A content audit is a page-by-page review of everything on your website, ending in one decision for each page: keep it, update it, merge it, redirect it or remove it. It is the fastest way to find out which content is earning traffic and leads, which is quietly competing with your best pages, and which is just taking up space.
Most sites that have been publishing for a few years have more of the last two than they expect. This guide covers how to run a content audit step by step, what data to collect, how to make each decision, and what to do afterward.
What is a content audit?
A content audit is a structured review of a website's pages that measures how each one performs and whether it still serves a purpose. Unlike a technical audit, which looks at how the site works, a content audit looks at what the site says: whether each page is accurate, useful, unique and attracting the right visitors.
When should you do a content audit?
- Traffic has flattened or fallen even though you keep publishing
- You have more than a few dozen blog posts and no clear idea which ones matter
- Several pages seem to target the same topic
- You are planning a redesign or migration and need to know what to keep
- A Google core update hit the site and you need to judge quality honestly
- Many pages show as crawled or discovered but not indexed in Search Console
That last one is a strong signal. When Google declines to index a lot of your pages, it is often telling you the same thing a content audit will. Our guide to crawled currently not indexed explains why.
Step 1: Build the inventory
List every indexable page in a spreadsheet. Crawl the site with a tool such as Screaming Frog, and add any URLs from your sitemap and from Search Console that the crawl missed. Leave out pages that are not meant to rank, such as login, cart and thank-you pages.
Step 2: Add the data
| Column | Source | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Clicks and impressions, last 12 months | Search Console | Shows search performance |
| Main query and position | Search Console | Shows what Google thinks the page is about |
| Sessions and conversions | Analytics | Shows business value |
| Referring domains | A backlink tool | Pages with links need redirects if removed |
| Word count and last updated date | The crawl | Flags thin and stale pages |
| Topic or target keyword | Your own notes | Reveals overlap between pages |
Use twelve months of data, so seasonal pages are not judged on their quiet months.
Step 3: Find the overlaps
Sort the sheet by topic. Wherever two or more pages cover the same subject, or rank for the same main query, mark them. Overlapping pages split clicks, links and Google's attention between them, so neither ranks as well as one combined page would. This is usually the most valuable finding in the whole content audit.
Step 4: Decide what to do with each page
| Decision | When | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
| Keep | Performing well, accurate and unique | Nothing now, review next year |
| Update | Useful topic but outdated, thin or underperforming | Rewrite, add detail, fix facts, improve the title |
| Merge | Two or more pages on the same topic | Combine the best of each into one page and redirect the rest |
| Redirect | No longer needed but has links or traffic | 301 redirect to the most relevant current page |
| Remove | No traffic, no links, no purpose | Delete it, and let it return a 404 or 410 |
Be careful with removal. A page with zero search traffic may still be visited from emails, ads or links from your own site, and some pages, such as policies, exist for customers rather than search. Check analytics for all traffic, not just organic, before deleting anything.
Step 5: Prioritize the work
You cannot update everything at once. Start with the changes most likely to pay off quickly.
- Merges that combine two pages competing for a valuable keyword
- Updates to pages ranking in positions 8 to 20, which are close to page one
- Updates to pages with high impressions but few clicks, often fixed by a better title and description
- Updates to service and product pages, which bring in leads
- Redirects and removals, done in one batch
What does a good update look like?
More than changing the date. Read the pages that currently rank above yours for the main query, and add what they cover that you do not, plus something they lack, such as your own example, data or process. Answer the main question in the first paragraph. Fix anything that is no longer true. Then update the date, because now it is honest.
What does a content audit sheet look like?
Here is an illustrative extract for a home services company. The pages and numbers are examples to show the decisions, not real data.
| Page | Clicks, 12 months | Links | Finding | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /water-heater-repair | 1,850 | 6 | Strong, but prices are two years old | Update |
| /blog/water-heater-tips | 140 | 0 | Covers the same topic as the next page | Merge |
| /blog/signs-water-heater-failing | 620 | 3 | Stronger of the two | Keep, absorb the tips post |
| /blog/2019-holiday-hours | 0 | 0 | No purpose | Remove |
| /old-service-area-map | 15 | 4 | Replaced by the service area page | Redirect |
How do you measure whether the content audit worked?
Note the date you finish each batch of changes. Eight to twelve weeks later, compare clicks, impressions and positions for the updated and merged pages with the same period before, in Search Console. Merged pages should gain most of the traffic the old pages had between them, and often more. Also check the Page indexing report, where pages crawled but not indexed often fall as weak content is removed.
How often should you audit content?
A full content audit once a year suits most business sites. In between, keep a short list of your top 20 pages and check them every quarter for falling clicks or positions. Larger publishers often audit one section at a time on a rolling basis.
What comes after the audit?
Gaps. Once you know what you have, you can see what is missing, which is where new content should go. Our guide to keyword clustering and topical authority covers how to plan those pages, and how to increase organic traffic covers what to do with pages close to page one.
The short version
A content audit lists every page, adds performance data, finds overlaps, and makes one decision per page. The merges and near-page-one updates usually pay off first. If you want it done as part of a full review of your site, our SEO audit services include a content audit, written up in the format described in what a good SEO audit report looks like.
