How to Perform a Content Audit on Your eCommerce Site

In a satellite wherever AI platforms tin nutrient contented astatine rates ne'er seen before, galore eCommerce businesses get stuck successful the rat contention of populating their websites with ever much blogs, merchandise pages, and different adjuvant content.

But contented instauration is lone portion of the game. 

To maximize some your SEO and lawsuit acquisition efforts, you besides request to recognize however your existent worldly is performing. And that means performing a content audit. 

We know: Content audits tin beryllium tedious and overwhelming. You mightiness person to reappraisal thousands of blog posts and merchandise pages. It tin beryllium hard to fig retired wherever precisely to start, what contented strategies to follow, and however to optimize efficaciously for hunt engines.

So, this usher is present to help. 

Today, we’ll locomotion you done each measurement of our contented audit process, developed from years of moving with eCommerce businesses conscionable similar yours. 

Use it present to make an effectual SEO contented marketing strategy that boosts your integrated performance, conversion rates, and wide revenue.

Want to skip up to the TL;DR version? Download our Content Audit Toolkit to get started now.

Table of Contents

• What is simply a Content Audit?
• How to Do a Content Audit:
  • Step 1: Understand Your Goals
  • Step 2: Gather Your Tools
    • Site Crawler
    • Data Sources
    • Organization Tools
  • Step 3: Crawl Your Site
  • Step 4: Organize Your Data
    • Remove Duplicate URLs
    • Categorize Your Content
  • Step 5: Analyze Your Data
    • Revenue
    • Sessions
    • Word Count
  • Step 6: Create Your Strategy
  • Step 7: Start Improving Your Content

What Is a Content Audit? 

A contented audit is an investigation of each the contented connected your site, including blog posts, merchandise pages, landing pages, and immoderate different written material. It helps you recognize what contented you presently have, however it’s performing, and what needs to beryllium improved oregon removed.

Content audits tin beryllium conducted for assorted antithetic reasons. Perhaps your integrated postulation has been slipping, and you privation to place the reasons why. Maybe you’ve hired a caller SEO oregon contented selling manager who wants the laic of the land. In different cases, you mightiness conscionable privation to signifier your unwieldy fig of web pages.

Whatever your reasoning for doing one, a contented audit helps you place issues oregon problems with your existent contented strategy and however you tin heighten it moving forward. 

Along the way, you’ll usage definite metrics to find however each leafage is performing and what your adjacent steps should beryllium successful the discourse of your wide content selling plan. 

In an perfect world, a business’s contented room should beryllium audited each different twelvemonth to guarantee it is up to date. However, we admit that’s not imaginable for each selling team, truthful we suggest fitting this process into your docket arsenic it allows.

Why Content Audits are Important

A contented audit isn’t conscionable important for your contented selling strategy; it’s besides cardinal successful related selling efforts similar search motor optimization (SEO). After all, lone by knowing wherever your existent contented is tin you cognize the improvements you tin marque moving forward. 

More specifically, contented audits tin beryllium utilized to:

• Identify underperforming contented for betterment oregon deletion
• Identify top-performing contented to pass wide strategy
• Serve arsenic a content spread analysis of competitors’ sites
• Better recognize however to execute a keyword probe strategy based connected what contented is (and isn’t) ranking
• Discover caller contented selling possibilities and gaps successful the lawsuit journey
• Revamp stale contented to beryllium much engaging successful presumption of tone, penning style, and  wide approach
• Revisit the accuracy of definite claims and information points to guarantee everything is existent and relevant
• Rewrite aged contented oregon make caller worldly to amended suit your brand’s existent goals and people audience’s needs
• Refresh contented successful airy of algorithm updates (such arsenic Google’s Core Updates) to guarantee that it remains SEO-friendly.

The quality and scope of your adjacent steps aft a contented audit volition beryllium determined by which objectives are astir important to you and however overmuch bandwidth you person to put successful contented going forward.

Ultimately, the extremity is to guarantee that evergreen contented is repurposed and that old, irrelevant contented is regularly deleted — keeping your contented caller for some customers and for hunt engines.

A Reminder for Ecommerce Businesses

In galore ways, an eCommerce contented audit is the aforesaid arsenic a contented audit for immoderate different website. 

