Your first thought may be to create and share new content in order to achieve your content marketing goals. The problem is that this kind of stuff is typically buried and hardly ever looked at or used again. Others may find this to be an unpleasant reality because one of the most successful content marketing techniques may be updating and repurposing existing content.
You can find content that can be improved or converted into different formats by conducting thorough, routine content audits. This post will explain what a content audit is, the advantages of performing one, and a complete step-by-step tutorial for conducting one.
How Does a Content Audit Work?
An extensive analysis of all the information on your website is known as a content audit. This includes articles, blog entries, pictures, videos, infographics, and any content that can be categorized as content.
A content audit is intended to assist you in understanding the material you currently have, the content that is doing effectively, and the content that needs to be improved.
You can find content gaps and decide where you need to add fresh information by doing a content audit.
What Justifies a Content Audit?
You could want to perform a content audit for a variety of reasons. Here are some of the most typical causes:
1. An audit is driven by data
Data form the basis of a content audit. As a result, it can assist you in making judgments regarding your content that are based on actual information rather than conjecture or supposition.
2. Recognizing Content Gaps
Finding content gaps is one of the key goals of a content audit. Where you don’t have enough content to satisfy your audience’s needs, this is known as a content gap.
Let’s take the example of your fashion blog. You might discover that there isn’t enough information on plus-size clothes on your website. This content void may be a chance to produce fresh, engaging content for your audience.
3. Identifying Content Issues on Your Website
Finding out if your current material has any issues is another reason to perform a content audit.
Consider a blog post you have that isn’t receiving any traffic. This might be as a result of a deceptive title, out-of-date information, or grammatical mistakes. You can find these problems and make the required adjustments to improve your content by doing a content audit. To examine and optimize the website in accordance with SEO guidelines, use a website SEO reviewer.
4. Select Resources to Leverage
You can determine which parts of your current content are performing effectively and which you may use for upcoming marketing initiatives once you’ve analyzed it.
For instance, you can construct an ebook or lead magnet out of a blog article that is receiving a lot of traffic and engagement.
5. Extend the Shelf Life of Content
The ability to extend your material’s shelf life is one advantage of completing a content audit. You can make sure that your material remains current and relevant by making an inventory of what you already have and identifying what is out-of-date or no longer relevant. This can help you save time and money by reducing the frequency with which you must produce fresh material.
6. There Are Possibilities To Repurpose Content
Finding chances to repurpose material is another advantage of performing a content audit. By making a list of everything you have, you can discover that you have some stuff that can be utilized again or recycled. Not having to start from zero when creating fresh material, can help you save time and money. To create accurate and high-quality material, use an AI content writer.
7. The performance of your best pieces will improve.
You might discover that you can improve your best-performing items if you undertake a content audit and take the time to evaluate them. This could increase your traffic and user engagement, which might result in more conversions or purchases.
8. Cut Back on the Time Spent Producing New Content
A content audit might help you cut down on the time you spend developing fresh content if you find yourself doing it frequently. You can save yourself time and energy that can be used more effectively on other activities by taking stock of what you have and identifying what is outdated or no longer relevant.
9. You’ll see what your priorities are.
You might discover that some of your content is no longer in line with your company’s objectives as you go through it. This might assist you in reevaluating your content strategy’s priorities and ensuring that the information you produce is actually valuable to your audience.
10. Increased visibility in organic search
Making an inventory of your material has many advantages, one of which is increased visibility in organic search results. You can take action to ensure that your material is correctly optimized for search engines once you have an inventory of your content.
This can involve optimizing your photographs, including adding keywords to the titles and descriptions and making sure that your information is simple to share. By following these methods, you may increase your content’s exposure in organic search results and guarantee that your intended audience sees it. To improve SEO on pages, use an SEO tool.
How Can Your Content Be Audited?
You might be unsure of how to begin now that you are aware of the advantages of auditing your content. The following advice will assist you in content auditing:
1. Identify Your Objectives and Metrics
You must establish your objectives and metrics before you begin your content audit. What do you want your audit to accomplish? What standards will you use to gauge your development? You’ll be able to evaluate your material more effectively later on if you establish your goals and KPIs upfront.
2. Determine KPIs
You must decide which KPIs (key performance indicators) will enable you to measure your goals and metrics the most effective after defining them. Choose 1-3 KPIs for each target that you plan to monitor. For instance, your KPIs may be website traffic, social media monitoring, or newsletter subscribers if your objective is to raise brand awareness.
3. Prepare Your Template for a Content Audit
Start structuring your content audit template at this point. List all of your content assets, such as blog posts, ebooks, whitepapers, infographics, etc., to get started. Include the following details for each asset:
- Name URL Publication date
- words used
- Topic Audience target
- Goal
- principal metric
- auxiliary metric
4. Gather and Examine Data
Once your content audit template is set up, you can begin gathering and analyzing data. Track the metrics you choose in step 3 for every piece of content. You can use this information to evaluate the effectiveness of your material in the future.
5. Evaluate Content
It’s time to start evaluating your content now that you have all of your data gathered. Ask yourself the following questions about each asset:
- Is the asset still valuable to your target market and relevant?
- Is the asset still valuable to your target market and relevant? Does the asset fit with the tone of your brand and your entire marketing plan and initiatives?
- Does the asset fit with the tone of your brand and your entire marketing plan and initiatives? Is the information in the asset dated?
- Is the information in the asset dated? Is the asset still attractive to the eye?
- Is the asset still attractive to the eye? Is it possible to upgrade the asset so it keeps producing value?
- Is it possible to upgrade the asset so it keeps producing value? Is the asset no longer in use but has potential for future use?
You should be able to decide whether to keep the asset or delete it after responding to these questions.
6. Create a plan of action
It is time to create an action plan once you have finished your audit. You can concentrate your efforts on the areas that require the greatest attention with the aid of this plan.
Make the following provisions a part of your action plan:
- The objectives you hope to accomplish with your content marketing plan
- The components of your content marketing plan that require the most work
- The actions you should take to enhance your content marketing approach
- The tools you’ll require to carry out your action plan
- The timetable for putting your action plan into practice
7. Offer suggestions
Once you have drawn up your action plan, it is time to make title recommendations to your team. These recommendations should be based on the findings of your audit.
Some recommendations you may want to consider include:
- Developing more focused content
- Creating more engaging content
- Increasing the caliber of your material
- Updating your material’s frequency.
- Modifying your content distribution method.
8. Modify your content marketing plan
It’s time to modify your content marketing plan after making suggestions to your staff. This can entail changing your distribution methods, content mix, or content calendar.
Keep in mind that your content marketing software approach needs to be adaptable. Your content marketing strategy should evolve and expand with your company.
Conclusion
The use of content marketing is effective for companies of all sizes. Building trust, establishing yourself as an authority in your field, and generating more leads and sales are all possible by sharing useful and pertinent material with your target audience.
The moment has come to start using content marketing to expand your company if you haven’t already. Create a content marketing strategy using the advice and guidelines in this article to assist you in reaching your company’s objectives.
You should use NinjaContent if you want effective content-planning software! We offer a comprehensive content tool for planning your content and more. View the features of the tool, then get in touch with us to learn more!
