Google wants “helpful content.” That’s no secret, and for years, satiating that hunger for “helpful content” meant creating thoughtful, comprehensive, and customer-focused pages (or blog posts) that answered everything any user could ever want to know.
A Growing Glut of Content
With the advent of generative AI and AI Overviews, the helpful content arms race has only accelerated as websites push to be cited in as many AI summaries and responses as possible. For many sites, it means even more content, pumped out at a higher volume, and targeted to narrower queries and search terms, designed to win visibility both in traditional search results and in AI search.
For sites that have been around for years, or those with a dragon’s hoard of informational blog posts, there comes a point when too many articles and posts pose a risk. The overall helpfulness and crawlability of a website can be threatened by:
- Competing content: Creating too many pages targeting phrases that are too similar risks search term cannibalization. When multiple pages compete for the same search terms, none of them performs very well.
- Non-performing posts: A large number of non-performing pages devour crawl budget needlessly. In addition, when you have a high volume of pages with little engagement, Google can interpret that as a signal that your content isn’t helpful or user-focused.
- Low-quality efforts: When we say low-quality efforts, we primarily refer to pages with thin content that drive little added value for visitors. They may even be completely AI-generated themselves. These pages lack the depth required to match search relevance and intent signals while delivering fresh, thoughtful, and truly helpful content. Too many low-quality efforts can signal to Google that your site is unhelpful and not worth ranking.
This is where a search engine optimization (SEO) content audit proves to be a powerful tool, both to streamline or remove unhelpful content, as well as to uncover opportunities for growth.
What Is an SEO Content Audit?
An SEO content audit is an eagle-eyed review of a website designed to deliver actionable next steps that strengthen performance. The second half of that last sentence is key. Without actionable next steps, the review is just that — a review. With steps or initiatives to follow up on, an SEO content audit becomes a foundational tool that helps marketers strategize for the future, as well as reinforce what’s already working.
How do I Start a Content Audit?
A strong SEO content audit starts with a comprehensive list of every informational page or blog post on a website. This can be gathered from SEO tools like Screaming Frog, and the more structured and organized it can be, the better. Along with a thorough taxonomy of the site, year-over-year engagement metrics from Google Search Console and Google Analytics are necessary to help evaluate performance. You can’t analyze success or lack thereof without data points to drive the review forward.
Data to include in your content audit:
- URLs;
- Title tags;
- Organic click data (current year and previous year);
- Organic impression data (current year and previous year);
- Conversion metrics (if applicable);
- Any other engagement data relevant to your business.
Finding What Works for You
Every website is different. Some websites thrive on seasonal content, for example, which requires taking seasonal performance into consideration when compiling a content audit. When building a content audit, please take into consideration how your website operates and include metrics that bridge a path forward.
What to Look for in an SEO Content Audit
Once all of your data is neatly organized in a spreadsheet, the goal should be to define what is or isn’t working for your site. Are there a large number of pages that haven’t performed at all in the last year? Are there three or four pages that focus on the same topic with varying results? Are there content gaps related to what your audience is interested in or that could answer questions your customers ask time and again?
In order to ferret out next steps, marketers can and should approach their existing content by labeling each page or blog post with one of three actionable next steps:
Optimize
There are two reasons why we would want to optimize a page or blog post.
- Take this action for pages that have declined in clicks and impressions year-over-year. They still perform, but perhaps the content could be refreshed or modified to keep pace with the competition. In addition, search intent for target keywords can shift over time, and your content needs to shift as well.
- Take this action when consolidating competing pages into one. Optimize the strongest-performing page, and 301 redirect the weaker pages to the optimized one.
301 Redirect
There are a couple of reasons to 301 redirect a page to a better-performing or primary landing page (like the main blog landing page or homepage):
- It’s a thin or low-quality post that never performed.
- It’s a competing page that could be 301 redirected to a stronger page covering the same topic.
Take No Action
When pages perform, or when there’s no dire need to make a change, sometimes the best action is to take no action. Choose this option when:
- The page in question continues to perform strongly year over year.
- The page of content could be a non-performer, but it provides some value to the website or client. For instance, it could be a company blog post that, while valueless to organic search, could be useful information for visitors from other channels or for a sales team to pass on to a prospect or client.
- The page is neither helping nor hurting the site. There are many blog posts or informational pages on a website that neither improve nor lose ground year-over-year, living in a liminal space between success and failure. If they have nothing more to contribute above current performance, it’s best to leave them alone unless there’s a strong case to be made that they’re hurting the site.
Not only does this approach lay out a plan on how to move forward, but it also helps refresh and rejuvenate that wealth of information that has been buried or forgotten on a website. Search is always changing, and the needs of searchers are ever-evolving. Building a holistic view of your website can be fruitful in finding even better ways to meet these changing needs.
But wait — there’s more!
Don’t Forget About Content Gaps
It’s not always about what’s listed in the SEO content audit. Sometimes, the real find is in what’s missing.
These content gaps may not have been visible before, as it often takes looking at the sum of a website before marketers can see the missing pieces. Once you’ve outlined pages that could use a refresh or a 301 redirect, the last step is to look for topical gaps. This is where search marketers can slot in new keyword-driven content ideas that could grow the website’s value and the size of its audience. Net-new pages targeting net-new keywords can drive net-new traffic.
Finding those content gaps can create opportunities to mix in brand-new pages or blog posts side-by-side with your soon-to-be-optimized pages. It balances your content schedule, mixing in page refreshes with new attempts to expand your audience. It also conveys to Google and other platforms that you’re committed to staying relevant, up-to-date, trustworthy, and committed to providing helpful information for real-world users.
While an SEO content audit is one of the more time-consuming tasks you can spearhead, it’s an extremely helpful tool in measuring impact and maintaining performance. Ideally, these should be created regularly, especially when a content creation schedule becomes more challenging to plan. When in doubt, audit it out!
