You don’t enjoy wasting time, neither do your clients. So, performing a content audit can help you clean up a cluttered website full of old content, abandoned pages, and dead links—making your site more efficient, useful, and probably ranking higher in Google SERPs.
Businesses with a lot of content on their websites, from pages to posts and events, do content audits to determine what to keep, adjust, or toss. While a content audit is time consuming and somewhat tedious, it’s a vital part of keeping your website healthy and effective for your business.
What is a content audit?
Before you delete all of your old content and rewrite your about page, a content audit will tell you whether that’s even necessary. A content audit inventories and analyzes your existing website content according to criteria that you define. You’ll decide which content to audit and which data points to analyze with a clear picture of what to do with your content.
If that sounds overwhelming, you’re not alone. A large website with thousands of posts, pages, and products is likely too much content for a busy business owner to audit. It’s why most businesses outsource content audits to people who do them regularly.
However, the process is straightforward. So, if your website is smaller, with only a few dozen posts and pages, most diligent website owners can do it. In the worst case, if you find that it’s too much of a hassle, outsource a content audit is easily done.
Why do content audits at all?
As time consuming as a content audit is, they provide information in a big picture format. Viewing your website content from a distance gives valuable perspective, and the information you need to make adjustments or optimize for specific goals.
Without the information a content audit provides, you’re likely to miss out on opportunities for new topics or overlook weaknesses.
Besides that, you’ll learn more about what your audience wants—making it easier to provide it.
What a content audit includes
Content audits include everything from core pages to blog posts, learning resources, and success stories. They can include SEO results, keywords and phrases, and more.
While the final decision is up to you, setting goals for what your content audit will achieve makes deciding what to include easier. In the end, the more goal-oriented and focused your content audit is, the more useful it will be to your business.
Types of content businesses include in content audits include:
- Core website pages (about, contact, privacy, etc)
- Blog posts
- Case studies
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Portfolio
- Testimonials
- Resources
- Careers
- FAQ page
- Email signup landing page
- Products and services
Insights and action items for your content audit
I recommend organizing everything in a spreadsheet or an Airtable. The more information you include, the more useful your content audit will be.
- Title
- Subtitle
- URL
- Meta title
- Meta description
- Past traffic
- Do links work?
- Are there CTAs and do they work?
- Are the images okay?
- Is the information accurate or outdated?
- Is it on brand?
- Are there spelling or grammar issues?
- Bounce rate
- Update notes
As you inventory each page, include notes about the items you noticed. Things like…
- A boring about us page to liven up
- Articles that don’t fit your brand voice
- Outdated content
- Pages with broken links or images
- Resource pages with high bounce rates
What’s next?
A content audit exposes problems you need to address. Whether it’s duplicate or underperforming content or opportunities for new content, you’ll have a clearer picture than when you started!
Need help? Schedule a free discovery call. There's no obligation, but you'll walk away with valuable information and actionable advice.
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