After the content audit is over…

Regular

posted 21 Feb 2005 in Volume 1 Issue 7

Welcome to part two of this two-part article on content auditing. Previously, I covered why you should think about conducting an audit and some tips on getting started. In this second part, I will provide some pointers for once the audit is underway and, most importantly, some tips on how to make sure you don’t end up in same position a year from now. I will then look at some of the benefits you can gain from a content audit to help justify those all important business cases and funding requests. By Lynda Rathbone.

The first part

In the last issue, I covered the key reasons for conducting a content audit. I will review them briefly.

When web servers become dumping grounds, it can result in users having bad experiences

This is fairly self-explanatory, but with frequently changing content on sites and the build up of years of files, many web teams aren’t archiving as they go and are simply allowing content to pile up on servers. This can be due to sheer laziness, a lack of file naming conventions as a part of the site’s style guide or the introduction of distributed authoring that may lead to increased server chaos. This, in turn, leads to poorly organised content that is often visible externally, causing usability problems.

Your site can have credibility problems if your content is out of date

How many times have you seen websites that have out of date content or “under construction” pages still up? This damages credibility and is a result of not having your content house in order. An audit can help identify these out of date pages and set the stage for you to establish a workflow and archiving process that keeps old pages off the front pages.

You are purchasing a new content-management system (CMS) or re-launching your site

Content migration is one of the most underestimated costs when implementing a new CMS. A content audit can be invaluable in determining the currency of the content, the format of the files and the readiness for migration. This is not to mention the help it can provide by mapping out the site’s old structure so it can be compared like for like to the new site plans, thereby allowing you to identify gaps in content before the new system is put in place. It also prepares you for the migration – automated or the popular copy and paste method – as there shouldn’t be any surprises.

You want to benchmark your site against the competition

Again, if you have an exact snapshot of your site by way of an audit, it’s easier to compare that to other sites in terms of content, navigation and structure.

Search engines are finding your site’s orphans

As search technologies improve, a real liability for companies are orphans or web pages that aren’t navigable in any other way other than via a search engine. This can be true for both external and local search engines. An audit of content on the server (versus auditing the live site) can be invaluable in avoiding a lawsuit, embarrassment, or both.

So, now that we’ve had a quick review, it’s time to move on to the final phase – after the audit.

Taking stock of your site and server is a huge task. But much like the data you laboriously combed through, documented, viewed, organised and deleted, it’s important to ensure the audit stays current and that an up-to-date snapshot of the site is maintained to avoid having to re-audit. Here are a few tips from past experience.

Keep the audit current using information architecture. The best way to track site changes is via your information architecture. While many of you will update the basic site structure when you add or remove a section from a site, tracking the actual files contained therein and ensuring that the site structure includes image libraries, databases and other content sources is critical to ensuring you have an up-to-date view of your content.

Additionally, many high-end CMSs offer a basic tree structure/IA snapshot that can be provided at any time, including a rollback feature. This is helpful, but check that it’s detailed enough for your needs and that you can add things like the image library, which it may not cover.

Create a file format section of your style guide. Most organisations have well-established brand and style guides for both internal and external sites. However, most of these guides fail to include file formats and naming conventions. This, again, is a critical component of the process and should be completed for ALL files going onto the server.

For those of you with distributed authoring, hold training sessions for your authors to show them how files should be uploaded.

Establish a content archiving process. Going hand in hand with the style guide, the archiving process should be established for all authors as part of the publishing process. An example of this is ensuring authors use the “replace” command when changing content on a page instead of copying that page, editing and uploading another version of the same file. For sites that require an archive to be taken for legal reasons, this can be accomplished with the rollback feature within most content-management systems or by keeping appropriate tape backups.

Put the job of content currency into someone’s job description. Probably the most important piece of advice for making sure the server and the site content is kept up to date is making it someone’s job. It sounds obvious, but few organisations actually do this. This role would fit comfortably with your information architect, if you have one. Try and avoid making this part of your webmaster’s job as they are the ones piling on the content. It may be a conflict of interest for you to have this as part of their responsibility and you may not get the results you’re after.

The benefits

The benefits of conducting a content audit are not always immediately visible, because new processes take a while to be adopted. I can assure you, however, that carrying out an audit and the changes that result are well worth the wait. A few benefits I have seen and have quantified in many a business case, include:

Reduction in number of pages and files on the server = reduced cost of maintenance: this was a big ROI for the company for which I used to work. We were able to reduce the site size by 25 per cent by simply cleaning up the pages that were out of date, not navigated to and orphaned. This helped reduce maintenance and hosting costs, and helped us secure additional funding for things we really needed.

Cost of stock imagery decreased: for a designer with a deadline, it’s much easier to order another photo of a person at a meeting than troll through a list of files that are named something like img000334565.jpg. Using naming conventions and categorising images can really help cut down the stock photography costs and increase image reusability.

Search engine efficiency increased: it’s an obvious one, but without as much content to search, searches will be both faster and more effective. Out-of-date pages won’t show up and orphans will be gone. Be sure to benchmark your search engine before and after if you need to quantify ROI for your audit. Set up a few common searches and record the results before and after.

Content accuracy and currency improved: again, as stated in the ‘why do an audit’ section, it’s important to know what you have out there for your users to find and it’s even more important to know if that content is accurate and current. Doing the post-audit work will ensure your site is up to date at all times.

I know it’s a struggle to actually put numbers behind some of these benefits, but hopefully I have given you a bit of a start in trying to quantify these benefits. Doing an audit can really help your organisation get on top, and stay on top of, the content that will only continue to grow as your site develops.

Lynda Rathbone is managing director of Four Square Media, a strategic technology services consultancy. The company offers a wide ranges of services that focus on content and information management. Previously, Lynda was director of the global internet group, Cable & Wireless.