Content audits: the questions we get asked most

The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. The questions about content audits that come up most often on our calls.

Writing for the web is largely an editing job: the first draft is always longer than it needs to be. The teams that stay on top of it are the ones who put it on a calendar rather than a wish list.

Do we need to care about this?

Most sites have pages nobody has read in years. The teams that handle this well are rarely the ones with the biggest budgets. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

Can it wait until after launch?

Occasionally. More often the post-launch version costs several times the pre-launch one. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions.

How do we know it is working?

Thin content drags down the pages around it. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.

The short version

Pages that answer a real question outlive pages written to fill a slot in a sitemap. Three things worth confirming about content audits before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Most sites have pages nobody has read in years — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If any of that sounds like a description of your current setup, it is fixable.