How to Conduct a Content Audit – and Why You Should

Content audits are a beneficial course of to provide help to establish weaknesses and alternatives in your current library of content material property and your total content material technique. 

For instance, a content material audit can assist you establish content material property that may be improved or repurposed. Conducting content material audits additionally permits you to maintain observe of your content material and related content material analytics over time and plan and set up your content material technique extra successfully.

Following key steps and finest practices streamlines the content material audit course of, making it extra environment friendly whereas additionally offering you with clear, actionable insights to inform your content material technique.  

What is a content material audit? 

A content material audit is a course of for figuring out, organizing, and analyzing your web site content material. Content audits are used to decide in case your content is assembly your enterprise goals and uncover alternatives to leverage content material to meet your objectives. 

A content material audit isn’t the identical as a content material stock, though a content material stock is a essential step within the content material audit course of. While a content material stock paperwork all of your current content material property, a content material audit takes it additional to uncover content material gaps and alternatives for enchancment. A content material audit helps you propose your content strategy. 

Why are you conducting a content material audit? 

There are a number of causes to conduct a content material audit. You would possibly need to decide in case your content material is aligned along with your viewers’s wants, as an example. You may conduct a content material audit to eradicate wasteful spending and fine-tune your content material advertising and marketing or search engine marketing technique. A content material audit is also a great way to establish content material property which you can enhance or repurpose to get extra traction out of your earlier efforts. 

Through a content material audit, you’ll be able to create an organized view of your content material and associated content material and search engine marketing analytics to monitor your outcomes and observe your total effectiveness or the effectiveness of distinct content material property. A content material audit helps you identify a baseline so as to make steady enhancements to your content material advertising and marketing or SEO content strategy over time and measure the affect. 

Types of content material audits 

Content audits are usually categorized in certainly one of two methods: by the extensiveness of the audit or primarily based in your objectives. 

Full content material audit 

A full content material audit is the method of taking a full content material asset stock, organizing your content material property, and analyzing all kinds of content material in your web site. 

Partial content material audit 

A partial content material audit sometimes focuses on organizing and analyzing a particular kind of content material, corresponding to weblog content material, social media content material, or content material associated to a particular area of interest or subject. A partial content material audit may deal with content material created or revealed throughout a particular time interval, corresponding to within the final six months or in a calendar yr. 

Content pattern 

A content material pattern organizes and analyzes a choice of instance content material moderately than your full content material asset library. This kind of content material audit can embrace instance property throughout all classes and sorts or, comparable to a partial content material audit, can deal with a subset of content material. The key distinction between a partial content material audit and a content material pattern is that even when it’s targeted on a subset of content material, solely a choice of instance property is evaluated. 

It’s meant as a less-intensive content material audit that may present some insights into the efficiency of your content material technique as a complete. If a content material pattern audit identifies shortcomings, you would possibly progress to a full content material audit for extra detailed insights. 

Content audits can be described primarily based in your objectives. In this case, there are two major kinds of content material audits: content material advertising and marketing audits and search engine marketing content material audits. 

Content advertising and marketing audit 

A content material advertising and marketing audit includes cataloging all current content material property and associated knowledge corresponding to content material kind, location, phrase depend, web page visits, the time guests spend on-page studying every asset, and social media engagement metrics. This kind of audit helps you establish the matters that resonate along with your viewers so you’ll be able to dedicate extra sources to creating extra property focusing on these preferences. 

Screenshot by way of Alexa

For occasion, in case your content material advertising and marketing audit reveals that your viewers spends extra time studying long-form weblog posts than different kinds of content material, you’ll be able to establish matters that you simply haven’t lined on this format and create new property within the format your viewers engages with most.

If your area of interest is advertising and marketing and your audit reveals that content material targeted on Instagram advertising and marketing will get extra engagement than different matters, you’ll be able to allocate sources to creating extra property targeted on Instagram.  

You may allocate sources to bettering your current content material property primarily based on the outcomes of your content material advertising and marketing audit. For instance, should you discover that your viewers spends extra time studying long-form weblog posts, you’ll be able to establish associated short-form weblog posts that may be mixed to create long-form property or develop your short-form content material to create long-form content material that gives extra worth to your viewers. 

