Website content is still a major contributor to your website performance. Users are looking at your website information for current information on your business. SEO still needs fresh and quality content. And now, add in the AI LLMs also trying to learn from your website.
The problem is search engines and users do remember what they read on your site. Visitors may be landing on out-of-date content. Or worse incorrect pricing or old discounts and offers. To prevent this from happening, schedule regular Website Content Reviews.
How to Review Website Content
A Website Content Review starts with doing an inventory of content live on your website. Reviewing each piece of content. Then identifying what content needs updating or deleting. Making a list of any new content to add to the site.
Website Content Review Process – Getting Started
To begin, you will need a list of all your current web pages. Create a spreadsheet with the list of webpages. Add columns next to the page names for keep, delete, rewrite.
You can pull this list from your website. Without having to create a list by visiting every page of your site. Cybervise has created instructions for creating a page inventory.
Identify Core Pages – Stuff you will need to keep.
Before you make any changes to the website, identify your core pages. Pages that are crucial to business and marketing activities.
Look at out for these types of pages:
- Branding – Pages that identify or explain brand names owned by your company.
- Products/Service Description Pages – as long as they are all current.
- Pages Linked to Online Advertising like Google Ads.
- Pages linked to Email Marketing campaigns sent recently – I would look at the last 6 months to be sure.
- Pages linked to Social Media campaigns. – Don’t forget to check for Promoted content or pages linked to ads here too.
- Call-To-Action Pages – Pages that contain forms, where you collect your sales leads. Don’t forget to include “thank you” pages.
Website Content Evaluation – Keep, Rewrite, Delete
Now you need to go through each page of the site and flag it as a keep, delete or rewrite.
Keep = I would mark pages as “keep” if they are OK as is. No further updates required.
Rewrite = I would mark page as “rewrite” if they could be a “keep” with some updates. You might want to categorize the level of updates. Does the page have a few out-of-date items that need fixing? Or is it still a good topic and needs a major re-work? I would also look for shorter pages that could be combined into a larger piece to increase quality.
Delete = Content no longer needed can be deleted. If something is very out of date and would be better to just start over, mark to delete.
Don’t forget to address what is missing
While you are reviewing core pages, make a list of what is missing. Review product and service pages. Did you add any new products or services since the last site review? Is your list of offerings on the site complete? Also, look at the contact or location information for each product or service. Do you have new people or new locations?
Add a column to your spreadsheet called “create” to help keep track of new pages needed.
Should I delete the old stuff?
Yes, you need to delete old content from your website. If pages are no longer helping your website, you can delete them. Your site performance is not determined by quantity of pages. We need quality pages.
We often have customers who want to try and save every blog post. But you can’t. Many times you have written new content that is better then the old. Send the search engines and LLMs to the new fresh stuff and don’t make them look through all the old.
If you are not sure, copy and past the page content into a text file and save it offline.
How Often to Review Website Content?
Plan a Content Review at least yearly. Do this as part of your Website Strategic Planning.
Online stores will want to review before heavy sales periods. You will want to make sure all your product is available. Websites that depend on a good SEO strategy may review portions of their content on a monthly basis.
Content Review Example – A Sample of what Cybervise would do.
At the beginning of each year, we do a website content review for our SEO clients. Specifically to look for old dates or out-of-date content. Search engines and LLMs are very sensitive about freshness of information. We do this to look for obvious old dates.
I will use a WordPress site as an example.
- We start by pulling a list of pages and look at the urls, the SEO titles and Page Descriptions. Flag anything that has dates two years old or more.
- Then we use the search function that the end user would use. We also the search function in the WordPress Dashboard. Using both of them we do a keyword search on old dates. Type in “2024” and we keep going back in time until we no longer get search results. If you know the age of the site, you will know how far to go back.
- We go through each page of content pulled up by the searches.
- For each page will make notes, is it an old date that could be refreshed? Old data or research quoted? Or do we need to review the entire post for a rewrite or deletion?
Just checking the dates this way is a good start to keep content fresh. This is not a huge project. We find we catch a lot of problem areas this way. And often prompts a large content review.
Content Review Services – Cybervise Can Help.
Feeling a little overwhelmed? This is a big job, but a necessary one. Sign-up for a free website consultation. Cybervise can get you started.
