Crafting great content is all well and good but sometimes you need to take a step back, look at what you’ve created and see how you can make it even better. A content audit is the process of gathering all your content past and present into one place so you can sit down and analyse what’s working wonders and what content isn’t quite up to scratch.

If performed correctly, a content audit will help you to form patterns of positive content – content which is engaging, relevant and reaching the right people. It will also help you to identify the weakest links in the content chain, so you can put a strategy in place to improve them.

Carrying out a content audit will provide insight into improving organic search performance and determine which content pieces your audience just can’t get enough of. Having all your content and performance metrics in one organised list will also locate gaps in the content you have already created and inspire ideas for content pieces in the future.

Carrying out a content audit is no walk in the park. It takes a lot of time and dedication to inspect the inner workings of your content marketing strategy and analyse its performance. First of all, we get to work collating all your content so we have a comprehensive view of the issues that are affecting content growth, engagement and visibility as well as any areas for opportunity.

We gather all the content URLs into a spreadsheet (because every successful strategy starts with excel) and use our industry-tested tools to import the performance metrics for each URL. What metrics we want to see on the spreadsheet depends entirely on the client and their content goals however there are a few key contenders which should always make the list. They include; page title, target keywords, page visits, bounce rate and average duration on the page. We then combine this data with a list of content marketing indicators such as word count, type of content and canonical tags so that we have a comprehensive list we can really get our teeth stuck into.

Next comes the analysis of each URL and whether we decide to take action and improve the poorer performing content or keep as-is if the content is already performing well. We then write individual and detailed strategies for each piece in the list to form a plan of action.

It can be easy to forget that piece of content you created way back when and what seemed like a revolutionary idea at the time can now look a bit tired and out-dated. Buried content provides little value to your organic growth and makes it almost impossible for your audience to find.

A content audit breathes new life into your content. Implementing the tailored strategies within your content audit improves your overall SEO visibility as Google rewards you for the higher ratio of useful content you are now providing.

Having all your content in one place helps to consolidate your content marketing strategy and provide a better user experience for your readers with a content piece that is ticking all the boxes. A content audit also highlights what you are missing and ignites ideas for future content pieces, keeping your content fresh and impressing your audience and Google all at the same time.