Website content review is essential if you want to increase your online presence.
This includes evaluating all text, images and multimedia elements on your website to ensure they support your business goals and appeal to your target audience.
This process can also help you find opportunities for improvement and make the necessary changes to optimize your website for success.
But how can you conduct your website content audit effectively?
Here are four steps you should follow to get the best results.
1. Gather verification tools
When conducting a website content audit, you and your entire team need to have the right tools for the job. Here are some you will need:
- Spreadsheets or note-taking apps. You’ll need Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel, or note-taking apps like Evernote or Notion to document your insights, observations, and recommendations. You may also need AI templatessuch as Writer release notes. All of these tools help you organize and present your data.
- SEO tools. SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz can help you analyze your website’s SEO performance, keyword rankings, backlinks, and overall search visibility. Most of these tools do the same thing, so you only need one of them.
- Grammar and spelling checker. Grammarly, Hemingway, and similar tools can help you identify and fix grammar, spelling, and readability problems in your content. These tools are essential because Content quality affects user experience.
- Analysis tools. This type of software allows you to track the performance of your website content before and after content review. With Google Analytics, you can gain insights into user behavior, traffic sources, and content performance. Hotjar, Crazy Egg, and similar tools can now provide heatmaps, session recordings, and other insights into how users are interacting with your B2B website content.
These tools allow you to analyze your content performance from multiple angles. Together, they can give you valuable insight into how to improve your overall content strategy.
2. Create a sitemap with content resources
A content sitemap is a graphical summary or overview of all the content you create. This may include, but is not limited to, case studies, videos, infographics, white papers, and blog posts.
Using a sitemap, you can classify all these resources and plan the structure of your website for an optimal user experience.
Here is one Example of a sitemap:
The first step in creating a content sitemap is to identify and organize the components of your content.
You or your review team should evaluate all current material on your site, including web pages, blog posts, photos, videos, and downloadable files.
Then, as part of your site’s content audit, create a list of core components or top-level pages that summarize your various content types – for example, your home page, About Us, Pricing, Blog, FAQ, and Contact Us. .
Under each main section, define the subsections or subcategories of content. For example, under “Products/Services” you may have different product categories or service offerings.
Similarly, for each subsection, identify the different content assets, which may include specific web pages, blog posts, videos, downloadable resources, etc. Include relevant details such as titles, descriptions, and URLs.
Organize everything in a hierarchical framework, with main parts at the top and subcategories and individual content items nested underneath.
For this task, you can use sitemap generators such as XML Sitemaps.com, Slickplan.com and Octopus.do. You can also use mind mapping software, diagramming tools, or even a simple spreadsheet.
Once you have your sitemap, you can better visualize the different topic clusters on your site and the areas that need improvement. You can also spot gaps or inconsistencies in your material. For example, you may notice that pages that should be there to meet informational or navigational needs are missing. Likewise, you may discover duplicate content that should be removed.
Use your sitemap to evaluate the quality and relevance of each page. Decide whether pages should be updated, consolidated, or removed based on how they contribute to your goals.
3. Check the accompanying images of the content
Images play a crucial role in improving the overall user experience and engagement on a website.
They break up long content, make it more visually appealing and ensure that information is conveyed more effectively. In addition, high-quality and properly optimized images can improve the website’s performance in the SERPs.
When used correctly and combined with the fastest web hosting available, images can improve user experience, reduce bounce rates and increase conversions.
Accordingly, you or your content team should review each image to ensure that it meets the desired quality standards. For example, the default website background image size is 72 ppi (pixels per inch) and should not be more than 20 MB.
Also, check the alt text for images and make sure they are optimized with relevant keywords.
Additionally, ensure that the style, format, and tone of images are consistent with your website’s branding guidelines to keep your appearance consistent and professional.
Also evaluate whether each image effectively supports the corresponding content and contributes to the business message being communicated.
Finally, ensure that all images are properly licensed for use on your website and comply with copyright laws.
4. Fix problems immediately
A website content audit can reveal a variety of issues – such as problems with the clarity or coherence of the content, inconsistencies in message or tone, inaccuracies or outdated information, and a lack of supporting evidence or examples.
These issues affect the quality and credibility of your website’s content. They can also make it harder for potential customers to understand the intended message or take necessary action. Therefore, you need to thoroughly review and address such issues to ensure that your content is accurate and clear to the people you want to reach.
How to Execute Your Content Assessment Action Plan…
- Prioritize content issues based on their severity and impact on user experience, credibility and compliance. For example, based on this assessment, you might decide to first delete a duplicate blog post before creating an entirely new one.
- Replace outdated content. You may need to do more research, double-check your sources, and talk to subject matter experts. Additionally, anticipate what potential customers might ask and give them timely answers. Add any missing information.
- Replace low-quality or irrelevant graphics with high-quality photos, videos or other visual components that are consistent with the website’s identity and message.
You or your content reviewers should revise the content to correct spelling errors, grammatical errors, and awkward wording. Consider using tools like Grammarly or reaching out to professional editors if necessary to ensure high-quality content.
Make sure all pages and sections of the website have the same style, tone, terminology and formatting.
Finally, make sure you implement SEO best practices when it comes to content to increase exposure and ranking in organic search. Include the right keywords, meta titles, etc. in your regular reviews Meta descriptionsHeadings and other on-page SEO elements to make your website content more search engine friendly.
Diploma
Reviewing the material on your website is crucial to improving your online presence and profile and ensuring it meets your business goals.
Gather the right tools for your website audit, create a sitemap, and review your images. Then quickly fix the problems you find.
With effective content reviews, companies can improve user experience, their own trustworthiness, and the overall performance of their website. You can also rank higher in search engines.
Ultimately, a content audit can ensure you generate more website visitors and engage them. This, in turn, can lead to you attracting more customers.
More resources on content reviews and audits
Four steps to conduct an efficient content audit and get the most value from your content
How to Conduct a Content Audit That Will Skyrocket Your Organic Traffic
The ultimate guide to a brand audit of your website
Avoid the Museum of Dead Content: What to Do When Web Content Expires