What do you want from a content inventory and audit tool?
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Amy Thibodeau
Jul 13, 2011, 10:02:47 PM7/13/11
to content...@googlegroups.com
Hi everyone,
Contentini is thinking about building a content inventory and audit tool, and we'd like your feedback.
You can read the blog entry here: http://contentini.com/content-audit-tool/
For those who don't want to click through, here's the kind of feedback we're hoping to get:
Thanks!
Amy
Contentini is thinking about building a content inventory and audit tool, and we'd like your feedback.
You can read the blog entry here: http://contentini.com/content-audit-tool/
For those who don't want to click through, here's the kind of feedback we're hoping to get:
- Disregarding all technology limitations, if there was a magic content audit tool, what would it do and how would it work?
- If you’re not convinced that an automated tool can add any value to the manual process, why not? What do you learn from a manual inventory and audit that can’t be replicated in an automated magical app?
- What types of website have you audited, and what were the problems that you faced?
Thanks!
Amy
jen rotman
Jul 19, 2011, 5:58:08 PM7/19/11
to content...@googlegroups.com
I think it's interesting that no one has yet responded to this with their imaginary gizmos and wish list for audit tools.
MY fantasy audit tool:
I would be able to don a pair of night vision goggles and under cover of night these magic goggles would scan the webpages based on my vision tracking, logging links. I'd also be able to narrate, so the device would not only have a documented inventory, but a voiceover narration that would give me the flexibility to comment on the content and its condition in real-time (a la Dragon Naturally Speaking).
The final inventory/audit would not be the usual bland spreadsheet that NO stakeholder wants to look at. (frankly I'm DYING for someone to come up with a better way to analyze website content) Maybe it would be a mind map with embedded images snipped from the site, some bit of the auditor's voice-over able to be presented to the client/business/stakeholders/content owners like a 3-D movie (yes, they would have to wear the goofy glasses).
To answer another of your questions: I'm not convinced that an automated tool is the answer. I know "automation" is a big deal for some--saves time, saves effort, saves money (maybe). The manual process of examining a site's content is all about discovery, for me anyway. And I think automating the inventory would remove much of that. I'd just be happy with that gizmo I described above.
Amy, thanks for the opportunity to flex my imagination. And good luck with your project! I'd love to hear how you're progressing.
--
Jennifer Rotman
Web Copywriter
http://jrotman.wordpress.com
http://www.google.com/profiles/rotman.jennifer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferrotman
MY fantasy audit tool:
I would be able to don a pair of night vision goggles and under cover of night these magic goggles would scan the webpages based on my vision tracking, logging links. I'd also be able to narrate, so the device would not only have a documented inventory, but a voiceover narration that would give me the flexibility to comment on the content and its condition in real-time (a la Dragon Naturally Speaking).
The final inventory/audit would not be the usual bland spreadsheet that NO stakeholder wants to look at. (frankly I'm DYING for someone to come up with a better way to analyze website content) Maybe it would be a mind map with embedded images snipped from the site, some bit of the auditor's voice-over able to be presented to the client/business/stakeholders/content owners like a 3-D movie (yes, they would have to wear the goofy glasses).
To answer another of your questions: I'm not convinced that an automated tool is the answer. I know "automation" is a big deal for some--saves time, saves effort, saves money (maybe). The manual process of examining a site's content is all about discovery, for me anyway. And I think automating the inventory would remove much of that. I'd just be happy with that gizmo I described above.
Amy, thanks for the opportunity to flex my imagination. And good luck with your project! I'd love to hear how you're progressing.
--
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--
Jennifer Rotman
Web Copywriter
http://jrotman.wordpress.com
http://www.google.com/profiles/rotman.jennifer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferrotman
Suz Bednarz
Jul 20, 2011, 7:37:02 PM7/20/11
to content...@googlegroups.com
Jen - I agree with your thoughts on content quality and the value of analyzing it. With that said, I also see value in automating Quantitative part of an content audit. Surely speeding up the the capturing of the files, links, attributes will give us more time to dedicate to the Qualitative part of the audit. In my experience, the former gets a ton of time and the latter, not enough, and that is what is really most important.
Suz
=============
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. - Maya Angelou
Suz
=============
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. - Maya Angelou
Ross Burdick
Jul 20, 2011, 8:18:06 PM7/20/11
to Content Strategy
Hi, all.
