Content Audit.

Content is unruly. It may be produced using machines, but it can’t look after itself. It needs you to take stock. Determine what you have and what you need, what’s good and what’s not.

Large retailers understand the benefits of a good stocktake. Those selling food need to know a product’s sell-by date. Those selling clothes need to know what’s fashionable. All need to know they’re selling quality products at reasonable prices. Old, outdated stock is bad for business, so keeping on top of what’s on the shelves is integral.

Translate this to your content and the same approach applies. Not just for online retailers, but content in general. Old, outdated information is as harmful to an informational website as moldy cheese is to a delicatessen.

You would think it crazy if a retailer went to the wholesalers each week and bought goods randomly, with no clue as to what he needed, what was selling well, and how many items he had remaining on the shelves. Yet publishers seem willing to produce content without knowing these same equivalent basic facts.

This is why a good content audit is vital to understanding what’s what. Not just on a superficial level, but an in-depth look at every piece of content, giving it a value and rating.




Quantity.

So what exactly have you published already? Space may not be as much of an issue as if you were running a corner shop, but knowing what you’re selling (or telling) is.

Get a grip. Start by compiling the mother of all lists. The more you add the more helpful it will be. Use this to discover exactly the quantity of content you have published.

  • page title
  • web address (url)
  • file type (text, audio, image, video, other)
  • file format (page, post, product)
  • owner name
  • date published
  • date of next review

Work out the structure of each set of pages, what’s linking and cross-liking to each other. It may be best to create this using a spreadsheet (in Excel or Google Docs), but that’s not essential. However you feel you can best understand the content you own and publish.




Quality.

Once you’ve understood exactly what quantity of content you have, start to rate its quality. There’s really no point keeping and maintaining anything that’s underperforming.

Ask yourself a series of questions and be completely honest with every answer. There’s no point lying, your users will be the real judge and they will tell you the truth by voting with their clicks.

  • Is it serving a clear purpose?
  • Is all the information accurate?
  • Does it suit the house style?
  • Is the content suitably adapted?
  • How well ranked is it?

Based on the answers for each page, give it a ranking of it’s current state. For this it’s best to use a consistent scale .

  • Adequate
  • Attention – High Priority
  • Attention – Low Priority
  • Archive
  • Add

‘Add’ is where additional information can either be added to an existing page, or where a new page could be created.



Action Plan.

Once you’ve assessed the quality and quantity of your content, you can now build up an action plan of the work you need to do. This way, you can route out any bad apples amongst the bunch in a targeted way. By including a ‘next review date’ option, along with a ‘owner’s’ name, you’ll be able to keep track of when updates are needed and by whom.

This audit should be something you maintain during the lifetime of the content you publish. Content is an ever-revolving thing and it can rarely just be published and forgotten about without some form of updating or archiving taking place along the way.