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TIPS AND TRICKS TO CONDUCTING A SUCCESSFUL CONTENT AUDITBy Denise KadilakInformation Architect/Team Manager
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ABOUT ME
• 17 years experience• Creating and maintaining 1000s of pages of user-end documentation• Technical-project lead investigating new tools, best practices, and
workflows for a 22-member documentation team• Led team’s move four years ago to MadCap FlarePart-time instructor at John Carroll University in Cleveland, OH
• Teach the Technical Writing course included in the school’s Professional Writing program
Past presentations:• Flare workshop at 2014 WritersUA, Palm Springs • Link your Way to Successful Content Management in Flare at the CMS/DITA North America 2013 conference• Moving from FrameMaker to Flare at the 2011 WritersUA
Information Architect/Team Manager
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ABOUT ME
Webinar:
• Moving from Adobe FrameMaker to FlareWebsite:
• Writing with a Flare
More stuff
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AGENDA
• What is a Content Audit• How it fits in a Content Strategy• What is a Content Strategy• Where to start• Tips• Q&A
What we’ll cover…
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WHAT IS A CONTENT AUDIT?
• Tracking of all content you currently publish• Foundation of a successful content
strategy
In very broad terms
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WHAT IS A CONTENT AUDIT?
• Quantitative analysis that answers 5 basic questions about your content:• What’s there?• Who’s responsible for the content?• How are users locating what they need?• Is it satisfying the users’ needs?• Is it up-to-date?
A bit more specific
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SO WHAT IS A CONTENT STRATEGY?
Kristina Halvorson or Brain Traffic offers the most used definition:• It “plans for the creation, publication, and
governance of useful, usable content.”
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SO WHAT IS A CONTENT STRATEGY?
A more comprehensive explanation can be found in Sarah O’Keefe and Alan Pringle’s Content Strategy 101: Transform Technical Content into a Business Asset.• Free Epub download• Crowd-sourced development• Comprehensive
• Broad range of considerations regarding content strategy
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SO WHAT IS A CONTENT STRATEGY?
• It does not mean simply figuring out how you plan to manage thousands of content-carrying topics or hundreds of chapter-bearing files.
In short:
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SO WHAT IS A CONTENT STRATEGY?
• That is an element in the strategy equation, but because documentation teams nowadays do so much more than traditional “documentation” and work with so many departments outside of their own, a successful content strategy involves orchestrating a number of related elements.
In short:
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SO WHAT IS A CONTENT STRATEGY?
• For example, • Determining what deliverables will best
satisfy your users’ needs: videos, visual walkthroughs, tip sheets, getting stated documentation, traditional help, printed manuals, combination package?
• What outside departments have a stake in the content you deliver, and what exactly should their input be?
In short:
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WHERE DOES A CONTENT AUDIT FIT?
• Content audit is just one element – a very important element – in this very large process
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WHERE DOES A CONTENT AUDIT FIT?
• A list is a content inventory• Catalog all contents• Includes all information assets on a
website:• Html pages• Meta elements, such as keywords, page
title, images, audio and video files, document files
It’s more than just a list…
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WHERE DOES A CONTENT AUDIT FIT?
• An audit evaluates content• Results in a better understanding of the
content• May find things you didn’t know existed• Spot duplication• Identify all kinds of relationships in the
content• Can also serve as a precursor to a more
comprehensive content analysis
It’s more than just a list…
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WHERE TO START?
• What do you want to accomplish?• What are you going to do with content you
remove?• Resources available• Evaluation process
• Keep Cleanup in mind• Size of the audit
Create a solid audit plan that addresses:
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AUDIT PLAN
• What do you want to accomplish?• More Website traffic?• More Help File traffic?• Fewer support calls?• Fewer complaints about
outdated/missing content?
Determine the goal of your audit
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AUDIT PLAN
• Condition?• Archive?• Delete?
How to handle unnecessary content
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AUDIT PLAN
• Helps you determine scope• Don’t want to bite off more than you can
chew• You have to act on what you find!
Evaluate your resources
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AUDIT PLAN
• Some way to:• ID content that needs to be addressed• Allows you to prioritize the cleanup
process• Keep cleanup in mind
Create an evaluation process
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AUDIT PLAN
• Ideal if you can do this in the content itself• If not, a spreadsheets works
• Flexible• Arrange a lot of information• Easy to share
Record findings
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AUDIT PLAN
• Depends on size of audit• Record info for pages that need work• Location of content• Comments/Notes on what you found
What to record
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AUDIT PLAN
• Full audit: • Every piece of content currently in your
system• Partial audit:
• Varies, but usually focuses on the top few levels in your information hierarchy
• Or, content created during a specific time period (past three months, oldest-to-newest)
Determine the size of your audit
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AUDIT PLAN
• Sample content (good starting point)• Least detailed• A random collection of content
Determine the size of your audit
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FINAL TIPS
• Section by section• Level by level• Checklist helpful
Be methodical
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FINAL TIPS
• Check all links• Thoroughly record findings• Restrict audit time – don’t plan on doing
this all day
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RESOURCES
• Content Inventory and Audit Resources – a compilation page
• Content Audit Guide and Template• How to Conduct a Content Audit• How to do a Content Audit – Step-by-step
