On-Demand-Webinar: Content Audit

From 10 years of content marketing experience, we show here how a content audit works, why it should be the kick-off in all content projects and what results it must deliver. We provide clear best practices from practice and for practice for the qualification of online content from the B2C, B2B and social media environment. We will provide tool tips, talk about the growing importance of UX aspects in page design, psychological factors in conversion optimization and current SEO requirements in the evaluation of online content. The session will be rounded off with a first aid kit containing the 8 most important rules for a meaningful content audit.

Key takeaways:

1. What is a content audit? A content audit is the systematic analysis of existing online content such as text, graphics, video or social media posts.

2. Results of a content audit Weaknesses and potentials of a site are uncovered, immediate optimization measures (quick wins) are delivered and, in the medium term, e.g. the Google ranking is improved.

3. Tips for implementation A content audit should always be carried out by two people and presented live. Hygiene factors can be checked very quickly with small tools such as the diva-e plug-in.

4. Practical tips The most important factor of a website is always the stage with attractive images and an interactive offer.

Franziska Haase: Good afternoon. Welcome to our webinar. We are starting slowly with today's webinar on content audit. And we want to wait maybe a minute or two until the last participants slowly find their way to Go To Webinar. We would like to start by briefly introducing our speakers, or rather you will do so in a moment.

Today Oliver Ibelshäuser and Bettina Körtge will talk about Content Audit. Welcome and thank you for your time. Of course from our diva e content marketing department. So the experts for the content audit webinar. And my name is Franziska Haase. I'm diva e marketing and I'm moderating a little bit of the whole thing today. So actually, I'm going to turn the floor over to the presenters right now, and I'll check back in at the end for the Q and A round.

The presentation will last about three quarters of an hour. So that we will then have enough time afterwards to of course clarify your questions and have enough time for that. Before we start with the webinar right now, I would like to do a very quick little tech check. We, as I said, will do the Q&A session at the end and for that you can take a look at the Go to Webinar control panel. There is a small dropdown with questions, just click on the arrow down and the window will open and you can put your questions there. Of course, I will take them up at the end of the presentation and you can then clarify them. And otherwise again the information, we will record the webinar and make it available afterwards, so that of course the content is available again afterwards for you as a participant. Well, then I would say that some participants have already joined us. I would like to hand over to the presenters and wish you an incredibly exciting presentation, an exciting webinar with lots of impulses and we will see you later.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Great, Franzi, thank you very much. Welcome also from both of us, from Bettina and me to our presentation around the topic of content audit. We have brought a lot for you. At the beginning we want to clarify what a content audit is and when you always need a fixed project design. Then we will talk about the quality criteria of a content audit. We will talk about the hygiene factors that are very important to Google. About You X factors and about the topic of editorial quality. And then we'll also look at the myth of high performance content. What is that anyway and how can we create high performance content ourselves, which stands out pleasantly from the competition. And then we will dive deep into the colorful world of marketing communication. We brought along many examples. Real wins and fails. In other words, best practice examples. Where is it already going incredibly well, brand communication. And where there is still a bit of catching up to do.

Finally, we have a simple toollist, which is quite helpful when you do a content audit yourself and a kind of first aid kit if you want to do a content audit yourself. At the end there should be enough time for questions and discussions. And now for now-. Will you click one more please? Thank you. Who are we anyway Bettina?

Betina Körtge: Thank you. My name is Bettina Körtge. I've been at diva e for almost three years now, and as Team Lead in the Content Team I'm mainly responsible for developing content strategies for brands from a wide range of sectors. And content audits are ultimately part of my daily business. And I am very pleased to be able to talk to you about this today. And I've got the very best support on my side for this. Isn't that right Oliver?

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Thank you for the compliment Bettina. Yes, my name is Oliver Ibelshäuser. I am Head of CC Content. CC stands for Competence Center. So German I am head of department. I lead a team of about 30 editors. Content consultants, image and CMS professionals at the Munich location. I've been with the company for a long time, well over ten years. And I myself am primarily responsible for strategic issues and campaign design. Privately, I'm happy when Gladbach wins. I like to go jogging in the morning when it's not too hot, ride my bike and collect old Beatles records. One or two sets, not much more. I promised Bettina I'll make it short, to diva e. Thank you. Stop I forgot one. I forgot one. Franzi you go again please one back, because we still have to clarify why we are shown as avatars and have these silly doctors utensils and then to diva e. Sorry for that.

Betina Körtge: I guess you forgot it on purpose because you find it so silly. But even if it looks different on the slide, neither of us are doctors, but we simply noticed in our exchanges with our customers on the subject of content audit that the comparison with a health check at the doctor's is always the most understandable and everyone can imagine something about it. And that's why we simply stuck to this image. And today we'll slip into the role of doctors and guide you through the presentation in white coats. And with that, I'm going to turn it back over to our chief physician, Oliver. And now you get to tell something about diva e.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Thank you very much senior physician and sorry for the confusion. Now, very briefly, who is diva e. diva e is one of the most important, most significant, perhaps also most successful digital agencies in all of Germany. BVDW certified, of course. We have eight locations in Germany alone. Plus two international ones. One in Bulgaria and one in the USA. We have well over 800 digital experts working for us. Most of them are techies. They build landing pages, stores and mobile apps. We have over 80 employees from the performance marketing area. Then there's Bettina and me. We are at home in all industry sectors and industries B to B and B to C. It would be pointless to list them all now. More importantly, diva e is a very attractive employer. And if you would like to join us and help write our success story, please write to us later. So, let's get started with the content audit, Ms. Head Physician.

