Checklists are awesome. They help you stay on task and ensure that your performance is consistent across the board. And this includes your website content! If you don’t already have a content quality checklist for all your content marketing, you’re not getting the most out of your marketing strategy.
In order to stay in front of existing and potential customers, you need a strong online presence. Your website and social media platforms need high quality content with consistent messaging. A content quality checklist will ensure that consistency. And it’ll increase your content creation efficiency, too!
Importance of using a checklist for quality content
Your digital marketing content is important. Your target audience is searching for you online, and if your website content is subpar, they won’t find you. Using a checklist for quality content helps to ensure that your messaging is consistent across every webpage and social media post. It also helps ensure that you’re not missing out on any SEO opportunities!
How can you save time by using a checklist for content quality?
Checklists exist to increase efficiency and continuity. They help you stay on task and stay consistent across all of your projects. Every piece of digital marketing—from a blog post to a social media campaign—includes a lot of small details. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you write new website content. You can just follow your checklist!
When you follow a quality content checklist, you save time throughout your content marketing because the information is at your fingertips. That means you can spend more time focusing on creating good content, and less time on researching what makes good content!
What errors do you avoid by using a checklist for content quality?
Using a checklist ensures that you’ll cover all the bases that you need to produce good content. Most of the information is in the checklist, and you don’t have to scramble to remember everything. Here are a few aspects of content marketing that are sometimes forgotten about:
- Keyword research. Look at the words and phrases that your target audience is typing into their search engines. This includes both short-tail and long-tail keywords.
- Meta description. Every website landing page and blog post needs a meta description. This is a quick explanation of each page’s or post’s content. It sounds simple, but search engines and web users love these!
- Image alt text. Just in case your website’s images don’t load, this text provides a brief description of the image.
- Website This is your webpage’s or blog article’s address. Keep this clean and simple so it’s easy for search engines to identify. And for your audience to remember!
What do you gain by using a checklist for content quality?
Good content creation can be difficult. But when you use a checklist, you ensure that you’re creating the best possible content for your website.
If you’re starting out with a new checklist, consider performing a content audit and see how your existing content performs. Chances are, you’ll need to make some improvements. And that’s ok! Your checklist can help increase your SEO and avoid errors moving forward.
How to create a review checklist for your content
A review checklist helps your team efficiently create good content for your website and social media. But what’s the process? And how do you build a great checklist that you can use for all of your content?
How long should it take to review a checklist for your content?
Every content checklist should be used in two ways during the content creation process:
- While the content is being created
- To check the content after it’s been written
Your content creators should follow the checklist as they are writing the text and designing the graphics for your website. As long as they follow the process and check off all of the boxes on the list, the content audit should be quite fast. And once you confirm that the content satisfies all aspects of the checklist, you’re ready to post that new content!
How do you choose which things should be on a review checklist for your content?
When you build a review checklist for your content, make sure to include all the aspects that are important to you and your target audience. Some items should be on every checklist regardless of your industry or audience. Here are a few examples:
- Incorporate your keywords as often as possible
- Use the best anchor text for all backlinks
- Write a clear and concise meta description
- Advertise your new content on social media
Other items are specific to your industry, or even your company. This might be the case if you’re incorporating scientific data that needs to be verified, or if you’re working on more of an advertising campaign rather than your normal content marketing.
How do you know what to leave off of your review checklist for content?
Your review checklist should be a helpful tool for your team to measure content quality. But it should also be concise. Avoid including overly specific details that will only apply to some of your content. Leave the checklist general so that your content creators can easily follow along and produce some great content!
How to update your content quality checklist to keep pace with changes in your content
One of the most important aspects of your company’s marketing program is your digital marketing strategy. Your existing and potential customers are searching for products and services online. And if you don’t have a strong content marketing strategy, you’re missing out on repeat business as well as new leads!
In order to stay ahead of your competitors, you need to continually update your content. You have to inform the public about new products and services. And you have to maintain a top SEO ranking! Sometimes this involves updating your content quality checklist to keep pace with the changes in your content.
How often should website content be updated?
