How To Perform A Content Audit And

Extract Presentable Insights

with content strategy expert Paula Land

How to Perform a Content AuditPaula LandContent Insight

Introduction Paula Land Co-founder and CEO of Content Insight Owner and Principal Consultant at Strategic Content

What we’ll cover Introduction to the Content Audit Why Audit Who Should Audit When to Audit

Establishing Goals and Audit Scope

Getting Started

What to Audit Quality, Currency, Relevance, Consistency Brand Messaging and Voice Content Effectiveness The Competitive Audit

Gathering Audit Insights

Presenting Audit Findings

Inventories vs. audits Quantity vs. quality

Why start with an inventory?

When do we inventory and audit?• Planning and executing a content strategy• Website redesign• CMS implementation• To guide a governance initiative• Ongoing

Why audit?• Assess current state of content to inform strategy• Identify whether content consistently follows

brand, template, editorial, style and metadata guidelines

• Assess whether content supports business and user goals

• Establish a basis for gap analysis between content you have and content you need

• Prepare content for revision, removal and migration

• Uncover patterns in content to support structured content initiatives

• Understand content lifecycle and workflows

Business Goals

User Goals Content

Who should audit?

Content strategists Information architects Project managers Site managers Everyone who interacts with your content

Establishing audit goals Why are you auditing?

• Scoping a project• Content strategy initiative and/or site redesign • CMS implementation• Governance initative• Ongoing

What questions are you answering?

Scoping the audit What do you need to learn?

Who is your audience?

How much time do you have?

What’s your project timeline?

Know your limits

Getting started Start with an inventory Create your template Assemble your ingredients• Inventory data• Business requirements• Analytics data and other metrics• Editorial and brand guidelines• Personas• Customer journey maps• Customer feedback• Search logs

What to audit Editorial quality Brand and voice Content effectiveness The competition

Editorial What to assess:• Content is relevant• Content is current• Content is accurate• Content is consistent• Content is engaging• It is easy-to-read/scan• Content is audience-appropriate• Content communicates key

messages• Content facilitates key user

activities

What to assess against:•Editorial style guide•Brand guidelines•Voice / tone guidelines•User research•Personas•Customer tasks

Brand messaging and voice What to assess:• Terminology• Tone and voice• Customer feedback

What to assess against:•Style guide•Messaging guidelines•Competitors

Auditing for content performance What to assess:• Analytics data• Site metrics• Search data

What to assess against:•Business goals•Personas•Key performance indicators (KPIs)•Search rankings

Auditing against competitors What to assess:• Audience(s)• Type and quantity of content • Formats• Language (tone and voice)• Contributors (numbers, names)• Community features • Frequency of publication • Overall impression• Stand-out or differentiating

features

What to assess for:•Breadth and depth•Consistency•Completeness•Currency and frequency•Findability

Gathering insights Review your goals

Look for patterns

Presenting audit findings

Context

Content

Users

Presenting audit findings – context What decisions need to be made?

What change are you trying to drive?

Presenting audit findings – content What are the most compelling data points?

What is the call to action?

Minimize surprises

Presenting audit findings – usersWho are they?How much background do they have? What will be most persuasive?

Form and function Presentation deck – high level overview, summary of findings, recommendations,

Document – detailed results, section-by-section, examples, illustrations

Graphics – present visuals to quickly illustrate data points

Data – spreadsheet or other data sets

Wrapping it up Begin your audit with an inventory

Understand the business context

Immerse yourself in the available information

Set goals and scope your audit

Look for patterns to identify areas of focus

Present your findings in an effective way

Try CAT

Free trial available Sign up at www.content-insight.com

Stay in touch

pland@content-insight.com

@content_insight https://www.facebook.com/content.insight Content Analysis Tool (CAT)

www.content-insight.com