content audit - Express Writers

How to Do a Content Audit to Maximize Your SEO

April 9, 2024April 9, 2024 by Adam Oakley

You regularly visit the doctor for checkups, even if you aren’t sick. You go to the doctor to PREVENT you from getting sick. By keeping up with these visits, the doctor can give you a status report on your health and catch any issues while they’re still minor and easy to solve. Without those checkups, you might not receive medical care until an issue has begun wreaking complete havoc on your system and causing irreparable damage to your body. Your website also needs regular checkups, which marketers call content audits. They are a crucial website health checkup that gives you the status of your website’s performance while also alerting you to any issues before they cause more significant problems. Without a content audit, you’ll miss out on vital health updates and won’t know there are issues until your site shows severe damage, such as a drop in traffic or conversions. It also alerts you to what’s performing well and new opportunities to continue growing your site. Let’s unlock the secrets of the content audit through this guide so you can begin giving your site its much-needed regular checkups. What Is a Website Content Audit? A content audit is a complete check of your content. Content includes all the assets on your website, such as blog posts, landing pages, and web pages. Leave no page overlooked. Yes, that does sound like it takes time. That’s why most people perform these at least once annually. About 61% of marketers perform content audits two or more times in a year. But, it’s not a task you want to skim over as you may miss crucial signs of issues or new opportunites. What exactly are you looking for? Here are a few signs of issues: Errors Outdated content Repetitive content Poor content As you perform a content audit, you will decide what needs fixing, updating, or deletion. Ultimately, you’ll create a more positive user experience as readers encounter fewer errors and confusing or outdated content. The regular updates also keep your content relevant and running smoothly, boosting your search engine ranking. Why a Website Content Audit Is a Must Could you run a website without a content audit? Technically speaking, yes, you could. But that would be like living in a house without ever cleaning it. The house might remain standing, but the dust buildup and grime will scare away visitors and even cost you your health. A content audit keeps your website looking updated, active, and valuable to your target audience so they feel welcome and eager to explore further. Here are the top benefits of conducting regular content audits: Performance Insights: You’ll gain insights into your content performance. If you want a successful website that attracts monthly traffic, you need to create content with high-performance rates. Reviewing your analytics during your audit builds a clear picture of your topics and formats that generate the most traffic, engagement, and conversions. Audience Understanding: Knowing your audience drives your content, and your final goal is to connect and convert that audience. You want to understand their interests, pain points, motivating factors, and life changes. Understanding what content your audience engages with gives you glimpses into those details and what they might find most valuable. Improved Ranking: When you refresh and update content, it becomes more appealing to both your audience and Google. High-quality, valuable content ranks higher in search results, boosting organic traffic. These benefits offset the time and effort you invest in content audits. You’ll see better traffic, higher search engine ranking, and improved visitor impressions. One SEMrush report found that about half of those who regularly updated their content saw higher engagement and ranking. How to Do a Content Audit to Maximize Your SEO Are you excited to start enjoying those benefits on your website? Dive into the five steps of performing an SEO content audit to get you started. Because of the time a content audit takes, we highly recommend scheduling it in your calendar so you have enough time blocked out to dive into your content performance and make the most of your findings. If you’re a small site, a day may be enough. Larger sites will require several days to fully analyze. 1. Define Your Goals Before you invest a single dime or hour in your content audit, you need to answer the why behind the audit. Your goals will provide context to your audit and focus on what you hope to accomplish. Without goals, your audit would easily take several weeks rather than days because of reading through hundreds of articles and pages. You don’t need to read through everything. Just the data that’s most relevant to your goal. Some ideas to inspire you include: Improving your SEO Fixing technical errors Identifying missing content Understanding website visitors Boosting engagement Increasing conversions Once you have set one or more goals, you will also know what metrics to focus on so you don’t drown in all the data you’ll uncover during your audit. 2. Take Inventory of Your Site’s Content It’s time to roll up your sleeves and begin the hard work. To truly understand your content and its performance, you’ll want to inventory what content currently lives on your website. It’s the only way to ensure you review every page for quality, value, and optimization. The longer you have had a site with regularly published content, the longer this step will take. We use spreadsheets to keep your content organized. You can detail the key points you want to track on the sheet and easily share it with relevant parties. Start by adding these columns to your spreadsheet: URL Date audited Title Description Content type Keywords Alt tags Last updated Internal links Some other columns you might add, depending on your goal, include: Shares Comments Word count Content goal While you can type this information manually, we highly recommend exporting as much as possible. If you work with HubSpot, it can export much of your website content for you, … Read more

