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Support Resources: Content Inventory

Replaced by Developing and managing an information architecture - Whole of Victorian Government ICT Guideline issued 29 November 2010.

Supporting: Information Architecture/Classification standard (WEB/STD/08)

Version: 2.0

Release Date: 30 November 2007

Content Inventory

Conducting a content inventory is a technique used to gain a detailed listing of either possible content (for a new website) or existing content (for a re-developed website).

This process will be used to:

develop comprehensive understanding of the available information base
identify content owners
identify the location of content
identify the format of current and proposed content
identify duplicated, irrelevant or outdated content
identify content gaps that require attention
record content growth areas
align online content with other information and service delivery channels e.g. print publications, call centre and shop front services.

The conduct of a content inventory usually involves:

consultation with business owners and staff members to identify content scope and priority – this is done using surveys and/or focus groups and one-on-one interviews
generating a list of pages from the content management system of an existing website
a review of relevant content, including online and offline resources
recording the content items and their attributes in an audit or spreadsheet tool with a flexible, ‘sortable’, searchable format.

Indicative headings for a content inventory spreadsheet include:

Item of web page ID
Item Name or Title
Description
Location or link
Audience
Document type/format
Topics/Keywords
Author/owner
Last updated or Date created
Importance relative to user and business needs
Notes

Existing websites will often have content recorded in their content management system and a high level view is available from the sitemap.

However for close analysis of content a more detailed report documenting the title of each webpage and a description of the page content derived from the metadata is suggested.

Related References

Content inventory resources are available on the web. The websites listed below provide both detailed descriptions of process and one provides a downloadable template.