Don't discard your hard work or let it disappear without a trace. Use your least successful content to find out where you went wrong, correct and create new, stronger content.
Before that, you need to identify which pages are below expectations with a content audit.
If you don't know how to do this, don't worry. Let's explain what a content audit, why it is important, and provide and explain how you should do it for the success of your content.
After all, what is a content audit?
In simple terms, content auditing is the process of systematically inventorying and evaluating content already published on a website. This evaluation is done to ensure that the content meets the company's objectives and is useful and relevant to the public-bowel.
The main objective of the content audit is to ensure that the company's website is updated with accurate, relevant and useful information for users, keeping the brand in good standing. featured in search results. Additionally, a content audit can also help identify gaps and opportunities for improvement across your entire content strategy.
Content auditing is directly related to efforts of SEO, as the objective is to have content that is not only full of important keywords, but also respond to specific search queries. It is important to highlight that the content audit should not be seen as an isolated task, but rather as an important part of the digital marketing strategy of a company.
Types of content that can be audited include web pages, landing pages, blog posts, product descriptions, videos, presentations, and whitepapers. For those who have never performed a content audit before, it may seem like a challenging and tedious task, but it's actually not as bad as it seems.
However, before we dive into the process, it is important to understand why the Content auditing is important for organizations of all types and sizes. By performing a content audit, the company can:
- Identify irrelevant or outdated content that can be removed or updated;
- Identify opportunities to improve the performance of existing content by optimizing it for important keywords;
- Identify gaps in existing content and create new pieces of content to fill those gaps;
- Check whether the content is aligned with the company's objectives and whether it is attracting the correct target audience.
With this information in mind, it's easy to understand why content auditing is an important task for any company that wants to keep a website updated, informative and relevant to users. Remember that a content audit is not a one-time task, but rather an ongoing process that must be performed regularly to ensure that website content is always meeting the needs of the company and the public.
Why do a content audit?
A content audit is a systematic process of reviewing your existing content, analyzing its quality, performance and relevance to your target audience. It helps identify areas that need improvement and eliminate irrelevant and outdated content.
Here are some reasons why a content audit is important for your content strategy. content marketing:
- Discover what you already have
2. Evaluate the quality of your content
3. Increase your visibility
4. Improve your content performance
5. Maintain your accuracy
How to Conduct a Content Audit
Step 1: Define your goals
Before beginning a content audit, it's important to clearly define your goals and the metrics to measure success. Some common goals include:
- Improve the results of SEO for specific pages or for the entire site.
- Increase engagement and/or conversions.
- Remove outdated or redundant content.
- Improve the standard of existing content.
- Decide on a new organizational structure for the website.
Step 2: Collection and categorization of content
Once you've defined your goals, it's time to inventory all the existing content on your website. You can do this manually through an Excel spreadsheet or Google Sheets, or you can use an online tool like HubSpot, Semrush or Screaming Frog. It’s important to categorize content into relevant categories, such as:
- URL
- Author
- Which team produced it? Content team, social team, SEO, etc.
- Time: how long did it take to produce the content?
- Title
- Data
- Content Type: Blog post, infographic, case study, etc.
- Content objective: What was the objective of producing the content: backlinks, traffic, conversions, etc.?
- Word count
- Comments
- Shares: Break this down by social network and total.
Step 3: Tracking metrics and data analysis
After collecting all the existing content on your website, it's time to analyze the performance of each page. To do this, you will need track some important metrics, As:
- Comments: A properly moderated comments section can add valuable user-generated content to your posts and articles.
- Social shares: Monitoring the social popularity of your content can help you discover the topics most likely to intrigue specific social audiences.
- Organic traffic: It’s important to know if your content is attracting organic traffic. If not, there may be something wrong with your content strategy or the content itself.
Performing a content audit is an ongoing process that should be performed regularly. By following these steps, you can ensure your website remains relevant and attractive to your target audience.
Conclusion: Never stop doing a content audit
Remember that what works today may not work tomorrow and that your best pieces of content can quickly become outdated. That's why you should regularly examine your content and evaluate its relevance, accuracy, and effectiveness. A well-done content audit can also help identify areas that need improvement and new content opportunities to explore.
By performing content audits, you are investing in the success of your brand and ensuring your website is always up-to-date and relevant to your users. It's an arduous task, but it's essential to maintain your strong and competitive online presence. Therefore, do not underestimate the importance of content auditing and always carry out this activity regularly to achieve your objectives and ensure the success of your brand.