How content audit helps people to
-see the size and scope of what they have on their website or intranet
-decide what they need to do with it
-decide who will do it
-break down the tasks into achievable and affordable chunks
-plan ahead
-keep their content clean and fresh
10. ‘ We have structured our services to focus completely on customers’ needs . We offer the hassle-free service , simple processes and access to personalised advice that they’re looking for.’
21. 3. Qualitative audit: OUCH Outdated – update, edit Unnecessary – throw away, don’t replace Current – review, edit Have to write – commission, write, edit
22. 4. Reader focus: before Carlisle City Council is responsible for most aspects of parking in the city. Our services are provided to all residents, businesses and visitors. Our aim is to ensure the parking places in Carlisle are shared fairly amongst all users and that roads stay safe and clear. Parking Services is responsible for enforcing parking regulations under the provisions of Part 6 to the Traffic Management Act 2004. This legislation provides for the civil parking enforcement of most types of parking regulations and it replaces Part II and Schedule 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1991. Enforcement is carried out by Civil Enforcement Officers who issue Penalty Charge Notices to illegally parked vehicles using handheld computers.
You deliver a perfect, precision-built site, but your client soon starts uploading new material without taking the old stuff down. Very soon, it’s all a bit of a mish-mash. It’s as if they’ve bought a luxury car and then let their children in with chocolate, Ribena and that all pervading smell of Pickled Onion Monster Munch. Govern is the key word here – keep track, tend and care for of every piece of content long after delivery, and take it down before it goes off.
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Here’s an example of runaway content that doesn’t live up to promise This is what they promise…
..and this is what you get. No wonder their call centre is inundated! Out of 25 date references, the user only needs to know two… Please let us have your year-end accounts by [date]. This helps us to prepare your returns in good time for the deadline of [date]. Thank you
The inventory lists every text page on the site. From this we pick a section, either: One that the clients requests as a problems area to tackle first One that we can see is a challenge and that will best illustrate what we can do.
We are focusing on text, but we don’t lose sight of the other material
Quantitative audit The quantitative audit answers such questions as: How many pages are there? How many words are there? How many times do keywords appear? How many links are there? When was the page last updated? We are counting. We try not to read the content at this stage! If it is a large site, we pick one section of the site for quantitative audit. This could be your client’s choice of problem area, or something you think will showcase your editorial skill. Around 15–20 pages is a good number. Add new columns to your inventory as you go. Flesch is a measure of readability. A high word count and a low Flesch score help us identify the pages that need most work. We can add your analytics to the spreadsheet to help us identify which pages have good stats and which could be safely removed.
Focus in on one area that is ripe for redevelopment
Qualitative audit shows: the level of work that needs to be done on the content who will do it; and you can start to estimate how much it will cost. This document sets the ball rolling on project management
Relevant keywords 12 Reader-focused words (yellow) 0 Council-focused words (white) 10 Reader-unfriendly words 15
Task-based home page helps them do things properly so that they don’t incur penalties
