Content Auditing & Beyond! A Crawl Centred Approach to Keeping on Top of Your Content
- 1. Content Auditing & Beyond!
Sam Marsden, SEO & Content Manager, DeepCrawl
semKRK – May 2018
@twitter HashTag
A crawl centred approach to
keeping on top of your content
Content Auditing & Beyond!
Sam Marsden, SEO & Content Manager, DeepCrawl
semKRK – May 2018
@twitter HashTag
A crawl centred approach to
keeping on top of your content
- 4. Soon after we received Series A funding...
@sam_marsden semKRK 4
- 7. A website redesign is a long process
2Source: http://ezsitecms.com/services/website-redesign/
A site redesign is a long process
7
- 8. A website redesign is a long process
2Source: https://juliandontcheff.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/migration.png
...and we needed to move
to a new CMS
8
- 11. ...so we only wanted
to migrate the content
that we needed
11
- 15. What do the search results say?
15@sam_marsden semKRK
- 18. We need a fresh approach...
18@sam_marsden semKRK
Comprehensive Time-
saving
Replicable
- 20. Content auditing is
like a spring clean
First you need find all
the crap you have
hidden away in your
home.
≈
Discovering all of
your URLs
- 22. What’s your reasoning behind
what will go?
≈
Creating a set of criteria for
judging content performance
@sam_marsden semKRK
- 23. Making the call on what gets binned?
What stays?
What gets a new lease of life?
≈
Deciding what to do with your pages
23@sam_marsden semKRK
- 28. o expopages...
Other guides suggest crawling...
Source: https://i0.wp.com/www.obstacleraceworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/crawl-under-electrified-fence.jpg?ssl=1
@sam_marsden semKRK
- 29. BUt
Other guides suggest crawling...
Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/
Great idea
BUT…
Limited
view of
data@sam_marsden semKRK
- 35. 35
Crawl data needs to
be at the
centre of your audit,
not just
a single source.
@sam_marsden semKRK
- 38. Use custom extractions to pull out:
● Authors bylines
● Published & last modified date
● Structured and meta data
● Wording and phrasing
● Image alt tags
● Tagging & tracking
Extracting out onpage data
37@sam_marsden semKRK
- 44. 2@sam_marsden semKRK
You should be left with:
Page descriptors – URLs and page titles
Page attributes - word count, published &
last modified date, links, duplicates, categories, author
Performance metrics - backlinks, social shares,
traffic, SERPs, impressions, engagement metrics
- 45. With your inventory in place,
auditing can be streamlined and efficient.
2@sam_marsden semKRK
- 46. @sam_marsden semKRK
What are we going to cover?
Four questions you can answer with your
content inventory
Four examples of insights to inform your
content strategy
Introduce ways to automate content auditing process
- 49. Defining a set of criteria to judge content performance
46@sam_marsden semKRK
Performance depends on nature of the site.
A news site that generates revenue through ad
impressions will define successful content
differently from a B2B site that provides a
niche service.
May also have different expectations of content
performance dependent on the content type.
Mass appeal vs. targeted content.
- 50. Inclusion relies on correct goal implementation*
In the DeepCrawl content audit…
47@sam_marsden semKRK
Content performance assessed based on:
Unique
pageviews
Share
count
Backlink
count
Page
value*
- 52. Adding an ‘Action’ column
49@sam_marsden semKRK
In your spreadsheet you’ll want to create an ‘Action’ column and
add in four options
Keep Cut Combine Convert
- 53. In DeepCrawl’s case...
50@sam_marsden semKRK
We knew there was a lot of outdated content no longer providing value.
We could afford to be cut-throat and only keep content that:
● Had a publish date within the last year.
● Or had a specified volume of traffic from
Analytics or impressions from GSC Search Analytics.
- 55. Is the page being seen in
search and receiving traffic?
@sam_marsden semKRK
- 56. Is the page actually bringing
value to the site?
£££ $$$ €€€
@sam_marsden semKRK
- 60. ...and examine ways you can maximise
the value of your top performing content...
@sam_marsden semKRK
- 61. @sam_marsden semKRK
Optimising titles & meta
descriptions
Keyword cannibalisation
Duplication issues
Internal & external linking
Page speed
Structured data
Tag pages
Start using a fuller breadth of the data you’ve pulled in.
Key areas to focus on for content optimisation:
- 62. 4. How can you use this data inform your content strategy?
2@sam_marsden semKRK
Question 4:
How can you
inform your
content strategy?
- 65. Achieving this is all about
finding relationships...
@sam_marsden semKRK http://hopesrising.com/?p=5677
- 69. 1. Performance by channel/category/content type
68@sam_marsden semKRK
Do some types of content perform better than others?
Group content into categories and look in terms of
performance (views, shares, backlinks) and volume of
production (no. articles published).
Are you allocating content efforts efficiently?
Is time, money and effort being spent on the right
types of content?
- 71. 2. Content length and engagement
70@sam_marsden semKRK
Is content length positively correlated with engagement?
- 72. Content length and engagement
71@sam_marsden
If engagement doesn’t increase linearly with content length
then can resources for content production be used more
efficiently.
Create guidelines for content length based on insights.
Select topics based on impact rather than length.
Greater awareness of time taken to create content and the
likely impact that can be expected.
semKRK
- 73. Is page speed harming bounce rate and conversions?
72@sam_marsden semKRK
Do some pages load more
slowly than others?
Are some resource heavy?
Images optimisation
required?
Important, especially for
eCommerce as load time
and bounce rate closely tied
to conversion rate. https://www.branded3.com/blog/mobile-speed-experience-googles-2-4-second-sweet-spot/
- 74. Performance and engagement by author
73@sam_marsden semKRK
How does content performance vary by author?
● Useful for sites with high turnover of content, like news sites.
● Define ranges by which to rate content performance
○ E.g. Poor, average, good, excellent based on pageviews
● Can be replicated on a weekly, monthly, quarterly basis for ongoing monitoring.
Name Poor Average Good Excellent
Barton Haberkorn 26 64 11 60
Jacquelynn Kline 19 79 4 49
Claudette Etheredge 87 79 77 11
Sharell Phinney 73 31 8 20
- 75. 5. Performance fluctuations by publish date and time
74@sam_marsden semKRK
Is content better
received on
specific days of
the week, time of
the day or months
of the year?
- 76. But this is just the beginning...
76@sam_marsden semKRK
- 83. To wrap up...
83@sam_marsden semKRK
Number 3:
How can you get the most out of
content that is performing well?
Question 2:
How can you deal with content that
isn’t performing well?
4. How can you use
this data inform your
content strategy?
Question 4:
How can you inform
your content strategy?
Question No. 1:
What is and isn’t performing well?
- 84. To wrap up...
84@sam_marsden semKRK
The content auditing process should be centred around a cloud
based web crawling solution and be:
Data driven Automated Frequent
- 86. Useful resources:
75@sam_marsden semKRK
Crawl-Centred Guide to content auditing – Me!
How to do a Content Audit – Everett Sizemore
Automate or Die – David Iwanow
Branded3 Mobile Speed Experience – Mathew McCorry
Kevin Indig Experts on the Wire Podcast – Dan Shure
Webmaster Hangout Notes - DeepCrawl