Introduction
A thorough evaluation of your website’s content is of utmost importance for any business looking to optimize its online presence. By engaging in a content audit, you are afforded a comprehensive perspective of the quality and efficacy of your website’s textual offerings. Such an audit enables the identification of areas that require attention, thereby facilitating alterations that will empower your website to achieve its goals with greater efficiency and efficacy.
In this comprehensive guide, we endeavor to impart to you an exhaustive understanding of the intricacies of conducting a content audit. We shall explicate the means by which to identify and remedy common issues, isolate the areas in which improvement is most requisite, and monitor your progress over time. Our objective is to infuse you with the knowledge and resources to elevate the potency of your website’s textual body to the highest possible degree.
What Is A Content Audit?
An exhaustive content appraisal engenders a comprehensive evaluation of all the textual, visual, and auditory materials present on your website, encompassing videos, infographics, images, and sundry other forms of content. Its raison d’être is to gauge the caliber and potency of your content, with a view to detecting and remedying any inadequacies.
Why Is Content Audit Important?
The judicious conduct of content audits is an imperative undertaking for any enterprise looking to maximize the efficacy of its online presence.
1. Identify areas of your website that need improvement
Content audits are an unparalleled mechanism for pinpointing the specific areas of your website that are underperforming, be it a dearth of quality or a disordered organizational schema.
2. Effect changes to improve your website’s performance
Having identified the areas that require attention, content audits empower you to make strategic alterations that will enhance the effectiveness of your website, and in turn enable you to meet your desired objectives. For instance, if your primary goal is to augment the number of leads generated by your website, you might choose to modify your content to increase its effectiveness in converting visitors into leads.
3. Monitor your progress over time
Content audits enable you to track your progress over time, providing you with invaluable insights into the efficacy of your modifications. This affords you the opportunity to gauge the impact of your alterations on your website’s performance, and to determine whether further modifications are necessary to achieve your desired outcomes.
How To Conduct A Content Audit
Conducting a content audit is not a daunting ask as it is made to seem, but is rather relatively easily if mastered.
1. Choose a goal for your content audit
The first step is to choose a goal for your audit. What do you hope to accomplish? Do you want to improve your website’s overall quality, fix specific issues, or track your progress over time? Once you’ve decided on a goal, you can move on to the next step.
2. Identify your target audience
Having a clear understanding of your readership enables you to discern what sort of content would be most pertinent and beneficial to them. Furthermore, this knowledge will enable you to identify which areas require improvement.
3. Collect data about your current content
This may comprise metrics such as page views, bounce rates, and time spent on the website. Tools such as Google Analytics may be utilized to track and collate this data.
4. Analyze your data
After you have obtained all pertinent data, it is now time to analyze it. Scrutinize the data for patterns and trends, which will enable you to recognize which aspects are functioning well and which areas require attention.
5. Make changes to your content
Based on your analysis of the data, you can now implement alterations to your content. This may involve the creation of fresh content, the excision of outdated material, or the revision of existing content.
6. Monitor your progress
Lastly, it is critical to monitor your progress over time. This ensures that your modifications are having the desired effect, and that your content continues to improve.
By conducting regular content audits, you can ensure that your website maintains its high caliber. Following these procedures, you can evaluate your content, identify areas in need of enhancement, and implement the requisite changes, thereby ensuring that your website provides value to your target audience and supports your business goals.
Tools for Conducting a Content Audit
There are several tools you can use to conduct a content audit. Here are a few of the most popular:
1. Google Analytics:
Google Analytics is the most popular tool that is both free and easy to use to when collecting data about the website traffic and to track progress and performance over time.
Steps to use Google Analytics for Content Audit:
- In Google Analytics, click on the “Behavior” button, then “Site Content.”
- Select the “All Pages” button.
- The list of pages on your website will be displayed, along with the data about each page.
- Click on any page to view more detailed information about it.
- You can also use the “Secondary Dimension” drop-down menu to view additional data about each page.
However, to glean the fullest extent of value from Google Analytics, it is expedient to harness the power of other complementary tools. For instance, while Google Analytics is preeminent in providing traffic-related data, another tool may be more efficacious in its analysis. Therefore, employing a panoply of tools in conjunction with Google Analytics facilitates optimal website optimization.
2. Screaming Frog:
Screaming Frog is a paid tool that allows you to crawl your website and collect data about your content.
Steps to use Screaming Frog for Content Audit:
- Enter your website’s URL into the “URL to crawl” field.
