Who this content audit is for
- Publishers and SaaS blogs with hundreds of URLs and unclear winners
- Teams seeing decay on once-strong articles and unsure what to rewrite
- Sites with keyword cannibalization across similar posts or guides
- Marketing leads who need a cleanup plan before a big content push
Who this is not for
- Brands that want us to write all new content under a retainer
- One-page brochure sites with almost no indexable library to score
- Teams seeking only technical crawl work with no editorial decisions
Keep, refresh, or kill: the decision model
Every URL in scope lands in one of four actions. Keep means the page earns its place and needs only light maintenance. Refresh means the topic still has demand but the page is thin, outdated, or outranked. Merge means several weak URLs should consolidate into one stronger destination with redirects. Kill means remove or noindex when demand is gone, quality is irrecoverable, or the URL creates index noise. The framework is explained in content audit keep, refresh, or kill.
| Signal | What we look at | Typical action tilt |
|---|---|---|
| Demand | Impressions, queries, SERP intent fit | Refresh or keep if demand is real |
| Performance | Clicks, position bands, conversions | Protect winners; fix near-winners |
| Quality | Depth, accuracy, uniqueness, EEAT cues | Refresh or kill if hollow |
| Cannibalization | Overlapping queries across URLs | Merge or retarget intent |
| Decay | Traffic or position drop vs peers | Refresh with updated brief |
What the SEO content audit checks
- Indexable content inventory mapped to templates and folders
- Query ownership and cannibalization clusters from Search Console
- Decay versus category peers over a defined lookback window
- Thin, duplicate, or outdated sections that block a refresh
- Internal link support: orphans, weak hubs, and wasted authority paths
- Candidate merges with redirect targets already chosen
We do not treat every low-traffic page as a failure. Some pages are early, supporting, or brand-necessary. The audit separates strategic keep from polite neglect. For how this fits a wider diagnosis, see what a real SEO audit checks that free tools miss.
Refresh briefs that editors can start from
For priority refresh URLs, we do not stop at a red label. We note the primary query set, what the current page gets wrong (outdated examples, missing sections, weak intros, thin FAQs), and which internal links should point here after the rewrite. Editors still write the page. They should not have to reverse-engineer why the URL was flagged. Merge recommendations include the surviving URL and the redirects required so equity and bookmarks land in one place.
Process from export to editorial backlog
- Define scope: folders, locales, and any URL classes to exclude (legal, account, thin utilities)
- Pull performance and crawl inputs: Search Console, analytics, indexability flags
- Score and cluster: demand, quality notes, cannibalization groups, decay flags
- Assign keep / refresh / merge / kill with brief notes and suggested owners
- Prioritize the first sprint so editors start where impact per hour is highest
- Walkthrough with marketing and content leads so decisions stick
Priority uses the same impact-versus-effort logic we apply across audits. A small refresh that recovers a decaying money query often beats a brand-new pillar that takes months. See impact vs effort scoring for SEO fixes and how to prioritise SEO audit findings.
| Library size | Indexable URLs in scope | Typical turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Small | Under ~150 URLs | 5–8 business days |
| Medium | ~150–800 URLs | 8–14 business days |
| Large | 800+ URLs or multi-locale libraries | 14–22 business days |
What you receive
- Master sheet or tracker with every in-scope URL and a keep/refresh/merge/kill label
- Cannibalization clusters with a recommended surviving URL
- Refresh briefs for top-priority pages (angle, gaps, internal links to add)
- Kill / merge list with redirect targets ready for engineering
- Sprint-ordered backlog for the first 30–60 days of editorial work
- Walkthrough recording or live session with decision rationale
Example finding ID from the content audit tracker
CONT-REF-027
Action: Refresh
URL: /guides/schema-markup-basics/
Primary queries: schema markup, json-ld examples
Why: Position 8–12 decay; outdated examples; thin FAQ
Effort: M | Impact: H
Owner: EditorialOptional help after the audit
Your team can execute the backlog without us. If you want optional follow-on work, we can write refresh drafts, map redirects for merges, or re-check Search Console after removals. That is separate from the content audit itself. For turning findings into a longer plan, use turn an SEO audit into a roadmap. Browse the full product set via our SEO audit services agency home page when you need more than content decisions alone.
What a content audit will not decide for you
We will not invent a net-new topic calendar for markets you have never entered. We will not force every soft URL into a kill pile to make the sheet look decisive. Brand, legal, and product pages sometimes stay even when search demand is modest. The deliverable is honest triage grounded in search evidence, not a content purge for its own sake.