How Content Audits Help The HubSpot Blog Age Backwards — A Peek Into Our Process

In 2023, my staff and I started engaged on maybe one of the formidable content material audits ever performed on the HubSpot Weblog. We’ve run content audits in the past — however not like this.

We ran the audit in three phases:

• Section 1 addressed our oldest content material.
• Section 2 evaluated our lowest-performing content material.
• Section 3 assessed the worth of our subject clusters.

When it was all stated and executed, we audited over 10,000 weblog publish URLs and over 450 subject clusters.

On this publish, I’m going to give attention to section one in all our audit. I’ll stroll you thru how we audited our oldest content material and the way we took motion. Plus, I’ll share the outcomes we discovered.

However first, let me provide you with some background on why we determined to run an audit of this magnitude.

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Why We Audited

It began in early 2023. On the time, my staff was known as the Historic Optimization staff and we sat on the intersection of HubSpot’s search engine optimisation and Weblog groups.

We had been chargeable for updating and optimizing our existing blog posts and discovering development alternatives inside our library. (We’ve since advanced into what’s now the EN Weblog Technique staff.)

In case you’re new right here, the HubSpot Weblog is HUGE.

For context, the weblog was dwelling to 13,822 pages in February of 2023, the month we started our audit.

So, we decided to audit our library to seek out alternatives for optimization.

We hypothesized that we might uncover “greenspace” and “quasi-greenspace” — matters that we now have lined however haven’t capitalized on that nicely — by auditing the oldest 4,000 URLs in our library.

Though this was solely a few third of our content material library, we believed we’d be capable to unearth some site visitors alternatives and provides our weblog a lift.

Across the similar time, we began to really feel the effects of Google’s March 2023 Core Update that emphasised expertise, which our Technical search engine optimisation staff instantly began addressing.

Nevertheless, one other a part of that algorithm replace emphasised content material freshness and helpfulness. In different phrases, how cutting-edge and helpful our content material is to our readers.

That is the place we actually felt a way of urgency.

As a result of we had 4,000 URLs with printed dates starting from 2006 to 2015, we already knew that this chunk of content material was not contemporary or useful.

So, we started working and audited these weblog posts over the course of ten weeks.

Finally, we added phases two and three to our plan so we might additional tackle unhelpful content material and clusters.

How We Audited Our Oldest Content material

1. Outline our objectives.

Earlier than we began auditing the content material, it was essential for us to find out the aims.

For some publishers, the purpose of a content material audit could embody bettering on-page search engine optimisation, enhancing person engagement, aligning content material with advertising and marketing objectives, or figuring out content material gaps.

For this specific audit, it meant uncovering “greenspace” and “quasi-greenspace” in our weblog library, and bettering our general content material freshness.

We additionally needed to decide the scope of our audit.

There’s no proper or mistaken technique to method this. Relying in your objectives and the scale of your web site, you could possibly audit the entire thing in a single go.

You would additionally begin with a small portion of your website (resembling product pages or particular subject clusters) and construct out from there.

Since HubSpot has such a big content material library, we opted to restrict this audit to our oldest 4,000 URLs. Not solely was this extra manageable than reviewing all of our content material in a single audit, however this additionally focused URLs that had been extra more likely to profit from an replace or prune.

We additionally did this figuring out that we’d later tackle the remainder of our library throughout phases two and three.

2. Collect our content material stock.

As soon as we established our objectives and scope, we needed to collect the oldest 4,000 weblog posts and put them right into a spreadsheet.

This course of can range relying on the instruments and CMS you utilize. Right here’s how we did it utilizing Content Hub:

1. Log into HubSpot and navigate to the Weblog web page in Content material Hub.

2. Navigate to the Actions drop-down and click on Export weblog posts.

3. Choose File format and click on Export. This can ship your entire weblog publish info to your e-mail. Additionally, you will get a notification in HubSpot as soon as your export is prepared.

4. Obtain your export and open it in your most popular spreadsheet software program (I’m often a Google Sheets girlie, however I had to make use of Microsoft Excel for the reason that file was so giant).

