I'm not planning a website migration. Do I need a content audit?

Three good financial, organizational, and legal reasons why a content audit is useful, even when you’re not in the middle of a website migration project. You might be convinced of the need for a content audit as a precursor to a search or migration project. Perfectly knowing where you stand is unavoidable for an efficient migration or improvement project. But there are many good reasons to undertake an ad-hoc content audit.

Maximize ROI

All content sets will grow over time. Directly after the implementation of a new system, the amount of content will often grow very quickly. A post project audit provides real metrics to check that it's being used efficiently and to maximize its return on investment.

Measure Effective Use

Having spent a lot of money on a new system implementation, insights into your content organization are of great added value. An audit provides metrics such as:

• Percentage of pages with metadata (invaluable for the findability of your content).
• Average time to translation and republishing (insight into your editorial organization).
• Average navigational depth of pages, etc. (input for search engine optimization efforts).

Legal Compliance

Some industries require strict legal compliance regarding published information. A content audit provides real information about front-end pages and gives an overview of what's in fact visible to your audience, through your website’s navigation, and through search engines.

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