3 tips when conducting a digital content audit

Conducting a digital content audit doesn’t have to be as daunting as it sounds. It’s an important task to complete for your SEO so that you keep your website fresh and up to date. An audit will also identify the strengths and weaknesses your website has and helps to inform your marketing strategy about what you need to focus on as a priority. However, if you’re not going to take any actions after your audit, then there’s no point in doing it.

If you do your digital content audit right, you’ll have the answers to the following questions:

  • Which pieces of content are performing best?
  • Which topics do your audience connect with most?
  • Which posts are outdated and either need to be removed or updated?

So, what should you be focusing on in your digital content audit?

What is the purpose of the content

As mentioned, there is no point in conducting a digital content audit if you’re not going to use the results for anything and make positive actions based on it. So first of all, you need to decide why you’re doing it. Are you looking to find out which content is performing the best? Do you want to improve your SEO? Do you want to generate more ideas for future content? Do you want to get rid of old content that no longer aligns with your business goals? There could be a number of reasons why you want to conduct your audit, and it’s perfectly fine to have more than one, just determine what it is you want to achieve and then you can get going.

Pay attention to old posts

It’s really easy to put all your efforts into creating new content all the time and looking at your new content and how you can promote it, re-purpose it and get the most out of it; however, it’s a good idea to focus on your old content because you can see a lot of impact from updating old posts. It may be that you can rewrite an old post or simply update parts of it which will keep the website fresh. Also, take a look at the old stuff and work out what you can get rid of. There’s no point leaving it on there to go stale.

Focus on keywords

As part of your audit, have a look at the keywords on your website and particularly those that are classed as ‘Striking distance’ keywords. These are the words that are ranking in positions 4-20, which means they are very close to producing traffic from page one, but not quite there.

Focus on pages with the best potential

When you find the pages which are performing well but not as well as they could be, then focus on how you can improve these. It won’t be an overnight job, but it is an important one, as it will help you form your content strategy.

How relevant is the content

Your content must still be relevant and ever-evolving. When you first build a website, it’s not something that you do once and then leave alone forever. It needs developing all the time. You can refresh blogs and content by rewriting them as long as they add value, but also make sure everything is still relevant. For example, if you used links in blogs to sources, then don’t use any that are older than two years. Update old facts and statistics and replace old examples and case studies with new ones.

 

There are many different types of content on your website, and it’s important to audit it regularly (Every 6-12 months). This will give you an idea what needs improved, or updated with the latest facts & information – anything from blog posts to category & any main landing pages.

If you want to read a bit more about the importance of content audits, check out our other post about why they are necessary in your overall digital strategy.