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Video Summary
Today, we’re diving into something that every content creator should do to keep content strong in 2024 – a content audit!
A content audit is like taking a careful look at all the stuff on your website to see how well it’s doing. By doing a content audit, you’re making sure your content marketing strategy is on track. In 2024, the game has evolved beyond likes and shares.
Dive deep into analytics to understand user engagement, conversion rates, and bounce rates. Doing this will give you a comprehensive view of how your audience interacts with your content.
Okay, here are some steps to go through when conducting a content audit for your website…
Video Transcript
Hello, my name is Jeffrey Kirk.
Today, we’re diving into something that every content creator should do to keep content strong in 2024 – a content audit!
I know, it sounds a bit corporate, but trust me, an audit can be a game-changer for your website if you take action with what you find. So, let’s get into it.
Content Audit
All right, first things first, what exactly is a content audit?
A content audit is like taking a careful look at all the stuff on your website to see how well it’s doing. This includes checking your blog posts, landing pages, and other web content. You’ve got to look closer at all the content you’ve been putting out there, figuring out what’s working, what’s not, and how you can improve it.
The main goal of a content audit is to find old or underperforming content, update your web pages, and decide if there are some pages hurting your search engine ranking, and if so, should they be combined or deleted?
Besides that, if you have other goals, write them down so you can keep your goals in mind throughout the entire process. Doing the audit helps you assess the performance of your existing content, identify areas for improvement, and ensure your brand message aligns with your goals.
So, basically, a content audit is like giving your content a health check-up!
By doing a content audit, you’re making sure your content marketing strategy is on track. And it can have the side effect of making your website more user-friendly. That’s because, during an audit, you review how your content looks and how easy it is for people to read and access. And in this way, you figure out how to give visitors a smoother experience.
A thorough audit also helps you decide what new content you can create. And then you can plan your content strategy based on how well your current pieces are doing.
The result is a website with only the most important and up-to-date content which helps boost your search engine ranking, bring in more visitors, and build a group of loyal visitors.
When conducting a content audit, it’s essential to focus on key metrics.
In 2024, the game has evolved beyond likes and shares. Dive deep into analytics to understand user engagement, conversion rates, and bounce rates. Doing this will give you a comprehensive view of how your audience interacts with your content.
But before we get to the details, make sure to hit that subscribe button and ring the little notification bell so you stay updated when I put out future videos.
Okay, here are some steps to go through when conducting a content audit for your website…
STEP 1: INVENTORY TIME
Let’s start with step number one – the inventory. Head over to your website or your blog and take a look at everything you’ve created so far.
Doing this is like opening up a treasure chest of your past work. Browse through your videos or articles and jot down what you’ve got. This is the foundation of your content audit.
How much you do depends on the size of your site. If you have a few dozen pages or less, look at every bit of it. If you have thousands of pages or posts, look for patterns and generalizations on the types of content.
By gathering this data, you’ll have a better understanding of how your content is doing and where you can make it better. But don’t just count how many of each type of content you have right now. Also, pay attention to headings and meta descriptions for each piece of content or groups of content.
STEP 2: PERFORMANCE CHECK
Now, onto step two – the performance check. Look at your analytics. What content is getting the most views, likes, and comments? Identify your top-performing pieces.
This step is like finding the golden nuggets in your treasure chest. These are the ones your audience loves, and you want to understand why. Don’t just make a list of the types of content you’ve got. You also want to see how well each piece is doing. This info will guide your future content plans.
For example, if your blog post about mobile SEO gets lots of clicks, make more similar stuff to keep people interested. How do you know how each content piece is doing? It’s easy – use analytics.
For your website, tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics can help. Google Search Console is great for checking clicks, impressions, click through rates, and average SEO position. While Google Analytics has many reports to give you insights too.
And, again, if your site is small, look at the data for every single page. If your site is large, look at the pages that are in the best positions or get the most traffic, and then look at the pages that perform the worst.
STEP 3: QUALITY CONTROL
Step three – quality control. Watch or read through your content.
Seriously, take the time to experience it like your audience would. Ask yourself, “Is this information still relevant? Is the quality up to our current standards?”. It’s time to see if your content is both useful and of good quality.
“Content relevance” is about whether a blog post or other content is something your audience actually wants. Look at engagement metrics like comments on blog posts or shares on social media.
If a lot of people are engaging with your content, that’s a good sign – it means your content is valuable to them. High engagement means the topic is worth exploring more in the future. If something doesn’t hold up, it might be time for an update or a complete overhaul.
With a large site, try to decide what makes the pages in the best positions, or with the most traffic, better than the pages with the worst positions or the least amount of traffic.
STEP 4: SEO CHECK
Moving on to step four – the SEO check. How is your content performing in search?
Use tools like Google Analytics to see what keywords are bringing people to your content.
If you notice some keywords are doing better than others, consider optimizing your content around those terms. It’s like fine-tuning your content for better search engine love.
If this is the first time you are hearing about keywords and keyword research, I suggest you watch my previous videos to familiarize yourself with the basics. You can find the link here for easy access.
And if you want to expand on the SEO check, you can do a complete SEO audit. I’ve got a free checklist for you which includes 10 top level steps! You can get it upatdawn.biz/10audit.
STEP 5: ENGAGEMENT ANALYSIS
Now, step five – the engagement analysis. Go deep into your comments, messages, and social media. What are people saying about your content?
Engage with your audience and take note of their feedback. This is like having a direct conversation with your viewers or readers – priceless insights!
Did you see my video from last week? I created it in response to someone who said they were distracted by my background. I wanted to know if others agreed with that statement or if this is really a non-issue, so I asked my audience to encourage more feedback.
STEP 6: CONTENT STRATEGY UPDATE
Then step number six is the content strategy update. Now it’s time to make a plan based on all the info you collected. Basically, you want to list the next steps to make sure all your content does well.
What type of content do you want to create more of? What can you improve? Is there a gap in your content that your audience is craving? Adjust your strategy based on what you’ve learned.
For example, if you see that some of your blog posts are no longer useful to your audience because they have old info, your plan could say these need to be updated. Or, if you notice some blog posts are talking about the same thing as other posts, maybe your plan should consider combining them.
Your plan can also include which content to get rid of, which ones need better internal linking, and which articles have links that don’t work and should either be fixed or removed.
STEP 7: IMPLEMENTATION
And, finally, you have to implement. It’s not enough to plan. You have to put the plan to work. Go through your plan and do everything you can to improve your site based on your own research!
I’m also going to give you step 7.1…
Once you’ve carried out your plan, your work isn’t really finished yet. You should check to see that you’ve actually achieved your content audit goals. Wait a month or two and then look at the analytics for your content again. Are more people interacting with it? Is it showing up better in the search results?
By evaluating how well your content audit worked, you’ll get important information. And this info can guide future content audits and help you set better goals and create even better content.
Content audits might not be the most exciting part of marketing, but they’re super important. So make sure all your efforts pay off, it’s smart to do content audits regularly. And that’s because what’s popular today might not be tomorrow, and even your best stuff can become old news fast.
So there you have it – a plan to make sure your site content is fresh, relevant, and ready to captivate your audience.
Want another freebie, this time with tips to help you create valuable and relevant content? I put together a Content Marketing Strategy Checklist for you. It’s free, and you can get it at upatdawn.biz/10content. Go get that now.
Your business deserves to be seen online, and I will help you get there.
Thanks for watching and have a great day!
