Introduction to the what, when, why, where, and who of conducting website content inventories and audits, with tips on auditing for content quality, performance, and competitive advantage.

1. Introduction to
Content Inventories
and Audits
Paula Land
Content Insight

2. Introduction
Paula Land
Co-founder and CEO of Content Insight
Owner and Principal Consultant at Strategic Content

3. What we’re going to talk about
The
Who
What
When
Where
Why*
How
*Not quite in that order

4. What?

5. Content inventories and audits
Early steps in a content project
Form the foundation for the larger initiative
Strategy
Gap
Analysis
AuditInventory

6. Inventory vs. audit
Inventory - Quantity Audit - Quality

7. Another way to think of it
Inventory - Data Audit - Analysis

8. Yet another way to think of it
Some rights reserved by phil_g
"Not doing an inventory is like starting to bake when you don't know what ingredients you have in the house.― –
Rahel Bailie

9. How do we create a content
inventory?
Crtl+C,
Ctrl+V
The manual way The automated way

10. What goes into a content inventory?
• URLs — How many pages are there on the site?
• File types — What are all of the formats?
• File size — How large are the files?
• Level — How deep does the site go?
• Images — How many of them, what format, where do they live?
• Media — How many audio and video files exist, what format, where do they live?
• Documents —How many, what format, where do they live?
• Metadata — What title, description, and keyword metadata is on each page?
• Links in and out — What links to and from each page?
• H1s — What is the H1 text (matters for SEO)
• Analytics — What traffic is each page getting?

11. Why inventory?
• Assess as-is landscape of a site or content set
• Scope a project for resource estimation
• Identify patterns in content structure
• Set a baseline to measure to-be site against
• Establish a basis for migration tracking

12. What is a content audit?
• Qualitative assessment of content against a set of criteria
Goals
Standards
User tasks
Competitors
• Set of recommendations

13. Why audit?
• Assess current state of content to inform strategy
• Identify whether content consistently follows brand,
template, editorial, style and metadata guidelines
• Assess whether content supports business and user
goals
• Establish a basis for gap analysis between content
you have and content you need
• Prepare content for revision, removal and migration
• Uncover patterns in content to support structured
content initiatives
• Understand content lifecycle and workflows
Business
Goals
User
Goals
Content

14. Organizational value of audits
Become the content expert
Be the content advocate
Drive change forward
Image by Thibault fr (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia

15. When do we inventory and audit?
• Planning a content strategy initiative
• Website redesign
• CMS implementation
• Ongoing

16. Audits aren’t just for content
strategists
Content strategists
Information architects
Project managers
Site managers
Everyone who interacts with your content

17. Audit across all content touchpoints

18. Turning an inventory into an audit
Scope the audit
Gather information
Analyze content against criteria

19. Scoping the audit
Why are you auditing?
• Scoping a project
• Content strategy initiative and/or site redesign
• CMS implementation
• Ongoing
What do you need to learn?
Who is your audience?
How much time do you have?
What’s your project timeline?

20. Assembling the audit ingredients
Information to gather before beginning:
• Inventory data
• Business requirements
• Analytics data and other metrics
• Editorial and brand guidelines
• Personas
• Customer journey maps
• Customer feedback
• Search logs

21. What we audit for
Quality
Breadth and depth
Performance and effectiveness
Competition

22. Auditing for content quality
What to assess:
• Content is relevant
• Content is current
• Content is accurate
• It is easy-to-read/scan
• Tone is audience-appropriate
• Content communicates key messages
• Content facilitates key user activities
• Content is engaging
• Content presentation is consistent
• Nomenclature is clear and consistent
What to assess against:
• Editorial style guide
• Brand guidelines
• Voice / tone guidelines
• User research
• Personas
• Customer tasks

23. Auditing for structure and function
What to assess:
• What content elements and
interactions exist on the site?
• How well do they perform?
• What are the implications for
redesign or migration?
What to assess against:
• Customer journey maps
• Analytics goals
• Business requirements for CMS

24. Auditing for breadth and depth
What to assess:
• Range of subjects
covered
• Comprehensiveness of
coverage
• Format
What to assess against:
• Competitor sites
• Business requirements
• Personas
• Customer journey map

25. Auditing for content performance
What to assess:
• Analytics data
• Site metrics
• Search data
What to assess against:
• Business goals
• Personas
• Key performance indicators
(KPIs)
• Search rankings

26. Auditing against competitors
What to assess:
• Audience(s)
• Type and quantity of content
• Formats
• Language (tone and voice)
• Contributors (numbers, names)
• Community features
• Frequency of publication
• Overall impression
• Stand-out or differentiating
features
What to assess for:
• Breadth and depth
• Consistency
• Completeness
• Currency and frequency
• Findability

27. Auditing against competitors
What to assess:
• Audience(s)
• Type and quantity of content
• Formats
• Language (tone and voice)
• Contributors (numbers, names)
• Community features
• Frequency of publication
• Overall impression
• Stand-out or differentiating
features
What to assess for:
• Breadth and depth
• Consistency
• Completeness
• Currency and frequency
• Findability

28. Gathering insights
Review your goals
Look for patterns
Draw conclusions
Assemble evidence

29. Presenting audit findings
Contex
t
Content Users

30. Presenting audit findings – context
What decisions need to be made?
What change are you trying to drive?

31. Presenting audit findings – content
What are the most compelling data points?
What is the call to action?
Minimize surprises

32. Presenting audit findings – users
Think about your audience:
 Who are they?
 How much background do they have?
 What will be most persuasive to them?
 What format is appropriate for the type of information you are sharing?

33. Presenting audit findings – format
Presentation deck – high level overview, summary of findings,
recommendations,
Document – detailed results, section-by-section, examples, illustrations
Graphics – present visuals to quickly illustrate data points
Data – spreadsheet or other data sets

34. Summary
Begin your audit with an inventory
Understand the business context
Immerse yourself in the available information
Set goals and scope your audit
Look for patterns to identify areas of focus
Present your findings in an effective way

35. Try CAT
Automate your content inventories for fast, easy data
gathering!
Free trial available
Sign up at www.content-insight.com