In brief, a content material advertising and marketing audit helps you identify what content material matters, sorts, and lengths your viewers have interaction with most to inform future content material efforts. These insights could be mixed to fine-tune your content material advertising and marketing technique.

Building on the Instagram instance above, you would possibly uncover that your viewers engages with Instagram marketing-related content material greater than different matters, however in addition they want long-form weblog content material over short-form posts and extra technical content material corresponding to white papers. In this case, you’ll be able to deal with creating extra long-form content material on Instagram advertising and marketing to cater exactly to your viewers’s preferences. 

search engine marketing content material audit 

An search engine marketing content material audit includes cataloging not solely your content material property however their related key phrases, the place every publish ranks within the search engine outcomes pages (SERPs) for goal key phrases, backlinks, bounce fee, time spent on web page, site visitors sources, conversions, and different search engine marketing metrics. 

There are dozens of metrics you possibly can collect and monitor for an search engine marketing content material audit, so the set of metrics you deal with might range relying in your particular objectives. For occasion, should you’re aiming to construct backlinks, you would possibly primarily deal with metrics like site visitors sources and current backlinks. 

An search engine marketing content material audit helps you identify the place to make modifications to enhance rankings for goal key phrases. Your audit might reveal that you simply’re not rating within the first 5 pages of the SERPs for certainly one of your model’s major goal key phrases, permitting you to establish content material gaps and allocate sources to creating new property (or bettering current property) to higher goal these goal key phrases. 

If your audit reveals that you’ve current property focusing on these key phrases however these property have few backlinks, you would possibly resolve to enhance these current property and conduct an outreach marketing campaign to construct extra backlinks to these content material property.

In some instances, you would possibly discover that a sure kind of content material asset ranks higher than different content material sorts, so you’ll be able to repurpose current content material or create new property in that format to enhance your model’s visibility within the SERPs.  

For the needs of an preliminary search engine marketing content material audit, it’s useful to collect as a lot knowledge as you’ll be able to, as your objectives might change over time. While constructing backlinks is perhaps your predominant focus at the moment, subsequent yr you is perhaps specializing in bettering conversions. You’ll thank your self later for taking the time to doc all of the important search engine marketing metrics about your content material property so you’ll be able to examine your knowledge in opposition to this complete baseline sooner or later. 

How to conduct a content material audit 

There are a number of steps concerned in conducting a content material audit. While a few of these steps are time-consuming, conducting a content material audit isn’t troublesome while you’re armed with the appropriate instruments. 

1. Catalog your content material property

The first step in conducting a content material audit is to catalog your current content material property by finding and documenting every bit of content material. Basically, you’re creating an inventory of your content. Gathering this data in a spreadsheet is among the mostly used strategies, and a spreadsheet can show helpful later within the course of as properly. 

If you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, there are content material audit templates you need to use or customise to facilitate the cataloging course of. There are additionally a variety of instruments that may provide help to discover URLs for all of your content material shortly. These instruments, corresponding to Screaming Frog and URL Profiler, are particularly helpful in case you have many property to catalog. 

2. Gather knowledge about every asset 

Now that you’ve a record of content material property and their related URLs, it’s time to begin documenting different essential knowledge about every asset. If you’re conducting a content material advertising and marketing audit, you’ll need to doc data corresponding to: 

• Title
• Word depend
• Type of content material (format or medium) 
• Author
• Published date (or date final up to date)
• Topic
• Keywords
• Call-to-action (CTA)
• Conversion purpose (obtain a white paper, e-newsletter signup, and so forth.)
• Bounce fee
• Time spent on web page
• # of feedback
• # of social shares (could also be damaged down by social community)
• # of conversions

If you’re conducting an search engine marketing content material audit, you’ll in all probability need to embrace all the small print outlined above in addition to extra metrics corresponding to: 

• Total distinctive guests
• Target key phrase saturation (# of key phrase mentions)
• # of inbound hyperlinks (backlinks)
• # of outbound hyperlinks
• Current SERP rank
• Meta title
• Meta description
• Keyword use in headings and subheadings
• Keyword use in picture ALT tags
• Referral site visitors
• Top referring URLs

Given the variety of knowledge factors you’ll be able to doubtlessly collect for every content material asset, it’s straightforward to see why that is usually essentially the most time-consuming step within the course of. While the info factors you gather depend upon the objectives of your audit, as talked about above, the extra knowledge you gather now, the extra complete your baseline to monitor your progress over time. 

