What You Need to Know to Perform a Content Audit

Written by Nick Stamoulis

content strategy concept handwritting on blackboardDo you know how effective your existing content really is? Before you can truly move forward with your content marketing strategies, you need to perform a content audit. This will help you uncover any gaps in your existing content, show you how well your existing content is performing, and will also prevent you from creating duplicate content.

This is something we do for all of our full service B2B SEO clients – we know that a content audit is an important part of content marketing and it is something that is often overlooked. While we always run reports from analytics, there are also some “intangible” things we look at. With that being said, there are some things that you need to know before you get started with the audit. Here’s an overview:

Understand Content Marketing Objectives

Before you get started performing your audit, you should have a clear idea of what your objectives for your content marketing plan are. That way, you can assess how well your existing content met those objectives before you make any future changes to your program. Objectives could include building brand loyalty, increasing search engine traffic, encouraging more social signals, and to support your sales cycle. Keep in mind that each piece of content could have more than one objective.

Determine Buyer Persona

Do you know what your ideal buyers looks like? Creating a series of personas will help you personalize your content so that it resonates with your target market. If your audit reveals that your existing content has somehow missed the mark, it could be because you don’t clearly understand your buyers. You’ll want to have this understanding while performing the content audit and developing your new content strategy.

Get to Know Your Sales Cycle

Do you know what your sales cycle is? When creating content, you really should target your it for each phase of the sales cycle. For this, it helps to communicate with the sales department at your company so that you can gain insight as to the types of information the prospects are looking for. While performing the audit, keep these points in mind so that you can uncover any content gaps. For instance, as a B2B company, it could take 6 months to 1 year to close a sale. It’s the role of your content to keep these prospects informed and engaged with your brand.

Analyze Your Current Voice

When looking at your existing content, you’ll notice that it has taken on a certain voice. Does the voice resonate with your current audience? If it doesn’t chances are pretty good that your content isn’t performing well as it should. As part of the audit, you’ll want to consider changing the voice not only by editing your existing content, but also when you move forward with your new content plan.

As you can see, not everything about a content audit will be purely analytical. Sure, it is important to run the reports so that you can see how the content is actually performing. However, that’s not the only element that needs to be considered in your content audit. Understanding your audience will be a big factor in helping you perform the audit so that you can make any necessary changes to your strategy moving forward.

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