A content audit can determine how good the website content is, which is most polarizing, and what still needs improvement. By taking stock of
all content measures, a success analysis can be carried out, and the potential for improvement unmasked. Here are the most important steps for a successful content
audit.
But what is a content audit anyway?
This qualitative method analyzes content that has already been published in terms of its relevance to the target group and with a view to previously defined
marketing goals. The basic performance is virtually checked once with an inventory to gain new insights into the potential that has not yet been discovered.
When is a content audit worthwhile?
A content audit is particularly worthwhile if you use it regularly. A website is usually a long-term project continuously revised and further developed. Thus, an
inventory on a regular basis makes sense in terms of quality assurance. A semi-annual or quarterly content audit is worthwhile, depending on the scope and the website output. This also gives you a general overview of how up-to-date your content is, which helps improve the content strategy. A content audit is also valuable for the SEO area because the analysis helps determine why, for example, marketing goals were not achieved or the rankings are falling. Furthermore, the content audit is ideal for a relaunch. Based on what has been discussed, new, exciting topics can be identified, and inspiration can be
gathered.
Last but not least, new team members can be brought up to date using the content audit because it provides a clear overview of the work done so far and the
status quo.
Five steps to a good content audit
Step #1: Goal setting. It is important, to sum up your own goals and formulate them concretely. The overarching goal of fundamental performance improvement must not be lost sight of.
Two perspectives make sense here: The first perspective is the user’s internal data. How can you improve the user experience in general?
– The second perspective is the marketing goals. Which KPIs are particularly important, and what is the best way to achieve the defined strategic goals?
Sophisticated goals for improving performance could include:
– The ranking improvement
– Identification of duplicate content
– Finding gaps and missing information
– Increasing the information content of the content
– Increase in keywords
– Make sure the content is up-to-date
Step #2: Quantitative Analysis. Now we move on to the quantitative analysis. For this, you need a content inventory, such as an Excel spreadsheet or Google Documents, where your website’s important URLs are collected. Suitable criteria for recording are the following: the page title, the URL, the meta description, all headings, the time of publication, the respective formats, the content and topics, special keywords, the scope of the text, internal and external links, important backlinks, authors.
There are now modern tools for successfully organizing individual criteria. Programs like Screaming Frog or Searchmetrics support the process of quantitative analysis in a clear way and help to save time and effort.
After creating a comprehensive content inventory, the first statements about the previous content can be made. Are there some gaps? What information needs to be added or updated?
Step #3: Analysis of user data. In the third step, the behavior of the visitors to the website is examined more closely. Important indicators are the page views, the click-through rate, the bounce
rate, the length of stay, and the shares.
With the help of Google Analytics, some data of the site visitors can already be viewed. These can be found under the “Behaviour” tab. This information can be transferred directly to your audit document with just a few clicks.
The Ahrefs program, an SEO tool specializing in quantitative and qualitative analysis, offers even more comprehensive assistance.
With the user: internal data analysis, one can draw first conclusions as to whether the posted content is relevant to the target group at all and whether the general
consensus is accepted.
For example, if a website gets a lot of hits and a low dwell time, it can be concluded that the users may have expected different content and were disappointed. Either way, it is now necessary to analyze user behavior in detail.
Step #4: Qualitative Analysis. With this next step, the content’s content is evaluated. Two approaches can be used for this:
– The ARA analysis: here, the content is examined for topicality, relevance, and appropriateness
– The ROT analysis: The subject matter of the content is redundancy, outdatedness, and triviality
To obtain a holistic qualitative analysis, the content analysis can be expanded to include additional criteria:
– The quality of the titles, meta descriptions, and headings: the length of the titles and meta descriptions has a positive or even negative effect on the ranking of the search engines, which is why they should be well thought out and worded
– The tone of voice: the formulations, speeches, and formalities should be consistent with the voice of the respective company
– Readability: the texts should be checked for spelling and grammar. The content audit helps to uncover possible careless mistakes
– Scannability: this is about whether the texts can be read fluently and whether text-processing elements such as lists, quotations, or images should be added to
enhance the reading experience
– The reader guidance: the contents of the website should be linked in such a way that the users are forwarded to content that is also interesting
A manual traffic light system is useful for qualitative analysis. Here, the above factors are evaluated according to the quality of their content. Red stands for bad, yellow for medium, and green for good. Tools like Clearscope automatically rank content for relevance based on keywords and terms used and compare it to the top 30 results on Google.
After performing the qualitative analysis, it can now be determined whether the page needs to be changed or revised, should be deleted, or is actually good as it is.
Step #5: Formulate recommendations for action. Concrete plans can now be made based on the knowledge gained in the last four steps. It is advisable to define a recommendation for action per content. Can the respective content be optimized? Who on the team is responsible for customization?
The content audit process is very time-consuming but definitely worth it! Regular optimization is an absolute win for every website and is even sustainable. The first content audit may be the most strenuous, but routine and confidence should come with the routine after that. Over time, the consequences to be derived from the findings will be firmly anchored, and the quality of the content will be ensured in the long term.