I agree that automating the content inventory and quantitative audit
would be helpful. For the qualitative part, there could be features
that may help someone perform it (but not do the analysis for you, of
course). This could be pulling key analytics into the result for each
asset, providing easy ways to rank assets and flag them for further
investigation, and maybe even count misspellings and/or grammatical
errors.
Also, similar to what Jen said, having the result be more attractive
and easy to understand than a bland spreadsheet would be a big
positive.
Anyway, I'm glad someone is looking into ways to ease this process.
Then maybe more people will be willing to do it.
Thanks!
Ross
On Jul 13, 7:02 pm, Amy Thibodeau <amy.thibod...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Contentini is thinking about building a content inventory and audit tool,
> and we'd like your feedback.
>
> You can read the blog entry here:http://contentini.com/content-audit-tool/
>
> For those who don't want to click through, here's the kind of feedback we're
> hoping to get:
>
> - Disregarding all technology limitations, if there was a *magic content
> audit tool*, what would it do and how would it work?
> - If you’re not convinced that an automated tool can add any value to the
I agree that automating the content inventory and quantitative audit
would be helpful. For the qualitative part, there could be features
that may help someone perform it (but not do the analysis for you, of
course). This could be pulling key analytics into the result for each
asset, providing easy ways to rank assets and flag them for further
investigation, and maybe even count misspellings and/or grammatical
errors.
Also, similar to what Jen said, having the result be more attractive
and easy to understand than a bland spreadsheet would be a big
positive.
Anyway, I'm glad someone is looking into ways to ease this process.
Then maybe more people will be willing to do it.
Thanks!
Ross
On Jul 13, 7:02 pm, Amy Thibodeau <amy.thibod...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Contentini is thinking about building a content inventory and audit tool,
> and we'd like your feedback.
>
> You can read the blog entry here:http://contentini.com/content-audit-tool/
>
> For those who don't want to click through, here's the kind of feedback we're
> hoping to get:
>
> audit tool*, what would it do and how would it work?
> - If you’re not convinced that an automated tool can add any value to the
> manual process, why not? What do you learn from a manual inventory and audit
> that can’t be replicated in an automated magical app?
> - What types of website have you audited, and what were the problems that
> that can’t be replicated in an automated magical app?
Amy Thibodeau
Jul 20, 2011, 8:50:28 PM7/20/11
to content...@googlegroups.com
Thanks for all the feedback guys!
ashirrr
Jul 21, 2011, 7:00:02 PM7/21/11
to content...@googlegroups.com
A great idea and one that I would hope would accomplish the following:
- It pulls URLS for all pages in the site
- Provides info on media type where appropriate
- Provides keywords for pages with a distinct URL
- provides meta for pages with a distinct URL
That would help cull the data that needs to be evaluated....
Wai Chim
Jul 21, 2011, 8:27:12 PM7/21/11
to Content Strategy
Oh wow - what an ambitious task.
I guess the way I would want to think of it is to create a content
audit tool that automatically collates the DATA that a stakeholder/
client would want to see. Because the process of manually collating
the information (while important0 is not scalable and it's so
frustrating trying to justify the costs of the manpower that goes
behind a GOOD content audit.
An automated tool would make it easier to flag some of the most
obvious recurring issues.
For me I would look for a tool that could:
1. Automatically overlay content pages with visual heatmaps of the
page (using the most appropriate "heat map" to show how the content
should "look" to assist usability)
2. Determine when pages were last updated and when they were last
ACCESSED
3. Identify navigation paths to GET to the content and build a
navigation tree
4. Incorporate analytics data
5. identify how people are interacting with the content (including
social metrics)
6. Generate a word cloud to see what the main keywords on the page
are.
I think the best tool would incorporate all of these as features and
options that I could turn on or off as needed. From these results I'd
then be able to look at the information and produce initial top line
insights to show where the major problems are and then be able to set
up a priority list to delve more thoroughly and in depth on to pages
as an ongoing project.
Good luck with it! Let me know when it's built!
Cheers
Wai
On Jul 20, 7:58 am, jen rotman <rotman.jenni...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think it's interesting that no one has yet responded to this with their
> imaginary gizmos and wish list for audit tools.
> MY fantasy audit tool:
>
> I would be able to don a pair of night vision goggles and under cover of
> night these magic goggles would scan the webpages based on my vision
> tracking, logging links. I'd also be able to narrate, so the device would
> not only have a documented inventory, but a voiceover narration that would
> give me the flexibility to comment on the content and its condition in
> real-time (a la Dragon Naturally Speaking).
