5 reasons you need a content audit now
When we talk about content audits for your website or online channels we’re basically talking about gathering evidence that allows you to improve your content.
You can get a broad view of what’s going on (go wide and shallow) or focus on one area (go narrow and deep). Either way, the outcome gives you solid data that means:
- no more guess work based on what other people are doing with their content
- not having to rely on bells and whistles (fancy graphics, trendy tech or expensive gizmos)
- being able to create tailored content that works for you, your brand or your organisation
- measurable, impactful results
Why use a content audit? Why not buy a PR campaign, or tweak your marketing strategy, or use what’s trending?
Reason 1 and 2:
Time and money.
You can’t afford to waste either.
In today’s world, you need to move fast. That’s not only because technologies are changing ever faster, or even because the way people live is changing. It’s because both of those also mean the way you and I consume content and what we need from it are changing.
Moving fast means acting quickly, but move in the wrong direction and that can cost you both time and money.
A content audit gives you a solid foundation of understanding so you can pivot quickly and adapt. Why is that?
Reason 3:
You can’t understand your best next step without understanding what’s really going on now.
Content audits give you the firm footing you need to move forward by digging into what’s working (and what isn’t) about your current content.
Your content audit starts with 3 essentials:
- define what content you have, where it sits and how much there is – websites, channels, URLs, word counts on pages
- find out how your content is performing – how many people visit (or don’t), how long they stay, where they’ve come from, where they go next, what they look at (and what they don’t)
- analyse the data for gaps and opportunities – what people are actually looking for or trying to do, where are they getting frustrated, what valuable content are they missing
When you understand what’s really going on with your content you can start to make decisions that will make a difference to you and to the way people connect with you.
You can use what you’ve learned to make it clear to the world why people need you, what they can get from you that they can’t get elsewhere and why they should use you. How that magic happens is down to our next reason.
Reason 4:
You need a content audit now because the sooner you get one, the sooner you’ll have reliable, actionable data. And that means you can prioritise what you need to do now, next and later with confidence. Especially now.
Quick wins usually include surfacing great content that’s buried by using better search engine optimisation (SEO) or making it easy for people to complete the tasks they do most often (or try to).
Planning for later means being able to see a roadmap towards a better future. It’s also key to adapting quickly, because, as we said earlier, in today’s world, things move fast.
You can’t make the changes you need to make now to get ahead, never mind keep up, by just using a PR campaign or by tweaking your marketing strategy, or even by buying the latest technological wonder. You need the data about what people actually need from you and what your content needs to provide. Which brings us to our final reason why you need a content audit now.
Reason 5:
You can’t judge success by using a crystal ball.
When you have the results of a content audit, what you have is not only the story of what your content is, but also the start of a new story to tell.
Use what you’ve learned about what content you have, where it is, what’s performing well (and what isn’t). Create a new story based on putting what people actually need from you first and how you might meet those needs in the most imaginative way.
You might need new content, but you don’t need to start from scratch. Sometimes what you might need as much is a good tidy up that means reorganising and repurposing existing content.
But before you do any of that, start by using your content audit data to set benchmarks and goals that you can measure, so you can truly see in the future where your content is working (or where you need to fix it). No crystal ball required, just good hard data.
That’s why you need a content audit now.
