A content inventory is the process and the result of cataloging the entire contents of a

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

. An allied practice—a

content audit In website governance, a content audit is the process of evaluating content elements and information assets on some part or all of a website. Description A content audit is "an accounting of all currently published web content" and a "cornerstone ...

—is the process of ''evaluating'' that content. A content inventory and a

are closely related concepts, and they are often conducted in tandem.

Description

A content inventory typically includes all information assets on a website, such as

web page A web page (or webpage) is a World Wide Web, Web document that is accessed in a web browser. A website typically consists of many web pages hyperlink, linked together under a common domain name. The term "web page" is therefore a metaphor of pap ...

s (HTML),

meta element Meta most commonly refers to: * Meta (prefix), a common affix and word in English ( in Greek) * Meta Platforms, an American multinational technology conglomerate (formerly ''Facebook, Inc.'') Meta or META may also refer to: Businesses * Meta ( ...

s (e.g., keywords, description, page title), images, audio and video files, and document files (e.g., .pdf, .doc, .ppt). A content inventory is a quantitative analysis of a website. It simply logs what is on a website. The content inventory will answer the question: “What is there?” and can be the start of a website review. A related (and sometimes confused term) is a

, a qualitative analysis of information assets on a website. It is the assessment of that content and its place in relationship to surrounding Web pages and information assets. The content audit will answer the question: “Is it any good?” Over the years, techniques for creating and managing a content inventory have been developed and refined in the field of website

content management Content management (CM) are a set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. When stored and accessed via computers, this information may be more specifically referre ...

. A

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

application (e.g.,

Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet editor developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows, Windows, macOS, Android (operating system), Android, iOS and iPadOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a ...

LibreOffice Calc LibreOffice Calc is the spreadsheet component of the LibreOffice suite. After forking from OpenOffice.org in 2010, LibreOffice Calc underwent a massive re-work of external reference handling to fix many defects in formula calculations involvi ...

) is the preferred tool for keeping a content inventory; the data can be easily configured and manipulated. Typical categories in a content inventory include the following: * Link — The

URL A uniform resource locator (URL), colloquially known as an address on the Web, is a reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identi ...

for the page * Format — For example, .

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

, .pdf, .doc,

.ppt Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, developed by Microsoft. It was originally created by Robert Gaskins, Tom Rudkin, and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initiall ...

