Let’s say your crew’s content material technique has been rolling alongside in accordance with plan for months or possibly even years. You’ve acquired an environment friendly pipeline pumping out blogs, ebooks, infographics, social media, and thought management. And but, the outcomes nonetheless don’t mirror the trouble. That is your cue to take initiative within the subsequent planning assembly and recommend a deep dive to see why.
This course of—going by way of your backlog to see what’s efficient and what’s missing—is known as a content material audit. Relatively than a chore, a web site content material audit is a helpful train for sustaining an efficient advertising technique. It helps groups take a big-picture view and discover content material gaps and potential alternatives.
An outline on the content material audit course of
So, are you questioning the best way to carry out a content material audit? There are many approaches and instruments and it is best to take into account whether or not your finish aim is to enhance website positioning, enhance conversions, or drive visitors. Regardless, your audit ought to include these key steps beneath.
1. Discover each asset produced in a sure time interval
That is essentially the most time-intensive a part of the method, and it may get unwieldy quick. The trick is to set boundaries. You don’t need to waste time going again 10 years—any knowledge or commentary you used has probably misplaced its relevance. As an alternative, evaluate and stock content material from the final two or three years.
Take note of how a lot you wrestle throughout this train. Does your group have an environment friendly labeling and archiving course of? How will you enhance on it to ease future content material audits?
2. Map content material to your advertising infrastructure
When you spherical up all of your content material, the following step is to tag every little thing. Not solely will a sound tagging construction enable you to manage your outdated belongings, however it’ll additionally provide you with route for brand new items. Frequent tags might apply to components of the advertising funnel, personas, matter pillars, industries, and so forth.
3. Determine what’s price retaining
That is the enjoyable half. As you’re making use of your taxonomy, a great audit will reveal what content material you may reuse, repurpose, or discard.
Advantages of a content material audit
Now that you understand how to conduct a content material audit, what are you able to count on subsequent? There are a number of common advantages, and having a tidy content material stock is only one of them.
Lower your expenses
When surfacing forgotten belongings, you may discover content material instantly able to go dwell or belongings that solely want minor revisions. After Contently carried out an inside audit in 2022, we found 22 articles that supplied our viewers essential recommendation however had outdated analysis. We up to date the copy after which resurrected all 22 hyperlinks. Relatively than begin from scratch, the audit saved us money and time that may be redistributed elsewhere. Simply this yr, we went deeper and reviewed a decade’s price of weblog content material to find out what wanted refreshing or rewriting — as an alternative of making new content material — so we might proceed to offer the best-quality content material to our viewers.
Enhance effectivity
Losing content material is unhealthy, however this stat is much more disheartening: on common, 42 p.c of salespeople don’t use B2B content material advertising belongings to generate gross sales/income, in accordance with a Content material Advertising Institute and MarketingProfs research. Why? Possibly as a result of your content material is both unusable or unfindable.
Both means, your content material ecosystem has an issue. If individuals can’t simply discover the content material they want, it doesn’t matter how good it’s. And if content material is simple to seek out content material however not superb, it received’t get used both.
An audit is the proper alternative to evaluate why content material goes unused. Maybe there’s a workflow breakdown, or your salespeople don’t know the place to entry the content material they want. Regardless of the cause, make it a degree to lower the litter. So, in the event you discover a piece of content material that may’t be repurposed, delete it.
Preserve consistency
Advertising departments reorganize on a regular basis — software program techniques change, model tips evolve, and targets regulate. As you’re deciding what content material to maintain, be certain outdated belongings match these modifications. Getting up to now might require updating tags, tweaking language, and importing content material into a brand new system.
When you’re completed auditing, you’ll have an awesome alternative to do a broad evaluation of what content material carried out properly and why. You may then use that historic knowledge to tell your technique transferring ahead.
Firms that take the time to maximise their editorial belongings can see massive outcomes. Are you prepared to begin a content material audit? Contently’s knowledgeable content material strategists can assist you with the general technique, suggestions and execution of every step.
Ask the Content material Strategist: FAQs about the best way to carry out a content material audit
How usually ought to a content material audit be carried out?
It’s typically advisable to conduct a content material audit yearly or bi-annually, relying on the amount of content material and modifications in your advertising technique.
What instruments can be utilized to conduct an website positioning content material audit?
Instruments like Google Analytics, SEMrush, Screaming Frog, and content material administration techniques (CMS) with built-in analytics can assist you determine what content material is performing properly and what content material might use some consideration in the event you’re doing an website positioning content material audit particularly.
Who must be concerned within the content material audit course of?
Sometimes, a cross-functional crew involving advertising, gross sales, and generally even IT or product groups must be concerned to make sure that the audit is complete and aligned with broader enterprise targets.
To study extra about the best way to do a content material audit or the best way to construct a content material technique that performs, subscribe to The Content material Strategist.
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