If you’re utilizing a spreadsheet to collect your knowledge, contemplate including columns to doc your selections about every asset (corresponding to whether or not to maintain, discard, or replace every asset), set dates to revisit an asset, or designate a group member chargeable for taking the subsequent motion for every asset. 

3. Analyze your content material property to decide subsequent actions 

You’re armed with a great deal of knowledge about each certainly one of your content material property, and now comes the enjoyable half: analyzing your content material. At this stage, you need to assess the info for every asset and examine your property to derive some insights you’ll be able to act on. 

Determine whether or not you need to maintain, replace, enhance, develop, or discard every asset. You can create a column for this standing in your spreadsheet with a drop-down menu to choose a designation. 

Consider discarding content material property targeted on matters that aren’t central to your enterprise and aren’t getting a lot engagement or changing. Data-focused property which are a few years outdated or in any other case might include outdated knowledge must be designated for an replace, whereas property that concentrate on matters central to your enterprise however aren’t rating to your goal key phrases must be designated for enlargement or enchancment. 

Decide what property could be repurposed into totally different codecs. For occasion, in case you have a long-form publish that comprises many statistics and knowledge factors, you’ll be able to repurpose that content material as an infographic.

You may designate property to mix, corresponding to a number of shorter property associated to a central subject which you can mix to create a single bigger asset. One factor to contemplate is combining a number of property that focus on the identical focus key phrase into a single, complete asset, which could be extra doubtless to rank to your focus key phrase in contrast to a number of less-valuable property that focus on the identical time period. 

If you have got a set of property targeted on numerous facets of a broader central subject, you have got what’s often called a topic cluster. Designate these property for enchancment and make a be aware to make sure that these property all hyperlink to one another. If you have got many such instances, you may want to contemplate creating a particular designation for interlinking subject clusters in your spreadsheet. It’s additionally useful to have a column to be aware which subject cluster every asset belongs to in case you have a number of clusters. 

In this step, you’ll additionally need to establish data gaps in your content material. It could also be useful to conduct a aggressive evaluation right here to uncover any content material matters that your rivals are protecting (and getting outcomes from, primarily based on the obtainable knowledge) that your current content material doesn’t handle or doesn’t handle completely. 

Look for top-performing matters that generate vital engagement to your rivals that you simply’re not focusing on properly along with your current content material, and establish property to enhance, develop, or repurpose that may assist to fill these gaps. Identifying content material gaps will even be useful within the subsequent step. 

4. Evaluate your content material knowledge to inform your technique

After deciding what to do with every asset subsequent, you’ll be able to take a deeper have a look at your knowledge to inform your content material technique. If you performed a aggressive evaluation to establish content material gaps within the final step, you’ll be able to leverage these insights to develop a plan for constructing new content material property that fill these gaps. 

You’ll additionally need to analyze elements corresponding to what kinds of content material get essentially the most engagement, have a tendency to rank finest, or convert greater than others. For occasion, should you discover that your video content material will get extra social shares and you’re wanting to improve your social media visibility, dedicate extra sources to producing video content material associated to your top-performing matters. If your knowledge reveals that long-form property produce essentially the most conversions, you’ll be able to mix lower-performing shorter content material and repurpose it as a long-form asset. 

Want to construct extra backlinks? Take a have a look at the kinds of content material that earn essentially the most backlinks. Then establish the matters that have a tendency to resonate most along with your viewers, and create new content material property on these matters that format. Conduct an outreach marketing campaign to generate extra backlinks and amplify your outcomes. 

Want to rank greater within the SERPs? Take a have a look at the content material codecs that have a tendency to rank higher than others. What did you do in a different way to your top-ranking property? Research the SERPs to your goal key phrases and decide what kinds of content material are rating on the primary web page. Use these insights to develop a focused content material technique to enhance your search engine marketing. 