* Meta page title — Page title as it appears in the meta tag * Meta keywords — Keywords as they appear in the <a class="link_plain"; href="/html/ALL/l/M/Meta_tag#The_keywords_attribute.html" ;"title="Meta tag#The keywords attribute">meta name="keywords" tag element</a> * Meta description — Text as it appears in the <a class="link_plain"; href="/html/ALL/l/M/Meta_tag#The_description_attribute.html" ;"title="Meta tag#The description attribute">meta name="description" tag element</a> * Content owner — Person responsible for maintaining page content * Date page last updated — Date of last page update * Audit Comments (or Notes) — Audit findings and notes Other descriptors may need to be captured on the inventory sheet. Content management experts advise capturing information that might be useful for both short- and long-term purposes. Other information could include: * the overall topic or area to which the page belongs * a short description of the information on the page * when the page was created, the date of the last revision, and when the next page review is due * pages this page links to * pages that link to this page * page status – keep, delete, revise, in revision process, planned, being written, being edited, in review, ready for posting, or posted * rank of the page on the website – is it a top 50 pages? a bottom 50 page? Initial efforts might be more focused on those pages that visitors use the most and least. Other tabs in the inventory workbook can be created to track related information, such as meta keywords, new Web pages to develop, website tools and resources, or content inventories for sub-areas of the main website. Creating a single, shared location for information related to a website can be helpful for all website content managers, writers, editors, and publishers. Populating the spreadsheet is a painstaking task, but some up-front work can be automated with software, and other tools and resources can assist the audit work. <h1><br><p> Value</h1></p> A content inventory and a content audit are performed to understand what is on a website and why it is there. The inventory sheet, once completed and revised as the site is updated with new content and information assets, can also become a resource for help in maintaining <div class="linkinfo_desc"><a class = "desc_only" href="/html/ALL/l/w/website_governance.html" "title="website governance">website governance</a><span class="linkinfotext"> Website governance is an organization's structure of staff and the technical systems, policies and procedures to maintain and manage a website. Website governance applies to both Internet and Intranet sites. Areas of responsibility Governance ...<br></span></div>. For an existing website, the information cataloged in a content inventory and content audit will be a resource to help manage all of the information assets on the website.<ref name="Usability"></ref> The information gathered in the inventory can also be used to plan a website re-design or site migration to a <div class="linkinfo_desc"><a class = "desc_only" href="/html/ALL/l/w/web_content_management_system.html" "title="web content management system">web content management system</a><span class="linkinfotext"> A web content management system (WCM or WCMS) is a software content management system (CMS) specifically for web content. It provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools that help users with little knowledge of web program ...<br></span></div>.<ref name="Krozser"/> When planning a new website, a content inventory can be a useful <div class="linkinfo_desc"><a class = "desc_only" href="/html/ALL/l/p/project_management.html" "title="project management">project management</a><span class="linkinfotext"> Project management is the process of supervising the work of a Project team, team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project initiation documentation, project documentation, crea ...<br></span></div> tool: as a guide to map <div class="linkinfo_desc"><a class = "desc_only" href="/html/ALL/l/i/information_architecture.html" "title="information architecture">information architecture</a><span class="linkinfotext"> Information architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability; and an emerging ...<br></span></div> and to track new pages, page revision dates, content owners, and so on. <h1><br><p> See also</h1></p> * <div class="linkinfo_desc"><a class = "desc_only" href="/html/ALL/l/C/Content_audit.html" "title="Content audit">Content audit</a><span class="linkinfotext"> In website governance, a content audit is the process of evaluating content elements and information assets on some part or all of a website. Description A content audit is "an accounting of all currently published web content" and a "cornerstone ...<br></span></div> * <div class="linkinfo_desc"><a class = "desc_only" href="/html/ALL/l/W/Web_content_management_system.html" "title="Web content management system">Web content management system</a><span class="linkinfotext"> A web content management system (WCM or WCMS) is a software content management system (CMS) specifically for web content. It provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools that help users with little knowledge of web program ...<br></span></div> * <div class="linkinfo_desc"><a class = "desc_only" href="/html/ALL/l/D/Design_methods.html" "title="Design methods">Design methods</a><span class="linkinfotext"> Design methods are procedures, techniques, aids, or tools for designing. They offer a number of different kinds of activities that a designer might use within an overall design process. Conventional procedures of design, such as drawing, can be reg ...<br></span></div> * <div class="linkinfo_desc"><a class = "desc_only" href="/html/ALL/l/I/Information_architecture.html" "title="Information architecture">Information architecture</a><span class="linkinfotext"> Information architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability; and an emerging ...<br></span></div> * <div class="linkinfo_desc"><a class = "desc_only" href="/html/ALL/l/W/Web_design.html" "title="Web design">Web design</a><span class="linkinfotext"> Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...<br></span></div> * <div class="linkinfo_desc"><a class = "desc_only" href="/html/ALL/l/W/Website_governance.html" "title="Website governance">Website governance</a><span class="linkinfotext"> Website governance is an organization's structure of staff and the technical systems, policies and procedures to maintain and manage a website. Website governance applies to both Internet and Intranet sites. Areas of responsibility Governance ...<br></span></div> <h1><br><p> References</h1></p> <h1><br><p> Further reading</h1></p> * In his articl<br><a href="http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/a-map-based-approach" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="A Map-Based Approach to a Content Inventory">A Map-Based Approach to a Content Inventory</a><br> Patrick Walsh describes how to use <div class="linkinfo_desc"><a class = "desc_only" href="/html/ALL/l/M/Microsoft_Access.html" "title="Microsoft Access">Microsoft Access</a><span class="linkinfotext"> Microsoft Access is a database management system (DBMS) from Microsoft that combines the relational database, relational Access Database Engine (ACE) with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsof ...<br></span></div> and Microsoft Excel to link a data attribute with a structural attribute to create “a tool that can be used throughout the lifetime of a website.” * In the articl<br><a href="http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/000448.html" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="The Rolling Content Inventory">The Rolling Content Inventory</a><br> author Louis Rosenfeld argues that “ongoing, partial content inventories” are more cost-effective and realistic to implement. * Colleen Jones writes from a UX design perspective i<br><a href="http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2009/08/content-analysis-a-practical-approach.php" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="Content Analysis: A Practical Approach">Content Analysis: A Practical Approach</a><br> <br><a href="http://xmlpress.net/content-strategy/audits-and-inventories/" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="Content Audits and Inventories: A Handbook">Content Audits and Inventories: A Handbook</a><br>is a practical guide to conducting content inventories and audits. <h1><br><p> External links</h1></p> <br><a href="ttp://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title=""></a><br><br><a href="http://siteorbiter.com/" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="SiteOrbiter">SiteOrbiter</a><br><br><a href="http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="Similar Page Checker">Similar Page Checker</a><br><br><a href="ttp://www.cryer.co.uk/resources/link_checkers" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title=""></a><br><br><a href="http://www.kevinpnichols.com/downloads/kpn_content_audit.xls" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="Kevin P Nichols' Content Inventory and Audit Template">Kevin P Nichols' Content Inventory and Audit Template</a><br> {{DEFAULTSORT:Content Inventory <a class="link_plain"; href="/html/ALL/l//.html" ;"title="Data management">Data management</a> <a class="link_plain"; href="/html/ALL/l//.html" ;"title="Website management">Website management</a> <a class="link_plain"; href="/html/ALL/l//.html" ;"title="Content management systems">Content management systems</a> </div> <div id="AdvertBottom1"> </div> <center> <script src="/js/AdvertBottom1.js"> </script> </center> <footer> <div> <br><br> <br><br> <center> <br><a target="_top" href="../index.html"> HOME </a><br> <br>Content is Copyleft<br>Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne<br><br> <a target="_top" href="https://donate.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:LandingPage&country=US&uselang=en&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_source=donate&utm_campaign=C13_en.wikipedia.org"> Consider donating to Wikimedia </a><br> <br> As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases <br> </center> </div> </footer> <div id="AddedByJS"> </div> <script src="/js/site.js"> </script>  </body></html>