Betina Körtge: Thank you. Franzi, you're welcome to continue, thank you. A content audit is, as I just described, a health check of existing content in which we put the content and its implementation through its paces. And we look at various qualitative and quantitative factors, which I will go into in more detail later. The goal is to find out where the weaknesses of the page and the social media channels lie. In which areas can still be optimized. But of course also to find out what is perhaps already well implemented. And of course we don't just do this because we like to scrutinize websites, but because we want to give our customers concrete recommendations for optimization measures. And we always cluster these into measures that promise short-term success. So-called quick wins. And also medium- and long-term measures, whose implementation is simply more complex, but which are ultimately indispensable for sustainable success.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Very good. What are the goals of content? Bettina has already indicated that the primary goal is to first determine the strengths and weaknesses of a website or a domain. And to derive appropriate optimization measures from this. But a content audit has even more goals. So a content audit is often initially the first service that is provided in the new project. And therefore it is a kind of business card, a kind of competence card that we can play with the customer. It is also a kind of appetizer for a long-term collaboration. And it promotes dialogue. And that's why one of the most important tips beforehand, the results of a content audit should always be presented live. We cannot assume that our analyses and the preparation of our results are self-explanatory. And in this respect, a content audit is an ideal introduction simply to a good, long-term and constructive customer dialog.

Yes, when does a content audit make sense? There are several cases for this. In short, whenever major changes in content or technology are pending. For example, in migration projects involving a new domain or a new CMS. You can well imagine that if you were moving privately, then before you pack the first box, you would first look at what you can throw away and what you might have to buy new for the new apartment. And it's the same with content auditing. If there are major technical changes to be made, we would first evaluate the existing content. So quantify and qualify is there enough, is the grade high enough. And then we would simply look at what we still have to optimize or refine accordingly. Also the topic of internationalization, for example, if you want to align your brand presence internationally across several languages, you would first evaluate the German content that is available. If there is a sudden loss of traffic or rankings, if the competition is constantly passing by, it would also make sense to check the existing content, simply whether it is still appropriate for the target group. Also the issue of proliferation, cannibalization, if you have a very old domain that was created over 10, maybe 15 years, there is a risk that they have many pages that cover a single keyword. Google must then always decide simply which is then the correspondingly most important page for it. And here it would also make sense to look at how many pages we have on certain topics and can we summarize the whole. Yes, you can jump right ahead.

Bettina said it so beautifully with this analogy with the doctor. And there are many similarities between a content audit and an examination at the doctor. If you go to the doctor and have some kind of complaint and describe it, then the doctor probably has an initial diagnosis in the back of his mind. And the doctor will back this up with a certain set or a certain chronology of examinations. And in principle, it is quite the same in the content audit. In the content audit, things don't just happen at random, but always have a very fixed system of analyses and certain criteria. Bettina knows more about that.

Betina Körtge: Thank you. Exactly. Just now I already spoiled that we look at different factors in the audit. And here you see all of them again divided into four different audit categories. In the Qualitative area, we look at the bottom line, whether the Google are followed. Take the metadata and the headline structure under the microscope. Or also check whether a keyword focus is occupied.

In the area of qualitative editing, we really get down to the nitty-gritty as far as editorial implementation is concerned. Are the texts easy to understand and correctly written? And does the user approach also fit the target group that is to be reached.

The quantitative area is then under the motto is the information needs of the users satisfied. Are the existing pages sufficient to answer the most important questions or are important landing pages missing? Or are contents of different pages even redundant. And of course we also look at how the user experience is. Are the users sufficiently taken by the hand with meaningful CTAs, is orientation on the page easy and, for example, are complicated contexts presented easily and understandably in graphics or videos. In the end, everything is done to keep my users on the website as long as possible and, above all, satisfied. And what do we do with these results Oliver?

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Yes, we would derive corresponding optimization measures. And these can also be divided into four categories. The first is the topic of refresh, which means that the content is already available on the page. But it is not strong enough. It usually needs to be expanded, it needs to be optimized, we say refined. It still lacks strong signals for the user or for Google. The opposite of this is rebuild. Usually the content is not there at all, but a topic needs it to generate a certain visibility. Or the content is present but so weak that neither users nor Google perceive this content.

Separation I have just talked about. Separation means, for example, if a page serves a lot of different keywords, then you should consider creating several subpages. And cumulation is exactly the opposite. That means several pages serve one and the same keyword and it would make sense to combine these pages to one single page to send even stronger signals to Google. Let's take a closer look at two areas that Bettina just mentioned. The area of hygiene factors.

