Before you can get started on your exciting – and essential – content marketing journey, there’s one thing you really need to do first. It’s could be a bit tedious and time consuming, but – trust us on this – you really shouldn’t start without it. And that’s a content audit.

There’s no point reinventing the wheel. It may be that the old content just needs a lick of paint to spruce it up. Of course, it may be that the old content is really under-selling – or even mis-selling – your business, and that’s crucial for you to know. The size, scope and reach of your content audit really depends on your resourcing, but at the very least you should size up existing web pages, collateral and publications to see if they’re still relevant.

No content audit is complete without recommendations, so don’t just create your giant spreadsheet and sit back with a smile. It’s your job as content owner to pour over it all, rate it all, and decide the fate of each and every piece of content. Only then can you truly start your new content journey, and have a site that search engines will love. It’s all about quality, timely and relevant content, after all.

Find the gaps through content audits to improve content strategy

Once you’ve got that done, you should – fingers crossed – be able to easily identify any missing material. It could be that, as your content library has grown organically, new services or products or thoughts have been overlooked or even misrepresented. Your content audit is necessary to help you identify those gaps, and make sure that the voice and messaging you’re putting out there in the big bad world is truly reflective of your company as it is now, not a few years ago.

…we know, we know. That’s going to take so much time and you really just want to get stuck in. That’s where we can help: while you go about devising your strategy and keeping the day job going (those requests don’t get put on hold just because you’re launching a blog, right?), we can help with the audit. After all, sometimes that external eye is exactly what you need – someone impartial, someone who didn’t sweat blood and tears creating the content, to sense check it.