- Select whether you want to crawl your entire website or just a specific section.
- Click on the “Start” button.
- Screaming Frog will now crawl your website and collect data about your content.
Screaming frogs prices:
The Lite plan is free and allows you to crawl up to 500 URLs.
The Standard plan costs $149 per year and allows you to crawl up to 50,000 URLs.
Knowing the prices will help you budget better and choose according to your requirements.
3. DeepCrawl:
DeepCrawl is a paid tool that allows you to crawl your website and collect data about your content.
Steps to use DeepCrawl for Content Audit:
- Enter your website’s URL into the “URL to crawl” field.
- Click the “Start Crawling” button.
- DeepCrawl will begin crawling your website and collecting data about your content.
- Once the crawl is complete, you can click on the “Content” tab to see a list of all the pages on your website, as well as information about each page, such as the page title, meta description, and header tags, and word count.
- You can then use this information to assess your website’s content and determine what needs to be improved.
DeepCrawl Prices:
DeepCrawl offers a free 14-day trial. After the trial, plans start at $149/month.
4. Moz:
Moz is a paid tool that includes several features for conducting a content audit.
To use Moz for content audit you need to:
- Sign up for a free Moz account.
- Enter your website’s URL into the “Site Explorer” tool.
- Click on the “Analyze” button.
- Moz will now analyze your website and provide you with a report that includes a number of metrics, such as the number of pages, the number of words on each page, and the number of inbound links.
You can use this information to assess your website’s content and determine what needs to be improved.
Moz Prices:
Moz offers a free 30-day trial. After the trial, plans start at $99/month.
5. Site Auditor:
Site Auditor is a paid tool that allows you to crawl your website and collect data about your content.
To use Site Auditor for content audit you need to:
- Enter your website’s URL into the “URL to crawl” field.
- Next up, click on the “Start Crawling” button.
- The Site Auditor will perform to crawl your website and collect data about your content.
- Click “Content” tab to see a list of all pages and information about each one, i.e title or meta description, and so on.
Site Auditor Prices:
Site Auditor is a paid tool, but offers a free 14-day trial. After the trial, plans start at $97/month.
6. Xenu’s Link Sleuth:
Xenu’s Link Sleuth is another popular tool and is free to use that can crawl your website and collect data about your content like all the tools you’ve read above.
To use Xenu’s Link Sleuth for content audit you need to:
- Download and install Xenu’s Link Sleuth
- Enter your brand website URL into the software
- Push ‘Start’ button
- The software will then crawl your website and collect data about your content, that will be shown in table format.
- You can view the data collected by clicking on the ‘View Report’ button.
- The data collected now can be exported to a CSV file by clicking on the ‘Export to CSV’ button.
7. HubSpot Website Grader:
HubSpot Website Grader is a free tool that allows you to assess your website’s performance.
To use HubSpot Website Grader for content audit you need to:
- Enter your website’s URL
- HubSpot Website Grader will analyze your website and give you a report
- The report will grade your website on a scale of 1 to 100
- If your website scores below 60, it means that there is a lot of room for improvement
- HubSpot Website Grader will also give you specific recommendations on how to improve your website’s performance
8. Bing Webmaster Tools:
Bing Webmaster Tools is a free tool that can be used to collect data about your website’s traffic.
To use Bing Webmaster Tools for content audit you need to:
- Go to the ‘Configure My Site’ tab
- Select the ‘Crawl Data’ tab
- Pick the ‘Content Keywords’ report
This report will help you to find keywords being used for your website and tell you if the content is correctly optimized for the right keywords or needs to be modified to perform well.
Final Thoughts
It bears noting that the tools at your disposal to conduct a comprehensive content audit are legion. While the optimal tool may be influenced by the particular exigencies of your needs and budgetary constraints, the upshot is that you are equipped with a litany of choices.
Conclusion
Having selected the tool that best accords with your particular circumstance, the process of undertaking a content audit assumes criticality in maintaining the highest caliber website. Pursuant to the foregoing, these steps serve as a veritable roadmap to seamlessly assess your content, and proactively identify and remedy any areas of deficiency.
Ultimately, a prudent execution of a content audit empowers you to ensure that your website consistently provides substantive value to your audience. Should you require any guidance in initiating this crucial exercise, our team of erudite subject matter experts at 12 Channels is readily available to facilitate your consultation. Do not hesitate to contact us and schedule your appointment today.
