How to run a content audit
In a content audit, every page of a website gets a hard look. At the end, each one is kept, updated, merged with another page or removed. And the pages that bring in visitors and leads today go first.
The process in five steps
Set the goal
Do you want more leads, more visitors from search or simply a leaner site? The goal decides which numbers you’ll look at later.
Inventory
Every page of the site goes into one spreadsheet. You get the list from a tool that crawls the site, or from the sitemap, which is the list of pages you give Google. On large sites, start with the strongest 20%.1
Data per page
Google’s Search Console shows how often a page appears in search and gets clicked. It also shows the links from other sites. Your analytics adds how often the page is viewed and whether those views turn into leads.
Assess
Is the content correct, current and written for the audience? Is there a second page on the same topic?
Decide and act
Every page gets a decision, and the list is sorted by what each change will bring. The pages that already bring visitors come first.
What happens to this page?
Keep
The page brings in visitors, and its content is right. So it stays as it is, and you take another look at it in the next audit.
For your developer: status 200.
The four decisions
Removing and merging pages are a normal part of this. Google itself even advises very large sites to get rid of duplicate content.2
Keep
brings visitors, content is right
Stays as it is.
Update
right topic, weak execution
The content gets brought up to date. Then you check the title, the search term and the links from your own pages.
Consolidate
two pages, one topic
The best of both goes into the stronger page. The weaker one then redirects there permanently.
The data that counts per page
Clicks and impressions
These come from Search Console. Look at a full year, so seasonal swings don’t mislead you.
Leads and sales
Your analytics shows which pages lead to an inquiry and which don’t.
Backlinks
They’re listed in the “Links” report in Search Console. Whether a removed page needs a redirect depends on them.
Audience fit
Does the page answer a question buyers actually ask? And does it do so in their words and with proof?
Freshness
Prices, offers, names and numbers have to be current. Just changing the date so a page looks fresh doesn’t help, though. Google even calls that a warning sign when the content itself hasn’t really changed.3
AI search
Is the answer on the page as text, clearly structured and backed by facts? There’s more in our GEO guide.
Content audit tools and timing
The Quick Check reads the homepage and some subpages, so it doesn’t replace a list of every page. And if your goal is more visibility in search and AI answers, be patient. The tool maker Semrush recommends waiting at least two months before you measure results.4
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Content audit: common questions
What is a content audit?
A content audit reviews all the content on a website, page by page. At the end, every page gets a decision. It’s kept, updated, merged with another page or removed.
How often should you run a content audit?
Semrush recommends doing it every quarter. In Semrush’s survey, one-third of marketers audited twice a year.4
How long does a content audit take?
That depends on the size of the site. Ahrefs points out that running every single page through an audit can take a lot of time. That’s why they suggest starting with the 20% of pages that get the most traffic or links.1
Does removing pages hurt SEO?
Not if you remove the right ones. A page with no visitors, no links from other sites and no job for the business can go. Google recommends marking it as permanently removed with a 404 or 410 status code. Then take it out of your sitemap and remove links to it from your own pages.2
What is an SEO content audit?
It is a content audit that judges every page by what it does in search. The questions are whether the page gets found for the right terms, whether a second page competes with it for the same topic, and whether it is still current.
Is there a content audit template?
A simple spreadsheet does the job. It needs one row per page and a column for each of the data points above, so clicks, impressions, leads, backlinks, audience fit and freshness. The last column holds the decision, which is keep, update, consolidate or remove.
How is it different from an SEO audit?
An SEO audit mainly checks the technical side, the individual pages and the links. A content audit, on the other hand, looks at the content itself and makes a decision for every page. You’ll find the steps of an SEO audit in our guide on how to do a website audit.
Sources
- Ahrefs, Follow Our Content Audit Process (“auditing the top 20% of pages with the most organic traffic or backlinks”, “You’ll probably get 80% of results from doing this”), accessed Nov 5, 2026: ahrefs.com
- Google Search Central, Manage your crawl budget (“Eliminate duplicate content to focus crawling on unique content”, “Return a 404 or 410 status code for permanently removed pages”), accessed Nov 5, 2026: developers.google.com
- Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content (“Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?”), accessed Nov 5, 2026: developers.google.com
- Semrush, How to do a website content audit (“one-third of marketers conduct content audits twice a year”, “Conduct content audits on a quarterly basis”, “We recommend waiting at least two months”), accessed Nov 5, 2026: semrush.com
- Screaming Frog, SEO Spider (“The free version is restricted to crawling up to 500 URLs in a single crawl”, “£199 Per Year”), accessed Nov 5, 2026: screamingfrog.co.uk