Hygiene factors provide a clear indication of the maturity of a content. Or to remain medical, how sick the patient content actually is. The fact is, if we find that the hygiene factors are lacking practically everywhere, that keywords are not covered appropriately in the browser title, that the length is not right, that the meta description is not formulated in a click-sexy way, that the headline hierarchy is interrupted or that the headlines are not keyword carriers, if all this has not been taken into account in the content creation, in the content maintenance, we can assume that the editorial quality is also relatively weak. And these hygiene factors are actually relatively important for Google ranking. Because Google first reads out the thematic reference of a page via headlines and browser titles. Equally important, Bettina also just mentioned, are the You X or usability factors. As a rule, we decide in milliseconds whether an organic hit is actually suitable for us, whether we actually find the page attractive. Whether it matches what we have actually searched for. The brain processes a whole latte of information and decides if the page is exactly what I was looking for or if it doesn't fit at all. And at that moment, we practically process the user experience in terms of loading time. Are images loaded quickly, built quickly. Is the page mobile optimized, I understand the structure of the page. Is the stage, the visible upper area, is that attractive to me with images and also populated with interaction elements simple. In general, how is the visual language, the target group, can I project myself in there, do I find myself in it. When it comes to stores simply, there is a promise of advantage, for example in the form of a special offer, a discount, a strike price. We have listed a whole series of criteria here, which could be continued endlessly. Also the topic of contrast. Assume that often pages are called in mobile situations simply. The topic of mobile optimization is very important. And just assume that. Partly, these pages are called in awkward consumption situations, for example, a short bus ride or subway, I am forced within seconds to capture the most important content. And if the page is then awkwardly structured or the contrasts are not right, I am immediately away again. So that also plays into this user experience on the topic of usability.

Yes, here we have now brought an example of how this actually looks. In the left area you see this hotel page, which simply belongs to a large tourism chain. And in the right area we have superimposed a kind of heat map. That is, the areas marked in yellow and red where the eye stays the longest. And then we just see this stage, this stage in the upper area is really an eye-catcher. And then we also see that it is particularly important to provide this stage with useful, conversion-friendly information. That means we ideally need an attractive image or an attractive interaction offer. Whether that is the case here remains to be seen. A second chance would be in the lower area where the teaser is located. And in fact, the provider misses a great opportunity to recapture the users who are about to leave. Instead of making you want to go on vacation or talking about last minute prices or discounting, it's all about cancellation fees. That is extremely unfavorable in the argumentation. The Last Chance would be about the vignettes below with the specific travel offers, but they are so similar in color and also so weak in contrast that you do not really do as an eye-catcher. So here the chance is unfortunately lost. To bind the user via the topic of page design, page structure, attractiveness.

Betina Körtge: Let's move on to the next major area. And that is High Performance Content. Oliver had already announced this topic at the beginning. And if we want to talk about high performance content, we can't avoid the question of who decides whether content is of high quality. And of course it's not Oliver and me, sitting in front of the computers with our stethoscopes. No, of course it's the users, our target group. And Google. Because the users decide with clicks, orders, click please again a slide back Franzi. Downloads, ratings or even registrations about the quality. Every single interaction on the page, simply also dwell time are besides some others more, important indicators for the quality. In the same way, however, Google of course decides about it. Because in the end, users only see the pages in the SERPs that Google places on the relevant ranks in its bouncer function. Just always keep in mind that the requirements Google has for high performance are ultimately the same as those users have for content. Now feel free to keep clicking.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Thank you Franzi, thank you Bettina. How is high performance content defined and how does it differ from poorer content that doesn't perform as well? Quite simply. High performance content always finds the perfect balance between brand, target group and Google. So in the tension between brand, that is, which brand touch points already exist. What topics does the brand stand for. How is it perceived. Also the topic of brand sympathy. So what lead in customer communication can the brand claim for itself. Both on page and social. The tension between brand and target group. What expectation does the target group have. What previous experience does the target group have. And what does the target audience need to convert. So what does the target group need to determine that this content meets my needs much more than the content of the competition. And the third parameter is Google simply setting the rules of the game in terms of hygiene factors. Build a clean page, a fast loading time and draw the elements correctly and then you get from us also, here as you said beautifully as a doorkeeper, free access.

Betina Körtge: On this slide, we have once again laid down four golden rules that you should follow if you want to create high quality content yourself or if you want to evaluate whether a page is high quality content. On the one hand, the content should be snackable, i.e. appetizing and presented in small chunks. So that the user can already grasp the most important information when scanning, i.e. when first skimming the page. This can be achieved, for example, by alternating text and images or colored info boxes. And my tip, which Oliver also said earlier, is to always check how the content can be captured on mobile devices. Of course, high performance content also follows the EAT principle and pays off on Google's evaluation benchmarks for expertise, authority and trust. Especially for Your Money or Your Live pages. In other words, pages with particularly sensitive content in financial or health-related areas, Google is particularly strict here and takes its role as a gatekeeper especially seriously.

Of course, the content must also fit my target group and the search intent of the keyword so that the user actually finds the content he was looking for on the page and feels addressed. And high quality content is lively and inspiring and ideally also remains in the memory of the target group by telling stories from the everyday life of the target group and thus easily describing, for example, products or services that require special explanation.

