Content audits: The unglamorous truth

A content audit is basically taking stock of every word you’ve got—every button label, every error message, every scrap of text in your product. You’re asking: Does this make sense? Is it pulling its weight? Does it even sound like something we’d say? It’s not exciting. Honestly, it can feel like slogging through mud sometimes. But it’s the only way to spot the stuff that’s confusing users or making your product feel patchy.

You’re looking for things like:

• Patterns of messiness: Are you drowning in jargon? Are users stumbling over the same words again and again?
•  Tone mismatches: Does one screen sound friendly and the next like a robot wrote it?
•  Dead weight: Is there stuff that’s just…there, not helping anyone?

Once you’ve got the lay of the land, figure out what to tackle first—focus on the fixes that’ll unblock users the most.

User research: listen like you mean it

Then there’s user research. This isn’t about charts and stats (though those can help). It’s about sitting down with real people and hearing what’s driving them nuts. Watch them use your product. Where do they hesitate? What makes them curse under their breath? That’s where your words are failing.

You can mix it up:

• One-on-one chats: Ask them what’s confusing or annoying.
• Watch them in action: See where they click the wrong thing or give up.
• Surveys: Quick way to catch trends when you can’t talk to everyone.

The point is to pay attention—not just to what they say, but to what they’re struggling with even if they don’t spell it out.

Put it together and keep going

Here’s where it clicks: combine what you find. If your audit flags a bunch of cryptic error messages and your research shows users abandoning ship right there, you’ve got your target. Fix it, test it, see if it works.

And don’t kid yourself—this isn’t a one-off. Users change, products evolve, and what worked last year might flop now. So you keep auditing, keep talking to people, keep tweaking. It’s not glamorous, but it’s how you make sure your words don’t just sit there looking pretty—they actually help. Users might not thank you, but they’ll stick around longer.