How to Conduct a Blog Audit in 2022

In Content Marketing, SEO, Content8 April 20228 Minutes

When it comes to the blog section of your site, some pieces of content may perform better than others, and it’s important to work out why that is. Blog audits are an excellent way of discovering what’s working (and what isn’t) when it comes to overall performance.

If you feel like your blog posts are lacking traffic, or are doing well but missing out on conversions, then a blog audit is a necessary step toward creating a blog that reflects the expertise and standing of your business overall.

What is a blog content audit?

The audit process is a complete review of your blog, its content and everything that stems from this. It’s a comprehensive check of the content, SEO, layout and design, and all the workflows you perform on your blog.

When properly carried out, a blog audit provides you with complete oversight on what works and what needs improvement when it comes to content marketing, SEO or SEM efforts on your site.

Why does my site need a blog audit?

Blog content audits provide a full, analytical inventory of all the content within your blog, including items that can be repurposed for future campaigns. It analyses how your content has performed in the past to allow you to identify its strengths and weaknesses.

Blog audits also provide you with a framework for creating an SEO content strategy moving forward, by giving you an overall picture of your content flow and performance.

How to conduct a blog audit

Carrying out a blog audit involves looking at information such as website traffic and behaviour metrics, social media engagement and conversions for individual blog posts. You might also want to consider the types of data that are appropriate for your particular blog, depending on its purpose. For those which are looking to drive brand awareness, the number of new users to the site will be key, for a more product orientated piece, reviewing conversion rate data will be vital.

Look at the stats displayed and ask yourself the following questions: How is your blog performing? What keywords are you optimised for, and where do these rank on the first page of Google SERPS? How often are you publishing content, and when does it perform best?

Collect the data in a way that makes sense to you, such as in an Excel or Google sheets (we’ve even created an Excel for SEO guide to help); find something that provides you with full visibility of the stats you’re interested in, such as Analytics to pull in Search Console data easily.

Use this data to analyse the performance of your blog in line with your intentions for its performance – not all blogs are designed to create conversions, for example, and you may want to optimise the effectiveness of your content to contribute to the health and performance of your site overall rather than to sell your product.

Take the information and apply this to your blog posts going forward, as well as making updates to the existing content to fall in line with your new goals.

What is the end goal of a blog audit?

A successful blog audit should begin by establishing a baseline from which you can make informed decisions about how your content will be managed, and what changes need to happen over time to ensure maximum performance.

By answering the questions in the section above, you will have a good idea of where you want your blog to go. The end goal is really for you to decide; after assessing the success of the blog in terms of visitors and clicks, you can choose where you want it to go. Perhaps you want it to gain more impressions, or you want to achieve more conversions – the choice is yours and the sky is the limit when a blog audit is performed correctly.

Benefits of a blog audit

There are plenty of benefits to performing a blog audit, and our clients have seen the following:

  • Identify areas for content repurposing or updating where numbers are lower than desired
  • Identify pieces of content that perform best, that you can then leverage in marketing materials
  • Understand more what your audience likes and dislikes
  • Give data-driven insight into the performance of your content, helping you to make informed decisions based on factual information
  • Maintenance of your content is easier when you have an understanding of what you are offering

A blog audit may seem tedious, but the results are worth it – at a glance, you’ll be provided with a clear picture of how your content is doing, allowing you to proceed in the future with content that reflects what’s working well.

Ask the experts

DIY blog audits can seem a little daunting; you’ll need to carve out time to do one properly, but the outcome is so worth it. We are SEO experts, and we know exactly how to carry out a blog audit, in line with your goals, which is sure to see successful results. If you’re still unsure of whether or not you need a blog audit, here are a few signs it may be time:

Signs your website is in need of a blog audit

  • If you don’t have a clear content plan
  • If your blog section has been around for a number of years without review
  • If you’re struggling to know what to create or post next
  • If you have content sitting there that you can’t remember or don’t actively use
  • If your content is starting to feel lifeless or dry, and you’re lacking inspiration

Should any of these statements apply, it’s time to carry out a blog audit – contact us today for more information on how we can breathe new life into your site’s blog.