Explaining Our Content Strategy Services at Express Writers (4 Ways We Can Strategize & Save You Time)

January 5, 2021October 17, 2019 by Adam Oakley

This blog was updated in October 2019. This will hardly come as a surprise, but we love content. ❤ Our entire business is built on content, but it goes beyond that – it’s in our blood. We know that great content is one of the most powerful ways to grow your business, find new leads, and stand out among your competitors. You don’t have to take our word for it, either, the numbers speak for themselves: 71% of all B2B buyers read (multiple) blogs when making decisions. B2B companies with a smart content strategy generate 67% more leads than their competitors. Websites that blog regularly have (on average) 434% more indexed pages in Google. Great content gives your business the attention it deserves, but just publishing without a plan is hardly what we’d call a solid strategy. What you need is a sustainable, data-driven process, that can help you grow your business and keep giving you positive results over the long term. You need a content strategy, and that’s where we come in with our expert content strategy services. 4 Highly Recommended Content Strategy Services to Help You Create Winning Content 1. A custom editorial calendar 2. In-depth keyword research 3. Topic planning for your blog and website 4. Expert content strategy consultations We didn’t select any of these services at random. These are many of the same processes that we used to grow Express Writers to the point where it is today (I’ll talk more about this in a second!). Now that we know what works and why, we’re ready to share these services with you to grow your own business. [bctt tweet=”To have a working and winning content strategy, you need 4 components: a custom editorial calendar, keywords researched, topics planned, and expert guidance. Get these essentials with the help of @ExpWriters. ? ” username=”JuliaEMcCoy”] Developing the Right Content Strategy Helped Us Grow — and It Should Help You Too Here’s how I know just how effective a well-planned content strategy can be: it’s how we grew Express Writers to the point where it is today. It took years to figure out and, more importantly, perfect the entire process, and I didn’t want to settle for anything less than perfection. Within 2 years of implementing our content strategy, Express Writers boomed to 6 figures and then 7 in annual recurring revenue (ARR). We weren’t doing all that bad before, but the growth was insane, and I can boil that down to two things: 1. Our content strategy. We’re not really into creating content for content’s sake. Instead, I developed a content strategy process that focuses on high-quality, authority-level content, guided by in-depth SEO research. Once I got clear on the six areas of content strategy we needed to clarify and implement, our real content success began to happen. (My first foray into content strategy was when I built a simple team-only inner training on content strategy, as far back as 2015. Today, I’ve taken these cores and developed them into a $1,000 course with over 100 enrolled students, and a book that tops the charts on Amazon.) 2. The amazing team we have in place. FACTS: If you want to execute a winning strategy, you need expert, talented help in your corner. ? At Express Writers, we’re content experts first, a team secondly — not the other way around. We love what we do, and that has always come first. We didn’t scramble for our expert hats and then market ourselves. We earned a real status by building real skills, and THEN sold services to our clients in our agency. Read about our standards here. I’ve talked extensively about the content strategy we implemented to grow Express Writers. However, if I had to sum it up in a few words, it would be these. Stop wasting time with low-effort content. Instead, put real effort into high-quality pieces and SEO. It sounds pretty simple when you put it like that. However, the amount of research, planning, and work that goes into executing a solid content strategy is mindboggling, particularly as your website starts to grow. Remember how I mentioned it took us years to perfect the process? And that’s coming from people that do this for a living! [bctt tweet=”We have succeeded mostly because of the content strategy we’ve implemented throughout the years. The lesson: Stop wasting time with low-effort content. Instead, put real effort into high-quality and your #strategy. ? ” username=”ExpWriters”] 4 Ways We Save You Some Serious Time and Trouble with Our Expert Content Strategy Services You already understand the sheer power of content when it comes to growing an online business, so let’s talk about how we can help you. 1. We Put Together a Custom Editorial Calendar that Fits Your Goals (?It’s a Must-Have!) You want your website to rank for as many keywords as possible, which means you need content. A lot of websites focus on putting out as much content as possible at a breakneck pace, but that’s not a winning strategy. What you need is a plan and, as simple as it may sound, a calendar. That means a week-by-week plan that outlines the content you’re going to publish. That way, you have a bird’s-eye view of what topics you’re going to target and when. Here’s how it works: You tell us what your niche is, what your business is about, and what sets you apart. Our crack content strategists do their research, and here’s what you get: A two-month editorial calendar, including perfect-fit keywords and topics your audience will love. Tentative schedule dates designed to maximize the returns on your content. An easy-to-understand report using an Excel template. Those are the basics, but all our services also include plenty of extras. Our editorial calendars also include lists of influencers we recommend you engage within your niche, BuzzSumo content analysis reports, and an evergreen guide on the metrics we use. Every single editorial calendar we send is put together by our … Read more

