Updated November, 2022 It’s been almost 3 years (!!!) since COVID-19 overturned our personal and professional lives. That’s nearly 3 years of researching and publishing clear, trustworthy COVID-19 content for consumers.
And it’s been A LOT of content.
We all created most of our COVID-19 content to be temporary. In the beginning, we just had to get some helpful content up quickly, and we figured the pandemic would be short-lived. (Lolsob.) Now we know that COVID-19 — and the content we wrote — is here to stay. We need to make sure our content remains up to date and reliable.
But while COVID-19 is far from over, how we think and talk about it has shifted. We have more evidence-based information than ever before. All your published COVID-19 content should be current. If COVID-related searches turn up outdated results from your brand, you could confuse your audience — or worse, contribute to the spread of misinformation.
To make sure your healthcare website’s coronavirus content is evergreen, perform a COVID-19 content audit. We’ll walk you through the steps of the audit and share advice for refreshing old content. BONUS: We have a free (no email required) template to make this task as efficient as possible. Get it here.
Note: If you developed an audit and updating process for your COVID-19 content from the beginning and your team followed it closely, you might not need to perform a full-blown audit. This is the perfect time to review your audit process to ensure you didn’t miss anything over the past 3 years.
Before you dive into the audit, answer these questions:
Follow these steps:
Assign members of your team to update the pages with accurate COVID-19 information. Make updates in the same order you followed when conducting the inventory, so you update the most influential content first.
Keep these tips in mind:
72% of marketers feel their brand struggles to manage content strategically, and just 12% say they’re successful with it. Having the right audit protocol in place means you can be among the happy 12%.
And remember: It’s not enough to audit your COVID-19 materials once. Details evolve. Set up a workflow for regular content audits based on time (like once every 3 months) and new information.
For example, set up standards for editing content when new details about COVID-19 come out (like the expansion of vaccination age groups or a new FDA-approved vaccine). Those standards should include:
Keep track of when updates happen by adding the date updated to your audit file. Use our template as a living document that your team views and refreshes often.
Ready to start your COVID-19 content audit? Let’s go!
Get Your Template!
Don’t have enough bandwidth to perform a COVID-19 content audit? We can help. With our audit reports, you get an outside-in perspective from industry experts. Learn more about our two options for content audits and discoveries.