Your website isn’t a library — it’s a living organism. And like any system, it needs regular maintenance to stay healthy. A content audit is that health check: a structured process to evaluate which pages are performing, which need updating, and which should be consolidated or removed.
Content audits aren’t about deletion — they’re about direction.
This Content Audit Template gives you a full framework for auditing SEO content quality, topical authority, and engagement metrics, so you can make data-driven optimisation decisions with precision.
What Is a Content Audit?
A content audit → assesses → how well your existing content performs across SEO, quality, and engagement dimensions.
The goal isn’t just to find “bad” pages — it’s to identify opportunities for consolidation, expansion, and semantic reinforcement.
A proper audit considers three factors:
- Performance: Organic traffic, conversions, and visibility.
- Relevance: How well the content aligns with search intent and entity coverage.
- Quality: Compliance with E-E-A-T, readability, and recency.
A well-executed content audit turns chaos into clarity.
/eael accordion: Why Are Content Audits Critical for SEO?
Because Google’s algorithms reward freshness, accuracy, and topical coherence. Without regular audits, you accumulate “content debt” — outdated, redundant, or irrelevant pages that dilute topical authority and slow down crawling.
Step 1: Define the Purpose and Scope
Clarity → comes → before collection.
Determine why you’re auditing and what success looks like. Typical audit goals include:
- Improving SEO performance and rankings.
- Enhancing topical authority within clusters.
- Ensuring E-E-A-T compliance.
- Consolidating overlapping pages.
- Updating old or underperforming content.
Define the scope of your audit — entire domain, specific clusters (like AI SEO), or high-traffic pages only.
A focused audit achieves more than a scattered one.
How Often Should You Audit Your Content?
Every 6–12 months, depending on publishing velocity. Fast-moving industries (like AI or marketing) may require quarterly audits to stay competitive.
Step 2: Collect Your Data
Data → drives → every audit decision.
Gather metrics from:
- Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Sessions, conversions, dwell time.
- Google Search Console: Impressions, clicks, CTR, and positions.
- Screaming Frog / Sitebulb: Crawl health and metadata.
- Ahrefs / Semrush: Backlink data and keyword coverage.
- InLinks / SurferSEO: Entity and topical relevance.
Compile all data into a centralised Google Sheet or Looker Studio dashboard for analysis.
If it’s not measured, it’s not managed.
Should You Include Non-Indexed Pages?
Yes. Even unpublished or non-indexed content can influence crawl flow and internal linking. Understanding their role helps optimise crawl budget and site health.
Step 3: Create Your Content Audit Template
Structure → simplifies → analysis.
Here’s a ready-to-use Content Audit Template layout:
| URL | Title | Primary Keyword | Cluster | Organic Sessions | CTR | Conversion Rate | Content Score | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /semantic-seo/ | What Is Semantic SEO? | semantic seo | Content SEO | 2,430 | 7.1% | 1.8% | 92 | Keep |
| /ai-seo-tools/ | Best AI Tools for SEO | ai seo tools | AI SEO | 1,950 | 5.9% | 2.3% | 84 | Update |
| /old-blog-post/ | SEO Tips 2021 | seo tips | General | 140 | 0.9% | 0.1% | 42 | Remove |
Your template is your microscope. Use it to see what’s invisible at scale.
What Makes a Good Content Score Metric?
Combine performance and quality factors — for example:(Traffic x Engagement Rate x Entity Density) / (Bounce Rate + Age Factor)
Normalise it on a 100-point scale for easy comparison.
Step 4: Assess SEO Performance
Performance → validates → your optimisation efforts.
Evaluate each URL based on:
- Traffic: Organic sessions and impressions.
- Engagement: CTR, dwell time, and scroll depth.
- Conversions: Leads, signups, or purchases.
- Ranking Breadth: Keywords per page and visibility spread.
Pages with high impressions but low CTR should follow the CTR Optimisation Framework.
Performance metrics reveal potential, not perfection.
What If a Page Has Low Traffic but High Engagement?
