The biggest mistake I see when someone runs off to develop their content strategy is starting from scratch. Unless you’re a start-up, I’m going to take a guess that you’ve already got heaps of content. The question is, is it valuable?
My first step is always a content audit to uncover where there is wastage and where there is opportunity.
Open Excel and get a list of every single URL (page) on your site and start adding the all-important data for each page, everything from users to engagement to conversions and existing ranks. Next, try to categorise them. I like to do this in terms of a sales funnel using a model like AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action), but you could keep it super simple, for example, information and sales.
Now it’s time to analyse the data. Those that see no traffic and no ranks get marked up for deletion (please remember to redirect them once they are removed!). Those that sit somewhere in the middle, perhaps they rank but see poor engagement get marked up for a deeper dive. Finally, those boasting great traffic, engagement, conversions and ranks are keepers!
Onto the exciting bit, the strategy! Keyword research is going to play quite a big part of this, IF you’re expecting your content to be sound in the search engines. The keepers, is there any further opportunity to rank for keyword variants? Or perhaps to increase engagement by adding in additional content or assets?
The ones which require a deeper dive, is there a crossover between pages that would benefit from being merged into one monster guide? Or maybe they see poor engagement as the content doesn’t quite match the intent of the keyword that the page is ranking for?
I have no doubt after all of that you’ll have a tonne of action points which will form your content strategy… without reinventing the wheel.
Laura Devonald
Digital Strategist, Webmart