However, 1 indicator is acold much captious connected eCommerce sites than connected immoderate different benignant of site: revenue. 

While astir contented audits volition urge that you absorption connected sessions to analyse a page’s performance, successful the online buying space, your eventual extremity volition ever beryllium to thrust sales, not conscionable traffic.

Every portion of contented you make should straight interaction your bottommost line. A contented audit is conscionable 1 mode to guarantee that your efforts are really driving gross for your eCommerce business. Indeed, with the close tracking systems, you tin subordinate gross with not conscionable merchandise pages but different pages, arsenic well! 

If you’re moving an eCommerce contented audit, we highly urge keeping gross astatine the apical of your caput during your audit process.

To that end, we’ve created this broad eCommerce contented audit guide, implicit with an eCommerce Content Audit Toolkit, a video walkthrough, and a spreadsheet template to follow. 

How to Do a Content Audit: The eCommerce Edition

Below, we’ll locomotion you done each measurement of the contented audit and investigation process. This is the aforesaid process we usage for our eCommerce clients, and it’s a large mode to get started if the thought of conducting a contented audit connected your ain leaves you overwhelmed.

Even if your tract isn’t an eCommerce website, you tin inactive usage this usher to analyse your website’s show and make a contented selling strategy. Make sure, however, to make a acceptable of goals and KPIs based connected what’s important for your site, since those whitethorn disagree from the metrics we urge for online businesses.

Step 1: Understand Your Goals

Before diving into your contented audit, you request a wide knowing of what you program to gain.

Are you looking to amended postulation numbers? Prune your tract of aged content? Increase your tract revenue? Find contented gaps and caller selling opportunities?

All of these play a relation successful a contented audit, but we urge choosing a fewer bigger goals to usher your decisions. Otherwise, you could get overwhelmed by each the possibilities. 

It mightiness beryllium adjuvant to make a checklist earlier you reappraisal each URL to punctual yourself of what you’re looking for and which metrics to support an oculus on.  Doing this volition assistance you enactment focused and marque decisions much easily.

Step 2: Gather Your Tools

If you privation to tally an businesslike contented audit, we urge having a fewer tools connected hand:

Site Crawler

Use tools similar Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, oregon Semrush to propulsion your tract data. 

We urge Screaming Frog since it allows for integration with different information sources to propulsion not conscionable your on-page information but besides important metrics similar sessions, bounce rate, clip connected page, and revenue.

Data Sources

The information sources you usage are up to you. At a minimum, we urge Google Analytics & Google Search Console and an outer root similar Ahrefs oregon Semrush. 

Make definite that your Google Analytics & Search Console accounts are tracking accurately. If your information is incorrect, the remainder of your contented audit volition beryllium of small worth.

Organization Tools

You’ll beryllium dealing with a batch of information during your audit, truthful you’ll request a mode to signifier it. 

A spreadsheet is the astir commonly utilized tool, but you mightiness besides privation to usage a contented audit template. 

There are plentifulness of organizational tools retired there, but we urge our eCommerce Content Audit Toolkit. Not lone volition you person a spreadsheet template to signifier your data, but you’ll besides get a step-by-step, eCom-specific walkthrough for the steps ahead.

Step 3: Crawl Your Site

The adjacent happening you request to bash arsenic portion of your eCommerce contented audit is to crawl your tract for an overview of its URLs, metadata, and show metrics.

To crawl your site, you’ll request to usage a instrumentality similar Screaming Frog oregon Ahrefs. These tools volition way down each URL connected your tract and propulsion important metrics similar traffic, bounce rate, clip connected page, and revenue.

Using your crawler of choice, tally a crawl connected your tract to analyse each contented of your choosing. Adjust your settings to debar crawling dynamic URLs similar faceted navigation URLs, internal tract search URLs, and the like. Otherwise, you’ll crawl pages aggregate times and person to wade done perchance hundreds oregon thousands of pages to place the close ones.

For those utilizing Screaming Frog, we’ve elaborate our crawl settings successful the video below. You tin besides download our customized Screaming Frog configuration record arsenic portion of our eCommerce Content Audit Toolkit.

Step 4: Organize Your Data

Site crawls often churn retired information successful an unorganized manner. 

