How to Do a Content Audit (Step-by-Step)

A content audit is the single highest-leverage activity most content marketers never do.

Instead of creating new content, you take stock of what you already have — and figure out what's working, what's hurting you, and what to do about it.

Done properly, a content audit can identify dozens of quick-win optimization opportunities, surface cannibalization issues dragging down your rankings, and give you a clear roadmap for the next 6 months of content work.

This guide walks through the full process, step by step.

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Why Run a Content Audit?

Most websites accumulate content without ever reviewing it. After 2–3 years of publishing, you end up with:

• Thin content (300-word posts that never ranked and never will)
• Outdated guides referencing tools, statistics, or best practices that no longer exist
• Keyword cannibalization where multiple pages compete for the same term
• Orphan pages with no internal links pointing to them
• High-potential pages that could rank much better with minor optimization

A content audit finds all of this and tells you exactly what to fix.

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Step 1: Crawl Your Site and Build an Inventory

Before you can audit, you need to know what exists. Crawl your website to get a complete list of URLs.

Tools:

• Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs) — best for thorough technical crawls
• Sitemap — pull URLs from your sitemap.xml
• Google Search Console — shows all indexed URLs

Export to a spreadsheet. For each URL, you want:

• Full URL
• Page title
• Meta description
• Word count (approximate)
• Date published or last modified

This is your content inventory. Every other step builds on it.

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Step 2: Pull Performance Data

Now layer in performance data for each URL. Pull from:

Google Search Console (organic search):

• Total clicks (last 3 months and last 12 months)
• Impressions
• Average position
• Top keywords driving traffic

Google Analytics 4:

• Sessions/users
• Engagement rate
• Average session duration
• Conversion events (if tracked)

Ahrefs or Semrush:

• Number of ranking keywords
• Estimated organic traffic
• Backlinks pointing to the URL
• Domain authority of linking sites

Add all of this to your spreadsheet. Now you can see, at a glance, which pages are performing and which are dead weight.

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Step 3: Score Each Page

Create a simple scoring rubric to evaluate each page across four dimensions:

1. SEO Performance (0–3)

• 0: No rankings, no traffic
• 1: Rankings but below page 1
• 2: Page 1 rankings, modest traffic
• 3: Top 3 rankings, significant traffic

2. Content Quality (0–3)

• 0: Thin, outdated, or inaccurate content
• 1: Average quality, could be improved
• 2: Good content, minor updates needed
• 3: Excellent, comprehensive, up-to-date

3. Strategic Relevance (0–2)

• 0: Off-topic or no longer relevant to ICP
• 1: Adjacent, somewhat relevant
• 2: Core topic, directly relevant to buyers

4. Conversion Potential (0–2)

• 0: No CTA, no conversion path
• 1: Weak CTA or misaligned offer
• 2: Clear CTA aligned with search intent

Score each page (max 10). Pages scoring 7+ are keepers. Pages scoring 4–6 need optimization. Pages scoring below 4 are candidates for consolidation or deletion.

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Step 4: Categorize Each Page with an Action

Based on your scores and a review of each page, assign one of four actions:

Keep: High-performing, high-quality content. Prioritize for internal linking. Update annually.

Update: Good bones, but needs work. Could be outdated stats, missing sections, better formatting, improved keyword targeting, or a stronger CTA. Prioritize these — they have the highest ROI because the URL may already have some authority.

Consolidate: Multiple similar posts covering the same topic. Pick the best one, merge the content, redirect the others. This is common after 2+ years of blogging.

Remove (or noindex): Very thin content with no traffic, no backlinks, and no strategic value. Options: delete and redirect to a relevant page, or add a noindex tag if deletion feels too drastic.

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Step 5: Check for Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization happens when multiple pages on your site compete for the same keyword. Google doesn't know which page to rank, so both underperform.

