Marketing Operations • Content Strategy • SEO

“Source of Truth” Marketing: Why Your Website Comes First (and How Every Channel Works Off It)

Your website is the one canonical place where the most current version of your information lives. Every other channel—email, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google Business Profile—links back to it or pulls from it. Update the website once, and the entire ecosystem stays consistent, searchable, and measurable.

Reading time: 6–8 minutes ·

What “Source of Truth = Website” Means

  • The official, up-to-date version of your content (announcements, events, services, pricing, policies, downloads) lives on your site.
  • Email and social either pull from the site (RSS → newsletter) or link to the site (teaser → canonical URL).
  • If something changes, you edit the website only. Social gets a brief “Updated—see link” comment; the link always resolves to the newest details.

Why Do It This Way?

1) Consistency

Change it once (on the site) and you’re done. No conflicting dates, files, or prices floating around multiple platforms.

2) Findability

Webpages are searchable, linkable, and archived. Social posts get buried; a well-optimized page can be found months later via Google.

3) Control

You own the layout, media files, and wording on your domain. No algorithmic truncation or format surprises.

4) SEO

Publishing announcements and evergreen resources on your site lets them earn rankings and backlinks, compounding visibility.

The Canonical Flow (simple, repeatable)

Visual flow:

Website post / event / page → Newsletter (RSS auto-pull) → Social (one action: teaser + link) → Google Business Profile (teaser + link)

Text version: Website (canonical) → Email (pull) → Social (teaser + link)

What Goes on the Website First?

  • Announcements & Alerts → News/Blog post (publish date + “Updated on” stamp)
  • Events → Events entry (date, time, location, map, registration CTA)
  • Resources / Policies / Downloads → Pages (versioned PDFs with clear titles)
  • Service Changes / Pricing / Hours → Service pages (include what changed and why)

What Goes on Social?

A concise preview (1–2 sentences), a compelling image, and the link to the website item.

If details change: Edit the website only. Then add “Updated—see link” as a comment under the social post. The canonical URL always shows the latest.

Naming, URL & On-Page SEO Conventions

  • Titles: Clear, query-friendly (e.g., “Holiday Hours & Closures for [Business], [Year]”).
  • Slugs: short, stable, lowercase (e.g., /news/holiday-hours-2025/).
  • H1/H2s: one H1 per page; use H2/H3 for structure and scannability.
  • Intro paragraph: 1–2 sentences naturally using the primary keyword.
  • Internal links: Link from related service pages and pillar content to the new item.
  • Schema: Use Article/Event/FAQ schema where relevant.
  • Media: Descriptive alt text and filenames (e.g., bulk-trash-map-sept12.png).
  • Canonical: Set a canonical URL (avoid duplicates from tags/categories).
  • “Updated on” note when details change.

Reusable Example

Website news post:
Title: “Bulk Trash Day Moved to September 12”
Slug: /news/bulk-trash-day-moved-sept-12/
Body highlights: What changed, map/route, who’s affected, date/time, contact.

Email (auto via RSS): Weekly digest includes the post title, thumbnail, and a “Read more” link.

Social (one action across FB/IG):
“Bulk Trash Day moved to 9/12. See details & route map ➜ [link]”
If it changes again, edit the post; comment “Updated—see link.”

Operational Playbook

  1. Create the structures: News/Blog category, Events system/CPT, Resources area for policies/downloads.
  2. Automate the newsletter: Mailchimp/Constant Contact RSS campaign pulling from your feed (weekly or monthly).
  3. Standardize social: Use Meta Business Suite/Buffer to post a short teaser + link to FB & IG (and optionally LinkedIn/X). Reuse the teaser for Google Business Profile posts.
  4. Versioning & updates: Keep downloads in a single /resources/ area. Update the page; keep filename/URL stable when possible (or redirect old to new).
  5. Measure & improve: Add UTM tags on email/social links (e.g., ?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=announcement). Track in GA4 and Search Console. Watch organic impressions, CTR, time on page, and conversions.

Quick Setup Checklist

  • News category + Events system in WordPress
  • RSS → Mailchimp automated campaign
  • Social scheduler templates (teaser + link)
  • Google Business Profile posting workflow
  • On-page SEO template (title, slug, H1/H2s, internal links, schema, alt text)
  • Redirect/Canonical policy & an “Updated on” convention
  • UTM standards + GA4/Search Console dashboards
  • Editorial rule: If it’s worth telling people, it gets a page/post/event on the website first.

FAQ

Can we paste the full text on social instead of linking?

You can, but you’ll lose searchability, analytics, and canonical control. Best practice is a short teaser plus a link to the website item.

We already send emails—why use RSS to Mailchimp?

RSS keeps your newsletter consistent and low-effort. Publish once on the site; your digest pulls it in automatically.

What if information changes after we’ve posted to social?

Edit the website post only. Then add “Updated—details at the same link” under the social post. The canonical page always shows the latest.