Is your website a monster? It's time for a content audit.

Good websites grow. New services or products come up, new pictures are taken, a hot industry topic comes up that you write about, etc. Generally, that growth is a good thing, as good content attracts good traffic.

That said, good content ages. It's easy to let aging happen to website content, without being proactive about updating it. Eventually, your website might become a bit of a monster (we'll call it a yeti, in the spirit of December), overflowing with a mix of old pages, new pages, and those in between. You forget about old pages, and then they just float around in cyberspace, still attached to your website.

Why is this a problem, you ask? Well, a streamlined website is a happy, well-performing, and up-to-date website. Visitors are unlikely to stick around if, say, they find a forum on your website that nobody has posted on in years. However, if visitors find your site to be fast, relevant, up-to-date, and reliable, they're likely to both hang out now and return later. If you want to achieve that kind of website nirvana, it's time for a content audit.

Audit: Not a Dirty Word

Yes, the word "audit" is synonymous with scary ideas. But a website content audit isn't scary at all! In fact, it can only lead to visitors having a better overall experience on your website. Over time, it's often easy for your once-clean website to get a little complicated. A content audit will not only bring those complications to light, but it'll also illuminate new content possibilities and opportunities. Hence, you'll move toward that coveted website nirvana.

The Process

A content audit works by laying out every page of your website in a spreadsheet. There are tools we can use to find every page that exists on your website, as well as just some content marketing elbow grease.

Once we have a list of all the pages on your website, we take stock of how each page is performing. Are people visiting the page? Is the page drawing visits to your site by helping your website rank for certain keywords? Are most people bouncing off the page, seconds after they pop on? These are all important metrics to look at in determining the fate of each page.

Each page's fate is noted in the spreadsheet. We'll decide whether to keep it as is, keep it and update it, or remove it. If it has potential, it might just need some good old fashioned lovin' - a couple new images, a new page title, some wording tweaks, and some social media sharing. If it's under performing and not as useful as it once was, we'll give it the axe to make room for new, relevant content.

The Afterglow

After the content audit is complete, you've got a clean, streamlined website that's easier for your visitors to navigate, without getting caught in any dead ends. Content audits also highlight the pages and content that are doing well, and we can use that information to create more of the right kind of content. In other words, welcome to website nirvana!

If you're interested in a content audit, contact our web marketing team.