Start taming your website with a content audit
I’ve just looked long and hard at my children’s play area. I wish I hadn’t. It has become so full of toys it’s impenetrable. I lost sight of all the detail long ago and, worst of all, so did they. Does this sound like your website?
As I surveyed this sorry scene, the wise words of content strategist Kristina Halvorson at ConfabUK echoed in the back of my mind:
You need to deal with the overwhelming piles of junk that you have... It’s like a circus without a ringmaster, or the wild west. Someone needs to control the content and strategise it.
Kristina wasn’t referring to my twins’ toy corner, but instead the sheer amount of content on the web and in our websites.
In both cases, it’s just not Zen. Someone needs to take charge. Someone needs to tame these wild beasts.
Appoint a ringmaster
Whoever becomes your ringmaster, it must be understood that they will have to make some tough, fatal decisions. Of course, it helps to rope in others, particularly if specialist knowledge is required and the content ‘belongs’ to someone else. If you’re the ringmaster, consult with the relevant owners/authors before you yourself go wild.
Look it in the eye
The hard truth is, you need to know the nature of the beast before you can tame it. The best way to get familiar is through a content audit or inventory. But before you enter the fray, you need to work out your tactics and visualise the results you want to see...
Grab the beast by the horns
Will you be doing a quantitative audit to give you some basic stats about how much stuff there is? Or a qualitative one that gives you much deeper insight? If this beast is out of control or too large, and your members' experiences are suffering as a result, then it must be both.
Taming tools?
To answer qualitative questions and get a head start, check out the CAT (Content Analysis Tool). You can run it in the background while you plot your next move, but don’t assume it will save your skin. In this arena, audit tools are about as useful as a red cape. Human skill, judgement and stamina are your best weapons.
Your trusty sidekick
Embrace the spreadsheet. Excel or similar will do, but if you want to collaborate on a master document, use Google docs from the outset. Here's a simple template. Alternatively, you can use this MS Excel template. You can mix and match fields from both, but for larger sites with many stakeholders, and/or to drill deep, you may want to include even more. Additional fields will stretch out the audit, but the output will be all the richer for them. Here's a list you can build your own from:
- URL
- Member only or public content?
- Page titles
- Main menu/section page
- Date posted and/or updated
- Author, more relevant than ever thanks to Google authorship (link)
- Assets included (attached files, such as PDFs, pngs, jpegs)
- Audience: Who is it for?
- Tags/categories/topics (metadata)
- Related content links
- Owner (current and/or future responsibility)
- Notes/comments
- Traffic – Google analytics
- Decision – Keep, Update, Delete
- Date of next review
(If this is the sort of thing that gets you really excited, read Mel's recent blog on the content matrix.)
Stand your ground
Now you can begin the journey by filling in the spreadsheet. Once you get going, you’ll pick up a steady pace and see progress. It’s slow though – don’t expect to crack it in one day or even a week. Start with your priority pages (preferably guided by analytics) and work through in sections or in some other methodical, staged fashion. Completing a section at a time will give you some sense of regular achievement. Eventually, the tedious work will pay off.
Cut through the bull
Once you’ve got a grip on the beast, get hard and employ the four Ds:
- Can you sort the content by fixing or refining it? If so, DEAL with it.
- Wherever you find ROT (redundant, out-of-date or trivial) DELETE.
- If it’s a no-go area for any reason – perhaps it needs expert input – DELEGATE it with instructions and a DEADLINE.
- If it appears to be ROT, the deadline passes and no one has dealt with it, revise or unpublish. You’re the ring leader after all.
Path to enlightenment
You’ll likely stumble across some very old and strange stuff that you never expected to see on your journey. But you’ll also begin to see patterns in your content and its use, leading you to reflect upon it in a whole new light – particularly if you’re paying attention to the analytics. This invariably leads to new, interesting ideas for existing and future content. On top of that, when your organisation next considers a website redesign, your spreadsheet will be the star of the show – initially at least.
Sleep with one eye open
Never forget that your website is a living, breathing entity you want your members to use, trust and love. You may have tamed it for now, but it remains wild at heart. Get into the habit of using and updating your spreadsheet every day or week – and encourage others to wield it too. As a team, you can show the beast who’s boss.
Website Zen
Let me know if you ever reach this place! And if you've some handy tips and tools to share, please do so in the comments section below.
I still need some help with that toy corner...