It's Time For A Content Audit And Refresh
As a company operating in 2022 you know how important your web presence is to the success of your business. You'll be publishing relevant and engaging content for your customers to read and for search engines to index; it's the way your content is read and indexed by Google and others that dictates your place in search results. In many cases, a web search is the thing that brings the customers to you in the first place, so you need to consider both audiences when commissioning and reviewing your content.
While many businesses do regularly publish engaging content, not every company regularly reviews their content and this is an exercise that can improve your standing with search engines with minimal effort – it's not often that providing less yields more, but in the case of content, cutting can be constructive.
A content audit is the first step; you have to know what you're dealing with. List every blog article, case study, press release and even your product pages (this is a one-time activity as you can simply build off this list next time you audit) and check the content on each one for details or data that is out of date. Whether it's a sale that's ended, a statistic from 2005 or a link to a website that's no longer there (or even a broken link within your site), these details need to be changed.Put a tick in a column for “update needed”.
If the content relates to a product or service you no longer offer, or to obsolete products then the content should be removed without question.You can't update something that's irrelevant, so add a column for “delete content”. Perhaps you have a blog or case study that relates to a customer who is no longer in business? References to obsolete companies or products reflect badly on your business, making you look out of touch.
During the audit process you might come across some content that is still relevant and which performed well for you. This can still be updated with some new insights and re-published. It is worth noting that re-publishing with the current date, rather than simply updating but leaving the date the same can drive increased traffic.
Audit done, the next step is to cut the content that no longer ticks the boxes and make the changes to the pieces that need updating. An article about a certain statistic could be updated with the current stats, a link to the source, plus a short extra paragraph explaining the change over time. References to sales that have ended or to customers that are no longer in business can simply be removed if the rest of the article is good, while broken links can be removed or updated with a new link. Consider further tweaks, such as new paragraphs or new angles on the same subject to breathe new life into older content.
When it comes to product pages, check whether the information presented is still true – product dimensions or weights may have changed, while industry standards and certification schemes may also have been updated since you published the product page. Check for incorrect and out of date information and ensure that links to relevant content from your product pages (such as links to video tutorials) are still functional.
A content audit and refresh is something that can be done every quarter or half year to ensure that every piece of content on your website is performing as well as it can.Yes, you need to be publishing new, original content regularly, but you can also update and refresh older pieces in the slower times, when less newsworthy things are happening, or when a big change in your industry happens. We can help organise and conduct your content audit as well as provide the updated content you deserve.
