How to get content audits right
The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. The short answer to content audits is that it is mostly a sequence of small decisions, not one big one.
Content is the part of a project most likely to be underestimated and most likely to delay a launch. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.
Why this earns attention
Most sites have pages nobody has read in years. In practice this is a scheduling problem more than a technical one. If it only works because one person remembers to do something, it does not work yet.
The steps
- Establish what you have today before changing anything
- Consolidate, update, or remove
- Thin content drags down the pages around it
- Write down the decision so the next person does not re-litigate it
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.
Making it stick
How to tell if yours is fine
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
- Consolidate, update, or remove — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
None of this needs a rewrite. Most of it is a morning's work once someone decides to do it.