Website smackdown, that is.

On Thursday, Feb. 16, the Nashville Chapter of the American Marketing Association is hosting NAMA’s eSIG Website Smackdown at eSpaces. Experts in several web-related fields such as website design, user experience and and development — including our own Laura Creekmore — will give no-holds-barred feedback on 10 different websites the night of the main event. Thirty additional websites will receive written feedback from one member of the panel.

You can enter your website for the Smackdown or register through NAMA’s website. The deadline is Friday, February 10, at 5 p.m. for your website to be included.

Last week I worked on a spreadsheet that included more 1,300 lines of information. I took one category of content and inventoried every piece connected to each keyword within that category for a client. I loved every minute of it! Call me organized; call me a taxonomy nerd. I’m okay with both.

Aside from being fun for me, it was incredibly eye-opening and provided a great map for moving forward with my work for this client. If you’ve recently completed a content inventory and are asking yourself “now what?” — or are wondering why to do one in the first place — here are three things you can do with the information:

1. Make an argument for custom content. This particular client has content vendor relationships with some well-respected and well-known experts in their industry. But by using some of that content after it’s produced instead of producing content to meet specific needs or goals, this client could be missing some opportunities associated with custom content. (A full post on the benefits of custom content is coming shortly!)
2. Decide what’s working, what’s not. During my inventory, I found keywords that had yet to be used, keywords that were used more than all others combined, and keywords that now — months after they were first created — no longer carry any meaning for the client or align with their business goals. Instead of starting a conversation with “I think we should…”, this content inventory will give me just the information I need to start a discussion with the client about what’s working, what’s not working and how to move forward from here.
3. Delete the old; refresh the evergreen. During your inventory, you’re likely to notice content that was posted years ago — or maybe it was just a few months ago. Is it still relevant? Is it still true? Is it still helpful or beneficial to your audience? Does it help you tell a story? If not, rewrite it, delete it or replace it with content that answers “yes” to those questions. And every once in a while, dust off the evergreen content — content that never goes out of style — by updating it a bit with the latest research on the subject, a new quote from an expert or an updated headline.