How to Do A Content Audit: An In-Depth Guide

What exactly is a content audit and how do you do one?

In this blog post we’ll go over what a content audit is, why you should do one, and how to go about conducting one so that you can get the most out of your content marketing efforts.

Let’s dive in!

So, what is a content audit?

A content audit is an inventory and analysis of all the content that you have on your website, blog, or social media accounts. This can include everything from written posts and articles to images and videos. The purpose behind conducting a content audit is to take stock of what you have and identify what’s working well and where there is room for improvement within your content.

Why should you conduct a content audit?

There are a few key reasons why you might want to perform a content audit including getting an overview of your content and being able to see what content you have and how it all fits together. This helps to identify any gaps you might have in your existing content and can help you determine what new content you need to create, or where you can elaborate. Performing a content audit also helps you to identify which of your content is performing best, enabling you to replicate that success in future pieces. Additionally it can highlight any areas where your content could use some improvement. Whether that means reworking old pieces or creating new ones altogether. 

Conducting a content audit can be a lot of work, but it’s worth it. By taking the time to inventory and analyze your content, you’ll be able to get a better sense of what you have, what needs to be improved, and how you can best move forward with your content marketing efforts to identify with your target audience.

Steps to Perform an In-Depth Content Marketing Audit

Now that we’ve gone over what a content audit is and why you should do one, let’s dive into the steps you need to take to perform one.

• Clearly Define Your Goals: Before you start your content audit, it’s important to take a step back and clearly define your goals. What are you hoping to accomplish with this audit? What areas do you want to focus on? By having a clear understanding of your goals from the outset, you’ll be able to better direct your efforts.
• Take Inventory of Your Current Content: Make a list of all the content you have. This includes everything from blog posts and articles, to images and videos. If it’s on your website or blog, it should be included on your list noting the title, URL, date published, and any other relevant information.
• Categorize Your Content: Once you have a complete list of all your content, the next step is to categorize it. This will help you see how everything fits together and identify any gaps in your coverage.
• Review and Analyze Your Metrics: Now it’s time to take a look at your content’s performance. Review metrics and KPIs such as pageviews, time on page, bounce rate, link clicks and engagement, keyword rankings, organic traffic, total traffic and conversion rates. This will give you a sense of what’s working well to help you identify your best performing content so that you can replicate the success with future pieces. And will help to determine where there is room for improvement. This might mean reworking existing pieces or creating new ones altogether.
• Identify Gaps in Your Content: As you review your content, you may realize that there are topics that you haven’t covered or topics that you could elaborate on. A content audit can help you determine what new content you need to create and where you can go into more depth.
• Map Out a Plan of Action: Once you’ve taken inventory of your content, categorized it, analyzed it to determine which topics performed well in the past, and identified the areas where your content could use some improvement, it’s time to make a plan. This might mean reworking existing pieces, creating new ones, or expanding on topics you’ve already written about. Whatever the case, make sure you have a plan in place so that you can improve your content marketing efforts and make your content work FOR you.
• Presenting or Summarizing Your Findings: Once you have all your findings, it can be helpful to create a presentation or summary document that outlines everything. This will help you communicate your findings to others on your team and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

By taking the time to do a content audit, you’ll be able to get a clear understanding of what you have, what needs to be improved, and how you can best move forward with your content marketing efforts. This will help you work smarter, not harder, and improve the overall effectiveness of your content marketing strategy. Some things to consider in your presentation are:

• The effectiveness of your current strategy: is your current strategy yielding the results you desire?
• Where you may be missing out on potential traffic and conversions?
• Are you targeting the right keywords?
• Is your content comprehensive enough and giving enough value to your audience?
• What is the best performing content you have and is it being cannibalized by poor quality content?

This is just a starting point, by summarizing your findings you’ll be able to determine where any holes in your content and marketing strategy lie so that you can adjust and improve your process and engage your audience more effectively.

Tools You Can Use to Help Run An Audit

There are many different tools you can use to help run a content audit. Here are some of our noteworthy tools to support you in your audit:

Google Analytics: This can be used to track your website traffic and performance for free. It’s a great resource for understanding how your content is performing and where you may need to make improvements.

Google Search Console: This free tool will show you how your website is performing in Google search results. With it you can see which keywords you’re ranking for, what position you’re in, how many people are clicking through to your site, and much more. 