>
> The final inventory/audit would not be the usual bland spreadsheet that NO
> stakeholder wants to look at. (frankly I'm DYING for someone to come up with
> a better way to analyze website content) Maybe it would be a mind map with
> embedded images snipped from the site, some bit of the auditor's voice-over
> able to be presented to the client/business/stakeholders/content owners like
> a 3-D movie (yes, they would have to wear the goofy glasses).
>
> To answer another of your questions: I'm not convinced that an automated
> tool is the answer. I know "automation" is a big deal for some--saves time,
> saves effort, saves money (maybe). The manual process of examining a site's
> content is all about discovery, for me anyway. And I think automating the
> inventory would remove much of that. I'd just be happy with that gizmo I
> described above.
>
> Amy, thanks for the opportunity to flex my imagination. And good luck with
> your project! I'd love to hear how you're progressing.
>
> > content audit tool*, what would it do and how would it work?
> > - If you’re not convinced that an automated tool can add any value to
I guess the way I would want to think of it is to create a content
audit tool that automatically collates the DATA that a stakeholder/
client would want to see. Because the process of manually collating
the information (while important0 is not scalable and it's so
frustrating trying to justify the costs of the manpower that goes
behind a GOOD content audit.
An automated tool would make it easier to flag some of the most
obvious recurring issues.
For me I would look for a tool that could:
1. Automatically overlay content pages with visual heatmaps of the
page (using the most appropriate "heat map" to show how the content
should "look" to assist usability)
2. Determine when pages were last updated and when they were last
ACCESSED
3. Identify navigation paths to GET to the content and build a
navigation tree
4. Incorporate analytics data
5. identify how people are interacting with the content (including
social metrics)
6. Generate a word cloud to see what the main keywords on the page
are.
I think the best tool would incorporate all of these as features and
options that I could turn on or off as needed. From these results I'd
then be able to look at the information and produce initial top line
insights to show where the major problems are and then be able to set
up a priority list to delve more thoroughly and in depth on to pages
as an ongoing project.
Good luck with it! Let me know when it's built!
Cheers
Wai
On Jul 20, 7:58 am, jen rotman <rotman.jenni...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think it's interesting that no one has yet responded to this with their
> imaginary gizmos and wish list for audit tools.
> MY fantasy audit tool:
>
> I would be able to don a pair of night vision goggles and under cover of
> night these magic goggles would scan the webpages based on my vision
> tracking, logging links. I'd also be able to narrate, so the device would
> not only have a documented inventory, but a voiceover narration that would
> give me the flexibility to comment on the content and its condition in
> real-time (a la Dragon Naturally Speaking).
>
> The final inventory/audit would not be the usual bland spreadsheet that NO
> stakeholder wants to look at. (frankly I'm DYING for someone to come up with
> a better way to analyze website content) Maybe it would be a mind map with
> embedded images snipped from the site, some bit of the auditor's voice-over
> able to be presented to the client/business/stakeholders/content owners like
> a 3-D movie (yes, they would have to wear the goofy glasses).
>
> To answer another of your questions: I'm not convinced that an automated
> tool is the answer. I know "automation" is a big deal for some--saves time,
> saves effort, saves money (maybe). The manual process of examining a site's
> content is all about discovery, for me anyway. And I think automating the
> inventory would remove much of that. I'd just be happy with that gizmo I
> described above.
>
> Amy, thanks for the opportunity to flex my imagination. And good luck with
> your project! I'd love to hear how you're progressing.
>
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 10:02 PM, Amy Thibodeau <amy.thibod...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
> > Hi everyone,
>
> > Contentini is thinking about building a content inventory and audit tool,
> > and we'd like your feedback.
>
> > You can read the blog entry here:
> >http://contentini.com/content-audit-tool/
>
> > For those who don't want to click through, here's the kind of feedback
> > we're hoping to get:
>
> > - Disregarding all technology limitations, if there was a *magic
>
>
>
> > Hi everyone,
>
> > Contentini is thinking about building a content inventory and audit tool,
> > and we'd like your feedback.
>
> > You can read the blog entry here:
> >http://contentini.com/content-audit-tool/
>
> > For those who don't want to click through, here's the kind of feedback
> > we're hoping to get:
>
> > content audit tool*, what would it do and how would it work?