So much for the theory. Now we want to dive even more into practice. We have brought you a few examples of failures and wins.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Great, Bettina, let's get started right away. This is a stage like we don't really want to have anymore. This is a big drugstore from the north of Germany. And what we see here, we don't actually see anything in the stage. The first thing that stands out is a picture motif that is completely empty of content. The first area is a very, very large white area where the eye normally flies to first. Then the eye moves to the left and then I see the testimonial, which is a woman, actually fits the core group, but her eyes are covered. So, when we depict a face, and especially a laughing face, we always have to see the eyes. The eyes decide about sympathy. Also the subject of identification and projection. And that's completely missed the mark here. And we wouldn't be happy with the interaction offer either. Normally, there should be a promise of benefits here. For example, a discount promotion, a special offer. In fact, the user is asked for his zip code without giving him a benefit promise. If you enter your zip code here, then you will benefit from ten percent off your next purchase, whatever. So here there are very, very few invitations. Neither visually nor via the interaction element to actually immerse yourself more in this brand experience. A very large travel provider has done a much better job here. The stage is attractively populated, which is an attractive image motif. We don't see the eyes here either, we don't see the whole face. But that doesn't matter. But the theme of vacation promise and luxury is 100 percent redeemed via this pool and sea motif. Then we have this Searchwizard underneath here. It practically overlaps this image motif, which is also good. So it doesn't go down visually and we have a benefit promise immediately in the lower area via the discounting. So a lot has been done right here in terms of interaction and attractiveness.

Betina Körtge: Looking at this headline structure didn't give me a backache, but it still hurt a bit. It starts quite well with the fact that there is only one H1 and therefore the most important headline on the page. Which is not a matter of course, as we have to realize again and again. But it's not so generic now, for example. After that, however, things really get wild. Under the first H2, for one, too many topics from different areas are addressed. Here, you could take the user and Google by the hand even better and structure the content more sensibly. Above all, however, the second H2 suddenly reads data protection preference center. And below that, there are actually eight headlines in which the keyword cookies appears, although I can clearly assure that this is not a page with a bug recipe. And by the way, this is not the first customer where we discovered the cookie issue within the headline. Be sure to pay attention to that.

As a positive example, I have brought the headline structure of a geothermal heat pump page on the next slide. Franzi would you like to click once? Thank you. Hierarchy is respected here, a keyword focus is occupied in the headlines, and it's easy to find your way around this structure. So a very clear difference to the slide before. You may continue to click. Thank you. However, structure and orientation on web pages are not only provided by headlines alone, but also by content directories, especially for very content-rich pages. Here I have brought an example of a page entry, yes again it revolves around the painful back that just doesn't take me as a user by the hand. You see the stage with the H1 in a subheadline and below it follows a short section in which I first suspected a classic introduction that tells me what all awaits me on this page.

But no, here we get right into the first topic of the page, namely the so-called non-specific back pain without picking up the user once before. So quite freely according to the motto in the middle instead of only there. And in direct comparison with the positive example that I brought along, it quickly becomes clear where the big difference lies. Here I learn not only in the introduction on this white background what awaits me on the page at all. The table of contents, under that expects you here, gives me also still another concrete overview of the contained jump marks also again the possibility directly to the section to jump me straight possibly most interested. Earlier I also briefly talked about snackable content. And here I brought exactly the opposite. We are talking about a so-called text desert in which the user simply gets completely lost. There are no anchor points for the eye except for the one small paragraph in the middle. Not even bolding. And it's incredibly difficult and frustrating to grasp the content, especially when mobile. And I'll bet you that you won't be able to do it the first time you read it. It looks completely different here. Again, an example from Eon. Although I also have only text in this excerpt I just don't get lost in it. The colored box, the colored icon, also the subheading and of course the boldness make it easy for me to pick up the most important information quickly and to orientate myself in the text. With that, I'll hand back to Oliver.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Thank you very much Bettina. Yes Bettina you just talked about lead deserts, how unattractive that is. Here we have exactly the opposite, here we have a kind of picture wallpaper without any info. And here the eye finds no anchor at all because of overstimulation. So no point at all where I can actually dive in. And we would really like a line of text to guide us and navigate us a bit. What are actually the main themes. So just the opposite, only images don't do the page any good either and also the user experience, because the user is simply overwhelmed in his click behavior. This is done much better on the next page regarding the text-image relation. On the left we see these vignettes and text structure. Always a small vignette and to the right of it an easy to grasp text with a headline. And three or four accompanying lines. Please don't read in, because otherwise the good example won't work anymore. The text is horrible. It's more about this text-image relation. It is pleasing to the eye. And what here I think very well solves is on the right side these columns, which has this Mallorcablog in vignettes simply to illustrate. This is very pleasant for the eye. It is quickly recognizable. It has a certain recognition value. And it's definitely very attractive. Yes. The owner of this blog probably thought that it would be very attractive. If he packs as many topics as possible together simply he could already inspire the user. It is a Mallorcablog and I hope you can see that. And in the right area it goes unexpectedly to the most beautiful Christmas markets that are guaranteed not to exist in Mallorca. Which actually do not belong there at all. At least one does not expect you there. And also the goal are then actually the classical Christmas markets in Dresden and Nuremberg. And regardless of how the quality class of the other contributions on the side is. It always rubs off. And there is always a negative aftertaste, because you have as a visitor and user the feeling that here the provider puts all the content on it for which he wants to have clicks. Regardless of whether you actually fit the topic or not. So something like that should be avoided at all costs.

