How To Set Up a 9-Step Content Audit for Relevance
Setting up annual content audits for relevance is a smart move that many overlook. It’s easy to get caught up in creating new content and forget about how well your existing pieces are holding up over time.
If you keep at it, though, you’ll find it’s pretty straightforward to stay on top of what still matters and what doesn’t. We’ll look at simple steps to organize, evaluate, and keep your content fresh—so your site stays useful and engaging all year round.
In just a few steps, you’ll be ready to make your content more relevant, save time, and keep your audience coming back for more.
Key Takeaways
- Start by setting clear, specific goals for your content audit, like improving search rankings or updating outdated info. This keeps your efforts focused and measurable.
- Gather a team with diverse roles—content creators, SEO experts, and stakeholder input—to review and update your content effectively.
- Create a complete inventory of all your content types and organize them in a spreadsheet, including performance metrics, to identify what’s working and what isn’t.
- Conduct regular audits, ideally once a year or biannually, to keep your content fresh, relevant, and aligned with your brand goals.
- Use data like traffic, bounce rates, and backlinks to prioritize which content needs updates, improvements, or removal.
- Identify common issues such as broken links, outdated information, or duplicate content, and fix them quickly for better user experience and SEO.
- Decide whether to keep, update, or delete each piece of content based on performance, relevance, and alignment with your goals.
- Optimize relevant content by improving keywords, readability, and visuals, and updating meta descriptions to match user intent.
- Make updates systematically, monitor their impact through analytics, and adjust as needed to improve engagement and rankings.
- Set a schedule for ongoing monitoring and regular re-audits to maintain content relevance, and assign team members or tools to handle these tasks.
Set Clear Goals for Your Content Audit
Before you start clicking around and poking at your content, take a sec to figure out what you actually want to get out of the audit. Are you looking to boost organic traffic? Improve conversions? Or just clean up outdated stuff that no longer serves your audience?
Setting specific goals helps you stay focused and makes it easier to measure your progress later on—think of it like a roadmap rather than wandering aimlessly through your content jungle.
For example, if you want to increase your blog’s search rankings, your goal might be to identify and optimize pages that aren’t performing well in SERPs. Meanwhile, if your main aim is to update content for accuracy, your focus should be on content relevance and freshness.
Pro tip: Keep your goals SMART—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Instead of “I want more traffic,” go for “Increase organic traffic to key landing pages by 20% in the next three months.”
Build Your Content Audit Team
Let’s be real—this isn’t a one-person job, unless your content empire is tiny. Gather a small but dedicated team, including content creators, SEO folks, and maybe even someone from customer service who understands what your audience really cares about.
Assign roles clearly: who will review content quality? Who will handle SEO metrics? And who’s in charge of updating or archiving content? This way, everyone knows what they’re responsible for, and nothing slips through the cracks.
Consider using project management tools like Trello or Asana to keep everyone on the same page. Also, don’t forget to involve stakeholders—marketing, sales, and product teams can offer insights that make your audit more thorough and effective.
Remember, a fresh set of eyes often spots issues that you might miss, so don’t hesitate to bring in someone from outside your immediate team if possible. More minds mean more ideas and fewer blind spots.
Gather a Complete Inventory of Your Content
Now that your team is assembled and goals are set, it’s time to take stock of everything you’ve got. Make a list of all your content—blogs, videos, podcasts, downloadable assets, landing pages, and even social media posts that act like mini content hubs.
You can do this manually or use tools like Screaming Frog, ContentKing, or Google Analytics to pull data automatically. The goal is to create a master spreadsheet that includes page URLs, titles, publication dates, content type, and current performance metrics.
Be thorough—missing a piece of content now means it might get lost in the shuffle later. Remember, outdated or low-performing content can still be valuable if it’s still drawing traffic or backlinks; if not, it’s a candidate for updating or archiving.
Once you have your inventory, organize it by relevance, date, or content type. This will make the next steps of assessing and prioritizing much smoother and help you spot gaps or redundancies that need fixing.
Set a Frequency That Keeps Your Content Relevant
Most successful companies know that doing a content audit once every few years isn’t enough—many recommend an annual or even biannual schedule.
Regular checks help you catch outdated info, broken links, or content that no longer aligns with your brand goals.
Sticking to a consistent schedule means your content stays fresh and useful for your audience, and you can spot emerging gaps early.
