How can you identify reusable content using content audits?

1 What is reusable content?

Reusable content is any content that can be used in multiple contexts, formats, or channels without significant changes. Reusable content can be a single element, such as a term, a sentence, or an image, or a larger chunk, such as a section, a module, or a page. Reusable content can be stored in a content repository and accessed through a content management system (CMS) or a component content management system (CCMS).

2 Why use content audits?

Content audits are a useful tool to identify reusable content, as they allow you to take stock of your current content and its metadata, such as type, format, source, owner, and status. Additionally, they enable you to evaluate the quality and performance of your content, such as accuracy, relevance, clarity, consistency, and usability. Content audits can also help you to identify gaps, overlaps, duplications, and inconsistencies in your content. Ultimately, they can be used to determine your content needs and goals, such as audience, purpose, scope, and tone.

3 How to conduct a content audit?

In order to conduct a content audit for reusable content, you need to define the scope and objectives of the audit, collect and document the content inventory, analyze and evaluate the content, and identify and tag reusable content. You can use a spreadsheet or a tool to list all the content items and their metadata. Additionally, you can use a crawler or a scraper to automate this process. To rate your content based on criteria such as quality, relevance, consistency, and reuse potential, you can use a scoring system or checklist. Furthermore, analytics or feedback data can be used to measure your content performance. Finally, you should use a color code or label to mark the content items that can be reused or modularized. You can also group them into categories or types of reuse such as exact, partial, or conditional reuse.

4 What criteria to use for reusable content?

In order to identify reusable content, you must apply criteria which can help you determine its suitability for reuse and modularization. These criteria include granularity, variability, universality, and cohesion. Granularity considers the size of the content item and whether it is a discrete unit or part of a larger whole. Variability examines how much the content changes depending on the context, format, or channel. Universality evaluates how widely applicable the content is to different audiences and purposes. Lastly, cohesion looks at how well the content relates to other content items and if it is coherent and consistent.

5 How to reuse and modularize content?

Once you have identified reusable content, you need to implement a reuse and modularization strategy that can help organize and store your content in a repository like a CCMS or headless CMS, manage and update it using a version control system, workflow system, and governance system for quality assurance, and deliver and publish it using a content delivery system, presentation layer, and channel system for adaptation and customization. Content audits can improve your content management practices and create more efficient, consistent, and quality content.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?