The next page is about travel reports and a blog about Portugal. There we see that the two authors have also given a lot of effort to the topic of Portugal on vacation experience, travel, outdoor experiences in Portugal very, very broad. So it is really about the most beautiful routes, the most beautiful beaches. It's about hotels, it's about currencies, it's about security, the whole very broadly interpreted. But the core theme, experiencing Portugal is never left. And through that, the two authors play a very, very strong competence card. And through that, Bettina talked so beautifully earlier about high performance content simply. That's exactly what High Performance Content is, which really hangs along the main topic and answers all the essential aspects and questions on this topic and works through them attractively.

Yes, here again we have an example of a rather failed stage. Again for two reasons. On the one hand the photo motive, well, with the gentleman we see just below the three-day beard and below beautiful white teeth. From the lady to the right a little more. But it is completely without content. It should transport the topic satisfaction. But it is very far away from the statement short vacation. And the headline doesn't make it much better. So here we have a one-word headline with short vacation and here there is no transactional promise at all. A transactional promise would be cheap, book fast, only with us, now 30 percent off. Some kind of advantage promise that keeps me on the page. It gives me the feeling that I won't get this good offer from a competitor. But that is completely gambled away here. By this naked main keyword what stands in the headline there quite alone. And in the lower area above the vignettes, this is not taken out again. So also here the USPs, the special features in the offer neither visually nor in the text strongly rausgespielt and a trust factor, recommendation rate, user rating et cetera is not present. So also there one could have gotten out much more around the topic short vacation attractively to play.

Clearly better is that here with the, I would not like to say class leader however Home to Go is already a offerer very much correctly makes simple. And what the succeeds is not only attractive vignettes that are also visually different. I have three different anchors. I will perceive all of them as attractive. It is to accommodate compressed on very little space very much decision-relevant information. I have the travel period. They always work with a strike price. So I have immediately a benefit communication that is present. I have immediately the rating. If I give a star rating of 5.0, I immediately know that it will be very well received by other users, other consumers. This is also supported textually by excellent. Or very good. And I immediately have a clear call-to-action button prominently placed to the offer. I know immediately where to click on it. And below I have then again in this textual binder, in this teaser a benefit promise of this brand Home to Go. So they've done a lot of things right here that you could definitely adapt in the tourism segment.

This is not a stage. This is a slider. Again from the tourism sector. And there we have this intermediate headline briefly on vacation, the perfect change. And now we have this, I called it adult heath motif with Bettina, this heath motif with the mountain and this young family going on a hike. And there's no usable information at all. So the one who has designed this page has the desire that the slider is clicked through. And after clicking through, a pleasant feeling arises with a desire for a short vacation that I ideally book on the page right away. Here any argumentation is missing. Why should I do this. Where is this motive taken and what is the promise for exactly this vacation in the mountains. Where does it take place and what does it cost. And here everything is really taken. I don't feel like looking at this anymore. And this slider is just a waste of space. Much better, unfortunately not from the tourism sector, is that a large insurer who uses the same space, the same space on the website much better. And that is on the top left of the page again this trustee element. Those stars. Then it works with a number. That 79 percent immediately jumps out at the eye. And always triggers curiosity. I immediately want to know what the 79 percent is. And regardless of whether or not I ever wanted to look into insurance, I'm going to read this little paragraph about it. And at the bottom we have this bonus promise with this prominently placed call to action, secure 50 euros premium now and now to the offer. Or click now. So there's a lot here in a very small amount of space for me to develop trust and sympathy. And then actually actively perceive this CTA. Yes. This is actually a store category page. But that's not noticeable at first glance. And this is not only due to the somewhat awkwardly chosen CTA formulations, such as configure before I configure something, i.e. engage in it, on a brand experience, I necessarily need a benefit promise. This could be that the manufacturer is the only one who produces very, very sustainably. Or who has very, very favorable prices. So I need something that gives me the good feeling that the time I'm investing now is well invested, because I won't find such a good offer again so quickly. But I have neither a price promise here, the page is not even recognizable as a store category page and it lacks any benefit promise that actually keeps me longer on the page. A large online mail order competitor does a much better job. On the left side, exactly where I expect it, there are various product filters that must be self-explanatory, which is well solved here. Diverse product filters offers which then practically lead me further in my product search and significantly reduce the selection. They clearly work with strike prices. Strike prices always force me to make a quick decision. Because I never know if this special offer will still be valid tomorrow. And what you do pretty well is this configuration button. These color buttons at the bottom. When I click on it, it immediately changes the color at the bottom of the tables. That has a bit of gamification to it. It's a bit of fun. There's something happening on the website. And here I'm much more inclined to stay on the page and deal with the offer accordingly.

