If you’ve been creating content for a while, it may be time to start using a content audit to revise your content strategy. This is a great way to identify content that needs updating or can be repurposed into other formats.
Typically, when you conduct a content audit, it begins with cataloging your existing assets. This involves locating and documenting every content on your website or blog.
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Look at the Audience
Regarding content marketing, a content audit can be a great way to revamp your strategy. It helps you identify gaps and opportunities in your current content, allowing you to develop new content based on those findings.
One of the first steps is to determine what scope you want to work on. Depending on the size of your team and the resources available, you can choose to focus on a full site or a single section of it.
After establishing your objectives and scope, it’s time to inventory and evaluates your current material. The process might be time-consuming, but it is an important step in enhancing the quality of your content and producing outcomes for your firm.
Use a spreadsheet or digital tool to document your content inventory and audit findings. Include information about whether each piece of content meets user needs, complies with your organization’s content standards, or drives metrics.
Next, create a priority column to determine what should be updated or improved immediately. This will help you prioritize your efforts and avoid overwhelming yourself with too many tasks simultaneously.
In addition, a good content audit should also include metrics that can help you understand your strategy’s impact and each content piece’s success. These can be quantitative, such as visit and social share metrics, or qualitative, such as how the content resonates with your audience.
Look at the Content
If you want to revamp your content strategy, a content audit can be a powerful tool. It allows you to identify content that needs to be updated and repurposed to improve your overall marketing strategy.
The first step is to gather and organize all of the content you have available. It can be a daunting task, but there are tools to help you do it quickly and efficiently.
Once you’ve gathered all the content, create an inventory spreadsheet detailing each piece. This will allow you to keep track of important data points, like the word count and meta description of each piece of content.
Next, create an audit spreadsheet that tracks key performance metrics on each piece of content, such as bounce rate, time on page, and exit rate. This information can help you determine if the content meets user needs and performs well in search engines.
You can also add technical SEO data to your spreadsheet, including the SEO title and meta description of each piece of content. This will give you a complete picture of what is and isn’t working for your content and enable you to optimize it for search in the future.
Look at the Technology
A content audit can be a useful tool in resetting your priorities and identifying areas of opportunity. It’s also a great way to identify areas where you can improve your content strategy and make it even more effective.
The first thing to do is gather your web page inventory and other content assets. This can be done via a tool like a sitemap or a spreadsheet. As you collect information, categorize the assets using your goals as a guide. This will help you find the pieces of content that are most important to your business.
Next, consider your audience’s needs. For example, is your content targeting the right types of customers? Are there specific topics you’re not currently addressing that your customers are asking about most frequently? This information will help determine which types of content are best for your audience and which will best fit into your content marketing budget.
Once you’ve mastered statistics, it’s time to let your imagination run wild. This could imply creating a new blog post or modifying an old one. It could also entail finding new methods to use or repurposing the content you already have. Reusing a video, for example, or adding interactive components to a static page, could be the most effective strategy to increase conversion rates.
Look at the Business
To revamp your content strategy, you need a clear picture of what you have. That’s where a content audit comes in.
A content audit is a process that helps you evaluate your existing assets and determine whether to keep them, refresh them, or remove them from your library. It also allows you to identify gaps in your content that you need to fill.
You can do a full content audit of your entire library or a content sample audit that analyzes only a selection of example assets. This type of audit is a good option if you don’t have time to conduct a full audit.
When conducting a content audit, you can use various tools and templates to help streamline the process. For instance, you can create a spreadsheet template for gathering data on your content assets and related metrics.
Once you’ve gathered this information, you can categorize it into sections to track specific metrics. Using your goals as your guide will help you prioritize your action steps.
For example, if you want to increase your organic search traffic, your priority could be refreshing blog posts that aren’t driving enough traffic. Alternatively, you might refresh long-form content that is doing well in the SERPs but doesn’t receive much engagement.