5. Assessment every column within the spreadsheet and delete those that aren’t related to your audit. We instantly deleted the next:

• Put up search engine optimisation title
• Meta description
• Final modified date
• Put up physique
• Featured picture URL
• Head HTML
• Archived

6. As soon as the irrelevant columns had been eliminated, the next remained:

• Weblog title
• Put up title
• Tags
• Put up language
• Put up URL
• Creator
• Publish date
• Standing

7. Filter the Put up language column for EN posts solely. Delete the column as soon as the sheet is filtered.

8. Filter the Standing column for PUBLISHED solely. Delete the column as soon as the sheet is filtered.

9. Filter the sheet by Publish date from oldest to latest.

10. Spotlight and replica the primary 4,000 rows and paste them right into a separate spreadsheet.

11. Identify the brand new spreadsheet Content material Audit Grasp.

When you’re feeling fancy, you too can create a custom report in Content Hub and choose solely the fields you need included within the audit so that you don’t must filter as a lot when establishing your spreadsheet.

3. Retrieve the information.

After compiling all the content material wanted for our audit, we needed to accumulate related information for every weblog publish.

For this audit, we saved it fairly easy, solely analyzing whole natural site visitors from the earlier calendar yr, whole backlinks, and whole key phrases.

We did this as a result of our really helpful actions for every URL had been decided throughout post-evaluation. (We’ll cowl this within the subsequent step.)

We obtained natural site visitors information from Google Search Console and used a VLOOKUP to match every URL with its corresponding variety of Clicks.

Then, we received backlink and key phrase information through a key phrase analysis software.

4. Consider the content material.

Subsequent, we assessed every bit of content material by utilizing the collected information. Then, we evaluated the publish itself to find out the next:

• Sort of Content material
• Freshness Stage
• Natural Potential

Sort of Content material

The HubSpot Weblog is dwelling to many several types of weblog posts, every serving a novel objective. Labeling every publish helped us decide its relevance and have become a key consider our determination to replace or prune.

Whereas this isn’t an exhaustive checklist of all of the content material varieties you could possibly discover on the HubSpot Weblog, we narrowed it right down to the next for the needs of this audit:

• Academic: A subject that may educate the person on a ache level or drawback they know they’ve.
• Thought Management: A subject that may educate the person on a ache level or drawback they didn’t know that they had till an professional drew it to their consideration.
• Enterprise Replace: A HubSpot-related piece of reports or a press launch that’s doubtless not evergreen.
• Newsjacking: An industry-related piece of reports or a press launch that’s doubtless not evergreen.
• Analysis: A group of knowledge or the outcomes of an experiment that’s used to coach the reader. This subject could or might not be evergreen, however the content material isn’t and desires updates to remain contemporary.

Freshness Stage

As a result of the posts on this audit hadn’t been up to date in a very long time, none of them might be thought of 100% “contemporary.” Nevertheless, we took several types of freshness into consideration when figuring out what motion wanted to be taken on the URLs.

For instance, some matters, resembling Google+, are so outdated that an replace could be foolish. Nevertheless, loads of matters had been nonetheless evergreen, despite the fact that our content material was not.

The next scale helped us make selections on whether or not the URL had worth with regard to freshness:

• Outdated: The subject is outdated, and an replace might not be potential.
• Stale: The subject is evergreen, however it will want an intensive replace to make the content material extra aggressive.
• Comparatively Recent: The subject is evergreen, and it will solely want a reasonable replace to make the content material aggressive.

Natural Potential

To find out the natural potential of every URL, we needed to ask ourselves the next query: Will anybody seek for the content material on Google?

• Sure: Somebody would undoubtedly seek for this, so we’ll have to optimize/recycle the content material.
• No: Somebody wouldn’t seek for this. There’s no level in optimizing/recycling the content material since there’s no potential focus key phrase.

For all the posts marked “Sure” for natural potential, we really helpful a spotlight key phrase for the re-optimized content material to compete for. We did this by evaluating the present title, slug, and content material. Then, we did some key phrase analysis and reviewed the Google SERP for that question.

We additionally included the main target key phrase’s month-to-month search quantity (MSV) to assist prioritize which updates to carry out first. 

For an additional layer of warning, we additionally checked for cannibalization on all posts marked “Sure” for natural potential. There are a couple of methods to do that:

• Do a website search and see if any URLs come up for the main target key phrase.
• Use a key phrase analysis software to cross-reference whether or not another posts in your website are rating. (That is the quickest/most correct methodology.)