It may target a niche or long-tail query. Rather than deleting it, consider internal linking from high-traffic articles to boost discoverability.
Step 5: Evaluate Content Quality
Quality → determines → whether users stay and trust your content.
Review each piece for:
- E-E-A-T alignment: Author bios, citations, tone.
- Recency: Is data or advice outdated?
- Depth: Are entities fully covered?
- Readability: Flesch score above 60 (ideally).
- Structure: Logical H1–H3 hierarchy and internal links.
Quality is the quiet signal Google hears loudest.
Should You Delete Low-Quality Pages?
Only after assessing whether they can be merged, redirected, or refreshed. Deleting too aggressively may create gaps in topical coverage.
Step 6: Check Topical and Entity Coverage
Entity coverage → enhances → semantic authority.
Use tools like InLinks, SurferSEO, or MarketMuse to check:
- Which entities are mentioned.
- How well each entity connects to your topical map.
- Where internal links reinforce or weaken context.
See Topical Map Framework: Structuring Entities for Semantic SEO for detailed methods.
Strong entity coverage tells Google your content is about meaning, not keywords.
How Do You Handle Overlapping Topics?
If multiple articles target the same entity, consolidate them into a single, comprehensive pillar page. This strengthens authority and avoids cannibalisation.
Step 7: Review Internal Linking and Crawl Depth
Internal linking → directs → authority flow and discoverability.
Check for:
- Orphaned pages (no internal links).
- Broken links or redirects.
- Uneven link distribution (too many links to minor posts).
- Crawl depth (important pages should be ≤3 clicks from the homepage).
Use your Internal Linking Framework to correct imbalances.
Your internal link map is your content’s circulatory system.
What Is the Ideal Link Density per Page?
There’s no universal rule — but between 3–10 contextual internal links per 1,000 words typically balances readability and crawl efficiency.
Step 8: Assign Actions to Each URL
Actionability → converts → data into progress.
Each audited URL should receive one of five clear actions:
- Keep: Content is current and performing well.
- Update: Improve depth, data, or structure.
- Merge: Combine with another page.
- Redirect: Point outdated versions to relevant updates.
- Remove: Delete with 410 status if redundant.
Document reasons for each action to maintain transparency in reporting.
Every page must justify its existence — or make room for one that will.
How Do You Decide Between Update or Merge?
If two pages compete for similar keywords or entities, merging is ideal. If content is still unique but stale, an update suffices. Always prioritise maintaining semantic integrity.
Step 9: Report and Visualise Findings
Reporting → communicates → insight clearly.
Build a Looker Studio Dashboard integrating:
- Traffic and engagement data from GA4.
- Crawl and index metrics from Screaming Frog.
- CTR and ranking data from Search Console.
- Action breakdowns by category (Keep, Update, Remove).
Link this to your SEO Reporting Dashboard for holistic tracking.
Your audit data should tell a story — not just fill a spreadsheet.
Should Clients See Full Audit Data?
Yes, but simplified. Provide summaries, visual trends, and recommendations — not raw spreadsheets. Transparency builds trust and accountability.
Step 10: Integrate Audit Insights into Strategy
Integration → ensures → your audit creates ongoing value.
Feed your audit results into:
- Content Calendar: Plan refreshes and new posts.
- SEO Frameworks: Adjust cluster focus based on gaps.
- E-E-A-T Framework: Strengthen credibility where needed.
- Automation Systems: Use Make.com or n8n to trigger update tasks automatically.
An audit without implementation is a report without results.
How Often Should You Repeat This Process?
Run a full audit yearly and mini-audits quarterly to track content freshness, internal linking, and new entity opportunities.
Conclusion
The Content Audit Template is your blueprint for maintaining SEO performance, relevance, and quality. By combining data analytics, entity mapping, and human editorial judgment, you keep your site clean, current, and credible — ensuring that every page contributes to your topical authority.
Next step:
Download or build your audit template, connect it to your analytics stack, and integrate the workflow with your Content Calendar Template for continuous improvement.
Auditing content isn’t about finding faults — it’s about uncovering opportunities.