Betina Körtge: I think I say it very often and here again is a wonderful example. This site simply doesn't take users by the hand. Here it's all about the white blouse. And how great it can be combined in different situations. And the screenshot is from the magazine section of a store where you can actually buy white blouses. But not a single white blouse is linked here. That is, users have to sit down themselves and look for the right blouse in the store. And how it looks, if the users are actually taken by the hand with the same topic see on the next slide. Here, within the guide combining white blouses are actually recommended concrete blouses that I can also buy directly in the store. So the hurdle for the user to buy a blouse is much lower than before, for example. And also my next fail is about hurdles when shopping. And especially the question does the product detail page, in this case of a natural cosmetic mascara also manage to provide sales advice for me online without sales staff. And in this fail, the answer is clearly no. Because beyond the info that can be seen directly here, there really isn't any further information about the mascara. And even behind the small CTA info ads, there is no further information about the product. The only information that users can view there is general info about the store's own labels that are pictured there. And there is no possibility to see the experiences of other customers. I can't see in which stores the product is available. And the product teasers in the other customers bought section really have no relation to my mascara. So they are anything but helpful. And a drugstore that implements this much better is DM. Here we see the same mascara but much more info. I have testimonials from other customers. Can show me detailed product descriptions. Just like the ingredients and there are even usage instructions. Below that there are also links to a matching make up tutorial. And also similar mascaras. Here I can secure me as a customer my purchase decision ultimately much better.

The next fail comes from YouTube and is just one of many examples of how carelessly YouTube descriptions are maintained in part. You see the description of two different videos of a series in which there are also more videos. I think ten or eleven in total. And really all but a single sentence have the completely identical description. And that doesn't even offer the user any added value. The brand actually has an extensive guide on the topic of back pain and back exercises on its own website, and there's no link to it. Not even from the video. Instead, the description only links to the home page and the other social channels. And if the user wants to get more information beyond this video, he has to look for it himself on the site. Or go straight to the competition. And the competition, as we see on the next slide, produces individual descriptions for their videos and has, for example, also added jump labels to the individual exercises within the rather long exercise video and thus a real added value for the user. And also otherwise the description is written much more appealing and inviting. For all those who have no experience with YouTube, there is unfortunately no possibility to maintain your own meta description. It is usually generated automatically from the beginning of the video description and this is then also displayed in the snippets in the YouTube results list or in the Google SURPs so that it can have an influence on the clicks.

Then it goes on. From my point of view, recipes or instructions in general are the supreme discipline on the web, and here I have brought an example of a recipe that is not optimized but, above all, not user-friendly. The recipe title, peanut meets apple, which by the way is the H1, is in the style of a star restaurant and unfortunately really not meaningful. Neither for Google nor the users. And the short description below it doesn't offer me any more info about the recipe either and the information about the portion size, duration or even the nutritional values are simply missing. What's most frustrating is that the order of the ingredient list doesn't match your use during preparation, and then you're constantly busy looking for where exactly the ingredient is listed now. I think you've probably all experienced how annoying that can be. Our positive example with optimized titles shows that it can be done better. A short introduction with keyword focus. Clear additional information within these yellow laibles. And a list of ingredients in the right order. I checked this again beforehand. And so the preparation is much more fun. And so again to you Oliver.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Thank you very much Bettina. No fun was this snippet here that we found. Snippets you know, is the display of the browser title and metadescription on a search results page. And not only relevant for Google, but also for us for an orientation. If you are looking for a certain information, just scan all the results that Google lists for you and the eye always flies over the browser title and meta description. So. As a browser title, we have a single generic term here and it's called water. And Google can't do anything with it any more than you can. We can't locate it. We don't know is it a consulting site, a transactional site, Google can't do anything with it. The metadescription is not populated at all. So here the author has put very little effort into it. And I don't know if you know this but if you don't populate the meta description or even if it's so bad that Google feels it doesn't fit the content at all. Or it's way too promotional. Replace the description with Google without further ado. If you are lucky, Google takes the very first sentence from the teaser. If you are unlucky, there is some bullshit with cookies. In any case, the result is always worse than the result you would have produced yourself. If at least this field would have been filled in the CMS.

We were happy to do that on the next slide. We have a best practice example of what a title looks like. Title always the main keyword is in front. This is about hydropower. Then comes a short thematic addition. Plants for energy production, then comes the pipe and then comes the fire. And if the whole thing fits into 60 characters, it's just wonderful. Then the syntax is right and the length is right. Metadescription should always be appellative, that is the case here. Read a promise and a very short summary of the content. What can I expect on the page. And that is also the case here. That's the way it should be. Yes, that's not how it's supposed to be. We notice that very, very often even on very well maintained pages. Partly also on high performance content pages, that the images are not cleanly entered. And that is actually very, very unfortunate. So over the title tag of an image you will go with mouse cursor over it then the image line appears. We can argue about the importance of the title tag. Whether it is really important. But the alt attribute is indeed important. On the one hand it is about people with visual impairment who use a screen again. And then at least the image content is read aloud. On the other hand, the alt attribute the executed is also important for the image search itself. Quite a lot of organic entries to your page can be achieved via images. About people who are looking for certain image motifs simply. About Google image search, then they found the image and then they get in to the website and then they're with you on the domain. So that's another great opportunity to generate organic entrances. The fact is, however, certain rules apply to alt attributes. What you are not allowed to do is then text a rather metaphorical image line. An alt attribute must reflect the image content one-to-one. For example, a man standing in a phone booth with a receiver in his hand is not a very nice text line. But it would be absolutely suitable for an alt-attribute, because on the one hand it reflects the image content and on the other hand people searching for an image motif would enter exactly these terms. Please make sure to always include the alt attributes. And here we have that too, here have quite good examples. An older driver adjusts the backlash gel of his car, doesn't sound very sexy but fits guaranteed. To the picture simply. Or the third, a woman works at a desk and suffers from lack of movement. Well the suffering with the lack of movement we can not see. But, that the woman works at the desk that will give the picture but. So much for that. And the conclusion dear Bettina you can make. Now maybe you can also explain why my avatar had these yellow sneakers.

