A study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute in 2014 found that 47% of businesses described producing content that engages customers their biggest challenge. According to Sirius Decisions on average 60-70% of content is never viewed resulting in millions of dollars and resources wasted, this aspect of business needs to be regularly reviewed.

It’s important that content be audited at a minimum of every other year.

This will help to ensure search engine optimisation. The best way to ensure this is by content pruning. Content pruning will keep your content from becoming penalised by search engines. It’s done by deleting pages, repurposing them, or deindexing them.

Understand the audit process

Web pages that are uninformative or lacking substance can damage your search engine performance. The best way to audit your content is to make a full list of the URLs on your website. Then, evaluate the performance of each of them. Once each page has been reviewed, rank them and decide whether it’s best to delete the page, deindex it, or repurpose it. Be careful not to delete any content with high search engine optimisation.

Consider the benefits of repurposing vs deleting

Once you’ve gone through the process of auditing your web page content you’ll need to decide which pages you’ll delete and which you’ll repurpose. Delete any pages that aren’t attracting visitors or are no longer relevant to the direction you want to see your brand take. Be sure that any backlinks are redirected before you delete the page. If you decide to repurpose the content, update the keywords and edit the page so that the content is current. If the page is experiencing poor performance but consumers still find the content valuable, consider deindexing the page. Getting rid of indexable URLs can help improve your search engine ranking. Google has an outline available to employ the “no index” meta tag.

As you evaluate the content on your website or if you decide to create new content remember to be buyer focused. Include any information you think the buyer would find relevant and engaging not just facts you find interesting. Make sure your content is user friendly and easy to find. Lastly, place the quality of your content ahead of the quantity you produce. Excess content without substance could work to your disadvantage. Content management is one of great services we provide at ALHAUS. We can help you audit your content and make sure your website truly represents your brand!