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Best Practices on Updating Your Old Content for More Results with Andy Crestodina

June 19, 2024November 24, 2017 by Rachel Moffett

Quick question for you! Do you take the time to update the blog posts that are buried in the depths of your archives? If not, you should be! And that’s exactly what we’re teaching you how to do in this week’s #ContentWritingChat! So, if your older content could use some sprucing up, let’s dive into the recap for some great tips! #ContentWritingChat Recap: Best Practices on Updating Your Old Content for More Results with Andy Crestodina Join us for #ContentWritingChat on Tuesday, November 21st at 10 AM Central to spruce up your older content with @crestodina! ? pic.twitter.com/QChHJ3ZNKa — Express Writers (@ExpWriters) November 14, 2017 Our guest host this week was Andy Crestodina. Andy is a speaker, a content marketer, and the co-founder of Orbit Media. He shared some fantastic advice with us that’ll help you make the most of the content you’ve already published. Q1: Why is it so important to keep you older content updated and fresh? If you’re wondering why keeping your content updated is so important, it’s time to listen up! Check out these responses from the chat on why it’s a must for any content creator: A1: Quality and efficiency! It takes less time to update something old than create something new. #contentwritingchat — Andy Crestodina (@crestodina) November 21, 2017 A1: Those older topics are sometimes your best. Update them and put them back in rotation. Back at the top of the blog. #ContentWritingChat — Andy Crestodina (@crestodina) November 21, 2017 As Andy said, it’s worth updating your old content for quality and efficiency. Instead of creating something new, you can easily improve upon what’s already there. Sometimes that older content of yours is still great and therefore worth being updated. A1. What if a prospect happens to land on an old piece of content & it’s wildly outdated? The horror ? #contentwritingchat — Kristen Dunleavy (@KristenWritesIt) November 21, 2017 Kristen knows that it would be pretty awful if a potential client stumbled upon an older piece of content that didn’t exactly give off the best impression. You risk sending them running far away from your website. A1: You’ll never know whether someone is going to stumble upon an old post of yours – and in that case, you’ll want him/her to find still relevant info, right? Also, search engines looove fresh content!#ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/K6yX4hNVhA — @AndreaTorti90 (@andreatorti90) November 21, 2017 And as Andrea said, you never know when someone might find one of your older posts. You want to make sure it’s updated to your current standards. A1) The topic could still be relevant, but the data used could be updated (or even included to compare to the old data) to show how, over time, things have shifted.#ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/wqVYGobJ10 — Jason Schemmel (@JasonSchemmel) November 21, 2017 Jason pointed out that sometimes the topic is still relevant, but the data could use some updating. You don’t want readers coming across a post that’s filled with outdated information. A1: Things are always changing so in order to keep up with and stay ahead of the game, you have to continually refresh your content so that it stays relevant and shareable! #contentwritingchat — Flying Cork (@flyingcorkpgh) November 21, 2017 Giving your content a refresh is a great way to ensure it stays relevant and shareable! A1 Updating older content is INSTRUMENTAL to gain more conversions & $$ from your possibly outdated but high-ranking posts. #ContentWritingChat — Julia McCoy | ? New book out Nov 30! (@JuliaEMcCoy) November 21, 2017 Julia said updating your old content is actually a great way to boost conversions, especially if those posts are already ranking well in search results. A1 / Links break. Trends change. Facts update. Meaning evolves. Lots of gold in old content if you take the time to rework and freshen up. #ContentWritingChat — Mike Barzacchini (@MikeBarzacchini) November 21, 2017 As Mike pointed out, links can break, trends can change, and facts get outdated. These are all important things to look at improving in your older blog posts. A1 Don’t let that old content go to waste! Especially anything that is still getting traffic. Update it with any recent changes to keep it relevant for readers. #ContentWritingChat — Cristy (@lacristysalinas) November 21, 2017 If it’s still getting traffic, Cristy knows it’s worth updating to keep it relevant for your readers. A1: #Content may be old but that doesn’t mean it’s not getting traffic. (You’d be surprised!) Keeping those evergreen eyes engaged with periodic updates is so important! #contentwritingchat — Ashley Cardwell (@TheAshleyDale) November 21, 2017 Even if a piece of content is old, it could still be getting a lot of traffic. As Ashley mentioned, you might be surprised to see what gets the most traffic when looking through your analytics. It’s better to deliver those site visitors an amazing piece of content. Q2: Which brands do an amazing job at updating their older content? Tag them and let them know! Which brands can you learn from when it comes to keeping your archives fresh? Here are some great examples that are worth checking out: A2: I know that @LisaDJenkins at @SMExaminer has a strategy to update content. So does @michelelinn at @CMIcontent. #ContentWritingChat — Andy Crestodina (@crestodina) November 21, 2017 A2: According to our annual blogger survey, 55% of bloggers update old content! Here’s the data…https://t.co/oQ7P2vg9Fr #ContentWritingChat pic.twitter.com/Le5HwniGNe — Andy Crestodina (@crestodina) November 21, 2017 Lisa Jenkins, Social Media Examiner, and Michele Linn all do a great job at keeping older content updated and fresh. Andy’s blogger survey even revealed 55% of bloggers update old content. Don’t you want to be part of that group? A2 Love seeing how @CMIContent updates their older content. They recently had me rewrite one of mine. Boosts your entire content marketing campaign to rewrite/update. #ContentWritingChat — Julia McCoy | ? New book out Nov 30! (@JuliaEMcCoy) November 21, 2017 Julia said Content Marketing Institute does a great job at updating old blog posts. A2. I see @RebekahRadice updates her content and turn … Read more

