Validate Your Content Reporting with a Comprehensive Taxonomy
Erika Heald
B2B Content Marketing Consultant | Fractional Head of Content Marketing | Gluten-free Blogger | Author | Speaker
In the past decade, every content audit I’ve conducted has resulted in very different recommendations and documented content strategies—except for one really big thing. Almost every company I’ve worked with lacked a well-thought-out and documented taxonomy.
Before you tell me that’s not the content team’s job and scroll on down to the really juicy job listings we’ve curated, give me a minute!
As I shared in my content governance session at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum last week, the lack of this documentation results in tagging proliferation that makes your job a lot harder. For example, it’s not unusual to find a team manually assigning all of the following tags (and their plural variations) in their CMS, URLs, and UTMs:
Why does this matter? Because Google—with its search crawling and its analytics—counts each one of these tags as something distinct. You and I can see these are clearly meant to be the same thing, but the robots can’t.
Similarly, when someone is looking at an analytics dashboard, clicking through to a topical archive from a blog post, or trying to find this type of content through search, they will only turn up content that matches the version of the tag used.
When we conduct content audits for our clients, we take the time to search for and consolidate these duplicate tags. Then we provide the list to the client so they can remediate. Because if they don’t, they’ll be right back in the same boat of getting incomplete and often misleading data back about what’s working in their content marketing program.
Without this small element of content governance in place, it’s possible that well-intentioned use of AI and analytics can result in impactful recommendations made without accurate context.?
Ugh.
So, where should you start? If you have admin-level access to your CMS, you can get a quick snapshot of potential taxonomy issues by going in and looking at your categories and tags, and identifying any obvious duplicates.?
However, for the greatest impact, you’ll want to head into your analytics tool. You’ll want to export your past year’s analytics and sort the data by page title. It’s also helpful to export your referrers list, which will uncover any duplicate UTM variables.
Of course, the clean-up and documentation is only the first step. To keep this data clean so it can be used to its full advantage, you need to ensure you have the buy-in from everyone on your team who is responsible for tagging content and communications. Meet with your customer success, sales, and web development leaders to share what you’ve uncovered. Ask for their support in agreeing to and supporting a single shared taxonomy across the organization.?
AI has the potential to do so much for our content programs and organizations, but only when we give them the right foundation to start from.
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Content Marketing + Related Jobs
Adobe is hiring a director of content strategy to help shape its content management in the AI era. Responsibilities include defining content strategies to align with business objectives, leading detailed content requirements analyses across digital media, and creating content specifications for model training. This is a pivotal leadership role that will oversee AI-generated content to ensure its outputs achieve the brand’s standards. This in-person role is located in San Jose, CA, or NYC.
Lyra Health provides technology that is transforming mental health care and ensuring people feel emotionally healthy at work and home. The organization is seeking a senior content marketing strategy manager for its branded and demand generation events, including webinars, trade shows, and field events. The individual will work closely with product, corporate marketing, and event marketing teams to bring online and in-person events to life and manage the end-to-end content development process for events. This includes sourcing and managing internal and external speakers and preparing post-event content reports. This role is remote.
Postman is a leading API platform used by more than 25 million developers and half a million organizations around the world. Its team is looking for a head of communication and engagement who will develop and oversee the implementation of a comprehensive communication strategy that aligns with the company’s vision and business goals. The individual will lead a team to create compelling content, campaigns, and initiatives while ensuring consistent messaging across all platforms. This role is based in San Francisco.?
Hatch provides products and solutions designed to help people develop better sleep habits, with baby products in 1 in 3 nurseries and an adult smart sunrise alarm clock that has gone viral on TikTok. Its growing content team is adding a director of content development to oversee the development of premium audio across Hatch’s adult content business. The person will develop talk content, storytelling, music, mindfulness audio, soundscapes, short-form content, and more in partnership with the production team and content strategists, reporting to the VP of content. This role is remote based in the U.S. or Canada, working on Pacific time.?
Notion is a popular productivity and note-taking app used by hundreds of global customers (including myself!) since 2016. The company is looking for a content lead to help craft its voice and brand in partnership with the head of communications and content. Responsibilities include writing and editing high-quality content across various formats, collaborating with cross-functional teams to support content needs and ensure cohesive messaging, and scaling content systems. This hybrid role is based in San Francisco.?
HoneyBook is a leading business management platform built for independent business owners to sell and deliver their services online. Its team is hiring a content marketing manager to own the strategic direction of the HoneyBook marketing site, aiming to increase awareness and top of funnel conversion. The individual will lead a website redesign, roadmap, brand positioning, optimization, and testing. This hybrid role is based in San Francisco.?
My Code is a media and marketing company that elevates diverse voices and empowers brands to build lasting relationships with Hispanic, Black, AANHPI, and LGBTQIA+ communities. The team has worked with clients including Google, Starbucks, Home Depot, and Best Buy. Its creative studio is hiring its first head of branded content to oversee and guide the team’s branded content initiatives across various platforms and channels. This in-person role is based in Los Angeles.?
BOLD is an established global organization that provides digital products that have empowered millions of people to build stronger resumes and cover letters, helping them find jobs faster. The company is seeking a director of global product content who will lead content efforts for new generative AI initiatives and manage in-product content experiences across multiple product lines and businesses. The individual will scale content development and ensure content quality across several languages, relying on a team and LLMs. This role is remote.
ICYMI
The Content Entrepreneur Expo, hosted by Joe Pulizzi 's The Tilt and Lulu, is now accepting speaker applications. This is my favorite content creator event, and it attracts leading innovators across every corner of the business and content spectrum. Next year’s event is in Cleveland on August 24-26. Get your submission in by December 1. I hope to see you on stage!
I had the pleasure of joining my friends and former Schwabbies Rachel Formaro and Jennifer Cronin to discuss how their content strategy was a catalyst for Blu Pagoda’s rebrand to Collabry. Check out this #ContentChat recap to learn about the early signals a rebrand could be valuable and what brand content teams should be ready to address when navigating a rebrand.
LinkedIn made some big changes this month to its feed processing, again shifting how your content will perform on the channel. Christopher Penn and the Trust Insights team recently explained the updates and provided a free guide that explains how to craft content for the site that will have the best chance of reaching your target audience.?
My career has taken many turns that prepared me to launch my consultancy in 2017. I met with Marc Maxhimer IRL at #CMworld to discuss my journey and share advice for content entrepreneurs hoping to scale their businesses. Learn about my journey in Marc’s article.??
You’ve probably been given a content marketing topic that clearly wasn’t a good fit or didn’t align with your strategy, but you weren’t sure how to push back. It’s a common issue many of us struggle with—but protecting our strategy boundaries and navigating potentially tough discussions is an essential skill we can all develop. In this CMI article, my friends Amy Higgins and Monica Noordam Norton walk you through a step-by-step process to workshop a potentially “bad” idea to get it on a better path without creating internal drama.?
Account-based marketing platforms aren’t always the magic fix that marketing teams hope for boosting sales and improving team efficiency. This MarTech article explains the core functions of ABM platforms, the hidden costs, and possible alternate ways to achieve the same goals without the hassles. Good points to keep in mind as teams consider their 2025 tech priorities.??
Speaking of 2025 tech investments, I recently shared my top six content marketing tool recommendations with Shopify: Grammarly, CoSchedule’s Headline Studio, Perplexity, Canva, Semrush, and Notion. Learn more about each in this post, including why I love them and what I use them for. Tell me about the tools you recommend—I’m always looking to try new tools and add to our marketing toolbox!
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