Fundamentals of Content Auditing

UX Workshop Series |
Fundamentals of Content
Auditing
Instructor: Mary S. Butler

UX Workshop: Fundamentals of Content Auditing
Agenda
1. What we will be covering today
2. What do we mean when we say content?
3. When should a content audit be performed?
4. Before you get started
5. How to analyze your content
6. Presenting your findings
7. Exercise & Discussion

What we will be covering
today

Workshop format and content
• Today’s session is part one of two devoted to Content
Auditing
• This is an interactive workshop; there will be several
discussions and exercises throughout the two-hour
workshop
• Before you leave today, you will be given an
assignment, which will be reviewed/discussed during
the second workshop

What do we mean when we
say content?

Text
• TBD

Images
• TBD

Audio
• TBD

Video
• TBD

Data visualization
• TBD

Comments

Error messages

Exercise
• We’re going to look at the Razorfish site
• Review all of the content elements (headline,
timestamp, thumbnail image, etc.) on the homepage;
document all of the visible content elements
• You have three minutes

When should a content audit
be performed?

Content Strategy in the Project Lifecycle
Discover Design Develop Deploy
Research
Assess
Concept
Voice
Source
Organize
Taxonomy
Plan
Style Guide
Copy Deck
Social
Maintain
Monitor
Respond

Discussion
What types of questions do you think you should ask
before starting a Content Audit?

Understand the context
• What are the business goals for the property?
• Who is your audience and what do they need?
• What do stakeholders feel isn’t working, when it
comes to content?

Understand the scope of the engagement
• Who will be consuming your deliverable?
• What types of content are in scope and where is the
content located?
• When is your content audit due?
• Why is it needed?
• How will business decisions/project deliverables be
impacted by the outcome of the Content Audit?

Content analysis frameworks
• Range of frameworks available
– Content Inventory
– Content Audit
– Content Matrix
• Don’t let semantics cause a misunderstanding
– Make sure you understand what is being asked for (the
what)
– Make sure the deliverable being requested is what is
really needed (the why)

Content analysis frameworks: content inventory
What is it
A quantitative measure of content; typically includes a
content ID, page title, URL, and format
Why to do it
It will help you determine how much content you have,
how it is organized, and where it lives (useful for
content mapping)
When should you do one
Whenever you need to know how much content exists;
can be maintained as a rolling inventory to help
manage content on a large site

Content analysis frameworks: content inventory

Content analysis frameworks: content audit
What is it
Combines a quantitative measure (inventory) with a
qualitative assessment of content
Why to do it
It will help you understand what the content says, how
useful and accurate it is, and if it is serving users and
business needs
Whenever you need to measure content quality and
effectiveness; should precede Gap Analysis

Content analysis frameworks: content audit

Content analysis frameworks: content matrix
What is it
A comprehensive document that contains all of a site’s
content elements, attributes and metadata; captures
both current and future state copy
Why to do it
When a single document is needed for business review,
content entry and development
When new content is being created and/or existing
content migrated to a new site
Note: This is not a content analysis document.

Content analysis frameworks: content matrix

Determine scope
• Comprehensive assessment vs. sampling
– When will assessing a few examples of each content
type suffice?
• Agreement on which content sources are in scope
– U.S. brand site only or all major global market sites?
Sites for registered users? Mobile apps?
• How deep to go in when capturing data
– For example, product pages have related assets; is the
number of related assets sufficient or does each asset
need to be captured?

Setting up the document

Each section/site gets its own tab

Each tab tracks the same data
• For each site/section you audit, you should be
evaluating the following:
–Is the content reusable, does it need to be revised or
updated, should it be deleted?
–Does it serve the communication goals?
–Does it speak to the target audience?

Each tab tracks the same data

Set up filters to make data sortable

Each piece of content gets a row

The takeaway
• Creating the audit report
• What were the goals of the audit
• What was measured and how
– A description of each audit factor
– Data summaries for relevant audit factors
• Summary of overall conclusions
– Incorporating graphic depictions of the results
– Support visuals
• Recommendations and next steps

Content audit: reiterate the goals

Content audit: what was captured and how

Content audit: summary of overall conclusions

Content audit: supporting details

Content audit: recommendations

Discussion

Discussion
• How do business goals impact what you capture in a
content audit?
• What questions would you ask?

Where do you start?

What do you record?
Content ID
Title/topic
URL
Content type
Content format
Last updated
Language
Channel
Action to be taken
Content owner/maintainer
Content source
Overall assessment
Anything else?

Your assignment
• Go to razorfish.com and catalog all primary and
secondary site content (75-page max) in a
spreadsheet
• Keep in mind the following
– Don’t spend more than two hours on initial assessment
– You will not have access to the client
– Your assessment will help determine project next steps for UX
team
• Bring your content audit to part two of this workshop
• Be prepared to discuss your findings and challenges
encountered

Walking us through your content audit
• Each of you will review your content with the rest of
the team and cover the following:
– Your goal
– Methodology followed
– Challenges encountered
– Recommendations (for the client)
– Next steps (for the team)

Your feedback on this workshop
• Did you find this workshop useful? What do you think
worked and didn’t work?

Thank you!

Fundamentals of Content Auditing

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