How to Create a Content Review Checklist

Creating a content review checklist can help keep your content on target and converting.

​A content review checklist comes in handy to boost website performance. Search engines (and the humans who use them) crave relevant and engaging content. Creating superstar copy can be challenging. Brands need the right combination of text and graphics on the page to ensure their content converts. Reviewing your content before it goes live on your website or social media is the ideal approach. If you’re thinking, “Great! Now you tell me!” don’t panic. There’s never a wrong time to go back and review old content. In fact, I highly recommend conducting a thorough content review every 12 to 15 months.

Why content reviews are necessary

​Broken links and slow-loading graphics are among the reasons why you must review your content regularly. There also is the pesky fact that some search engines – cough, cough, Google – frequently change up how they rank your content for keyword searches. Old copy that was performing well could suddenly drop out of favor. Here are some other reasons for the occasional content audit:

• Your content goals have changed. Change can be good when it’s done for the right reasons. If your original goal for your content was to simply have a presence online, you probably didn’t focus much on SEO copywriting. Going back to tweak old blog posts and other content to insert relevant industry keywords can give your content the boost it needs to convert.
• Your content has become old and moldy. Just like a loaf of bread that’s been neglected, your content can become stale and moldy. Industry trends shift and evolve, making something that was groundbreaking two years ago old news. Updating can be done when appropriate to bring existing content into alignment with new ideas.
• Your content has become inaccurate. Facts change. We see this all the time with science. What once was true for a certain topic can shift over time as more data becomes available. Regular content audits can identify inaccurate post content that affects both your brand’s reputation and its online ranking.
• Your approach has failed. Sometimes when clients first start blogging, they want to push out three to four articles a week. Trust me when I say that kind of output gets tiring. Rarely does it produce results. Content reviews can pinpoint which topics perform well, and how often visitors check out your blog or other pages. Having this information at hand can guide you in reformulating your approach to new content.

Now you know why you might want to pay more attention to your content. Next, let’s talk about how to do a content audit that produces optimal results. 

A content review process ensures every member of your content management team is on the same page.

Create a content review process

​Content audits have two components. The first part involves checking the effectiveness of your SEO. The second piece focuses on the quality of the content. It can be tempting to concentrate your efforts on one aspect, but it’s a mistake. Skipping one in favor of the other compromises the overall effectiveness of your content. Let’s break down each portion to explain how a content audit works. 

SEO Content Audit

​Using an SEO auditing tool is the most efficient way to analyze your content’s SEO performance. There are free and paid versions of most products on the marketplace. Among the most popular SEO tools include:

• Moz Pro tracks how your website is ranking for SEO keywords for your industry. As a bonus, it provides valuable insight into your competitors. There is a free trial version of this software if you want to try it before you buy.
• Semrush examines organic keywords, competitor research, backlinks, and pay-per-click keywords of competitors.
• SpyFu extracts competitor insights and lets you observe all your competitor’s activity on the web. See which keywords convert and gain other valuable knowledge to help you edge out your competition.

Unless you are an SEO consulting company that requires the additional information supplied by pro SEO auditing tools, you can get by with some of the free versions. 

Google Search Console can help you identify appropriate industry keywords and compare competitors' performance.

Performance Content Audit

Technical issues can plague website performance, chasing visitors away from your site. Running an auditing tool that can evaluate performance also is recommended. Here are some of my favorites:

• Google Search Console is 100 percent free for everyone. It’s not a bad tool to have at your disposal considering it costs nothing to use it. Just plug in your website URL, and Google Search Console generates a report on your performance. It reveals valuable information about which pages have the most traffic, pages with errors, and much more.
• GTmetrix has free and paid versions of its website auditing tool. It focuses on website performance, producing insights about your page loading speeds and detailed fixes for slow-loading sites.

