How to Conduct a Website Content Audit (and Why It Matters)

You’ve been putting out blogs, landing pages, and guides on your website for months—maybe even years. But how many of those assets are actually working for you right now? How many are outdated, underperforming, or flat-out irrelevant?

That’s where a content audit comes in—a simple but powerful review of everything you’ve published. The goal? To help you understand what to keep, what to improve, and what to let go for better content performance and to align your content with your current business goals.

Want to know more? Read on as we discuss:

Why a content audit is essential for growth
What should go into your content audit checklist
Tools that make the audit process easier
How to turn audit insights into real content wins

At the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how to run a content audit that keeps your strategy sharp and your results consistent.

Why a content audit is essential

We touched on this in the intro, but let’s break it down: what does a website content audit actually do for you?

Recover lost SEO value from weak pages: Not all content helps your site rank. Pages with thin content (offers little or no value to readers), duplicated topics (similar to topics or pages), or low engagement/high bounce rate signal to search engines that your site lacks authority. These pages waste crawl budget—Google’s time and resources spent indexing your site. A content audit flags these issues so you can update, consolidate, or delete them.
Improve consistency across your site: Over time, different writers and styles lead to messy formatting, mixed tones, and off-brand messaging. Auditing helps you spot and fix these gaps, so every piece on your site aligns with your current brand voice and design.
Fix outdated or incorrect information: Stats from 2017 (meaning they may no longer be relevant now), broken links, discontinued products—these hurt trust. A content audit helps you catch errors, update facts, and replace dead links to maintain credibility.
Refocus content on current business goals: Your goals constantly change—and so should your content. If you're now targeting a new audience or product line, old content may no longer be relevant. An audit helps identify which pieces to adjust, retarget, or phase out.

HomeScienceTools.com, an eCommerce store, got marketing agency InFlow to run a content audit on its blog. They deleted outdated posts and optimized the rest. In 90 days, they saw a 104% jump in organic sessions, 102% more transactions, and a 64% increase in content-driven revenue, all of which would never have happened if an audit wasn’t done in the first place.

What to include in your content audit checklist

Convinced about doing this for your website? Here’s exactly what to review to make your audit count.

Inventory all content

Start by gathering everything you’ve published on your website. This means more than just blog posts. Include:

Landing pages
Product or service pages
Videos
Case studies
Downloadable guides or whitepapers

The goal is to create a complete list of assets you’ll evaluate. You can do this manually or speed things up using tools like:

Screaming Frog: A website crawler that scans your entire site and exports all URLs. It shows you metadata, word count, broken links, and more—ideal for getting a full content snapshot fast.
Ahrefs: An SEO tool that lets you see traffic, backlinks, keyword rankings, and performance data for each page. It’s great for spotting high- and low-performing content at a glance.
Google Search Console: A free tool from Google that shows which pages are indexed, how they’re ranking, and what search queries they appear for. Use it to catch underperforming pages or indexation issues.

Having a full inventory is your audit foundation—without it, you're guessing instead of diagnosing.

Track key data points

Once you’ve listed all your content, the next step is to understand how each piece is performing. These are the key metrics to track:

Traffic: How many visitors land on the page? Look for patterns in high and low performers.
Bounce rate: Are users leaving without interacting? A high rate could mean poor content relevance or weak page structure.
Time on page: Short visits often signal thin or unengaging content. Longer time suggests readers are finding value.
Backlinks: External links pointing to a page boost authority. Pages with no backlinks might need stronger content or promotion.
Keyword rankings: Check how well each page ranks for its intended keywords. Low or declining rankings point to content that needs optimization.
CTA clicks or conversions: Is the content driving action—downloads, sign-ups, or purchases? If not, your messaging or CTA may need refining.

Use this data to decide whether to keep, update, combine, or remove each page.

Assess content quality

Performance metrics tell you what’s happening—but quality tells you why. Once you've reviewed the numbers, take a closer look at the actual content. Ask yourself:

Is it up to date? As mentioned above, if the content includes old stats, discontinued products, or outdated references, it’s time for a refresh. Accuracy builds trust—and improves rankings.
Is it well-structured and scannable? Content that’s broken into short paragraphs, clear headings, bullet points, and visuals keeps readers engaged.
Is it aligned with brand tone and SEO goals? Does the voice match your current messaging? Is the keyword use intentional and natural? If the piece feels off-brand or disjointed from your SEO strategy, it needs editing or rewriting.

This step turns raw content into strategic content—polished, relevant, and ready to perform.

Tag by action

Once you’ve reviewed each piece of content, use one of these four tags for every item:

Keep: The content is current, performs well, and aligns with your brand. No changes needed—just monitor it over time.
Update: The piece has potential but needs a refresh. Add new data, improve structure, fix outdated info, or optimize for better SEO.
Merge: You have multiple articles covering the same topic. Combine them into one stronger, more comprehensive piece, and redirect the old URLs to the new one to preserve any SEO value, backlinks, and traffic.
Delete: The content is outdated, irrelevant, or no longer useful. If it brings no value and can’t be improved, remove it—and don’t forget to set up redirects if needed.

These tags simplify decision-making and give you a clear action plan moving forward.

Turning insights into action

Once you've tagged your content, it's time to turn that list into real results. Here's how:

Prioritize updates based on value and effort: Don’t try to fix everything at once. Focus on high-traffic pages that need minor tweaks, or low-performing pages that are close to ranking well. Aim for quick wins first, then tackle bigger projects.
Repurpose top-performing content into new formats: If a blog post is driving traffic, don’t stop there. Turn it into a video, an infographic, a LinkedIn post, or a downloadable guide. Get more mileage out of what’s already working.
Create a schedule for revisiting audits every 6–12 months: A content audit isn’t a one-and-done task. Revisit it regularly to keep your content fresh, relevant, and aligned with your goals.

By turning insights into action, your content becomes leaner, stronger, and more aligned with what your audience—and search engines—want.

Final thoughts

A website content audit gives you more than a clean-up—it gives you clarity. It shows you what’s worth keeping, what’s holding you back, and where the real growth potential lies. Done regularly, it turns your content library into a strategic asset—aligned with your goals, optimized for search, and built to convert.

Start your audit now—and make every page on your site earn its place.