Things to consider before doing a content audit
Often when I start a new freelance content project, I'm asked to do an audit of the content that already exists. The first question I usually ask here is: why? Not because I'm being difficult, but because having firm objectives is the key to completing a successful content audit.
I thought I'd share some of my experience and give you a broad overview of what a content audit is and why you should consider doing it.
Why do a content audit?
A content audit enables you to see what web content is and is not working and allows you to remove poor performing and irrelevant content that might be bringing your search ranking down.
Many of the content audits I've led tend to be because a business is redeveloping its website and its content needs a refresh. At the start of any content project, I ask these questions:
What content can we absolutely not get rid of?
This is a question that's often answered by an in-house team with "we need to keep everything." Here's some advice: you don't. Rather, you need to be savvier with your site structure and better understand what your audience actually wants.
What content can we remove straightaway?
By using analytics tools and talking to stakeholders about priorities and future plans, this can be a time-consuming part of an audit but so worth it when you realise you can remove 50% of the site as it stands!
What content is no longer relevant?
Consider your target audience and find out what online users are searching for. I also use Screaming Frog to crawl, analyse and audit a site from an SEO perspective.
Does this content reflect the right tone of voice?
Tone of voice should form part of your wider content strategy which, if you're doing a content overhaul project well, you should set out before you start your audit. If you are creating a new tone of voice, make sure your wider team are fully informed, understand it and are on board with plans. This will make the overall redevelopment process much more straightforward further down the line.
Can we re-purpose any old content, rather than removing it completely?
If a topic is still relevant, and is still being searched for, but isn't performing well on your site, consider presenting the information in a different way.
Doing the content audit
Once you're clear on why you are doing an audit and have considered the questions above, it's a good idea to note down your project goals. I tend to use Google Analytics or Omniture for stats, but there are plenty of products out there just waiting to be tested.
Analysing your content
Now the fun can really start! The analysis is such an important stage of the audit, as it can drive the direction of your site in the future and often raises questions that you might not have considered earlier in the process.
I've been working in digital content for over a decade and while working style has certainly developed, when it comes to content analysis, spreadsheets have remained my best friend. Once you have each piece of content laid out on a spreadsheet, here are some more questions to consider:
Do these pages help to reach your overall goal for your site? If the answer is ‘no’, can those pages be removed?
Is this piece of content relevant?
Does this content need a tone of voice update?
Do these pages need to be optimised more effectively? If you have any articles about popular topics, but are not getting good page views, these are the ones to focus on initially
What additional content do you need to reach your goals?
How can content interlink? Encourage the audience to move around your site with strong CTAs
If you feel a little overwhelmed by this information, a good place to start is by identifying which content can be removed and highlighting where new content is needed. This will help you to structure the next stage of the project.
Hopefully you've found these tips useful, if you'd like to discuss it further or need any help creating content and completing a content audit on your website, email me at katy@katyratican.com.
This article originally appeared on LinkedIn.
