If you’re a website owner, you’ve probably heard of SEO (search engine optimization).
SEO is optimizing your website and content to attain optimum visibility and rankings on SERPs.
But how do you confirm that you’ve produced SEO-optimized content? That’s where an SEO content audit comes in.
SEO content audit allows you to figure out the loopholes in your content and take corrective measures.
However, do you know the perfect way to audit your content? Do you know the parameters you need to choose while doing your content audit?
If you do not know the same, it’s okay. We are here to help you out.
In this piece, we will teach you the best practices related to SEO content audit. So, without further delay, let’s dive in.
SEO Content Audit
An SEO content audit is an evaluation of your website’s content to determine its strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement in terms of SEO.
It’s a critical part of any SEO strategy because it helps you identify areas where your content is falling short and provides a roadmap for improving it.
So, when it comes to a content audit, the aim can vary depending on the situation. Sometimes, the goal is to spot things like repeated content, index overload, or pesky problems such as layout shifts or JavaScript SEO issues that don’t disappear.
But other times, a content audit is a more general task to uncover fresh ideas and topics that can help grow a website’s online reach.
Additional: Essential Features For Building An Effective Website
How To Run A SEO Content Audit?
When it comes to SEO content audit, usability and performance are the most important pillars.
1. SEO And Usability
When optimizing your content, you must consider the importance of both SEO and UX. These two things work together to make your website easy to use and highly visible in search results.
So, to boost your content’s rankings and overall usability, you’ll want to watch for key things during your audit.
(i) Title
You know when you’re browsing the search results, and you see a blog post that catches your eye?
It’s usually because the TITLE is super catchy and makes you want to click through and read more.
So, when writing your blog posts, you’ll pay attention to the title.
Are they too long and unwieldy, or do they pack a punch and grab people’s attention?
And while you’re at it, make sure your target keywords are seamlessly woven into the title, too – you don’t want them to feel like an afterthought.
Let’s talk about title tags for a minute. These little guys show up in search results when people look for things online, so you want to make sure they’re looking good.
The ideal length is 50-60 characters, but you want to stay under 70.
If you do, your title might get cut off, which is not exactly a recipe for success.
So, keep it snappy and to the point – your audience will appreciate it, and your content will be all the better!
(ii) Meta Descriptions
Let’s chat about the meta description – that little snippet of text that shows up under the title in search results.
It’s a big deal when it comes to getting people to click through to your content.
Your meta description should summarize your post in just one or two sentences, and it should be enticing enough to make people want to learn more.
It’s your chance to give people a taste of what’s to come and convince them that your content is worth their time.
So, take a few extra minutes to craft a killer meta description that captures the essence of your post.
Here’s a tip for your meta descriptions: be intentional!
Make sure each post has an optimized description with the right keywords. Otherwise, search engines will pick a random snippet – and you won’t have any say. Take control and craft killer descriptions for every post. It’ll pay off with more traffic!
(iii) Readability
There’s only use in writing long content if your audience can understand it. It will only do good if it’s simple, exciting, and easy to scan through.
Hey, remember to give your articles a once-over before publishing. Make sure they’re not just informative but also easy to read and scan through. Use any reliability tool, such as Hemingway Writer (free), to ensure your writing is understandable for your readers.
(iv) Duplicate Content
Having duplicate content on your website can be a huge problem for SEO. Not only does it confuse search engines, but it can also make your pages compete.
Plus, it’s a waste of time and resources to create the same content twice.
To avoid this issue, go through your content library and remove duplicates.
(v) Keywords
Keywords are the phrases that sum up what it’s all about. And they’re super important for ranking higher in search engines.
When you use the right keywords, it helps those search crawlers better understand what your content is all about.
So, take some time to research and use those keywords strategically – it can make a big difference in your SEO game.
Place keywords strategically throughout your content. That means incorporating them in the title, meta description, URLs, subheadings, and paragraphs, but be careful to use them sparingly and make them look spammy.
Keep it natural and relevant to improve your search engine rankings.
(vi) Images
Are you breaking up long chunks of text with images? And if so, are those images up to snuff? Do they look great and add value to your content? Don’t forget to give them an alt text in case they don’t load or are being viewed by someone using a screen reader.
(vii) Write For User Not For Search Engine
Did you know that writing longer blog posts can help boost your search engine rankings? Yup, it’s true! Studies have shown that posts with over 2000 words tend to perform better.
But the benefits continue – longer posts also allow you to provide more value to your readers by answering their questions in more depth.
So don’t be afraid to write those thorough posts! Not only will you be doing your SEO a favor, but your audience will also thank you for it.
(viii) Content Relevancy
It’s important to separate outdated content from evergreen content.
Look at your posts and figure out which ones need to be updated to stay relevant.
If a post is obsolete, it might be best to eliminate it. Keeping track of your evergreen content can help your marketing efforts in the long run – you can keep promoting it for years to come.
