needs.
Conduct qualitative and quantitative user testing on new templates, navigation changes, and checkout/lead flows; synthesize findings into actionable recommendations and prioritized backlog items.
Establish and enforce release and rollback procedures, content freeze policies, and production monitoring to minimize downtime and maintain content integrity during high-traffic events.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Assist marketing and product teams with landing page briefs, ensuring briefs include UX, SEO, analytics, and accessibility requirements.
Participate in governance councils and cross-functional committees to align website strategy with global digital programs.
Provide periodic site health audits and prioritized remediation plans for content, links, redirects, and technical issues.
Help define monetization and personalization strategies (recommendation engines, targeted content blocks, dynamic CTAs) in collaboration with analytics and marketing automation teams.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Information architecture: sitemap creation, taxonomy design, navigation modelling, and content hierarchies.
Wireframing and prototyping tools: Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Balsamiq — create annotated wireframes and interactive prototypes for stakeholders and dev teams.
Content strategy and CMS expertise: content audits, content models, editorial workflows, and experience with WordPress, Drupal, Contentful, or headless CMS platforms.
Technical SEO: metadata strategy, technical on-page optimization, schema/structured data, hreflang, canonicalization, and crawl budget considerations.
Web analytics and tracking: GA4, Google Tag Manager, event tracking, funnel analysis, and dashboarding tools (Looker Studio/Tableau/Power BI).
A/B testing and experimentation platforms: Optimizely, VWO, Google Optimize (or equivalent), and statistical interpretation of test results.
Basic front-end literacy: HTML, CSS, responsive design principles, and familiarity with front-end frameworks and CMS templating.
Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1+ principles, semantic HTML, ARIA basics, and experience specifying accessibility requirements.
Project & release management tools: Jira, Asana, Trello, Confluence, and ability to create roadmaps and sprint-level plans.
Performance optimization knowledge: Core Web Vitals, image optimization, lazy loading strategies, and CDN configuration basics.
Data-informed decision-making: ability to interpret analytics and A/B test results to generate product recommendations.
API and integration understanding: headless CMS, content APIs, and common integrations with marketing automation platforms.

Soft Skills

Strong stakeholder management: align cross-functional partners, negotiate priorities, and present roadmap trade-offs clearly to senior leadership.
Clear written and verbal communication: create concise PRDs, briefs, and executive summaries; lead workshops and present findings.
Strategic thinking and business acumen: translate business objectives into measurable website outcomes and KPIs.
Collaboration and facilitation: run discovery sessions, working groups, and ensure cross-team continuity from discovery to launch.
Analytical mindset: comfortable with quantitative and qualitative data to prioritize work and measure impact.
Problem-solving and prioritization: make pragmatic decisions under constraints and surface trade-offs effectively.
Attention to detail: ensure content, metadata, and templates meet quality and compliance standards.
Empathy and user-centric approach: advocate for user needs while balancing business requirements.
Adaptability: manage shifting priorities in fast-paced digital programs and during large-scale launches or migrations.
Mentorship and training: support junior planners, content authors, and regional teams in best practices and tooling.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree or equivalent in a relevant field (Design, HCI, Information Science, Computer Science, Marketing, Communications) or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Digital Marketing, or related discipline.
Certifications in SEO, Analytics (GA4), Accessibility (IAAP), or Product Management are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Information Architecture / Library Science
Interaction or UX Design
Computer Science / Web Development
Marketing, Communications, or Journalism

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3–7 years of progressive experience working on website strategy, content planning, UX, or digital product teams.

Preferred: 5+ years with demonstrable experience leading site architecture projects, CMS implementations or migrations, SEO-informed redesigns, and cross-functional launch execution. Experience in e-commerce, B2B lead generation, or multi-region site programs is highly desirable.