> > - If you’re not convinced that an automated tool can add any value to
> > the manual process, why not? What do you learn from a manual inventory and
> > audit that can’t be replicated in an automated magical app?
> > - What types of website have you audited, and what were the problems
> > audit that can’t be replicated in an automated magical app?
Gmail
Jul 22, 2011, 10:58:56 AM7/22/11
to content...@googlegroups.com, Content Strategy
Love all these ideas. The problem I've always run into is that CMS aren't standards compliant, and they don't treat metadata in a standard way. I've always been grateful to have a full site crawl.
These reporting tools really need to be integrated into a CMS.
Of course, there are the people who still don't HAVE a CMS. For those sites, a great crawler helps a lot.
Laura Creekmore
la...@creekmoreconsulting.com
615.500.4131
http://creekmoreconsulting.com
David Workman
Jul 22, 2011, 2:57:21 PM7/22/11
to content...@googlegroups.com
"Standards compliant" -- what standards are you referring to? I've never heard of any standards for CMS'.
----------------------------------
David Workman, Data Mosaic
Kevin Nichols
Jul 22, 2011, 3:26:53 PM7/22/11
to content...@googlegroups.com
I posted this on: http://contentini.com/content-audit-tool/comment-page-1/ but to share with everyone...
Some of you may have seen this, but over the years in the industry, I developed this tool which I feel provides me with the information I need for most types of projects and can easily evolve into a content matrix or future state production matrix: http://www.kevinpnichols.com/enterprise_content_strategy/
You will see content inventory/audit matrix there.
Kevin
kevinpnichols.comAmy Thibodeau
Jul 22, 2011, 5:34:07 PM7/22/11
to content...@googlegroups.com
Thanks again everyone - all your feedback is going back to Dan who is the one actually working on the tool. I know he's really developed his thinking around this from a lot of the thoughts that have come from this group.
@Kevin - great set of tools! I think Contentini is looking at building something more automated, that also has various display options for sorting and visualizing your data. Stay tuned!
Thanks again everyone - have a great weekend!
Amy
@Kevin - great set of tools! I think Contentini is looking at building something more automated, that also has various display options for sorting and visualizing your data. Stay tuned!
Thanks again everyone - have a great weekend!
Amy
Celena Bretton
Jul 23, 2011, 5:58:09 AM7/23/11
to Content Strategy
Having just slogged through a massive audit I'm thinking that map
generation is a key requirement for me, with the ability to focus on
specific sections of the site in closer detail (eg displaying links in/
out for specified pages). Xenu is great for generating the data but
the automated map stuff is glitchy and it's still a manual job to
assemble this plus links in/out into a meaningful static doc. Sucking
analytics into the map would be awesome too - it's a massive pain to
keep cross-referencing the audit sheet with the analytics output at
the moment.
generation is a key requirement for me, with the ability to focus on
specific sections of the site in closer detail (eg displaying links in/
out for specified pages). Xenu is great for generating the data but
the automated map stuff is glitchy and it's still a manual job to
assemble this plus links in/out into a meaningful static doc. Sucking
analytics into the map would be awesome too - it's a massive pain to
keep cross-referencing the audit sheet with the analytics output at
the moment.
lennie
Aug 22, 2011, 6:38:11 AM8/22/11
to Content Strategy
Excellent stuff, Jen! I'd love to get my hands on that audit tool of
yours! You're right - spreadsheets are evil and nobody bothers with
them. Time to think of more visual content inventories...
On Jul 20, 5:58 am, jen rotman <rotman.jenni...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think it's interesting that no one has yet responded to this with their
> imaginary gizmos and wish list for audit tools.
> MY fantasy audit tool:
>
> I would be able to don a pair of night vision goggles and under cover of
> night these magic goggles would scan the webpages based on my vision
> tracking, logging links. I'd also be able to narrate, so the device would
> not only have a documented inventory, but a voiceover narration that would
> give me the flexibility to comment on the content and its condition in
> real-time (a la Dragon Naturally Speaking).
>
> The final inventory/audit would not be the usual bland spreadsheet that NO
> stakeholder wants to look at. (frankly I'm DYING for someone to come up with
> a better way to analyze website content) Maybe it would be a mind map with
> embedded images snipped from the site, some bit of the auditor's voice-over
> able to be presented to the client/business/stakeholders/content owners like
> a 3-D movie (yes, they would have to wear the goofy glasses).