• Screaming Frog has a free and paid version of its web-crawling tool. The complimentary version can find broken links, errors, and redirects, plus discover exact duplicate pages in case plagiarized your copy. Knowing if someone has duplicated your content is important because Google will not rank identical pages in search results.
• SEO Optimer allows users to enter a URL address and receive a free website analysis. It measures on-page SEO, links, usability, performance, and social performance. It gives valuable insight into the five key components of any website so you can spend less time guessing and more time fine-tuning your content. This tool is all-in-one for SEO and performance auditing.
• WooRank has a free and paid version of its auditing tool. Small businesses can benefit from running this software on their website to glean the basic information it provides. Those who desire more detail can opt for the premium plan. 

How to use content review data

Once you have the data from your content review, the tough part is figuring out what to do with it. Comparing the findings against key metrics for website performance provides the guidance you need. Here are the benchmarks I recommend focusing on when interpreting findings.

Organic Traffic
Attracting organic traffic should be the goal of any website. Organic traffic indicates visitors to your site found your content through a keyword search rather than paid advertisements. Failing to get most of your website traffic through organic means is a huge red flag of underperforming content. It can indicate a problem with your content strategy, content distribution methods, content type, and the quality of the content itself. A website audit will point you in the right direction so you can improve organic traffic.

Bounce Rate
When website visitors land on your site, the goal is to keep them there, exploring your content. If your website audit reveals a high bounce rate, that can be a signal of poor-quality content or slow-loading pages that frustrate viewers and cause them to abandon your site. Creating what those in the business call “sticky content” is the most common solution to a high bounce rate. Large graphics that take more than two seconds to load also can be culprits and may need optimizing for speed. Aim for a bounce rate that doesn’t exceed 55 percent.

Backlinks
Backlinks can be tricky. They require constant monitoring because they change over time. Fresh content might earn two or three backlinks within the first 24 hours of posting. A year later, that same post may have amassed 600-plus backlinks. Keep in mind that not all backlinks are good. A content audit can identify which backlinks are unnatural, leading your visitors to spam, paid promotions, or other poorly designed websites. When an audit pinpoints poor backlinks, you can remove them, so they do not affect the way your website ranks in search engines.

Time on Page and Pages Per Session
Visitors who find your website valuable and engaging explore more than the main page they landed on after finding your content during a search. When viewers aren’t spending time on your content, it’s a sign that your content has missed the mark for your intended audience. Likewise, if your website audit reveals visitors flock to and spend significant time on a specific page, check out the content there and mimic it on other pages on your site.

Conversions
For most brands, the goal of new content is to generate conversions. Website audits produce details on how many conversions a specific piece of content creates. Content not aligned to your conversion goals must be audited to determine why. Then, you can figure out how to tweak it to produce better results. 

Website audits can rate your on-page SEO status and uncover any performance issues.

Creating a content review checklist

Once you know which metrics to focus on, establishing a content review process can help prevent poor audits in the future. Whether you’re the only one analyzing the information and making changes, or you have an entire content team at your disposal, a pre-determined protocol keeps everyone on the same page (no pun intended). Here are some recommended steps to include in your content review process.

Step #1:
A content manager or SEO specialist creates a content brief that includes information about the topic, suggested headers, and SEO keywords to include in the text.

Step #2:
Content writers prepare the content according to the brief. Writers also must perform several checks on draft copy before sending it on to an editor or other content manager for their review and approval.

Step #3:
An editor reviews the first draft, makes recommendations for changes, and returns it to the writer for revisions.

Step #4:
The content writer makes final changes and sends it back to the editor for a second review.

Step #5:
An editor completes a second review and, if necessary, returns the copy to the writer for any additional revisions. If revisions aren’t needed, then the content can move on to the content manager for final review, creation of accompanying graphics, and publishing.

This process can vary depending on the size of your digital marketing team. Sometimes writers or content managers do the editing and publishing. Regardless of the number of people working on your content, having a defined process for producing each piece of content keeps content on point. If large teams are involved, using a content review template like Asana, CoSchedule, or Notion encourages collaboration and communication throughout the process. 

Rely on content creation experts

​If reading all of this gave you a headache, it’s a surefire sign you should probably contact a content creation expert for help. Writing website content that adds value to your target audience and converts visitors to your website is harder than it looks. Investing in quality content can help your brand achieve sustainable growth. Schedule your hassle-free consultation with me to learn more.