Content & publishing
What is a content model?
A content model defines the kinds of information a website manages, the fields each kind needs and the relationships between them. It describes how content is organized, so repeated information can be maintained consistently and used in different places.
By Plainview WebReviewed
The meaning
A content type is one repeatable kind of information, such as a workshop, article or instructor. Its fields describe what belongs in each entry: an article might have a title, summary, body and author. Relationships connect entries, such as several articles referring to the same author profile.
The model describes the information; a visual template decides how to display it. One workshop entry could supply a compact listing card and a detailed page with a different layout. A CMS can turn the model into editing fields, while the website determines which fields appear in each view.
An example
Example: a fictional workshop publisher
Workshop
Title: text
Start time: date and time
Summary: text
Instructor: reference to an Instructor entry
Instructor
Name: text
Biography: text
Portrait: imageThis fictional publisher offers several workshops led by the same instructor. Each workshop points to one instructor entry instead of keeping a separate copy of the biography. Where the website uses that shared entry, a published biography update can supply the new text without editing every workshop individually; when it appears depends on the site's publishing and caching setup.
A workshop still keeps its own title, start time and summary. Those details belong to the session rather than the instructor. The outline is a planning example, not configuration that can be pasted unchanged into any CMS.
When it matters
A model makes recurring editing decisions explicit. It identifies which details should be collected, which values need a common format and which information should be shared. Required fields and other validation rules can help editors complete an entry, but they cannot establish that its claims are accurate.
Try the proposed model with real examples before filling the whole site. Check a typical entry and an awkward one, such as a workshop with two instructors or no confirmed date. Adjust the structure deliberately rather than putting important exceptions into an unrelated text field.
A common confusion
A content model is not a page layout or search markup
Changing a card's colors or moving an image changes its presentation. Adding a second instructor relationship changes the content model. The model may also be called a content schema, but that does not mean the site automatically outputs Schema.org structured data for search engines. That markup is a separate implementation using relevant published content.