>
> To answer another of your questions: I'm not convinced that an automated
> tool is the answer. I know "automation" is a big deal for some--saves time,
> saves effort, saves money (maybe). The manual process of examining a site's
> content is all about discovery, for me anyway. And I think automating the
> inventory would remove much of that. I'd just be happy with that gizmo I
> described above.
>
> Amy, thanks for the opportunity to flex my imagination. And good luck with
> your project! I'd love to hear how you're progressing.
>
> > content audit tool*, what would it do and how would it work?
> > - If you’re not convinced that an automated tool can add any value to
yours! You're right - spreadsheets are evil and nobody bothers with
them. Time to think of more visual content inventories...
On Jul 20, 5:58 am, jen rotman <rotman.jenni...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think it's interesting that no one has yet responded to this with their
> imaginary gizmos and wish list for audit tools.
> MY fantasy audit tool:
>
> I would be able to don a pair of night vision goggles and under cover of
> night these magic goggles would scan the webpages based on my vision
> tracking, logging links. I'd also be able to narrate, so the device would
> not only have a documented inventory, but a voiceover narration that would
> give me the flexibility to comment on the content and its condition in
> real-time (a la Dragon Naturally Speaking).
>
> The final inventory/audit would not be the usual bland spreadsheet that NO
> stakeholder wants to look at. (frankly I'm DYING for someone to come up with
> a better way to analyze website content) Maybe it would be a mind map with
> embedded images snipped from the site, some bit of the auditor's voice-over
> able to be presented to the client/business/stakeholders/content owners like
> a 3-D movie (yes, they would have to wear the goofy glasses).
>
> To answer another of your questions: I'm not convinced that an automated
> tool is the answer. I know "automation" is a big deal for some--saves time,
> saves effort, saves money (maybe). The manual process of examining a site's
> content is all about discovery, for me anyway. And I think automating the
> inventory would remove much of that. I'd just be happy with that gizmo I
> described above.
>
> Amy, thanks for the opportunity to flex my imagination. And good luck with
> your project! I'd love to hear how you're progressing.
>
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 10:02 PM, Amy Thibodeau <amy.thibod...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > Hi everyone,
>
> > Contentini is thinking about building a content inventory and audit tool,
> > and we'd like your feedback.
>
> > You can read the blog entry here:
> >http://contentini.com/content-audit-tool/
>
> > For those who don't want to click through, here's the kind of feedback
> > we're hoping to get:
>
> > - Disregarding all technology limitations, if there was a *magic
>
> > Hi everyone,
>
> > Contentini is thinking about building a content inventory and audit tool,
> > and we'd like your feedback.
>
> > You can read the blog entry here:
> >http://contentini.com/content-audit-tool/
>
> > For those who don't want to click through, here's the kind of feedback
> > we're hoping to get:
>
> > content audit tool*, what would it do and how would it work?
> > - If you’re not convinced that an automated tool can add any value to
> > the manual process, why not? What do you learn from a manual inventory and
> > audit that can’t be replicated in an automated magical app?
> > - What types of website have you audited, and what were the problems
> > audit that can’t be replicated in an automated magical app?
Kenji Okumura
Aug 22, 2011, 4:47:04 PM8/22/11
to Content Strategy
Filter inventory results by web analytics and page content attributes
that then can be saved as categories. And what they said... :-)
Kenji
On Jul 13, 10:02 pm, Amy Thibodeau <amy.thibod...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Contentini is thinking about building a content inventory and audit tool,
> and we'd like your feedback.
>
> You can read the blog entry here:http://contentini.com/content-audit-tool/
>
> For those who don't want to click through, here's the kind of feedback we're
> hoping to get:
>
> - Disregarding all technology limitations, if there was a *magic content
> audit tool*, what would it do and how would it work?
> - If you’re not convinced that an automated tool can add any value to the
that then can be saved as categories. And what they said... :-)
Kenji
On Jul 13, 10:02 pm, Amy Thibodeau <amy.thibod...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Contentini is thinking about building a content inventory and audit tool,
> and we'd like your feedback.
>
> You can read the blog entry here:http://contentini.com/content-audit-tool/
>
> For those who don't want to click through, here's the kind of feedback we're
> hoping to get:
>
> audit tool*, what would it do and how would it work?
> - If you’re not convinced that an automated tool can add any value to the
> manual process, why not? What do you learn from a manual inventory and audit
> that can’t be replicated in an automated magical app?
> - What types of website have you audited, and what were the problems that
> that can’t be replicated in an automated magical app?
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