This past week, I spent time conducting a content audit for a non-profit website. I was provided with a list of non-profits to choose from and gravitated toward the Girl Scouts of the USA. This is an organization that I had personal involvement in when I was younger. I was a girl scout from first grade until twelfth grade when I graduated high school. Due to my personal involvement with the non-profit, I had a strong understanding of what the organizations’ mission and goals are.
The Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) is a non-profit youth organization that encourages young girls to develop a strong sense of self while creating a better community. They offer an array of activities from archery to glamping. The goal is to introduce fun yet educational activities for young girls to help teach them life skills such as self-advocacy.
I conducted an audit of the GSUSA’s website. For this audit, I analyzed a representative sample of pages to gain an adequate impression of the overall site. This method was the best match for this project since the site has many web pages with similar content styles. This audit allowed me to gain an understanding of the existing content as well as analyze their current practice to gain a sense of how it is performing.
The main elements of their website and brand that were being analyzed were the SEO (search engine optimization), accessibility, content, writing, and architecture. To gain a sense of the Girl Scouts of the USA’s SEO, I utilized Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider Program. This computer application allows users to crawl a website and gain a sense of their back-end information. This was my first time using any SEO program and once I got the hang of it, I actually liked it a bit. My favorite feature is that they offered some of the data in a visual graph format. Since much of the data is text based, adding a visual element helped with my comprehension. For the other elements, I used my understanding and research to properly capture and analyze their current offerings.
To help with my process, I also spent time reading articles about SEO, accessibility, and strong web writing practices. These helped me gain a well rounded view on the topics and learn best practices. Through this step, I was then able to create a more well rounded audit. Once I completed my research, I then transformed my notes into a report format. In addition to changing the format of my writing, I also worked to add graphic elements to make it a bit more engaging for the reader.
I’ve attached the report below!