They say content is king, but how do you know if your content actually yields power? That’s where content audits come in.
A content audit provides vital insight into the work your content is doing for your business or brand, from the audience you’re attracting to the technical components that help your content get seen and read by more people. Read ahead to learn what a content audit is, how it can benefit your organization, and the steps you’ll take to make sure you get it right.
What is a content audit?
A content audit is a top-to-bottom review of your digital content, from your home page to your blog to your downloadable ebook. It’s an organized process that allows you to see the content you already have on a high level and to get an objective view into if each piece is performing as intended. By evaluating everything against concretely defined benchmarks, you get a better understanding of what’s driving engagement and what’s not hitting the mark. Conducting regular audits is crucial to ensuring an effective content strategy.
Components of a content audit
Website content review
Take inventory of the content on each individual page on your website. Is it up to date? Are all questions answered?
In addition to the content itself, you’ll look at data to see how many people are reading each page, how much time they’re spending on the page, and how they accessed the content. This, among other important information, gives you insights into the reader experience. Once you gather your data, you’ll have the tools you need to optimize each page.
Blog review
Blog posts are a great way to establish yourself and your organization as an authority in your industry while attracting new visitors and potential clients. Analyzing the performance of your existing blog posts tells you if your message is being received and if you need to change course with future content.
SEO review
Website and blog reviews tell you how visitors respond once they’ve reached your content. An SEO (search engine optimization) audit sheds light on how they found you. This can include reviewing where your website and blog rank in search results.
Seeing how your content performs on relevant keywords can be eye-opening in terms of finding out if you’re reaching your target audience. Checking content performance is also key for searcher intent, or understanding if your content matches the reason why a reader is looking up a keyword in the first place.
A strong SEO audit isn’t just about analyzing the content that all visitors see, though. You’ll also want to examine your technical SEO practices, including webpage metadata, like meta descriptions and image tags. Optimizing your content on the backend plays a pivotal role in driving users toward the content you worked so hard to write.
Why do you need to do a content audit?
Build brand reputation
The quality of your content is directly tied to how your organization is perceived. Polished and relevant content is essential to making a good first impression with new visitors and keeping others coming back. The more you publish content that resonates, the more you demonstrate your organization’s expertise in your field.
Keep content fresh
Whether it’s a blog with a statistic that’s recently changed or a service listing that your business no longer offers, reading old information makes for a subpar user experience. Regular audits are key to ensuring your content doesn’t include outdated or incorrect details. One wrong detail, and you risk losing a customer to a competitor.
Enhance SEO performance
Improving your search engine rankings is a huge component of growing your audience, and thus growing your business. With a content audit, you get a clear blueprint for how to boost your page to the top.
Discover untapped opportunities
Perhaps there are subjects your competitors are blogging about that you’re overlooking, or maybe your About page doesn’t do justice to all that you offer. If there are gaps in what your content covers, an audit will show you where they need to be filled.
Stand out among competitors
Well-performing content isn’t just about following the crowd. Content audits give you the opportunity to see how well your content reflects your specific business mission and values. Presenting hot topics from your unique brand voice and perspective allows your content to shine brighter than the rest.
Develop a more complete content library
With a high-level look into what you’ve already published, it’ll be easy to see what’s missing. Filling in these gaps keeps readers on your website by giving them more to learn. It also creates opportunities for internal linking, which are important signals your website sends to search engines that help you rank higher.
Questions to ask yourself while conducting a content audit
When it’s time to sit down and evaluate each individual piece of content, these questions can help guide how you measure performance.
- What is the ultimate objective of this piece of content? Are you trying to drive your audience toward a specific product or improve your local search ranking? This will help you decide which metrics are most relevant.
- Where does this content rank on a search engine results page (SERP)? If a page or post isn’t showing up until late in the SERPs, that’s a clear sign that a piece of content is a candidate for a makeover.
- Are there any topics that aren’t included in this content? Adding more information that can help readers understand your product or service might make sense.
- Do users engage with the calls to action (CTA) in this piece of content? Reviewing click-through rates (CTRs) on buttons and links can reveal where you might be struggling to drive conversions.
- When was this content last updated? This can help you identify what areas need refreshing.
- How does this content contribute to a better user experience? Determine if your content is easy to read, accessible, and provides valuable information to a visitor.
- Does this content reflect my brand voice? Your content should align with and support your brand’s mission and values. Every piece of content is an opportunity to establish your organization as a leader in your field.
A step-by-step guide to conducting an SEO content audit
1. Know why you’re conducting the content audit
Before you set out on your audit journey, you have to identify your destination. Thorough goal-setting is an essential first step to a successful content audit. A great place to start is your reason for conducting the audit in the first place. Is this your first time doing a complete content review or is this a matter of quarterly content maintenance? This will help define the scope of your audit and the key performance indicators you want to measure.
2. Assemble all the relevant content
Gather and categorize each asset you want to examine. Keeping your total content inventory organized in one central location ensures nothing slips through the cracks. It helps to ask your team for their input here, so you know that everything is truly covered.
Protip: Your website already (or should already) contain a file with all the published pages on your site, which speeds up this process. This is called your sitemap, and having an organized one is key for search engines to properly understand your website. To see your sitemap (organized and not), type in your URL followed by /sitemap.xml. You can also use software like Screaming Frog to produce a list of all URLs on your website.
3. See what your competitors are doing
Looking at how your competitors approach similar content unveils where a content gap might exist. Compare how other organizations perform for the same keywords and optimize your content accordingly. But competitor content is only meant to serve as inspiration — it’s up to you to make it even better with your unique insight and perspective.
4. Find opportunities to update
Once you’ve collected all necessary performance data, you can see which existing content needs some fine-tuning and which needs a larger overhaul.
Prioritize revamping the content that fell shortest on the benchmarks you initially set. For instance, if your contact page is performing low for SEO, you might need to revise your meta tags.
Remember, a rising tide lifts all ships. Look for the simplest opportunities to update that will have the greatest impact on your goals. Small tweaks on an important page that’s almost made the first page of search engines has a bigger impact than a page farther down the list that needs an overhaul.
5. Check for accessibility
Make sure your entire target audience gets the best user experience. Evaluate your content for key accessibility elements, such as readability and design, including images with alt text, and optimizing content for screen readers.
6. Check for internal linking
Integrating internal links into your content keeps users on your website as they explore your other pages and thought leadership posts. When conducting a content audit, it’s especially important to make sure your internal links aren’t broken. Nothing makes it more obvious that content is outdated than clicking a link and landing on an error page.
7. Publish your optimized content and analyze the results
After making all necessary changes, it’s time to share your refreshed content with the world. Once you start rolling out your optimized content, continue to analyze performance. Content audits aren’t a one-time process and ongoing performance measurement lets you know whether your changes were successful or not. And this final step helps you lay the groundwork for what to focus on the next time you conduct a content audit.
Get help from award-winning content audit experts
Content audits are a necessary, but labor-intensive, process. Luckily, you don’t have to take this journey alone. The Stellastra Effect team knows all about what makes a successful content audit. When you work with us to optimize your content inventory, no stone goes unturned. We’ll help you boost SEO, elevate content quality, and identify any gaps that your organization can fill. Reach out today to take your content to the next level.
