Conduct a Content Audit
Traffic will inevitably plateau at some point. To address this, it is important to determine a good time to conduct a content audit to thoroughly examine the elements that may be causing your content to become stagnant.
Nick poses an excellent inquiry regarding determining the optimal time frame for conducting a content audit. Given the fluctuations in traffic resulting from Google Algorithm updates and seasonal variations, it can be challenging to determine the most useful period for evaluating performance data. It is important to consider utilizing both short-term and long-term data to comprehensively understand your website’s content performance and make informed decisions for your SEO strategy.
An SEO Question
Nick asks: What period is most useful for a content audit? My traffic changes due to Google algorithm updates and some seasonality. How should I set my strategy based on one year of performance data or use smaller chunks of data?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer in terms of content audits, but there are certain signs that point to a review. Maintaining a level head when a C-suite executive panics because of seasonality or when search engine algorithms fluctuate is critical. Despite temporary dips, good content and pages often return after search engines like Google make updates. Performance reviews and annual audits are also beneficial.
Updates are not a good indication that you should audit your content exclusively. Instead, use these:
- If traffic has slowed and good pages that should be ranking are not. (After structure and tech issues have been addressed)
- Your content is competing with the pages replacing it.
- Your rankings are not achieved when the busy season is six to seven months away.
- Your pages are annually evaluated in categories and compared.
Plateaued Traffic
When traffic stops increasing, but you’ve been posting content regularly for a while, it is a great idea to step back and inspect your content. Is your page already getting the same amount of traffic due to SEO? If so, change your topic and search for new things to draw in your audience while staying connected to your core products, services, and priorities.
Only cannibalize the working pages by focusing solely on SEO traffic. However, don’t just look at the number of visitors and keep writing on similar topics – look at your user base and audience. Has the social media traffic to your pages stopped? If so, you’re either posting uninteresting content to your user base or covering everything to do with that subject.
When considering content types that satisfy the same user base, consider other types that address the same problem.
For instance, if you sell books to single fathers with younger daughters, you might consider “single father issues.” You can cross-sell your content by offering solutions for your audience’s problems in hairstyling, birthday planning, shopping for clothes, or introducing your child to your new partner. You may also work with influencers in your niche and construct cross-promotional marketing campaigns with complementary firms.
Creating this level of visibility, in turn, boosts exposure and leads to natural links. It’s a significant win and may help your traffic grow again for a suitable audience while feeding other channels and helping your company grow. As an SEO expert or writer, you may become the hero and be invited to the marketing planning table.
Slipping Pages And Categories
Look at the pages and categories on your site and see if they are slipping. Don’t just start removing, pruning, and rewriting, though. First, take a look at these items:
- What has replaced what you used to rank for? What topics do they address that you don’t? You can incorporate them into your content if they are relevant.
- What topics are they covering? How many internal links and backlinks do they possess?
- How is their page being covered by “real” media? Why is their content being published when yours isn’t?
- What signals do they boost their content with (particularly from pages with high-quality backlinks)?
- When do they put more emphasis on their content? Is it boosted with extra signals from internal links (particularly from pages with high-quality links)?
- Is your site properly structured and hierarchical, and does it load quickly?
- Have you published similar content that your site may be competing against? To identify potentially competing pages, you can use an SEO tool to cluster keywords and see if they appear on various pages on your website. If you have competing pages, combine some, delete some, or rewrite some to ensure your visitors get the message you’re trying to send.
About 6 Months Out From Seasonal Traffic
Six months before your busy season, check to see if you’re showing up for your most critical terms. If you aren’t, repeat the exercise from above and start thinking about improving your copy. I begin eight months before my busy season starts, but that’s because I like to do a lot of testing – six months is enough time to get to the code and content freeze three or four months before your busy season begins.
This improperly works in many ways. Don’t split test organic traffic and pages. Rather, make a plan, test copy and wording for conversions via PPC, and then roll out the best experience once enough time has elapsed to observe how it ranks and indexes.
Annual Evaluations
In Shopify, look at the SEO traffic column, then see how the categories are organized (if you have a folder structure) before picking and choosing from the menu options. You can then adjust the structure of your website, establish internal links, and look for missing areas. You can also identify if the copy and H tags are doing their job on categories and locate categories that got omitted.
Another huge discovery in this exercise is when posts that were once big winners dropped, but other posts took their position. You can see this with a time comparison and then redo the pages that fell if necessary. You must work on getting the pages that fell back and maintaining the current one. When you notice traffic remaining constant because one post replaced another as an acquisition, you can double your traffic. You may save time by fixing older pages rather than creating new ones.
There is no single schedule for a content SEO audit, but these are four good occasions. Good luck.
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