To conduct a content audit, review your existing pages, evaluate their performance, identify missing topics, and decide what should happen next with your content.
Yes, it’s a lot, but that last step is especially important. A content audit should help you decide which pages are worth updating, which gaps deserve new pages, and which existing posts are no longer pulling their weight.
In this post, we’ll walk through how to conduct a content audit to find gaps and opportunities you can turn into a stronger SEO plan.
What’s a Content Audit?
A content audit is probably just what you’d suspect: a review of the pages already published on your website. It helps you understand what each page is doing and whether it still deserves a place in your SEO strategy.
See, over time, older content can drift away from the role it was originally meant to play. You may notice that a blog post has become outdated, or suddenly you have two similar articles competing due to changes in search intent.
A full review helps you see these kinds of issues in context. Instead of judging one page at a time, you can look at how your content works together and decide where the site needs stronger support.
How Do You Conduct a Content Audit?
To conduct a content audit, start by getting a clear view of the content you already have. From there, you can review how each page is performing, find any gaps, and decide what needs to happen next.
Now, this process doesn’t need to be complicated, but it does need to be organized. If you jump straight into fixing random pages, you can miss bigger patterns across the site, like outdated clusters, overlapping posts, or important topics that still have no strong page behind them.
So, get into an organization mindset, and let’s go.
Step 1: Gather your existing content
The best way to start a content audit is by creating a list of the pages you want to review.
The easiest place to begin is usually your CMS, since it will show your published blog posts, pages, categories, publish dates, and update dates. Then, if you have access to a crawling tool, you can also use it to find pages that may be harder to spot manually, including older URLs, duplicate pages, or pages that are not well connected to the rest of the site.
From there, add performance data from Google Search Console and Google Analytics. Search Console can show which pages are getting impressions, clicks, and keyword visibility, while Analytics can help you see traffic, engagement, and conversions.
Once you’ve collected everything here, put the key details into a spreadsheet so you can review everything in one place. You can then use or create a content map to understand how those pages connect to your topics, services, and larger SEO goals.
Step 2: Check how each page is performing
With your spreadsheet in hand, now your job is to look at whether each page is doing what it was meant to do.
Of course, that job won’t necessarily be the same for every page. A blog post may be valuable because it attracts relevant search traffic and points readers toward related content. A supporting article, on the other hand, may not drive huge traffic on its own, but it can still help strengthen a larger topic cluster.
So, instead of judging every page by traffic alone, compare the page’s performance to its purpose. Look at metrics such as impressions, clicks, rankings, engagement, conversions, and internal link value where applicable. As you go, add short notes to your spreadsheet about what each page seems to be doing well and where it may be falling short.
It also helps to look at how performance has changed over time. If a post used to bring in steady traffic but has slowly dropped, it may be showing signs of content decay. Or, if a page gets impressions but very few clicks, the title or angle may not match what searchers expect.
By the end of this step, you should have a clearer sense of which pages are working and which ones may need a closer look before you decide what to do next.
Step 3: Look for content gaps
Once you know how your existing pages are performing, look for topics your site should cover more thoroughly. A useful content gap usually connects to something bigger than one missing keyword. It may be a question your audience asks before they buy, a subtopic your cluster barely covers, or a page that would help support an important service.
One way to look for content gaps is to review each main topic on your site and ask questions like:
- Which beginner questions haven’t we answered yet?
- Are there follow-up questions missing from this cluster?
- Which service-related concerns come up often but haven’t been covered in detail?
- Do any lower-volume keywords reflect real customer problems?
This is where keyword research, sales questions, and existing rankings can work together. If you keep seeing the same missing topic appear in different places, it may be worth adding to your content plan.
As you find possible gaps, add them to your spreadsheet as new content ideas. Include the topic, the page or cluster it would support, and a short note about why it matters. That way, you’re building a list of opportunities that connect back to your SEO strategy.
Step 4: Find pages that need updating, merging, or removing
By this point, your spreadsheet should help you move from review to decision-making. You’ll likely need to do some content pruning here, but keep in mind that this doesn’t automatically mean deleting pages. It means choosing the next best action for each page based on its current value and the role it should play in your SEO strategy.
A simple way to decide what to do with each page identified in your audit is to match the issue with the action that would actually fix it:
- Outdated but still useful. Update the page with current information, stronger examples, or clearer sections.
- Too thin for the topic. Expand the page to answer the question more completely.
- Overlapping with a stronger post. Merge the useful parts into the better page and redirect the weaker URL.
- Getting traffic but not sending readers anywhere useful. Improve the CTA or internal links.
- Still supporting an important service or topic cluster. Keep it as-is for now, especially if it attracts qualified traffic or helps users reach a valuable page.
As you review each page, add a clear action beside it in your spreadsheet. Instead of vague labels like “fix later,” use practical notes like “update examples,” “merge into stronger post,” “add links to service page,” or “leave for now.” That way, your audit is more of an actual work plan instead of another spreadsheet everyone politely ignores.
Step 5: Turn your findings into a content plan
Now you should have a spreadsheet full of possible fixes, gaps, and page-level actions. Perfect for turning into a plan you can actually work from.
Organization is still key here, so it’s often a good idea to begin by grouping the work into practical categories. For example, you might have a group for content with pages to update, a second with posts to merge, a third with internal links to add, and a fourth for new topics to create.
From there, try prioritizing each group based on impact. It makes sense that a missing post supporting an important service may deserve a higher priority than a keyword that only brings in loose informational traffic.
But before anything goes into your content calendar, make sure the task is specific. Instead of adding “update blog post,” write down what needs to change, such as “refresh outdated examples,” “add internal links to the service page,” or “merge with the newer post on the same topic.” That way, your content plan gives you clear next steps instead of another vague list to ignore later.
How Often Should You Conduct a Content Audit?
Most websites should conduct a full content audit at least once a year. If you publish often or rely heavily on organic traffic, though, smaller reviews throughout the year can help you catch problems before they affect too many pages.
You can also audit a single topic cluster or group of related pages instead of reviewing the whole site every time (here’s a topic cluster example if you need one). That kind of focused review can be especially useful when you’re planning new content, refreshing an important section, or trying to understand why a specific part of the site has stopped performing as well.
What Should You Do After a Content Audit?
A content audit can show you where your existing pages are thin, outdated, or missing support. After that, the next step is deciding what kind of content will actually strengthen the site.
That is where MarketingPal.io’s Topical Authority Content Plans can help. We identify keyword opportunities and organize them into stronger topic clusters, so you have a clearer plan for what to create next and how it should support your larger SEO strategy.
Contact us to start building a more focused content plan for your site.