There are numerous methods to consider your content material audit knowledge to inform your content material technique. Follow the info, analysis the SERPs, and analyze your rivals to construct an efficient content material technique that meets your viewers’s wants whereas concurrently assembly your enterprise goals. 

5. Create a plan of motion

Now that you simply’ve decided the subsequent motion for each current content material asset and evaluated your knowledge to inform your content material technique, it’s time to develop a clear plan of motion. Prioritize current content material property or deliberate matters so that you simply’re specializing in the highest-priority property and matters first. To do that, you would possibly add a column to your spreadsheet to designate a precedence standing for every asset or deliberate subject. 

Once you’ve decided the precedence degree for every asset and deliberate subject, create a timeline and assign group members to every process. You can add columns to your spreadsheet designating the group member chargeable for dealing with every process and one other column for due dates. 

Set objectives to your content material technique and develop a schedule. For occasion, you may want to create one new content material asset and two repurposed property every week. You’ll additionally need to process group members with eradicating your lowest-performing property and combining or repurposing different content material, creating new property in particular codecs that carry out finest, new property on higher-performing matters, or new content material property to handle data gaps. 

Create a plan of motion for every asset with outlined steps, corresponding to: 

• Expanding an asset by a specified variety of phrases
• Updating an asset with more moderen and correct knowledge
• Restructuring content material for SEO (corresponding to restructuring an article utilizing related key phrases in headings and subheadings)
• Optimizing picture alt textual content
• Adding photographs or movies to current content material property
• Creating 301 redirects
• Promoting current or new content material property 

Content audit instruments 

While content material audits could be time-consuming, there are a number of instruments at your disposal that may assist streamline numerous steps within the course of. Spreadsheets are one of the crucial generally used instruments to doc your content material property and associated knowledge. 

Screenshot by way of Screaming Frog

If you have got a number of group members gathering knowledge, Google Sheets is especially helpful as a number of folks can add knowledge to a shared spreadsheet on the identical time. There are many spreadsheet templates for content material audits that you need to use or customise to meet your wants, whether or not you’re utilizing Excel or Google Sheets. 

An different to the spreadsheet technique is to use a full content material audit software, such because the My Site Audit plugin, which is a good possibility in case you have a WordPress web site. There are additionally instruments that may routinely collect all of your content material URLs, corresponding to Screaming Frog and URL Profiler. 

You’ll additionally need to leverage a website or content analytics tool corresponding to Google Analytics or Semrush for on-page and on-site knowledge corresponding to bounce fee, time spent on web page. If you have got objectives configured in your Google Analytics account, you’ll be able to even use it for conversion knowledge. search engine marketing analytics instruments are useful for gathering knowledge on search rankings and backlink evaluation. 

Third-party search engine marketing scoring instruments, such because the Rank Math WordPress plugin, present a third-party search engine marketing rating to help your content material evaluation. These kinds of scoring instruments are helpful should you’re targeted on the search engine marketing worth of your content material and need an goal, quantifiable technique for assessing and evaluating the search engine marketing worth of your content material property. 

Finally, social media analytics tools present helpful insights corresponding to engagement, social shares, and feedback. Many main social media platforms supply built-in analytics instruments for enterprise accounts, and there are also many third-party social media analytics instruments that supply analytics throughout a number of social networks. 

Content audit template 

There are many free content material audit templates obtainable. Often, these are customizable spreadsheet templates which you can modify to fit your wants by including or eradicating columns to replicate the info that you simply want to deal with. 

We’ve created an easy-to-use content material audit template to provide help to get began:

 

If you need to create your personal content material audit template, right here’s a extra complete record of columns you may want to embrace: 

Content audits contain amassing and analyzing knowledge about your content material property. It could be a time-consuming course of, relying on the instruments you leverage at every step within the course of, nevertheless it’s not troublesome while you observe the steps outlined above.

A content material audit can assist you make steady enhancements to your content material, keep forward of the competitors, enhance engagement, and rank greater within the SERPs to your goal key phrases. Content audits are a highly effective software for fine-tuning your content material advertising and marketing and search engine marketing methods for higher outcomes.