Betina Körtge: With pleasure. Because I'm going to take a short detour to Instagram now. Oliver and I were speakers at contentixx two weeks ago and, just like all the other speakers, were asked to produce short introductory videos in the run-up to the conference, which were then played out on Instagram and the like. And to make sure that Oliver would actually be recognized, we put those yellow shoes on his avatar again, which he had also put on especially for the video production. And the problem with these videos was that they were unfortunately played without subtitles. The problem is that about 80 percent of the users watch micro videos without sound, so it is almost negligent to simply omit the subtitles.

You can see how the whole thing looks better on the next slide, using the example of the very successful influencer Isela from Lieben und Wohnen. Like most of her colleagues, she sits down and subtitles her video content. Not only does she make her content accessible to everyone who uses Instagram without sound, but she also makes it accessible. And this is a topic that is of course not only relevant for Stories like YouTube shorts now but also classic YouTube videos, depending on the channel and video format, there are already ways to have subtitles created automatically. Whenever possible, however, the automatically created titles should also be corrected, as they are often not completely error-free. And within an audit you should also check whether this additional work was done to provide correct subtitles. That is, whether quality has been taken into account. And with that, we are through with our rounds. And I'll hand back to Oliver who has been working a little bit on the instruments for the examination.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: I'm very happy to do that Bettina. Yes, a very brief overview of helpful tools that we use for the analyses. Especially for determining the hygiene factors, it is essential to work with appropriate professional SEO tools. We have picked out one because we have developed it ourselves. The diva e Seo plug-in. This is a plug-in for Chrome and with it you can determine the hygiene factors relatively easily with one click. The download is of course free. On our closing slide, Franzi?

Exactly, we have now again very briefly, first aid kit we called it. In principle, it is the ideal-typical procedure for a content audit. Please, the reading direction is from top left to bottom right. So at the very beginning it is always about talking to the customer first. Regardless of what problems we see as content experts. Ask the customer what problems he sees. So it's important to match these two points of view. And for the content audit, a content audit will never be able to audit all the pages of a domain, we can't even do that, it's not even goal-oriented. It is important to pick out three, four or five as examples. Either different page types, a pillar or hard page, a product page, a magazine page. Or ask specifically which pages currently generate the most organic traffic. And dear customer on which pages would actually be necessary because you are strategically important. But you are not yet up to speed. These would also be target-oriented questions to set the framework a bit. What Bettina and I made clear at the beginning, we always work according to a fixed system. Otherwise, at some point, it goes into the random area of which results we determine. And in this respect, we first get more routine. On the other hand, these results also become comparable. And they are definitely valid. Visualize, that is, all these analyses, how do we measure and what results come out of the analyses, ideally we make it as plausible as possible. Not only in the form of texts, but also in the form of images. Charts, for example. Infographics and, of course, screenshots. For the analyses, we always consult the competition as well. Especially when we or our customers do not reach the top rankings for centrally important keywords, the competition always does something better or at least not completely wrong. It always makes sense to take a look. And the golden rule is to never copy blindly, but to adapt good ideas and make them even better is always allowed. A good content audit would never conclude with an analysis of weaknesses and strengths, but would always outline clear optimization measures. That's what we would recommend in the coming weeks and months. And record the impact. When we implement that for you dear client, the refresh, the rebuild, we expect clear ranking increase, clear traffic increase, clear conversion increase, higher interaction rate, higher dwell time. There are thousands of ways to do that. But simply recording this in a concrete and plausible way is part of a content audit. And the last two points are among the most important. So we've been throwing around a lot of technical terms, conversion rate optimization, click-through rate. Terms that we are familiar with, but we can't assume that our counterparts will immediately understand. And often you do not dare then. In this respect, we should not allow him this nuisance. So we explain the terms we have, the technical terms that are indispensable, for example in a glossary and prepare all the slides so that they can be understood even by non-content marketing professionals. This is elementary important. All right, now we've gone five minutes over. I hope you'll forgive us and still have ten minutes for questions and discussion.

Franziska Haase: Exactly, and that's where I come in. First of all, thank you for the exciting presentation. Thank you very much for the webinar. The first questions have come in. I would also like to encourage you to continue asking questions during the Q&A session. If we don't manage to answer them, we will of course be happy to answer them afterwards with our colleagues and contact persons, contact persons who will then be available to you, so that no question will be lost. Let's start with the first questions. Do you have any examples of typical quick wins?

Betina Körtge: I'm happy to jump in. Oliver complement me if I have forgotten anything. But typical is the topic we have already talked about several times, the metadata. That we really write new meta titles and descriptions for the pages. But also the topic of alt attributes. That we formulate them and leave the images accessible. Those are two of the most typical quick wins.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Headlines and maybe the teaser. These are all things that can be corrected very quickly. So often we find headline errors, that the headlines are not keyword carriers. That the hierarchy has been interrupted. And that can be fixed very, very quickly. So usually within a few hours and has immediate impact.

