What is a Content Audit?

Talia Whyte Global Wire Associates

What is a content audit?

No, a content audit has nothing to do with your taxes.  Rather, it is an inventory check of the content on your website, social media, or other online platforms.

Why would I want to do a content audit?

The main purpose of having a content strategy is to make sure the information you are presenting online is consistent with your organizational messaging and brand identity.  It’s a good idea to do audits to keep your content on point.

What things should I be looking for in a content audit?

This depends largely on what the goals are behind your content strategy.  An audit can be an inventory of your whole website, or certain parts of it.  Some audits might look at the effectiveness of the video or Twitter strategies or blog posts.  There is also something called content sampling, where you randomly select content on your website to review.

How exactly do you conduct a content audit?

In the simplest fashion by using a spreadsheet, a basic audit for a website will include columns for the following: Page Title, Page URL, Keywords/SEO, Description, Date Published, and Audit Date.  There you want to go through your website and fill in the rows with the metrics you are auditing. If you use a web traffic reporting tool like Google Analytics or Hootsuite, you would need to match the traffic with the pages.

You will spend your time reviewing the conversion rates and content for your pages on the spreadsheet.  Are images easy to view and tagged correctly?  Are pages meeting the standards for web accessibility? Are blog posts written with proper grammar and embedded keywords?

Now would be a good time to correct and/or delete any content that no longer serves your purposes. Depending on how much content you are reviewing, like a website with hundreds or even thousands of pages, the process might take a while and you will need to get your co-workers or colleagues to help you.

How often should I do a content audit?

It depends on what your content strategy looks like.  Most people do it quarterly or annually to coincide with company financial reporting.  Others do it monthly or even weekly.  No matter how often you do an audit, it is always a good idea to review how your content strategy is working for you.

Redesigning Your Website?

Talia Whyte Global Wire Associates

Many businesses and organizations start to think about redesigning their websites now so they can have brand new sites for the new year.  Here are some things to think about before embarking on this endeavor:

1. Do you really need to redesign your website?  Not everyone needs a redesign.  If you and your website users are happy with the look and functionality, then the website serves its purpose.
2. What exactly is the problem with your current website? Are users complaining about site navigation?  Maybe the homepage is too busy, or the site has too many dark colors.  Now is a good time to do a content audit, document the problems, and what you envision the solutions would look like.
3. Can you afford to do a redesign? This is something you have to put a lot of thought into before embarking on a redesign. If you have to hire a web designer, depending on what your redesign requirements are, it can be very expensive if you don’t have a budget set aside already for website maintenance. Even if you redesign the website yourself, you might lose money because it takes away your time from what would otherwise be used to run your business.
4. Are you re-branding your organization? If so, do you need a new logo or color scheme? Are you selling a new product or providing a new service? What is the new organizational messaging that you need to be reflected in a new website? An organizational website should accurately reflect what is going on in the company right now.
5. Are you changing your content strategy? Will you integrate social media into your website? How about a blog or a video strategy? Do you want to put testimonials from satisfied customers or supporters on it? Who is going to create new content and how often?
6. What is your competition doing? It is always a good idea to check in with your competition to see what they are doing and see how you can one-up them in doing something uniquely different.