Improving your website’s performance and bettering your customer’s online experience can be significantly helped by carrying out a content audit. A content audit assesses current content against ever-changing search engine expectations. By being aware of these changes you are able to identify shortcomings in your content strategy and fill them in with high quality content.
In our guide, we’ll be showing you how to perform a content audit, the benefits of carrying one out, and some of the key factors that need to be taken into account.
What is a Content Audit?
A content audit is an in-depth study of all the content that you have on your site. This includes blog posts, product descriptions, images and more. You’ll be looking at the quality and relevance of your content to see if it meets the need of your target audience and the search engines.
A content audit also takes into account any content that has been deleted, moved or redirected. You need to be aware of these links and pages so that you can rectify any erroneous redirects and inform your audience of your updated content.
The Benefits of a Content Audit
There are many benefits to carrying out a content audit. The first and most likely one to be realized is an improvement in SEO rankings. By knowing what content doesn’t meet the search engine guidelines, it can be updated with high quality content instead of irrelevant content that the search engines are penalizing.
The next advantage of a content audit is an improvement in user experience. Most search engines take user experience into account when ranking their results. If your content isn’t helpful or relevant to the search a user has conducted, there’s a high likelihood that your ranking will drop, along with your traffic.
Finally, a content audit can help you to better understand your target audience. By fully comprehending what they want from your site, you can create content that will better meet their needs. By measuring the effectiveness of this content through analytics, you can continue to enhance the online experience for your audience.
A content audit needs to be carried out in a structured way to ensure that all content is reviewed and leavy no part of your site overlooked. We’ll now take you through this process.
Determine the Goal of Your Content Audit
Before you begin, it is important to determine the goal of your content audit. By doing this you can set a timeline, allot necessary resources, and decide what areas of your content need to be concentrated on.
When determining your goals, one effective strategy is to take a look at your competitors. It is best to aim to be the best in your industry. This means that looking at your competitors – both their content and the strategies they employ – can help you determine what is required in order to surpass them.
Review All Content
The next step is to review all your content. This includes looking at everything from blog posts to product descriptions and everything in-between. You will also want to review your image descriptions and alt tags, as these can also play a part in your site’s rankings.
While you are reviewing your content, make note of any irrelevant content, spelling and grammar errors, and content that needs to be updated or amended to better suit your audience’s needs. Remember to also keep a list of any missing or duplicated links and images.
Analyze the Results
After your content had been reviewed, you should now analyze the results. You can do this by using analytics software such as Google Analytics or using your site’s hosting tools. By looking at this data you can gain an insight into the performance of your content.
By looking at things such as your bounce rates, time on page, and CTRs for the content audited, you can start to understand which pages are the most popular and if your content is engaging your audience. You can also make notes of where your content may need to be updated or replaced.
Create a Plan for Improvement
Based on the research carried out in the content audit, you can now start to create a plan for improvement. By categorizing the data into content that needs to be amended, replaced, or created you are able to start to make a plan.
You can also identify specific keywords that could be integrated into new and existing content based on the user’s intent. When assessing relevant keywords ensure that you don’t overuse the keyword or use it in the wrong context. Instead, aim to create natural-sounding content that the audience will want to read.
Implementation and Monitoring
Once your plan for improvement has been created, it is time to start implementing it. This means updating or creating new content on your site with the aim of meeting the goals set at the beginning of the content audit.
Once the content has updated, it is important that you monitor it to ensure that it meets the desired goals. This can be carried out by using analytics software, tracking your rankings, and monitoring customer feedback on the new and updated content. It is important that you stay up to date with changes in the search engine algorithms so that your content remains compliant.
Conclusion
A content audit can be an insightful process that identifies shortfalls in your content strategy. It is important that it is carried out in a structured and comprehensive manner so that all necessary areas a