For example, you may have written a blog entitled ‘digital marketing tips in 2019’ and expect it to rank in 2023. That is not a sensible task. This is why relevancy plays a big role in content audit.
(ix) Backlink Analysis
Backlinks are the trust signals or sign of recommendation.
Keep a close eye on your backlinks – those links from fellow sites to your site can change over time. Ensure you’re only getting links from trustworthy sites, and check to see if the number of good links is increasing or decreasing. Backlinks are a big factor in your search engine rankings, so it’s worth paying attention to them.
(x) Accessibility
Can everyone, including people with disabilities, access your content? Ensure your content has a clear structure with proper use of subheadings (H1-H6).
Review anchor texts to ensure they are descriptive and form fields have clear labels. Improved accessibility leads to better usability and higher rankings.
(xi) Responsiveness
Do all your content pages display correctly on mobile devices? More than 50% of your audience uses mobile to read your content.
So, curating mobile-optimized content is a must thing. And also, ensure that your content fits into the device’s screen size.
This is essential for the success of your content marketing.
(xii) Facts Checking
Are you sure that all the information in your content is accurate? Sometimes, we may unknowingly include unreliable statistics or data. Therefore, it’s essential to audit your articles and ensure all the information is factual to avoid losing readers’ trust.
(xiii) Repurposable
Keep your content from going to waste!
Repurposing it into different formats, such as videos or infographics, can help you reach new audiences and get the most out of every piece of content.
During your content audit, look for opportunities to repurpose your content and give it a fresh spin.
Let’s say you have a 1000-word blog. Think of repurposing it into a YouTube video. This way, you can expand your reach and target people (from different platforms).
2. SEO And Performance
Before reaching this point, we were mostly talking about the process. Now we will focus on the results.
If you want to measure how well your content is performing and whether it’s helping you achieve your marketing objectives, consider the following:
(i) Bounce Rate
Do people need to visit other pages on your website to leave your content page?
Ideally, your content should be like a gateway that leads visitors from a search engine to your site, piques their interest or gives them helpful information, and encourages them to check out the rest of your site.
But if your bounce rate is high, most visitors immediately leave your site as they likely needed help finding what they were looking for.
You’ll need to determine what’s wrong with your content to make visitors stay longer and explore your site further.
(ii) Traffic
The number of people visiting your website because of your content is a good measure of its success.
If you do not see a significant increase in traffic, it might be time to assess your content marketing strategy.
You may need to change the type of content you’re creating, improve its quality, or focus on better distribution channels.
Please keep track of your traffic metrics and regularly evaluate them during your audit to ensure your content marketing efforts are effective.
(iii) New vs. Returning Visitors
Are some of your articles attracting many new visitors or gaining popularity among your audience?
Are there any blog posts that are frequently bookmarked by your audience?
Having returning visitors is excellent, but you should also focus on creating content that appeals to new audiences.
So, analyzing the types of visitors your content attracts is an essential aspect of developing a successful content strategy.
(iv) Page Per Session
When users finish viewing your content, how many other pages are they visiting on your website?
By checking this, you can know whether your content is effective.
If users visit more pages, it’s a good sign that your content is valuable and engaging.
In such cases, you should optimize and promote such content more.
(v) Traffic Sources
By identifying your traffic sources, you can discover where your visitors are coming from.
If most of your traffic is from Google search results, your SEO strategy will likely work well.
However, if you’re not getting much traffic from your social media accounts, it could be a sign to focus on improving your social media marketing efforts.
It’s important to evaluate your traffic sources regularly in your content audit to ensure you’re getting the most out of your marketing efforts.
(vi) Average Time On Page
Do visitors spend only a few seconds on your long-form blog post of over 2,000 words?
It’s possible that the content isn’t resonating with your audience.
Evaluating the time spent on each piece of content can help you identify what works and what doesn’t.
You can then use this information to guide your content strategy and focus on topics with a higher engagement potential.
(vii) Engagement
When your audience engages with your content through likes, comments, social shares, or mentions, it’s a sign that your content resonates with them.
By monitoring which pieces of content get the most engagement, you can create more of that type of content and improve your content marketing success.
(viii) Contribution To Conversion
Ultimately, the purpose of any marketing effort is to increase sales. You can use multi-channel attribution modeling in Google Analytics to determine the impact of each content piece on your conversions. Those making the most significant contributions should receive more attention in your content strategy.
Are You Ready To Level Up Your Content Game?
Content marketing is not just about creating great content but also about effectively managing that content.
Looking back at your past content and assessing what worked and what didn’t can help you take your content marketing to new heights.
It allows you to plan content that resonates with your target audience, optimize it for better search engine visibility, and increase conversion rates.
To boost your content marketing efforts, you can learn from your competitors’ successful posts similar to your underperforming ones. This can help you identify the possible changes.
Additionally, keep track of the topics and types of posts performing well, so you can create more content like that in the future. We are confident that if you follow the above-mentioned strategies while auditing your content, you’ll create stellar content.
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