Moz Content Explorer: This allows you to search for and analyze content across the web for free. It’s a great way to see what content is already out there on your topic and how it’s performing.

BuzzSumo: This tool helps you to see the most popular content across all social media platforms. This supports you by showing you what content is resonating with your audience and where you may need to make improvements.

ContentIdeator: Brainstorm content ideas based on keywords and topics with this free tool. This is a great resource to support you with coming up with new ideas for content, especially if you’re feeling stuck.

Keyword Tool: This helps you with researching and finding the right keywords to target for your website. You can use this to ensure that you’re targeting the right keywords and that your content is optimized for search.

Content Curator: Curate and organize content from around the web using this tool. This is a great way to keep track of what content is out there on your topic and make sure that you’re not duplicating effort.

Content Insight: This allows you to analyze your content and gives you insights into what’s working well and what needs to be improved so that you can make changes accordingly.

These are just a handful of examples of the free tools out there. There are many other paid tools that offer more detailed and comprehensive insights into your content such as SemRush. These tools can be helpful if you’re looking for a more in-depth analysis of your content or if you want to track your progress over time.

Is There a Difference Between a Content Audit and a Report?

There is often confusion between the differences of a content audit and a report. A content audit is an analysis of your content with the goal of understanding what’s working well and what needs to be improved. A content report, on the other hand, is a summary of your findings from the content audit and is a great way to share your findings from the content audit with your team or stakeholders. The findings of the content audit presented in the content report can then be used to make decisions about changes that need to be made to improve the performance of your content.

Mistakes People Make When Running an Audit

When running a content audit there are a few common mistakes that people make that you’ll want to watch out for. These include:

Not Defining the Goal of the Audit: The first mistake is not defining the goal of the audit. What are you hoping to achieve with the audit? What areas do you want to focus on? Without a clear goal, it can be difficult to know what to look for and how to measure the success of the audit.

Not Creating a Content Audit Template: The second mistake is not creating a content audit template. A content audit template will help you to structure your audit and ensure that you’re covering all of the important aspects of your content.

Not Analyzing the Data: The third mistake is not analyzing the data. A content audit is useless if you don’t take the time to analyze the data and understand what it’s telling you. Make sure to set aside some time to do this so that you can make the most of your content audit.

Not Taking Action on Your Findings: The fourth mistake is not taking action on your findings. A content audit is a great way to identify areas for improvement, but it’s up to you to make the changes that are needed. If you don’t take action on your findings, then the audit will have been a waste of time.

Step-by-Step Content Marketing Audit Example:

Now that we’ve covered the basics of a content marketing audit, let’s take a look at an example of how to do one.

• Choose Your Focus Area: The first step is to choose the focus area for your audit. This could be anything from your website’s SEO performance to the effectiveness of your social media strategy.
• Gather Data: The next step is to gather data on your focus area. This could include anything from website traffic data to social media engagement data.
• Analyze the Data: Once you have the data, it’s time to analyze it. This is where you’ll look for patterns and trends so that you can identify areas for improvement.
• Create a Report: The fourth step is to create a report of your findings. This is a great way to share your findings with your team or stakeholders and to make decisions about changes that need to be made.
• Take Action: The final step is to take action on your findings. This could involve anything from making changes to your website to changing your social media strategy.

Content audits are a great way to improve the performance of your content. By following the steps above, you can ensure that you’re doing them effectively and getting the most out of them.

Summary

Performing a content audit is a great way to ensure that your content is working FOR you, helping you to work smarter not harder. In order to get the most out of your content you’ll want to be sure to conduct a thorough audit with defined goals so that you know what data you’re looking to gather before you begin. This will allow you to better analyze your findings and take action accordingly.

Auditing your content on a regular basis is essential to ensure that it is effective and achieves your desired objectives. By taking the time to do an audit, you can save yourself a lot of time, energy, and money in the long run by making sure that your content is optimized and working to support your goals. And as an added bonus, your team and/or stakeholders will greatly appreciate your findings and be able to take action more readily. 

If the idea of performing a content audit still feels daunting, we’re here to help remove the overwhelm. Click here to book your free 30-minute content audit to help get you started, click HERE to schedule.