Out with the Old: Why & How to Do a New Year Website Content Audit

August 28, 2022December 15, 2015 by Adam Oakley

As we head into the New Year, it’s likely that you’ll be making resolutions. These resolutions often apply to our home and personal life, but they seldom apply to our online marketing and content writing or production. Auditing your online content is one of the best ways to start afresh, with the groundwork for new and better online marketing, in the New Year. It’s a lot like out with the old. You can’t really bring in the new unless you get the old, outdated, and unnecessary stuff out, right? As you head into the New Year, focused on starting fresh and doing away with the old things that aren’t serving you any longer, don’t let your website be the last thing on your list. Let’s talk about doing a website audit, what it is, and how you can do it as you prepare to enter 2016 strong. Here’s what you need to know about a website content audit. What is a Website Content Audit? A site content audit is the process by which you comb through your site, correct errors, locate outdated content, and replace it with something stronger. There are many benefits of a content audit, including identifying which pages need editing or updating, identifying which pages need to be consolidated due to repetitive topics, identifying which pages need to be removed from the site entirely and how doing this can help your page’s SEO rank, identifying which content needs to be prioritized based on metrics like conversions and visits, locating your content gaps and making a plan for how to fill them, determining which pages are ranking for which keywords, and identifying new content marketing opportunities. When content audits are conducted regularly, they can improve the overall quality of your site and ensure that your content is up to date, relevant, valuable, and targeted for your customers and site goals. What We Found When We Did An Audit Recently, our team did a content audit on our own site. Our content audit service is done by our team Content Strategists, whom I train—in updated SEO, our favorite tools and current best practices. The SEMrush Site Audit tool, one of the best audit tools we rely on in conducting website audits, gave us a list of missing or problematic content, including missing alt tags: And which links were broken: Besides other issues we fixed. Some of the duplicate hits didn’t apply: the sign-up page was “duplicate” to the sign-in page, which can’t be helped—it’s just a login screen. With the more manual part of our audit, we found several outdated posts, including: Blogs that mentioned products that we no longer sold Seasonal content that contained dates in the headers, i.e. “5 Tips for Better Content in 2014” Poorly SEO optimized content We made a list of all these items and have now revised and fixed these errors. Our content is more evergreen, applies more to the reader coming across it at a later date, and doesn’t contain misleading product information anymore. We’ve also improved SEO scores across the board. Moz: Audits are Beneficial According to Moz, SEO specialist Rick Ramos (of Inflow) conducted a content audit for Phases Design Studio in 2013. During the audit, Ramos developed a plan to remove many of the old, irrelevant, or stale blog posts from the site’s sitemap. He also used 301 redirect codes to point the traffic from old landing pages to newer, evergreen landing pages that were updated more frequently. Finally, he updated and refreshed many of the site’s pages. After their website content audit, Phases Design Studio started seeing eight times the amount of leads they typically saw in a month. How did Ramos manage to produce these results? The answer is simple: by updating content to make it more relevant and useful to readers. Website Content Audit 101 If you want to produce results like Ramos did during his audit, you’re in luck. You can complete your own content audit without being a tech guru. Simply follow these steps: Step One: Develop a Spreadsheet During a content audit, a spreadsheet is needed to keep your information organized as well as to provide a platform you can return to at any point in the audit. A spreadsheet also allows you to track what you’re doing and collaborate with other content specialists who may want to participate in the audit. For an example, consider this template from Moz. If you’re relatively new to website content audits, you’ll be fine to begin in Google Docs, although many content specialists move their spreadsheets to Excel as they begin doing larger and larger content audits. As a general rule, the main columns you want in your spreadsheet are as follows: URL Date audited Title Description Content Keyword Alt Tags Last Updates Internal Links Step Two: List the Pages of Your Site In order to perform your content audit adequately, you’ll need a complete list of each page on your site. The easiest way to do this is to use Google Analytics. Specifically, you’ll want to navigate to the “all pages” section by selecting “behavior,” “site content,” “all pages.” For more detail on how to complete this step, consult this QuickSprout guide. This step allows you to view a list of your site’s most-visited pages. This is an important step because it allows you to focus your audit efforts on your most popular pages and to ensure that you’re reaping results as soon as possible. Step Three: Review Your Information This part gets a little tricky because it varies depending upon which CMS you use. Since we’re partial to WordPress, this guide will offer instructions for WordPress users. Even if you don’t use WordPress, though, you’ll be able to edit these items nonetheless. As you move through your page information, you’ll want to review each of the following sections: URL and Page Title: For each page on your site, your title should meet a few criteria. First, it should be no more than 65 … Read more

Have You Audited Your Content Lately?

