When did you last revisit your blog?
You have a blog and you publish new content regularly, but when did you last revisit your back catalogue?
Do you know what articles you already have on there or whether they’re working for your business?
I’ve spoken to business owners who had never revisited and reviewed their older content. They would publish new article after new article, then forget about them and leave them to gather dust. A bit like the boxes in the attic picture above.
Some of these businesses had more than 100 articles on their blogs. But they had no idea what those articles were. They could have been sitting on a pile of rotting, stale, old content that was way past its useful date. Or a goldmine of promising articles that had never fulfilled their potential. In reality, it was a mixture of both.
It’s not just your new articles that count
The truth is, everything on your blog should be working hard for your business. Not just the article you published last week, but the articles you published years ago, too.
They’re all still discoverable on the web and they’re all building a picture of your brand. Your knowledge. Your expertise. Your currentness and adaptability to change.
Are they showing a brand that’s always evolving and moving with the times — or a brand that seems like it might still use floppy disks?
This is where content auditing will help
If you’ve been blogging for a while and have a substantial back catalogue of articles you’ve never revisited, content auditing will help you get them all in order.
What is content auditing?
Content auditing is like giving your blog a health check.
It’s a review of all the articles you’ve published, so we can see:
- What content you already have
- What shape your existing content is in
- Any technical issues that need to be resolved
- Which articles are working and which need work
- What content you don’t have yet, but need to have.
It’s a sensible and cost-effective exercise that focuses on updating and optimising the content you’ve already invested in so it’s working for your business.
Who is content auditing for?
Content auditing could be ideal for your business if:
- You have a large back catalogue of articles
- You’ve never revisited your older articles
- You don’t know how your blog is performing
- You want to make the most of the content you already have.
How does content auditing work?
My content auditing service is a three-stage process, which typically looks like this:
Stage 1: Collating an inventory of your articles
I’ll start by creating a spreadsheet inventory of all the articles you currently have on your blog.
The spreadsheet will include each article’s title, URL, publication date, performance data and any early issues.
Common early issues I see include articles that:
- Have passed their useful date
- Are too similar to each other
- Aren’t ranking or listed on Google
- Have unhelpful/non-SEO titles.
Once created, the inventory can be used to keep a running record of your blog articles and monitor how they’re performing for your business over time.
Stage 2: Creating an action plan
When the inventory is completed, I’ll create an action plan for your blog’s back catalogue.
This will identify the articles that need to be updated, amalgamated, augmented or re-optimised. And the articles that probably belong in a bin fire.
The process I recommend and use myself is something I call Refresh, Rewrite, Repurpose >>
Stage 3: Content auditing
This is where we start doing the work that will bring your existing articles up to standard.
- Updating the information, research, sources etc
- Changing your stance and advice accordingly
- Amalgamating similar articles into super articles
- Augmenting your articles to make them comprehensive
- Optimising your articles to compete with the top rankers
- Regularly monitoring your progress and performance.
How much does content auditing cost?
It depends on how many articles you have and how much work needs to be done.
The inventory and action plan is a one-off cost, starting at £500.
The ongoing improvements and progress monitoring can be done for a monthly cost to suit your needs and budget.
Is content auditing worth it?
Absolutely.
Your existing content is an investment you’ve made. Content auditing will squeeze the most out of that investment so your content keeps creating value for your business.
If you’ve been blogging for a while, you’ve probably already created some of your most important and cornerstone content. Auditing will help to keep it fresh, relevant and value-packed so it’s always working at its full potential and generating leads.
Does your blog need a content audit?
Maybe I can help.
I’m an SEO content strategist and writer who loves helping businesses get the most value from their blogs.
And I hate to see valuable content go to waste — so I’ll do whatever I can to make it viable.
Want to work with me?
Contact me and let’s see if I can help you.
It’s easy to get in touch >>
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6 Good reasons your blog needs a professional content audit >>
