How Do I Prioritize My Content Audit Findings to Maximize ROI without Feeling Overwhelmed?

• Overview
• What I Think
• Deep Dive: How to Prioritize the Findings of a Website Content Audit
• 7 Steps for Creating a Post-Content Audit Plan
• Quick Solutions
• About Us

Overview

You’ve performed your content audit … Now what? 

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed with the mounds of data you’ve collected and now you have to put that data into action. 

This is where focusing on the areas with the most potential for impact will help guide your next steps. 

With the right approach, your content audit will lay the foundation for a great return on investment.

What I Think

It’s normal after a content audit to feel overwhelmed due to the sheer volume of information. 

In my experience, focusing on where you can make the greatest impact with the smallest effort is a good first step. 

Prioritization, though, is about balancing your immediate needs with your long-term goals. 

The good news is that the high-impact, low-effort approach (“quick wins”) can also build momentum and buy-in for more extensive content projects in the long run. 

Another way to prioritize next steps is to ask how the task will ultimately align with business goals. 

Establishing this framework can help you define a roadmap for what to get done. 

Deep Dive: How to Prioritize the Findings of a Website Content Audit

Here are some ways to create a clear path to action after a content audit:

Categorize Pages

A good first step after a content audit is to categorize your content based on performance metrics like traffic, engagement and conversion rates. 

You can group your content into categories like high-performing, underperforming or outdated to get a clearer picture of where improvements are needed. 

Assess Impact

After categorizing, you can assess the potential impact of optimizing each page. For example, pages with high traffic but low engagement should be prioritized for improvements. 

In addition, high-value, conversion-focused webpages can be prioritized as well as any pages leading up to the landing page itself.

On the other hand, pages with high engagement but low traffic could benefit from doubling down on SEO strategies. 

Evaluate Potential

Evaluating each page’s potential contribution to your business goals helps further prioritize tasks. 

For instance, if your goal is to increase sales, think about conversion optimization on your site, and focus on pages in the customer decision-making stage that may have high traffic but low conversion rates. 

Or if brand awareness is the goal, emphasize content that drives social shares or organic visits. 

Aligning with overarching business strategies helps maintain the focus and coherence in your efforts.

Consider Effort

Consider the effort required for each task. Tasks that are high-impact but low-effort should be addressed first so you can quickly demonstrate the value of the audit. 

This builds momentum for more complex initiatives.

Create a Clear Plan

Once you have considered all the ways to prioritize your next steps, create a clear action plan to ensure efforts are well-coordinated. 

This involves outlining specific steps for optimizing each category of content. 

For example, for underperforming pages, you might perform SEO improvements, and for outdated content, you’d rewrite or consolidate and edit. 

A structured plan prevents overlap and ensures that all tasks contribute to the overall goals.

Review ROI

Reviewing your progress against the action plan helps you determine if the plan is working. You can monitor metrics post-implementation as part of this. Adjust strategies as needed. 

7 Steps for Creating a Post-Content Audit Plan

Here are seven ways to make sense of your content audit data and turn it into a clear action plan:

1. After your audit, categorize content into categories such as high-performing, underperforming and outdated. 
2. Identify the key metrics you are looking at, such as traffic, engagement or conversions and use that as another way to categorize pages.
3. Evaluate each page’s potential impact on business goals, and consider aligning content priorities with overarching business outcomes.
4. Develop a framework for evaluating impact versus effort for each task. Address high-impact, low-effort tasks first for quick wins.
5. Create a detailed action plan for optimizing each content category.
6. Monitor performance metrics after implementing optimizations, and adjust strategies based on improvements or challenges.
7. Establish a calendar for ongoing audits and updates.

Streamline your next content audit:

Contact Us Today to Get Started!

Quick Solutions

• How do I analyze content performance metrics to identify improvement opportunities?
• How do I maintain a consistent content audit schedule to stay ahead of trends?

About Us

Since the 1990s, Bruce Clay Inc. has empowered businesses to achieve their goals through expert SEO services, including content audits. Our commitment to excellence sets us apart in the competitive digital landscape. Learn more about us here.

Bruce Clay is founder and president of Bruce Clay Inc., a global digital marketing firm providing search engine optimization, pay-per-click, social media marketing, SEO-friendly web architecture, and SEO tools and education. Connect with him on LinkedIn or through the BruceClay.com website.

See Bruce's author page for links to connect on social media.