It’s been a year and a half since writing how to do a quantitative content audit, so it would be an understatement to say this is overdue. The quantitative audit dealt strictly with objective analytics and page elements, utilizing various data sources to create an unbiased inventory. Now we move on to the qualitative content audit, which requires subjective views and expertise to provide value. Although subjective, qualitative data collection is necessary to gauge the full effectiveness of your web content, whether you’re about to complete a redesign or just keeping tabs on your content marketing strategy.
The Qualitative Content Audit
First, the motivation. A stranger emailed me requesting this, Brain Traffic tweeted part 1, and my own standards have resulted in an extremely long time to complete the framework. Together, the quantitative inventory and a qualitative audit is like having 2 hearts to power your content strategy.
But first, a word about qualitative data. Yes, it is subjective, and yes, it is based on opinion. However, this is your professional opinion, and it’s why they pay you the big bucks (damn, I need a raise). Develop a system or set of rules to help remain consistent. This is especially important when evaluating content in context with each other. So when a colleague asks you why you’ve given a certain score, you can simply reply:
Here is the sample spreadsheet of the qualitative audit, with the older quantitative inventory from part 1 on the other tab. The first 2 columns should be familiar; both start with ID numbers and web addresses. Page names from analytics platforms may also be used if they’re different than URLs or URIs. Besides Sales Cycle Stage and Search Intent, all scores are on a scale of 1-10.
Sales Cycle Stage
Each piece of content receives a classification for the highest-level stages in the sales funnel: Awareness, Research, Conversion and Retention. Use this to filter the view for one sales stage at a time to see the best-performing in each. If you have a large team, the sales cycle stages can be used to split responsibilities among team members for unique campaigns to target each one.
Search Intent/Task
More granular than Sales Cycle Stage, the search intent communicates a specific informational need. Each stage in the sales funnel has very specific tasks which a user is trying to accomplish, so these provide a deeper level of tracking and “purpose” for each piece of content. If you’re an SEO practitioner, think of these as distinct buckets of keywords which can be answered with the same piece of content. For example “how to waterproof boots,” “waterproofing hiking boots,” and “can I waterproof my own boots,” might all be answered with the same piece of content.
SERP Presentation
This is a judgement of natural search presentation (SERP = search engine result page); the basis for which are the page title and meta description. Are these elements the proper length or are they truncated? Do they inspire a click or are they bland? Do they blend in with other results or stick out? Are there rich snippets or opportunities to use them? Is there sufficient use of the primary keyword(s) used to find this page?
Internal Linking Quality
How well is the content linked to from others on your site? How many times? Is the anchor text appropriate, varied, but on-topic? Use Screaming Frog to help you get these internal links. With internal linking, the most important thing to look for is that the phrases are varied and not targeting the same exact text over and over again. Change up the link text to communicate the topic- not a keyword. If you have similar pieces of content, use internal linking to differentiate them.
Organic Search Referral Quality
Yes, this means keywords. It’s OK, you don’t need exact numbers or even numbers at all. Use Google Webmaster Tools’ queries report to give you a flavor of the type of keyword visibility each piece of content earnes. Are they on topic or completely irrelevant? Mostly branded or unbranded? Use the designated Search Intent/Task to help with this score.
Uniqueness
Is the content distinct from others on the site? Exact copies? Close enough to confuse search engines? If the content is very similar to another, consider making one more specific, or put a different spin on it. Use your knowledge of the site and the Organic Search Referral Quality to help you judge uniqueness. If there is significant keyword overlap, they’ll pop the same or similar keyword referrals and impressions.
Actionability
Does the content have a clear call to action? Each piece should have a purpose, which the reader is driven towards. If there is no call to action, you’ll dead-end the visitor to a possible site exit. Remember to keep this action in mind when creating the content in the first place. The function of the content is to persuade the reader into taking action and doing something with their new-found information.
