If you’re currently holding sweaters in both hands and asking if they spark joy, you’re probably hooked on the KonMari method. As you may have heard from one or two (dozen) friends on social media, the Netflix show “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo” is all the rage right now.
I watched the first episode recently. About 15 minutes in, I started thinking about how her method could apply to decluttering websites, too. (Yep, my digital marketing brain never turns off.)
Apply These KonMari Steps to Your Website Content Audit
Marie actually has a lot to teach us about how to improve our most valuable marketing tools — our websites.
Set aside a chunk of time
Decluttering your shoes, doing a content audit: These are not things you can do in the 5 minutes before the end of your day. To do it right, you need patience, determination and focus.
Remember the goal of decluttering your website: to identify areas of opportunity and improve your website for your audience.
You’ll feel relieved and proud as you click through a fresh, clutter-free website. Almost as proud (or maybe even more?) as when the laundry is folded and put away, KonMari style.
See this article for more: “Content Audits: Why, When and How”
Take stock of what you have (content inventory)
Marie says to sort belongings by category. Gather all clothes into one pile, all shoes into one pile, all books — no matter which room they’re in.
Use a similar approach with your website. Take inventory of your content based on categories of your choosing. You can categorize your content by where it falls in the user’s journey, the persona it targets or the topic it covers. The key is to gather and organize your content across the entire website or section you’re “tidying up.”
Only keep content that brings your audience joy
“Effective tidying involves only two essential actions: discarding and deciding where to keep things,” Marie says in her book. “Of the two, discarding must come first.” Get rid of items that no longer bring joy.
It’s time to declutter your website. Useful content — content that solves a problem or answers a question — brings joy to the user. Decluttering might be tough, since you love your sparkling “look at me!” copy. But be ruthless. Only keep content that benefits your audience. If it doesn’t, hit delete.
See this article for more: “Spring Cleaning Your Marketing Strategy: 6 Practices to Shed”
Decide the best place for your remaining content
Content audits are eye-opening — they can show navigation and content architecture problems you never noticed before. For example: “Huh, why DO we have individual contact pages for each service line section? Maybe we can consolidate the information into side panels on the pages.”
The goal is to eliminate redundant content and extra clicks while providing content that’s not only useful but also interesting and engaging — the successful formula that will keep consumers on your site longer. Users who spend more time on your site tend to be more engaged in the long run: Studies show that when you keep a user on your site for at least 3 minutes, they’re twice as likely to return later.
See this article for more: “Web Writing and Information Architecture: Why it Matters”
Need More Content Auditing Help?
We like to think of ourselves as the, ahem, Marie Kondo of decluttering websites. Ready to convince your team it’s time to start a content audit, assessment or competitive gap analysis? Reach out to us.
