If you have a ridiculous amount of published content already living on the web, it’s always a good idea to perform a content audit to make sure that it’s working as intended.
But, when you’ve got a boatload of content, how do you keep things simple?
Well, here are 4 quick and easy ways to do a content audit.
First of all, what is a content audit?
An audit is an essential overview of your current content; its reach, value, and engagement rates. A well-prepared content audit can help you better determine what is working and what needs a little love.
Use one or combine any of the following methods to get a good look at your content effectiveness:
1. Google Analytics
What outlet does it cover? Pretty much everything.
This is by and large your best option to analyzing the effectiveness of your content. If you’ve set up our Analytics account properly, it covers just about everything.
Start by choosing an appropriate date range within your GA dashboard. Three to six months is always a good option, but it should depend on when you began implementing content.
Next, take a peek at your Search Console landing pages or Social Network Referral Landing Pages.
If you have goals set up, look for pages or content that have produced the highest conversion rates. If your goals aren’t set up (do that right away) look at content that has produced a solid combination of low bounce rate + high time spent on site + higher number of pages viewed while on site.
Any pages or content that have produced great numbers in any or all of these categories need to be reviewed for commonalities. These results should be used to adjust existing content and produce new content.
2. Union Metrics
What outlet does it cover? Instagram and Twitter
Union Metrics is an incredible FREE option to assess and optimize your Instagram and Twitter feeds in a matter of seconds.
Simply input your account, hit run and rake in the insights.
You’ll get the most relevant information out of the top trending hashtags and top post sections.
Plus, you can look at your competitor’s account insights to see how you can improve and compete.
3. Facebook Insights
What outlet does it cover? Facebook
Everyone is on Facebook. I mean everyone. So, it would make sense that their insights platform would be pretty robust.
So, get your feet wet by hitting the Insights tab from within your Facebook account.
Head over to the Posts section from the left navigation list, and look for posts that had both a high reach and high engagement rates. You can switch the engagement column to show the total engagement rate percentage rather than compartmentalized engagement statistics.
Anything over a 1% engagement rate is great. But, anything above a 5% engagement rate should be studied!
TIP: Figure out your engagement rate using the following equation: total engagements (likes, comments, shares, etc.) / total number of fans reached * 100 = engagement %.
The unspoken rule is always to strive for a solid 5% engagement rate on a post by post basis. Start by implementing a content strategy and then use these three options to perform a smart content audit, figure out where you stand, and begin working towards healthy engagement.
4. SumoMe
What outlet does it cover? Your website.
SumoMe is a FREE plugin for WordPress that allows you to track a ridiculous amount of things in a very small package. My favorites are the heat map tool and the content analytics tool.
First and foremost, the heat map tool. I’m sure you’ve heard about this technology before.
It essentially maps the location of clicks and cursor hovers on your website to help you determine which areas are the most popular and which button are or are not working.
Pretty sweet, right?
Next up is the SumoMe content analytics tool.
This handy dandy little guy helps you see how much of each piece of content or page is actually being read. Obviously, the higher the percentage read on average, the more valuable your content is.
The only kicker: Each campaign will only track a single page or post, so you have to set up individual “campaigns” for each blog post.
So, get started with a simple content audit right now. It doesn’t take a village to get it done, and you can get some really amazing insights quickly.
Do you have another resource for performing a quick content audit?