Start by reviewing your analytics to see how your content’s performing over time—if organic traffic drops or engagement falls, it might be time for a new audit.
Tools like Google Analytics or ContentKing can automate parts of this process, making it easier to stay on top of things.
A good rule of thumb? Set reminders, and treat your content audit like a scheduled health check for your site.
Use Data and Metrics to Prioritize Content Improvements
Numbers don’t lie—looking at key metrics will tell you which pages deserve your attention first.
Popular metrics to track include organic traffic, bounce rates, conversions, backlinks, and social shares.
If a blog post gets a lot of traffic but has a high bounce rate, it might need better related content or clearer calls to action.
Similarly, pages ranking low in search results but with potential can be revamped for better SEO.
Apps like [Google Analytics](https://analytics.google.com/) and [ContentKing](https://contentkingapp.com/) can help you monitor these metrics automatically.
By evaluating your data, you can decide which content to update, consolidate, or delete, saving you time and effort.
Find and Fix Common Content Issues
During your audit, you’ll notice recurring problems—like outdated information, broken links, or duplicate content—that hurt user experience.
Fixting these quickly can boost both SEO and reader trust.
Start by checking for broken links using tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs; these can scan your site and highlight issues.
Update outdated stats, figures, or references—nothing kills credibility faster than old info.
If you find duplicate content, consider consolidating or rephrasing to avoid SEO penalties.
Also, make sure all your images have alt tags, and your page load times are optimized.
Addressing these issues is straightforward once you identify them—think of it as giving your site a tune-up.
Decide What Content to Keep, Update, or Remove
Not every piece of content is worth keeping forever. Some may need a quick refresh, while others might be better off deleted.
Ask yourself: does this content still serve your goals? Is it accurate, relevant, and valuable?
If a page performs well but is outdated, consider updating it with fresh info and new keywords.
For low-performing or irrelevant pages, archiving or deleting can help tidy your site and improve overall quality.
Keep in mind that even old content can be useful if it still draws backlinks or traffic—just ensure it’s still relevant.
A simple way to decide is to categorize content based on performance and relevance, then plan updates accordingly.
Optimize Content for Search Engines and Users
Once you’ve identified what’s working and what’s not, it’s time to optimize.
Focus on keyword integration, creating compelling titles, and improving readability.
Don’t forget about user experience: add visuals, break up long paragraphs, and include clear calls to action.
If you’re not sure how to craft a great lesson plan or course outline, check out works like [creating a course outline](https://createaicourse.com/how-to-create-a-course-outline-a-step-by-step-guide/)—the same principles apply.
This step is also a good chance to update meta descriptions and headers to better match user search intent.
Remember, content that’s useful for search engines and people alike gets noticed faster.
Implement Changes and Track Results
After deciding what to update or remove, it’s time to make those changes.
Be systematic: create a content calendar or task list, and assign responsibilities if you’re working in a team.
Once edits are live, monitor how your content performs—do traffic, engagement, or conversions improve?
Tools like Google Search Console and analytics platforms help you see the impact of your tweaks.
Don’t forget to check that your updates don’t break anything—test links and page loads.
The goal is continuous improvement, so keep adjusting based on what the data shows.
Establish Ongoing Monitoring and Schedule Next Audit
Content relevance isn’t a one-and-done deal—it’s a continuous process.
Regular monitoring helps you catch issues early and keep your content fresh.
Set up alerts or scheduled reviews within your analytics tools to stay on top of performance shifts.
As mentioned, most top companies audit their content every six months to a year—set that as your baseline.
This habit ensures you won’t fall behind, and your audience always finds up-to-date, useful info.
Decide who’s responsible for ongoing checks, whether that’s someone from your team or an automated task, and stick to it.
FAQs
Setting clear goals guides the audit process, helps prioritize content, and ensures the team stays focused on desired outcomes, leading to more effective and meaningful improvements.
Review all platforms, including websites, blogs, and social media. Use tools or spreadsheets to track URLs, content types, publication dates, and ownership for a comprehensive overview.
Use metrics like page traffic, engagement rates, bounce rates, and conversions to identify which content resonates with your audience and aligns with your goals.
Your plan should outline objectives, roles, content assessment criteria, timelines, and steps for revising or removing content to improve overall quality and relevance.