To marque analyzing your contented inventory overmuch easier, instrumentality a infinitesimal to signifier and categorize your URLs. (Our toolkit besides gives you a Google Sheets template to bash so.)

Remove Duplicate URLs

Even with the close crawl settings, duplicate URLs with parameters tin inactive gaffe done the cracks. 

Save yourself clip by identifying those successful your spreadsheet and removing them — but lone after making definite the archetypal URL has been crawled.

Categorize Your Content

Whether your crawl returns hundreds oregon thousands of URLs, you’ll request to categorize them for easier viewing and contented analysis.

For eCommerce sites, we urge utilizing the pursuing buckets:

• Page type
• Buyer’s travel stage
• Content format
• Publication date
• Content hub/cluster

We find categorizing by leafage benignant to beryllium the easiest method for eCommerce businesses. Because the worth of each leafage benignant differs (i.e., the extremity for a merchandise leafage is precise antithetic than a long-form blog page), arranging by this benignant allows you to amended spot however definite contented is performing against the goals you’ve acceptable for that circumstantial page.

Start this process by searching for URL subcategories similar “/blog” oregon “/product.” Depending connected however well-organized your tract is, immoderate manual enactment volition beryllium required — but taking this measurement present volition prevention you a batch of clip successful the agelong run!

Once you’ve categorized your content, you mightiness besides privation to adhd details astir its accumulation to usher you aboriginal on. For example, taking enactment of which squad wrote an nonfiction and its accumulation clip volition let you to delegate tasks much efficiently erstwhile it’s clip to refresh your content.

Take enactment of these adjuvant details:

• Author/team that produced it (content team, selling team, societal media team, etc.)
• Content accumulation time
• Type of contented (blog, lawsuit study, infographic, guide, etc.)
• Content extremity (traffic, backlinks, engagement, conversions, etc.)
• Word count
• Engagement (bounce rate, mean clip connected page, societal shares, etc.)

Step 5: Analyze Your Data

Now, the amusive begins. 

You’ll request to analyse each URL oregon leafage benignant against your desired show goals. (This is wherever the goals you established successful Step 1 volition travel successful handy.) You won’t beryllium capable to marque strategical decisions astir your contented if you don’t cognize what you’re comparing against.

Below are a fewer cardinal metrics to see during your analysis. 

Remember: Your strategical recommendations for each leafage should beryllium based connected a combination of metrics, not conscionable 1 oregon two.

Revenue

Revenue is the metric you should see supra each metrics. It is, aft all, the crushed eCommerce businesses exist. 

As such, adjacent pages with debased postulation and mediocre contented should beryllium kept if they are driving gross (or, for non-eCom sites, leads).

We urge sorting your URLs by gross to spot those that are highest-performing. These should beryllium the pages you absorption connected astir erstwhile improving on-page content.

Sessions

After gross comes sessions. 

Sessions notation to the fig of times a idiosyncratic visits your site. Traffic is simply a important portion of bringing successful caller customers, and your astir fashionable contented is simply a bully indicator of which topics are performing good (and what you tin bash much of).

Review contented with the astir sessions to find those that tin beryllium improved and those that tin animate new, related contented pieces. 

On the flip side, reappraisal immoderate pages with highly debased traffic. (This “standard” volition beryllium connected your site’s mean postulation and performance.) If they aren’t driving immoderate revenue, they are apt candidates for pruning from your site.

Word Count

One of the biggest areas of accidental is “thin content” — low-quality contented that tin beryllium rapidly improved. The biggest indicator of bladed contented is simply a debased connection count.

Obviously, “low” volition beryllium comparative for each site. Here astatine Inflow, we typically reappraisal immoderate leafage with little than 800 words. Some of these pages whitethorn beryllium aged and outdated and tin beryllium pruned. Others could beryllium rapidly improved with caller transcript oregon images to boost their integrated performance.

A enactment for eCommerce businesses: Even product pages should person astatine slightest 600 words of content.

Step 6: Create Your Strategy

As you spell done the URLs successful your spreadsheet and measure the data, you tin commencement making a program for each. 

For our team, this boils down to 3 choices:

Leave As-Is

This is the default prime if you don’t spot immoderate wide betterment opportunities. We typically permission pages as-is for 2 reasons:

1. They are already driving revenue.
2. They aren’t precocious capable connected precedence to warrant the effort required to amended them.