To find cannibalization:

1. Open Google Search Console
2. Filter by your target keyword
3. If multiple URLs appear with meaningful impressions, you have cannibalization

Common example: a blog post called "Content Strategy Guide" and a landing page called "Content Strategy Software" both targeting "content strategy."

Fix by either:

• Consolidating both into one stronger page
• Differentiating them more clearly (different keyword focus, different intent)
• Adding internal links that tell Google which page is the "primary" for that keyword

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Step 6: Identify Quick Wins

Look for pages that are tantalizingly close to page 1:

Striking distance keywords: In Google Search Console, filter for keywords where your average position is 11–20. These are page 2 rankings — often just a few optimizations away from page 1 and significantly more traffic.

For striking-distance keywords, the fix is usually one of:

• Adding more depth and word count to the page
• Improving the title tag and meta description
• Adding internal links from higher-authority pages
• Updating outdated information

Quick wins here often produce results in 30–60 days, much faster than creating new content from scratch.

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Step 7: Prioritize Your Action List

You now have a categorized list of every URL with assigned actions. Prioritize by impact:

Highest priority:

1. Pages with quick-win keywords (positions 11–20 with decent volume)
2. High-traffic pages that convert poorly
3. Consolidation of cannibalized keyword clusters

Medium priority: 4. Good-quality pages with weak CTAs 5. Pages with thin content but some backlinks (worth expanding)

Lower priority: 6. Net-new content identified as gaps 7. Minor updates to well-performing pages

Build a 90-day roadmap from this priority list.

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Step 8: Implement, Track, and Repeat

Execute your priority list and track results. For each update, note:

• What you changed
• Date of change
• Traffic and ranking before
• Traffic and ranking 30/60/90 days after

This creates a feedback loop that helps you understand what types of optimizations produce the biggest results for your site.

Repeat the audit every 6–12 months. Quarterly if you're publishing aggressively.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

Auditing without a plan: Don't just score pages and leave it at that. The value of an audit is in the actions it drives.

Deleting too aggressively: Before deleting any page, check its backlinks. A page with 10 quality backlinks pointing to it has link equity worth preserving — redirect to a relevant page rather than deleting.

Ignoring cannibalization: This is one of the most common SEO problems and one of the most impactful to fix. Don't skip this step.

Only looking at traffic: A page with zero traffic but strong conversion might be getting all its traffic from email. Check all channels before writing off any page.

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How Averi Helps

A content audit generates a long to-do list — rewriting thin posts, expanding near-miss pages, building out topic clusters. The challenge isn't knowing what to do; it's doing it efficiently.

Averi's content drafting workflow makes it fast to update and expand existing content. You can bring in your old post, add context about the target keyword and gaps to fill, and get a revised draft that incorporates new information while preserving your brand voice.

Pair that with Averi's Strategy Map to understand which topics and clusters to prioritize next, and you have a complete system for turning audit insights into action.

Start free →

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FAQ

How long does a content audit take?

For a site with 50–100 pages, expect 1–2 days including data collection and action planning. Larger sites (500+ pages) can take a week or more. Use automation to speed up data collection.

How often should I run a content audit?

Every 6–12 months for most sites. If you're publishing aggressively (8+ pieces per month), audit every 6 months. If you publish less frequently, annually is usually sufficient.

Should I delete underperforming content?

Not automatically. Check for backlinks first. Pages with backlinks pointing to them have link equity worth preserving — redirect rather than delete. Only delete truly thin, off-topic content with no backlinks and no traffic.

What's the difference between a content audit and an SEO audit?

A content audit evaluates the quality, performance, and strategic value of individual pieces of content. An SEO audit focuses on technical factors like site speed, crawlability, indexation, and structured data. Both are important — they're complementary, not interchangeable.

What tools do I need for a content audit?

At minimum: Google Search Console (free), a site crawler like Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs), and a spreadsheet. Ahrefs or Semrush add keyword and backlink data that make the audit significantly more actionable.