Having a website means you'll have content there. Having content requires an audit. If you've ever audited content, you know it's slow and methodical work that you should perform with reverence. Performing a content audit can provide insights and help you improve your content creation skills.
It's time for a content audit if you want to find out how well your website's content performs and what you can do to make it perform better.
I suggest we start by defining this gigantic task.
Content Audits Are, as the Name Implies, Audits of Your Website’s Content
Isn't that easy? It's not at all.
Getting it right can be very challenging.
I won't go into specific content audit steps just yet - we'll discuss that later - but you should know that a content audit is a qualitative process. So rather than creating an inventory of content as a quantitative process does, a qualitative approach will highlight some key performance indicators to answer the question - is it good?
In a process that relies on precision and meticulousness, content that is "good" will continually evolve and is often determined by examining the content against a set of metrics.
Therefore, there it is.
Content audits are a process of creating an inventory of your content, dissecting it, analyzing it, and looking at all the metrics that should tell you how good it is.
We do content audits to see how well our content has been performing over the past year or so. The metrics let us compare the performance of the content to our actual goals. A good audit lets you know what worked, how, and why, and what didn't.
If you are a writer, a content audit can provide you with some valuable suggestions for creating content that is both valuable and relevant to your readers and contributes to your site's overall strategy. Writers would have to rely on intuition without it, which is great and a disaster at the same time. It would also require them to rely on what data they can find, which is not ideal.
An audit can be helpful to independent writers, in-house copywriters, or any other writer who produces content that is targeted for a specific purpose and audience.
Although Your Website Generates Traffic, It Does Not Generate Qualified Leads
There may be something wrong with your content if visitors aren't converting into leads.
You may be attracting prospects from the wrong market, and as a result, no one converts. Moreover, it might be that the content was written without clarifying how it will address the needs and pain points of a particular buyer persona, which ultimately results in no leads. It is therefore essential to understand your buyer personas and the content they will respond to.
Using a content audit, you can see how your content performs, which marketing channels are effective, and which ones should be eliminated. You can find out how well your content targets the right audience.
Unclear Value Propositions Produce Unclear Content
Marketing content that lacks a clear understanding of the company's value proposition will appear confusing.
With a content audit, you can evaluate your current content to make sure it aligns with your company's value proposition. It is important to present a clear value proposition to increase conversions, engagement, shares, and conversion rates.
Blogging Is Not Part of Your Sales Process
You can use a content audit to determine which marketing channels generate leads, such as your blog. Researchers have found that marketers who blog generate 67% more leads than those who do not. Despite this, many companies do not include blogging in their sales process.
By aligning your marketing and sales teams, you can engage your prospects with high-quality content and move them down the sales funnel. An audit of your blog content can help you identify which messaging is working, which calls-to-action (CTAs) are most effective, and how to drive sales traffic through your blog.
The Company Is Not Meeting Its Lead or Sales Goals
Your lead targets and/or sales goals can be negatively impacted if your sales strategy is not aligned with your content strategy. When certain goals aren't being met, a content audit can identify what is causing this and fix it.
Making your content sales-friendly is crucial. Content that is well-written and concise can help your business generate more sales-ready leads.
There Is No Interest in Your Content
You may need a content audit if you find that people who subscribe to your blog aren't reading it. You can then work on getting it back on track to keep these subscribers happy.
Content audits enable you to understand where and when your content has drifted away from its original purpose, making it easier to re-purpose the content. Hence, it attracts the target audience for which it is intended.
Conclusion
With a content audit, you can continuously improve your content, stay ahead of your competition, boost engagement, and rank higher for target keywords. Using a content audit can help you improve your content marketing and SEO.
Take a look at our sidebar full of related pages that will enhance your digital marketing efforts if you want more useful content like this. Simple, effective methods that will save you time and greatly increase your site's performance.
