How Following DRY Coding Best Practices Can Improve Content Modeling

When developers talk about writing clean, maintainable code, one of the first principles they follow is DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself)—the idea that every piece of knowledge should have a single, unambiguous representation in a system. This fundamental concept helps reduce redundancy, improve efficiency, and ensure consistency across an application. But DRY isn’t just for coding—it’s just as critical in content modeling for headless CMS platforms.

In this article, we’ll explore how the DRY principle applies to content modeling, ensuring that content structures are reusable, scalable, and maintainable. We’ll discuss the importance of a Single Source of Truth (SSoT), how to avoid duplication in a headless CMS, and best practices for designing content models that support omnichannel delivery.

Whether you’re building a Contentful schema or architecting content for any headless CMS, understanding how to structure content like a developer structures code will lead to a future-proof content architecture.

Although the goal of this article is to help developers understand how to implement DRY in Content Modeling, even if you are not a developer, it will help you better understand how content modeling works and how to create scalable content models.

Let's start by defining the DRY principle in coding.

As was stated above, DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) is a fundamental principle in software development that aims to reduce duplication in code. The idea is simple: every piece of knowledge in a system should have a single, unambiguous representation.

Some of the benefits of DRY code include:

• Improved maintainability: Update code in one place instead of tracking down duplicates.

• Fewer errors: Less duplication means fewer places for inconsistencies to sneak in.

• Better readability: Concise structures are easier to understand.

• Greater reusability: Repeated elements can be abstracted into reusable components.

Sound familiar?

Let's explore how DRY can be mapped to Content Modeling.

In content modeling, the Single Source of Truth (SSoT) plays the same role DRY plays in software development. It’s about structuring content in a way that minimizes duplication, ensures consistency across all channels, and makes content easier to manage and scale over time.

1. Reusable Content Types

Just as developers create reusable functions, in content modeling, we create reusable content types.

Example: If you have an "Author" component used in blogs, case studies, and podcasts—don’t create separate fields in each content type. Instead, build a dedicated Author content type and reference it wherever needed.

This ensures you’re not repeating the same fields over and over—and when something changes (like an author bio or headshot), you only update it once.

2. Linked Entries and Modular Design

Instead of hardcoding structured data into multiple places, use linked entries to keep content centralized. Think of linked entries as the content equivalent of calling a reusable function.

Example: Have a "Call to Action" module that appears on multiple pages? Model it once and link it everywhere. That’s DRY in action—manage it from a single place, and any updates cascade through automatically.

3. Structured Taxonomies and Categorization

Just like a well-organized function library, content taxonomies should be centralized and structured.

Example: Instead of creating a "Category" field with manual text input on each blog post, create a Category content type. This allows you to manage categories globally—making sure they’re consistent, typo-free, and easily reusable across other content types like events or resources.

4. Avoiding Field Duplication

It’s tempting to copy and paste the same field structure across different content types. But just like duplicated code, this becomes a nightmare to maintain. If multiple content types need the same group of fields (like metadata, SEO fields, or contact info), model them once and reuse them through references or shared components if your CMS allows.

The Benefits of DRY Content Models

Just like with code, applying DRY to your content modeling results in:

• Consistency: Content behaves the same way across pages and channels.

• Scalability: Models adapt easily to new requirements.

• Efficiency: Authors and devs work faster with clean structures.

• Future-proofing: Content is reusable across websites, apps, voice, and more.

In Closing

Whether you’re a developer or content architect, treating your content model like a codebase, following the principles of DRY can make a huge difference in how your content scales and performs. A well-structured content model isn’t just cleaner; it’s smarter. It reduces redundancy, boosts maintainability, and sets you up for omnichannel success.

Next time you’re designing a content model, ask yourself: "Am I repeating myself?" If the answer is yes, …it might be time to DRY things up!