If the main target key phrase was flagged for cannibalization, we both discovered a special focus key phrase or famous that the URL ought to be redirected to the brisker publish.

If no cannibalization was discovered, then we had the inexperienced gentle to maneuver ahead with updating the publish.

5. Suggest an motion.

As soon as a publish was fully evaluated, we turned the insights into motion gadgets.

Every URL was positioned into one of many following classes:

• Hold: No motion is required as a result of each the content material and the URL are good.
• Optimize: The content material is sweet however outdated when it comes to freshness or search engine optimisation practices. Hold the spirit of the article, however refresh and re-optimize to enhance efficiency.
• Recycle: The content material isn’t salvageable, however the URL nonetheless has worth (when it comes to backlinks or key phrase alternative). Create new content material from scratch, however retain the URL.
• Prune: Neither the content material nor the URL has worth from an natural standpoint.

Audit Insights

Out of the 4,000 URLs we audited, 951 (23.78%) had been categorized as posts with natural potential and really helpful for optimization or recycling. Moreover, 2,888 URLs had been really helpful to be pruned. That’s about 72.2% of the audit.

These posts both didn’t have natural potential, posed a cannibalization danger, or had been so outdated that there was no level in updating them.

The remaining 161 URLs both didn’t require any motion or had already been redirected.

How We Took Motion

The motion taken for a URL was decided by its potential for natural site visitors.

The URLs with natural potential had been delivered to our Weblog staff and really helpful to be optimized or recycled.

In the meantime, the URLs with no natural potential had been delivered to our search engine optimisation staff and really helpful to be archived or redirected.

First, let’s stroll via how we took motion on the posts really helpful to be optimized or recycled.

Taking Motion on Content material with Natural Potential

Earlier than addressing any of the 951 posts with natural potential, we wanted to determine the next:

• Our capability for strategic evaluation and transient writing
• The capability of our in-house writing employees and accessible freelancers
• Our capability to edit the updates

We coordinated with stakeholders and decided we solely had the bandwidth to replace 240 posts in 2024 (along with the handfuls of weblog posts we replace every month). This initiative was internally often called the “De-Age the Weblog Challenge” and was led by my EN Weblog Technique teammate Kimberly Turner.

As soon as we knew what number of posts we might tackle, we needed to slim down which of them to prioritize. We did this by evaluating the complexity of the carry required for every publish replace:

• Easy Replace: The content material updates wanted are comparatively gentle, making them appropriate for freelancers.
• Advanced Replace: The content material updates wanted are heavy, making them higher suited to in-house writers.
• Recycle: Content material isn’t salvageable, however the URL is. Rewrite the publish from scratch, however retain the URL.
• No Alternative: Cross on updating.

We initially prioritized updating the best URLs first, however later pivoted our technique to deal with the URLs with the very best MSV potential, no matter replace complexity.

We did this as a result of we wished to get essentially the most we might out of our updates.

De-Age the Weblog Outcomes

Initially, we projected that these updates could be full by the tip of H1 2024, however we needed to shift our technique … once more.

Like many different publishers, we felt the results of Google’s March 2024 Core Replace in addition to the introduction of AI Overviews.

After having positioned the De-Age the Weblog Challenge on maintain whereas we addressed the problems, we deprioritized the undertaking totally in favor of higher-impact workstreams.

search engine optimisation, am I proper? It at all times retains you in your toes.

Regardless of sunsetting the undertaking earlier than it was full, we had been nonetheless capable of carry out 76 publish updates. Six months after the updates had been carried out, the cumulative month-to-month site visitors for these posts had elevated by 458%.

This goes to point out that even updating a small portion of URLs could make an enormous distinction.

Taking Motion on Content material with No Natural Potential

Whereas the De-Age the Weblog Challenge was happening, we additionally took motion on the two,888 URLs that had been really helpful to be pruned.

For the reason that preliminary audit didn’t embody suggestions on the way to prune, we had to return and re-review every URL to find out how we’d prune.

