Your Website Content: Audit Tips

If your web content is your public face, especially if it’s your sales engine, you should be auditing it at least once a year. 

First, ask if the content is effective in helping to achieve your website’s goal? If not, why is it on your website? Is it helping your business in any way? If not, consider shifting the content elsewhere – to a blog site, social media post, podcast, newsletter, etc.

Next, review for freshness, accuracy/clarity, consistency, and efficiency (FACE). Update and edit out-of-date, inconsistent, and inaccurate content. Streamline long-form content for scannability. 

Additional tips for auditing your web content:

• Look for duplicates and near duplicates. Repeated content is difficult to keep consistent. Can the repeats be consolidated? Can the consolidated content be reused?

• Evaluate seldom visited content. How does it contribute to the whole? (Remember seldom visited does not mean irrelevant.) If it’s important, can the SEO be improved? Can links be added?

• Analyze fragmented content and overlapping concepts. Can you create a better flow?

• Speaking of flow, examine your website content flow through a visitor’s eye. How hard do your website visitors have to work to get crucial information or make a commitment? For example, how many barriers do they encounter before they can register for your event or course? Do some weeding to ease their burden.

• Look for ways to reduce their cognitive load. What are other ways that you can make it easier for your website visitors to consume your content? For example, are your website visitors better served with a graphic instead of long-form content? Revamp with your website visitor in mind.

I hope this helps. If you want to know more about concepts like scannability, review the blog posts listed below. For more complex content evaluations, find a free downloadable checklist in one of my earlier blog posts.

Related posts:

• Creating Online Content for Your Customers: Accuracy
• Creating Online Content for Your Customers: Clarity
• Creating Onlne Content for Your Customers: Relevance
• Creating Online Content for Your Customers: Scannability
• How to Develop a Combined Content Audit and Plan

Debra’s Note: Welcome back! My blog has been on hiatus since my mother’s death, which was followed by my own bouts of illnesses. A colleague’s recent question prompted this blog post. I hope to publish more soon.