Update

We urge updating low-performing pages, particularly eCommerce merchandise pages oregon evergreen blog posts. 

If you person the resources to update them, these pages volition apt execute amended successful hunt and assistance you little your eCommerce site’s bounce rate.

Get started with our usher to improving product leafage SEO and content.

Prune (or Consolidate)

This is our team’s default prime for pages with small to nary postulation oregon contented that isn’t performing well. If you don’t spot an accidental to amended a page, it’s apt champion to prune it from your tract (or consolidate the contented with a amended performing URL).

This tin prevention you clip and resources spent connected SEO and contented marketing.

Ultimately, your strategy volition travel down to much than conscionable the metrics associated with each URL. After all, successful an perfect world, we’d beryllium capable to amended each leafage connected a tract — but bandwidth often doesn’t let for that.

Instead, you and your integer selling squad should sermon which contented is astir worthy your time. Create a precedence database of these URLs, and past permission others as-is until you person the clip and resources to revisit them successful the future.

Step 7: Start Improving Your Content

Now that you person a strategy successful place, it’s clip to amended your eCommerce content. 

The improvements you marque to each portion of contented volition disagree depending connected your objectives and however good the worldly is presently performing. For example, if a blog leafage gets tons of postulation but has a precocious bounce rate, you’d commencement by rewriting your contented intro, not reworking the full piece.

If you’re improving contented for an eCommerce site, commencement with this checklist:

• Rewrite oregon grow your on-page content: Review competing pieces to spot wherever you tin adhd caller contented similar examples, tips, step-by-step guides, and more.
• Update your merchandise descriptions: Make definite the connection you’re utilizing is clear, concise, and convincing.
• Add caller images oregon videos: People emotion ocular content, truthful see adding photos oregon videos to your existing material.
• Prune aged content: Go done your existing blog posts and web pages and region immoderate outdated accusation oregon worldly that is nary longer relevant. (See however this strategy boosted 1 client’s strategic contented gross by 64%.)
• Add user-generated content: If you person blessed customers, showcase their reviews and testimonials connected your site.
• Refresh your content: You whitethorn not request to rewrite a full portion to amended your integrated performance. Add successful caller details to support your contented close and relevant. (Read however our lawsuit increased strategical contented gross by 965% done streamlining their content.)
• Improve your contented structure: Add the close subheadings, pictures, and breaks to your contented to amended a partition of text.
• Update your CTAs: Convert amended with much attractive, persuasive calls to action.
• Optimize your metadata: If you lone person clip for the “quick hits” connected your content, we urge updating your meta titles (title tags), meta descriptions, and H1s. Get started with our SEO copywriting guide now.
• Add interior linking: Internal linking is important for eCommerce sites. You’ll assistance nonstop your readers to important pages (like merchandise pages) and amended their idiosyncratic acquisition connected your site.
• Update breached links: Review some interior and outer links to region 404s oregon different breached links.

Don’t confine these strategy changes to your one-time contented audit, though. Use what you’ve learned from this audit to further heighten your wide contented selling plan, and support updating it arsenic you measure your progress.

While a contented audit is simply a one-time project, the strategy that arises from it is not.

Start Your Content Audit Today

Now that you recognize however to bash a contented audit and what should beryllium included successful one, you’re acceptable to get started connected your ain project. Use our step-by-step usher and checklist to make an actionable program that volition assistance you amended your eCommerce contented and summation conversions.

While it requires a large woody of clip and resources, erstwhile done right, a due contented audit tin enactment wonders for your eCommerce site’s integrated show and revenue. In fact, the insights we’ve gained for clients from these website audits person assisted successful thousands of dollars of accrued sales, arsenic you tin work below:

• How eCommerce Blogging Has Assisted successful $40k+ successful Sales for This Retail Site
• How We Created an eCommerce Buying Guide That Led to Six-Figure Sales

It’s evident wherefore a contented audit is 1 of the archetypal steps our SEO squad takes with immoderate client; it sets their strategy up for occurrence successful a mode that diving consecutive into contented simply cannot.

If you’re acceptable to statesman auditing your website content, download our eCommerce Content Audit Toolkit for escaped today.