Right here’s how we evaluated the posts:

• Archive (404): The URL has lower than 10 backlinks and the backlink profile doesn’t have worth.
• Redirect (301): The URL has greater than 10 backlinks and/or the backlink profile has worth.

When selecting a brand new URL, we did our greatest to choose essentially the most related and comparable web page. If we couldn’t discover one, we redirected to the pillar web page of the cluster that the publish belonged to.

If for some purpose, the URL didn’t belong to a cluster or there wasn’t a pillar web page, we redirected it to the HubSpot Weblog homepage.

Determination-making for some content material varieties was simpler than others. For instance, we had been capable of routinely assign 301 redirects to URLs that had been flagged for cannibalization through the preliminary audit. We additionally routinely assigned 404s to URLs with lower than 10 backlinks labeled as Newsjacking and Enterprise Updates.

Every part else was manually reviewed to make sure accuracy. To make the analysis course of simpler, we adopted this determination tree:

It took my staff about two and a half weeks to make sure that each URL had the right label. In the long run, we had 1,675 URLs assigned to be redirected and 1,210 URLs assigned to be unpublished and archived.

As soon as every URL was evaluated, we had been lastly able to take motion.

After coordinating with Rory and Principal Technical search engine optimisation Strategist, Sylvain Charbit, we determined to prune the URLs in batches as an alternative of unexpectedly. That method, we might higher monitor the influence of redirecting and archiving a big amount of content material.

Initially, we deliberate to implement our prune in 5 batches over 5 weeks, permitting us time to observe efficiency through the weeks in between.

Batches one and two contained URLs meant to be archived and unpublished, and batches three via 5 contained URLs designated for 301 redirects.

As a result of there have been so many URLs to unpublish and archive, we labored with builders on HubSpot’s Digital Expertise staff to create a script that might routinely unpublish and archive URLs and redirect them to our 404 web page.

Then, we had been capable of implement the 301 redirects with the Bulk URL Redirect tool in Content material Hub.

Be aware: Though we had been capable of work via this course of internally and end earlier than our deadline, I need to acknowledge that manually evaluating over 2,000 URLs might be tedious and time-consuming.

Relying in your assets and the scope of your audit, chances are you’ll need to take into account hiring a freelancer to assist your staff work via a job this massive.

Content material Pruning Outcomes

Whereas we efficiently carried out every batch, this course of didn’t come with out a few street bumps.

Halfway via our pruning schedule, Google rolled out the March 2024 Core Algorithm Replace. We ended up putting our pruning schedule on maintain so we might higher monitor efficiency through the replace.

As soon as the replace was full, we resumed the remainder of our prune till it was full.

Due to the unstable search panorama in 2024, we didn’t see the site visitors good points we’d hoped to see as soon as the prune was full. Nevertheless, we did have fun a large win for general content material freshness on the weblog.

In the beginning of our audit in 2023, we calculated the freshness of our content material library by every URL’s publish date and quantifying the variety of days since they had been up to date.

For instance, say the present date is November 12, 2024, and you’ve got a publish that was final up to date on February 19, 2008. Based mostly on the 2024 date, the publish from 2008 is 16.7 years outdated or 6,110 days.

As soon as we had all the ages for each publish on the HubSpot Weblog, we averaged these numbers to find out the typical age of our content material library, which was 2,088 days (5.7 years).

Since pruning 2,888 URLs (and updating a whole lot of URLs from the audit and past), the HubSpot Weblog’s common age has dropped to 1,747 days — that’s 341 days youthful than after we began.

As content material freshness and helpfulness play an excellent higher function in search algorithms, being practically a yr youthful could make an enormous distinction.

What’s Subsequent?

Earlier on this publish, I discussed that this audit is just one of three that my staff has labored on in 2024.

Our section two audit focuses on the lowest-performing posts that weren’t included in section one, totaling over 6000 URLs. Then, section three assesses the worth of our Weblog’s subject clusters.

We’re nonetheless taking motion on the outcomes from these audits, however I’m so excited to share the method and insights after they’re full.

Finally, content material auditing is a job that’s by no means actually executed — particularly when working with giant libraries. You end one audit, then it’s on to the following.

Though the work might be tedious, the rewards of bettering content material high quality, person expertise, and efficiency make it definitely worth the effort.