On-Page Text Quality and Quantity
This one deals with how much static HTML text is on the page. Is there sufficient text or visual information to satisfy the demand? Remember, Google has a hard time indexing images so make sure that infographic is accompanied by a few paragraphs of plain text. Is the reading level appropriate? Consider this attribute with other media types as well. For example you might have a blog post introducing a concept or process to a reader, but invite them to go more in-depth through downloading a white paper.
IA & URL Structure
Is the content easily found on the site? Rather an internal linking strategy (above) which is mostly focused on links from within body copy, consider major site elements for this one. Can the page be found through navigation? Site search? Are there breadcrumbs on the page? Does it live where it should on the site and does the URL communicate what can be found on the page?
Content Score
Finally, we arrive at a total score. This, like the other scores, is on a scale of 1-10 and is calculated simply as an average of the previous scores. No thinking involved in this one, just simple math.
Action Needed
Once you have all this qualitative data, what are you going to do with it? What are the actionable insights you’ve pulled out of this kick-ass spreadsheet? Typically the actions needed are keep, update, decommission, or reformat, but these can be much more in depth. A short paragraph of notes and actions to take are appreciated by your teammates who might not have the same intimate knowledge as you.
When To Audit
I usually do an audit like this once a quarter, or any time there is a major redesign taking place. These should be stored in a safe place, and referred to frequently. I also find it helpful to review past audits in-depth before conducting a new one. If you look at the historical data for a single piece of content, you can keep the context of where it’s been and the progress it has made. Once you’ve done these audits for some time, you can pull individual items out to the story of content over time (and space).
Content is really good, lot to learn and rethink but I am still clueless how to measure the quality. Which metrics or data should we use to measure the effectiveness of the quality of the copy being gauged?
I used to do a similar audit on my copies on different client’s and my websites and blogs but I completely depend on the data from different analytical tools like how much organic visitors or referral visitors or social visitors the content itself is getting, how is the dwelling time or the bounce rates, how many the page-views are happening, how many are getting converted, how much shared and few others like earned links, recommendations, mentions etc. These metrics help me to identify the quality of a content but in your case I am still thinking of how to actually monitor the quality.
I am also a bit confused how do you separate quality and quantity metrics because I believe both are more or less same or very similar.
Would be more helpful if you put some actionable inputs on my queries.
Sounds like a great system … looks like I’ll have to update my spreadsheets now … thanks!
Kudos on the thoughts and techniques provided. These techniques are thorough with respect to both quantitative and qualitative content-audit approaches. I’m wondering though, if there’s a way to streamline the length of time between audits and figuring out how to make the qualitative approach less subjective.
Personal opinion, of course, varies from person to person. I’m also thinking of a “predictive” audit approach that might be utilized the moment after content is posted, and not just three or four months later. Thanks for sharing. This is all good info for a content manager to put into play.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the read. I too have thought about how to make this process faster, or incorporate some type of automation. What I’ve realized is that automation is ideal for the quantitative side, but this qualitative audit really does require a familiarity with the content which only a human can provide (for now at least).
Nice thought about a predictive approach for new content. That might be possible with content classifications in which the model relies on historical data and existing content. This would be a very good feature request for a content marketing platform or management system.
Awesome post, Harris. I usually do content audit at every drastic design change just to make sure the content is easy to find on the website. Sometimes I conduct a competitors content analysis and see what I can improve in the content that has already been published. After I redo it (add new information) I promote it via social media and email marketing.
Hi Emilia, site redesigns are the perfect time to do a content audit because you can bake the findings right into the new strategy. Thanks for the read!
Well done Harris, thank you for sharing qualitative post. I usually check design first than content, but do content audit with competitors and other business leader, checking with high management team those are involved in marketing. So overall I can say that these tips will definitely help out me in the future.
Hi Manash,
Thanks for the read, and good point about competitors. This type of audit can be adapted to fit the competition, based on whatever metrics you can find. For example, since you don’t have direct access to their analytics, you could use traffic estimates from SEMrush instead. Cheers!
Thanks for this Content Audit guide. This will surely help us in generating more revenue from our content based affiliate blog. Thanks again dude 🙂
Thanks for the great helpful article and your writing skill is very good.