How to audit your website and blog content

Have you audited the content on your website and blog? If not, now is the time to do so. If you've been creating content for a while now, you probably have outdated pieces that it's time to remove. You may also have pieces you want to update or replace completely. I started looking at this one to update it and realized it needed to change a lot to be better for you. 

The following post outlines the content audit process that I developed with my team while I was at the agency years ago. You can follow the full outline or take an easier approach with the notes in each section. It's up to you. I try to do this on my website about once a year. I'll be honest, I don't do it every year, but I do take a look at blog performance at least once a year to get a feel for what works and what doesn't. 

What Content Is on Your Website or Blog?

When I first wrote this piece, I suggested using tools that I don't think are necessary anymore. Let's keep this simple and easy for entrepreneurs, not full-time marketers. You don't need to use a fancy tool, paid software, or anything like that.

Log in to your Google Analytics account, navigate to the Engagement Report section, and select Pages and Screens. From here, choose the timeframe you want to review. I like to look back at least one full calendar year. I'd go with a 12-month look back at minimum. 

Review Your Data

Once you have your content audit run, you’ll want to work in Excel or another spreadsheet program and start sifting through your data. I find it best to create one big spreadsheet and hide the columns I don’t think I need (because you never know when you might change your mind or decide you need something).

I like to look at the data in different ways and am a big fan of sorting and filtering. (I’m a data nerd at times, but it’s all good.)

• Which URLs are the most important from a traffic standpoint? Where does your business come from? 
• Which ones have the most page authority (use Mozbar to find this out, it's a free Chrome plug-in from Moz)? 
• Which ones are being shared the most (if you can find that data - social, Pinterest, etc, are there links to this particular post somewhere?)
• Does the word count affect the performance? Does it matter if your post is short or long? Does one work better than the other? 
• Does the content type affect performance? Does it matter if there's a video or podcast episode embedded on the page? What about posts with lots of photos? Does one type work better for your business? 
• Which pages have the lowest engagement rate (the least average engagement time per user)? Can you identify any patterns? 
• Which pages have the highest overall engagement? 

From here, I combine all the data to determine the pages that are the most important to the site. I wouldn’t want to cut a page that has low traffic numbers but a high number of backlinks, thereby hurting the site’s overall authority.

Easy tip: You can use your traffic data only if your website has a relatively low overall DA score. If your DA is under 20, don't worry too much about the links on individual pages—most of your links should be going to your homepage but do a quick double check before deleting any pages. You can use a backlink tool like Open Site Explorer to check the links to a specific page. 

What Do You Do Now? 

You want to look to see what's working on your website or blog. Which pages get traffic, which ones have engagement, are there any that are bringing the wrong traffic to the site (if so, you want to remove them, whether or not they have links, because they'll hurt your site in the long run because the traffic isn't interested in what you have)

• Keep (Do not change anything on this page; it’s great!)
• Revise (This could be keyword targeting, SEO elements, AI formatting, or copy refresh. The page is working well in some areas, but there’s room for improvement)
• Remove (The page feels like a dud)

It’s possible your content audit may help you uncover a fourth topic area, Create New. When you audit the site, you may discover content gaps you didn’t realize you had and determine a need for new pages. This isn’t a bad outcome, either.

A content audit is a critical key to your content marketing success. Until you know what assets you have and how they’re performing, you really can’t determine what you need to add to the site.

Easy Tip - the keep, revise, remove process is what I do, whether I'm doing an easy content audit or a more involved one. I also often find opportunities for new content I want to add, so I note that as well. 

How Often Do You Need to Audit Your Content?

How often you need to audit your content is dependent upon the size of your site, the frequency of your content creation process, and your overall goals. I’d suggest conducting a full-scale audit on an annual basis, and possibly a deeper dive by priority area each quarter.

You want to stay on top of the content on your site to ensure you’re delivering something that your audience likes and wants to read. If you're creating evergreen content, like I teach, then your blog posts or website pages can be visible online and drive traffic for years. Don't keep things that are outdated, it's not good for Google or AI search and it's not good for you or your customers either. 

Should You Update for AI SEO When Auditing Your Content? 

You don't have to make the AI formatting changes during your content audit, but definitely add those pages and blog posts to your revise list. You want to have your content formatted for AI if you want to show up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI-based search engines. And, if you're not sure if you want to show up in them yet or not, you do. Search behaviors and habits are shifting, and AI search is becoming more popular with consumers. Prepare your site today so you can stay ahead of the competition. 

Final Thoughts on Auditing Your Content 

• Be sure to review the content on your website or blog at least once a year
• Look for pieces that are outdated and revise or remove them. Keep your blog posts and website pages current. This is important. 
• Revise pages that aren't already formatted for AI optimization. If you want to stay relevant and visible online, this is important. 
• If you remove pages, consider redirecting them to another page on your site, if it makes sense. It's not for SEO, but it's a better user experience for your website visitor than just getting a 404 error (page not found). 

Originally written in 2018, updated several times - most recent July 2025.