Franziska Haase: Okay great, thank you. Then again, here's the question, is the content audit also available in other languages or is it only available in German?

Oliver Ibelshäuser: That's a good question. Bettina do you want or should I?

Betina Körtge: You are already nodding so diligently, please take over.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Well, originally your content audit was supposed to be done by a native speaker. That is indispensable in order to also get to grips with these subtleties, as Bettina has explained very well. So high performance content does exist, but it is bound to a lot of rules. And the topic of language feeling is simple and also addressing target groups adequately. Gender, for example, is a topic that is also part of it. So a native speaker will have a much easier time. Now we are lucky in the team that we have some people who speak, write and communicate in English, I don't want to say perfectly, but absolutely fluently, so that we also do an English-language content audit. Also the presentation in English, even if the project language is English. For other languages, we have basic knowledge. French, for example. We also have people in the team who speak Italian or Spanish. But a content audit no, I honestly wouldn't want to do that now. So German and English yes, otherwise rather not.

Franziska Haase: Okay, good. Good, now you can ask the intermediate question if the webinar will be recorded and we will make that available. The information yes, I had already said that at the beginning. Probably not everybody was there yet. So we will or we have recorded the webinar and that of course gives again the information where it can be found and documents can be found to all. And then again the question how does it look also with a very comprehensive audit? So a somewhat more comprehensive audit including social media, traditional media, POS, how can you bring this data together and how do you go about it?

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Bettina do you want, shall I

Betina Körtge: Go ahead.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Well, I think these are some of the most exciting jobs of all. I always find it great when clients say that we are a brand and that there is an overall view of the brand. And regardless of where the touch points are. In this respect, I think this approach of basically illuminating all brand touch points is extremely good. And to synchronize these paths. How are we perceived in social media, how are we perceived at the POS, and how are we perceived on page. And we would of course talk to all stakeholders at the very beginning. Where do you see your paint points, what were your goals, what goals did you achieve, what goals did you not achieve. What are the most important communication channels and communication tools. Which ones should be expanded. So we need a kind of breefing design beforehand. And then we would proceed in a very classical way. It doesn't matter if it's off page or on page or social. Audit the existing content according to the same criteria that we have presented. But mega exciting. We would love to do that.

Franziska Haase: And how many groups of people or how long would two people work on such a content audit in the end?

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Bettina, how long do we need?

Betina Körtge: That is, of course, very difficult. It depends on the scope. And how many channels you look at, for example. I would say, Oliver, please correct me if I'm giving you the wrong number. But under four person days, that would really be the mini version. As a rule, it starts at six person days, and there's still a bit more room to move upwards. We have also conducted some with twelve person days, because it was simply very extensive. Or several domains had to be considered. That's why it's also just totally important that we clarify the need beforehand, which was also in the first aid kit and which Oliver also just said again. To agree beforehand where the problem is. And then, on the basis of that, we determine which page types we're going to take a close look at, which channels, and then we can define the scope that we can expect.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Yes, absolutely. Six person days might sound like a lot at first glance. But you always have to keep in mind that there are always two or two seniors working on it. With one person, there's always the danger that you'll be blind and simply overlook certain things that no longer catch your eye. With two people, the probability is very, very low. There are always two people working on it for the best possible result. And in the six person days, the breefing calls with the customer are easy, with the stakeholder interviews, so to speak. The analysis, the preparation and the live presentation. So in that respect, it's not that much anymore.

Franziska Haase: Okay. Thank you very much. Then there is one more question about the individual pages. How many individual pages or landing pages should you audit to get a valid impression of the quality of the entire domain.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: You or me?

Betina Körtge: You.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Again, first I would talk to the customer about what are the most important pages for him. Which pages are most important for his business model. And what business model is he pursuing. On page and social. We would normally suggest an example for each page type, i.e. page types such as hub pages, category pages, product pages, magazine or guide pages, glossary pages, at least one example for each page type. Because if we then take ten magazine pages or ten category pages, the analysis results and the recommendations are often repeated. So then, as a rule, not much new happens. So if we have certain errors, we often find that they simply run through the entire page construct like a red thread. So in this respect, each type of page at least once. Plus the strategically most important pages from the customer's point of view.

Franziska Haase: Perfect, very good. Then we are now with the question and answer session almost at the end if now still what comes in I would simply here again for further questions in the follow-up, if one sleeps again a night over it and then the question shoots into the head, here our contact persons and contact persons for you. This is of course Oliver Ibelshäuser, thank you again Oliver for the webinar and that you are also available afterwards for further questions and suggestions, topics that may come up after the webinar. And also our colleague from the sales area, Mrs. Ljubec, who is of course also happy to help. And otherwise I would say we are very, very punctual today. That was good timing. Thank you very much for this exciting presentation and to all the participants who were so interested in it. It was a lot of fun listening to you guys, I think it was for everybody. And then I'm looking forward to the next webinar and the exciting exchange afterwards.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Great. Thank you very much.

Franziska Haase: Have a nice day, have a nice sunny day. And with that, I'll end the recording and the webinar now. Until then. Bye.