What Performance Metrics Should You Use in a Content Audit

Bill Gates is known for saying that: “Content is King”. Boy was he right! Today, more and more companies are leaning towards a content marketing strategy. Content is the number one way for a brand to communicate with their audience. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the form of video, graphics, audio or writing. Technically all these formats are content.  However, that doesn’t mean producing, or having content on hand, is going to get you the results you are after. In fact, you need to have a clear roadmap of where you’re going.  And that is exactly where a content audit comes in.  In a previous article, we discussed the importance of a content audit but, what exactly is a content audit, and how should you go about auditing your content?

What is a Content Audit?

Your website is full of content – or we hope so at least! Now with that said, a content audit is a way of measuring your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the content on your website.

A content audit will be able to provide you with quantitative data regarding which content is performing well or not so well. You can then use this information to better plan your marketing strategy.  For example, if you have a website that is focused on healthy recipes, you would be able to identify which recipes are the most popular thanks to your content audit.

Knowing that this is something your audience loves, you can focus on producing more of the same content which will help drive more traffic to your website. On the flip side, you will also be able to spot which content is performing poorly helping you understand what your audience dislikes. A copywriting course will help you develop content for your website. Find out more here.

What Metrics Will Determine If Your Content is a Success or Not?

At the end of the day, there is no correct answer. It all comes down to what you’re trying to achieve with your content:

• Conversion Rates

Some brands might write specific content that can help convert visitors into customers. If that is the case, a metric to focus on would be the “conversion rate” of a piece of content.  For example, if a particular piece of content gets a 100 visits a month and converts 10 of those visitors into leads or paying customers, your conversion rate will be 10%.

Using this metric you can then start measuring which pieces of content are responsible for the majority of your conversions. Ideally, you want to then produce more content similar to the higher-converting pieces.

• Organic Visits

Most website owners focus on organic traffic when it comes to a content audit. They look at what pieces of content bring in the most amount of organic searches. They then consolidate the pieces that are struggling and the focus on producing more content similar to the ones that are delivering favourable results.

• Engagement on Social Media

A content audit is not only something that you can use for your website – it’s also something you can use for your social media strategy as you’re posting content on these channels.  If social media is a big thing for your business, then you can do a content audit on your social media content in a similar way to how we discussed performing an audit on your website.

Most companies focus on engagement and reach when it comes to the performance of their social media posts. With that in mind, have a look at what pieces of content have been performing well over the last couple of months and which ones didn’t.  This can help you better plan your next social media marketing strategy.

Basic Steps to Performing a Content Audit

Like we mentioned earlier, auditing your content all comes down to what you’ trying to achieve with your content. However, below are a few simple steps you can follow with respect to auditing your content:

• Export Your Content in into Excel

You can export your content with the push of a button if you’re using Google Analytics or a social media monitoring tool like Hootsuite or Buffer.

• Filter by Metric

Next, open the Excel spreadsheet and decide which column/metric you want to use.

• Filter by Largest to Smallest

Filter the column so that it shows the highest value at the top and the smallest value at the bottom.

Now, Audit.

You can now easily determine which pieces of content is working and which ones are not. This will give you an idea about how to alter your content marketing strategy to keep driving results.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

If you are passionate about creating content for online platforms, love brainstorming ideas and selling your ideas to the public you need to become a copywriter with the Digital School of Marketing’s (DSM) Content Marketing and Digital Copywriting Course! On this online copywriting course, we’ll teach you how to sell your story through creative and enticing mediums as well as how these fit into the greater context of marketing and brand communications strategy. Read more here.