Content audit guide
Audit Content by Purpose, Evidence and Usefulness.
Build a reliable inventory, join current page observations with historical search data, and make controlled decisions about what to keep, improve or consolidate.
How to use this guide
Work from observed evidence, record uncertainty, and turn only supported findings into actions.
The operating principle
Audit the role of the page, not its word count.
A content audit should explain what each asset is meant to achieve, what the available evidence shows and what specific decision follows. Age, length and traffic never tell the whole story.
01 · Build the inventory
Create one reliable view of what exists
A content audit starts with a dated inventory, not opinions about which pages feel old. Combine discovery sources while preserving what each source proves.
- 01
Collect public URLs
Combine the XML sitemap, internal crawl and primary navigation. Keep URLs found in each source distinguishable; being in a sitemap does not prove indexing.
- 02
Classify each asset
Label pages by type and intended role: offer, location, category, guide, comparison, case evidence, FAQ, tool or another meaningful format.
- 03
Record page signals
Capture status, canonical, title, main heading, internal links and last known material update where that date is reliable. Do not manufacture freshness dates.
- 04
Add ownership and purpose
State the intended audience, question or decision, desired next step and accountable owner. Mark uncertainty rather than guessing.
Review before moving on
- The inventory is dated and names every evidence source.
- Redirects, duplicates and canonical URLs are distinguishable.
- Every priority page has an intended purpose.
- Sitemap presence is not called indexing.
02 · Evaluate evidence
Judge usefulness, alignment and contribution
Assess pages against their intended job. Word count, age and traffic are context, not automatic keep, rewrite or delete rules.
- 01
Review purpose and intent
Check whether the title, heading, opening, body and next action support one coherent audience need. Record mismatches specifically.
- 02
Join historical search data
Add impressions, clicks, CTR, average position and query themes for the same property and period where rows exist. Zero recorded impressions is not an indexing verdict.
- 03
Assess business usefulness
Record whether the page supports a core offer, answers a recurring buyer question, demonstrates evidence or enables an important journey, even if direct traffic is modest.
- 04
Inspect internal contribution
Review incoming and outgoing contextual links. A supporting page may be valuable because it clarifies a subject or routes visitors to a relevant next decision.
Review before moving on
- Current page observations and historical performance are labelled separately.
- Quality is not judged by word count alone.
- Low traffic is not an automatic deletion rule.
- Claims and recommendations cite the relevant URL or data row.
03 · Make decisions
Keep, improve, combine, redirect or remove, with a reason
Every recommendation should name the evidence, intended outcome, dependency and method for checking the result.
- 01
Keep what already works
Retain accurate, useful pages whose role and evidence remain sound. Not every audited page needs an action.
- 02
Improve a defined weakness
Update a page when evidence shows a specific gap in purpose, coverage, proof, technical signals or internal pathways. Avoid broad rewrite instructions.
- 03
Consolidate genuine overlap
Combine pages only when they serve the same audience and intent. Choose the destination, preserve useful material, redirect old URLs and update internal links.
- 04
Remove carefully
Before removal, check backlinks, internal dependencies, historical search rows and business use. Define the appropriate status or redirect and monitor after release.
Review before moving on
- Each action has one evidence backed reason.
- Redirect destinations satisfy the same user need.
- Owners, deadlines and dependencies are assigned.
- A comparable post change review is scheduled.
Continue learning
Connect this work to the rest of your search plan.
Put it into practice
Review the evidence, then build a dated action plan.
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