Content Audit
Inventory every piece of content and decide what to keep, update, merge or remove.
A content audit takes inventory of everything you've published, like blog posts, landing pages and resources, and scores each piece against your personas, journey stages and strategic intent. Every piece then gets a decision: leave it, update it, merge it with something similar or remove it.
Most sites build up years of content that was written for different goals, different audiences and sometimes different services. Old posts can still bring in traffic for things you no longer offer, and similar posts can end up competing with each other in search.
Anything that moves or gets removed gets a redirect so you keep the search value it built up. The gaps you find become your editorial queue, so what you write next is based on what your buyers actually need instead of whatever topic comes to mind.
Signs you need this
- Organic traffic is declining
- You have years of posts and no idea what's working
- Old content still mentions retired services or pricing
- You're planning a redesign or migration
- You don't know what to write next
End results
- A full inventory of your published content with a decision on every piece
- A redirect plan for anything that moves or gets removed
- A list of content gaps by persona and journey stage
- A prioritized editorial queue for what to update and write next
Common questions
How do we decide whether to keep, update, merge or remove a post?
Look at traffic, conversions, how well it fits a current persona and whether the information is still accurate. A post with traffic but outdated details gets updated, two thin posts on the same topic get merged and posts with no traffic and no fit get removed.
Will removing content hurt our SEO?
It won't when the removed pages are redirected properly. Cutting weak, outdated content usually helps, because it focuses search engines on the pages that matter most.
What's keyword cannibalization?
It's when two or more of your pages target the same topic, so they compete with each other in search results and neither ranks as well as one strong page would. Merging them into one better post usually fixes it.
How often should we audit our content?
Once a year is a good rhythm for most small business sites, with a lighter check on your top pages every quarter. If you publish a lot, you may want to review more often.
What happens to the gaps we find?
The gaps become your list of what to write next, sorted by persona and journey stage. That way new content fills real holes instead of repeating topics you've already covered.
