A content inventory is an essential early step in your content strategy. How do you know what content you need if you don't know what you have? But that's not where the process should end. How do you dig deeper to not only understand what you have, but if it's useful, relevant, and on-brand? Using practical examples, Rick will walk through the process of creating a content inventory and a quantitative and qualitative audit to evaluate content quality.
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Let’s talk!
• Why content audits are important
• The content audit process
• The different types of content audits
and how to chose the right one
• Criteria for evaluating content
• How to prioritize and present your findings
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7. “
#meetcontent
We know our content is poor
quality, but we don’t know what
doesn’t work. We have
assumptions, but we don’t have
any data to support them.
8. “
#meetcontent
We’re starting a website redesign
project and I’m being asked about
content requirements and resource
needs. How do I begin to answer
these questions?
9. “
#meetcontent
I’m living in the wild west!
Everyone and their mother is
editing and adding content to our
website—wait, who changed that
header to Comic Sans? We need
an editorial process, but I don’t
know the scope of problems to be
solved?
10. “
#meetcontent
I’ve been put in charge of web
content and I’m trying to
understand how our site is
organized. It seems logical on the
surface, but when I dig deeper it
gets confusing fast. I can’t make
sense of it.
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Qualitative Audit
• What does the content say?
• Is content accurate?
• Is content useful?
• Is content on-brand?
• Is content professionally written?
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Specialized content audits
• SEO
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SEO audit
• Is content accessible to search engines?
• Are there duplicate page titles?
• Are there broken links?
• Are links descriptive?
• Are URLs descriptive?
• Do images have alt tags?
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Specialized content audits
• SEO
• Localization
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Localization audit
• Is the translation accurate?
• Is messaging in context?
• Is content relevant, meaningful, and
appropriate?
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Metadata audit
• What data is used to organize, structure, and
deliver content?
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51. Approaches to content audits
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28922120@N03/6273511761/
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What do you want to learn?
• “What opportunities exist for cutting content?”
• “Are we using appropriate content types
to communicate our message?”
• “Is content organized and labeled so
it’s findable and usable?”
• “What opportunities exist for creating
new content that will support our
communication goals?”
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How much is enough?
• Full content audits
• Partial content audits
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Prioritize / segment
• User groups
• Traffic
• Content owners
• Frequency
• Page levels
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#meetcontent
Sampling doesn’t lead to a perfect
picture of your content. But a
sample audit can provide useful
information to support arguments
for funding, make the case for
content work, or demonstrate
progress.
Melissa Rach
Brain Traffic
57. Audit sample size guidelines
Total number of Sample Size
pages/pieces
<5,000 Review all
10,000 5,000
50,000 8,000
100,000 9,000
Source: http://blog.braintraffic.com/2011/11/audit-sampling-it%E2%80%99s-a-numbers-game/
58. Divide and conquer?
Solo Collaborate
Ensures consistency / Work is completed faster
accuracy
Auditor gains expert Content owners become
content insights familiar with their content
No training or coordination Subject-matter experts
evaluate content
Source: http://blog.braintraffic.com/2011/11/audit-sampling-it%E2%80%99s-a-numbers-game/
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Lessons from the trenches
• Focus on the most important info
(don’t gather info you don’t need)
• Estimate 6-12 pages and hour to audit
(depends on the list of criteria)
• Take frequent breaks
• Review your work
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Content audit process
Goals Inventory Evaluate Present
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Keep your audits going
• Update your content audits regularly to keep
them useful
• Rolling content audits
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Mark your calendar!
Creating and Planning for
Responsive Content
Georgy Cohen • June 19, 2012
Yep, it’s free!
Sign-up: http://mcont.co/061912webinar
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- Focus on the most important info (don&#x2019;t gather info you don&#x2019;t need)\n\n- Estimate 6-12 pages and hour to audit&#x2014;depends on the list of criteria\n\n- Take frequent breaks. Audits can drive people insane. (I&#x2019;m sure this is documented somewhere.)\n\n- Review your work\n
