Ever wondered why your website or blog isn’t performing well as it used to? You could be churning out content daily, but is it delivering the results you hoped? The only definitive way to find answers to these questions is by conducting a content audit.
Content audits are performed either on the overall brand content or the website of the company. It is an essential part of high-quality website copywriting that brings in results in the long term. Granted, it is an extensive process where you or someone has to sit down and examine all the content you have produced. But since audits are usually systematic reviews that companies carry out quarterly the amount of content to audit does not have to be too large.
Nonetheless, content audits are time-consuming. Given this factor, most businesses do tend to push them to the back, hoping to get to them later rather than sooner. Unfortunately, you might be missing out on one important thing here: Content audits can help you get the results you want.
Don’t know how that is possible? Take a look at some of the reasons which highlight just how a content audit gets results:
Helps You Fix Any Issues
A content audit often involves taking an in-depth look at the overall site, blog page, or ill-performing web pages. This means that now is a great chance to identify any issues, such as broken links, poor use of hyperlinks, performance issues, page load time issues, and flaws in SEO.
It’s also a great time to focus on the issues in the content. Poor grammar, spelling mistakes, or even heavy images which won’t load can be fixed now. The audit will help you streamline any problems your content might have and improve it as quickly as possible.
These issues might appear small, but they can add up. Readers are more likely to question the credibility of poorly written content.
Identify Content for Repurposing Easily
Each passing year, trends change and reader interest do, too. Despite this factor, there are certain topics which are evergreen. A content audit will help you identify these with ease and will also show you the ones that can be repurposed. At times, this type of content can be re-used or brushed up to make it more relevant.
For example: Suppose you wrote a stock investment article about Apple. Now, that the newest iPhone has been announced, with concept images, user interest in Apple is at a peak. This means that you can re-purpose the content to share it again. Additionally, if any changes do occur, you can also edit the content to reflect these changes.
Remember though that this is not suitable for all content that you have. There will only be a specific amount of content which you can fix up with ease. However, it can greatly boost your content production and enhance your content outreach as quickly as possible.
Notice Any Content Gaps Quickly
Content gaps can occur where you unintentionally skipped over a relevant subject or topic that your readers are looking for. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean that you must write about everything. If you have a clothing company, you don’t have to write a blog based on self-driving cars.
However, what’s the content gap here? What are your readers looking for in the textile area that you’re not creating content for? A content audit will highlight this specifically for you. You can then fill in the blank spot here and ensure that you’re offering content that provides high value for your readers.
It’s a great way to prevent any blind spots, and you’ll also get new ideas for content creation. It’s a win-win situation. Plus, you will get to reach out to a wider target audience with ease.
Keep an Eye on Content Quality
Search engines like Google are extremely strict regarding quality in the content that shows in the results. You can easily get penalized for sharing poor content. You can use your content audit as a chance to get a closer look at the quality of your content.
Try to separate them into three different categories such as Low, Medium, and High quality. Additionally, is the content lengthy, complex, and difficult to read? Identify these areas so that you can improve the readability as well. Readable content is going to attract more readers than a complex, high brow article.
It’s a good idea to use the Flesch scale, which can ensure that your content is easy to read and understand. While it is one of the oldest readability scales, there is no denying that it makes a significant difference in your content.
Improve the Reader Accessibility
We’ve mentioned before that the content audit is a great time to take a look at the site as well. While fixing links and improving the images is one thing, you can also improve the structure of the website. Think of it in this light; your content can be of the highest quality, but if your readers can’t get to the content, it’s of no use.
Look at the user interface and how many steps one has to undergo to get the content they want. It’s also a good time to monitor search engine activity as well. This will give you a proper idea about how accessible your content is for your readers on your website and the search engines.
A friendly user interface can go a long way to improving the audience and views you get per page. Google also notes pages which get more activity than others. They’re granted priority in their ranking system. However, if you have a high bounce rate, Google will also note it and will penalize you for it.
Maximize SEO Usage
When you’re looking at the search engine visibility of your content, you should also pay close attention to the SEO usage. Remember that Google and other search engines constantly update their parameters. Any updated content will be penalized and excluded. In 2018 alone, Google made around 3,200 updates to their algorithm.
So, it’s a given that your older content could very well be outdated. It’s a good idea to use your content audit to make your content SEO friendly. This also means that your content can be relevant and will get better visibility on the Google search results.
However, remember not to go too overboard. Google tends to penalize content with keyword stuffing and other issues with SEO as well. Try to strike a good balance and monitor the content performance from one audit to another.
Boost the Conversion Rate
Now, one of the most pressing reasons for a content audit would be to evaluate your conversion rate. This is extremely important, especially if you rely on affiliate marketing. Your audit should include an in-depth analysis of your landing pages, the call-to-action, design, and even the kind of content that you’re sharing.
You want to pick out the best-performing pages and then maximize your other pages to have them on the same level. Keep in mind that a content audit for these pages won’t be simple or easy. You have to monitor the performance over a few months, and also note your ROI.
Remember that ROI is always directly linked with the performance of the page. Here, you want to maximize it, so you need to improve your landing pages and ads. Make sure that they are seamless and linked properly.
With these points, you can see that a content audit is a useful option which can help you get the results you want from your content.