You know that your website and social media platforms need to showcase quality content. And this often involves updating your content with current information. The frequency of your updates depends on your unique company. For instance: if your company hosts a lot of events, you’ll need to post dates and details as soon as they’re available. And if you’re in a science-driven industry, be sure to update your content to include the latest findings or data.
If you’re just trying to maintain a high SEO ranking and drive more traffic to your website, try to publish a new blog post on a strict schedule: once a week, once a month, etc. And don’t forget about social media! Many customers look to Facebook and Twitter for information and reviews on products and services before they make a purchase. It’s good practice to post on social media every day.
How can you automate updates to your content quality checklist?
Automating updates to your content quality checklist can be a challenge. Some software programs can perform these automatic updates, but you have to know exactly what the updates should be so that you can pre-program the information. In this case, you might want to consider working with an SEO expert to help you automate the process.
You can also schedule a monthly or quarterly content audit to ensure that your content and checklist are current and accurate. Here are a few questions to ask during these audits:
- Have any industry trends changed?
- Are there new data or statistics that you need to update?
- Have you launched new products and services that aren’t included in your existing content?
The more you automate, the easier your life will be. So make the process as efficient and seamless as possible by creating a checklist.
What tools should you use to update your content quality checklist?
The best tool that you can use to update your quality content checklist is your knowledge of your industry. No one knows the current industry trends better than you do. And you can use this knowledge to keep your content quality checklist up to date!
Read your industry newsletters. Stay current with research. And watch what your competitors are doing! This knowledge amounts to a goldmine of information that you can incorporate into your quality checklist—and into your content!
There are also online tools that you can use. Research these resources to make sure that your checklist is helping you create the highest quality content possible:
- Keyword research. This might involve just typing in your main product or service and looking at what other words or phrases your search engine suggests. This helps you identify what your target audience is searching for online. You can even purchase online software to help generate keywords.
- SEO Several companies specialize only in helping boost your SEO. And some of them are free! If you’re concerned that your online presence isn’t as strong as it could be, think about using these websites to learn about your domain authority and your overall SEO health.
Examples of effective checklists for content quality
Your content marketing strategy’s goal is to drive traffic to your website. And this includes creating good content with strong search engine optimization. Creating an effective checklist for your content quality can help! The simple task of building guidelines for your content team can end up bringing you more customers.
What do the most effective checklists for content quality have in common?
The most effective checklists for content quality are simple, yet helpful. They provide reminders and guidelines for your content creators. They’re informative enough to provide a roadmap to good content, but basic enough to stay relevant for a long time.
Here are a few standard items to include on your content quality checklist:
- Keyword research for search engine optimization
- Quantity of backlinks with strong anchor text
- Optimal word count
- Clear and concise meta description
- Simple slug that’s easy for search engines and website visitors to recognize
- Social media platforms to announce your new content
These items will help your content creation team to produce quality content within your guidelines. Try to avoid overly specific instructions, such as determining the exact quantity of backlinks or dictating the only sources for those backlinks. The more freedom you give your content creators, the better job they’ll do!
How do you review a checklist for content quality?
Marketing is collaborative. From ad campaigns to website landing pages, marketing is never a one-person job. And this includes your checklist for content quality!
Once you’ve drafted your checklist, ask your entire marketing team to review it. They can provide constructive feedback to strengthen the checklist—and maybe even increase its longevity. When the checklist is complete, put it to work! Have a few of your content creators follow the checklist as they create new content.
Keep in mind that you might not hit the bullseye your first try. Don’t be discouraged! A checklist is often a living document. As your company evolves, so will your content. And that means your content quality checklist will evolve, too!
Where can you find examples of effective checklists for content quality?
Whether you’re doing some keyword research or looking for tips on writing alt text, one of the best places to find help with your checklist is the Internet. You can even find actual examples of checklists for content quality online!
Use a checklist to create consistent content—and save time and money in the process!
Using a content quality checklist will help your content creators produce good content with a consistent tone and message. And since the checklist outlines their project, they can create this content quickly and efficiently. And that saves you money!
Elite Editing is your partner in quality content creation. Contact us today to find out how we can help!
Just can’t get enough? 