December 31, 2020February 19, 2015 by Adam Oakley

The one thing you know that is absolutely vital for your company’s online presence is the need for great content. You have your website all laid out, you feel like you are writing top quality content all the time, but you might be lacking in social shares, decent Google ranks, and leads. Why is this? What can you do about it? The best way to learn what is wrong with your content and what you need to do is audit it. This is great because you get to see your entire website outlined in an orderly manner and see what you need to do to improve your site and bring in more clients. I am going to look at what a content audit is, why you need it, and the two ways to do one! First: What is a Content Audit? Content auditing is something you may hear thrown around when you read content marketing sites, but you might not know what the writers mean. Just what is a content audit? How does one do an audit? Is it really that important? These questions are completely valid! It is, in simple terms, a chance to look at your website to find anything that is missing, overdone, or broken. This is vital because you need to make sure your site is always working well in order to get the best results from Google. It gives you the chance to combine all of your existing content into a master list and look over it. How does this help? It gives you the chance to make sure your website is operating with the best quality out there because, we all know, high-quality content is key when it comes to copywriting. Remember, this is different from a content inventory. An inventory focuses on the amount of content and pages whereas the audit will focus on the quality existing content. 3 Top Reasons Why You Need an Audit The main reason you need to use a content audit is to make sure you have the highest quality content possible. As I already stated, high-quality content is vital to have for your website. First of all, it helps you rank higher on Google and can bring in more people. Secondly, after it brings in people from the search engine, it helps retain them. No one wants to read poor quality material. By focusing on quality content, you will gain and maintain clients by making a content audit important to your strategy. Let’s look at a few more reasons why you need an audit. It Solves the Problem of an Uninterested Audience. Having buyer personas at the ready can help you when it comes to doing a content audit. This can help you see which parts of your audience will be more engaged with your content and which aren’t. If you have one persona that is only about 10% of your audience and another that is 60%, you want to make sure your content reaches out to the higher percentage the most. Of course you want to reach the 10%, but if you only have content for them, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of audience reach. A content audit can help you see this and improve your strategy. You Can Increase Social Shares. Since a content audit focuses on quality, you will be able to see which areas need improvement. This will not only help with your website but can also increase your social shares. People don’t want to share low-quality work, which means you need to know the quality of your existing content. Checking Out the Competition. Yes, a content audit of your own website can get very tedious, but you won’t have to stay there forever. You can even do an audit of your competition to see what they’re doing right and wrong. Researching your competition can help you improve your strategy by either gaining inspiration or learning which mistakes to stay away from. Two Ways To Do Your Content Audit Now that you know what a content audit is and why it is important, you are most likely wondering just how you can do one. Here are two ways you can do a content audit: DIY: Create a Spreadsheet and Use Google Analytics. A content audit is something you can do yourself. It is important to know that it will take a significant chunk of time so you will need to be sure to set aside enough. You can create a spreadsheet, use Google Analytics, and go over each page in detail to make sure everything is going smoothly. QuickSprout offers an incredible guide to help people do their own content audit by explaining how to set up the spreadsheet, using Google Analytics, and which details you need to look at. Hire a Content Auditing Service. While a DIY solution seems to be the easiest or the choice that saves the most money up front, it can be overwhelming. Many people don’t have the training necessary for a content audit and can miss important things, or take much longer than it really should. The best way to ensure you get the most out of a content audit is to hire a service that has trained professionals. While this will be money out of your pocket, you will notice that the professional audit can help you find pages that need to be improved. When this happens, you will be able to bring in more revenue than ever. Audit Your Content for Incredible Results Now that you know the importance of a content audit, now is the time to begin. Take a look at your schedule and carve out some time to look at what you’ll need for your content audit. If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask! Professional content auditors can help you get the best results and give you the guide to improving your content. No matter what, a content audit is your key to a successful webpage. Photo … Read more