With deep experience in SEO strategy and content evaluation, our content audit checklist walks you through reviewing performance, uncovering weak spots, and optimizing your content for visibility, relevance, and results. It’s built to help you make smarter decisions and drive growth from every page.
Updated on
July 24, 2025
| Maria Harutyunyan, Head of SEO
77
77
Content Audit Checklist
Download the checklist
The checklist is vetted by 3 more top SEO LinkedIn experts
Evaluate Content Performance and Quality
Copy selected rows
Action Plan
Copy selected rows
Content Organization & Structure
Copy selected rows
Technical Content-Focused Audit
Copy selected rows
Content Workflow
Copy selected rows
Audience & UX Considerations
Copy selected rows
Competitive Content Gap Analysis
Copy selected rows
Content Performance Monitoring
Copy selected rows
ROI Focus Content Monetization
Copy selected rows
Maximize Your Content Reach
Copy selected rows
Define specific metrics for content evaluation:
Identify KPIs relevant to your SEO and business goals, like organic traffic, bounce rate, and session.
Adjust criteria based on content type:
Tailor success metrics based on content type, conversion rate for product pages, and engagement for blog posts.
Use a variety of tools to collect data:
Use tools like GA4 for user behavior, GSC for search performance, and Ahrefs/SEMrush for competitive and backlink analysis
Evaluate contents' freshness:
Check when the content was last updated.
Define a clear course of action for each page:
Establish a course of action for each page. Actions like delete, merge, update, improve, promote
Check the backlinks of each page:
For link bait content assess how much traffic, high-quality backlinks it has generated. This indicates its influence and authority in its niche.
Evaluate URL structure for SEO-friendliness:
Asses SEO-friendliness of the URLs to ensure they are short and descriptive, include relevant keywords, and contribute to a logical site hierarchy. Poor URL structures can hinder crawlability and user experience.
Perform a backlink analysis:
Check the quality, number, anchor text of the backlinks, and the domain authority of the referring domains
Evaluate URL structure for SEO-friendliness:
Ensure that your URLs are clear, contain the focus keyword, and are easy to understand.
Identify content that converts best:
Find content that drives desirable actions like purchases, form submission, sharing, and comments and amplify it.
Identify low-performing content:
Find pages with low traffic, high bounce rates, and low conversions or lead generation rates.
Check keyword targeting and intent alignment:
Make sure your content type matches your targeted keywords.
Examine the internal linking across your pages:
Review your internal links on each page to make sure they are relevant to the topic and the anchor text is contextual.
Detect duplicate or thin content:
Identify identical or low-value content that can negatively impact crawl budget and rankings.
Evaluate E-E-A-T factors:
Assess if content demonstrates real-world experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, especially for YMYL topics.
Measure engagement metrics:
Analyze shares, comments, and scroll depth to understand deep user interaction and content appeal.
Review content quality and accuracy:
Check your content spelling, readability, and correctness. It needs to be accurate and easy to read.
Analyze content format effectiveness:
Determine if the content format (e.g., article, video, infographic) is optimal for conveying information and meeting user intent.
Remove outdated or irrelevant content:
Remove content that is no longer accurate or relevant to improve site quality and crawl efficiency.
Fix broken links with 301 redirects pages to similar content:
Implement 301 redirects for deleted/merged pages to pass link equity and prevent 404 errors.
Combine thin content into comprehensive guides:
Merge fragmented content into thorough, high-quality guides for better user value and topical authority.
Improve readability and formatting:
Improve readability, especially for mobile devices, by breaking up text, using clear formatting, and ensuring a good mobile user experience.
Replace outdated pictures:
Replace all of the old images with new onces, or updated new old information.
Build content silos/topic clusters:
Create content groups around pillar pages to cover the topic from all angles fully.
Prioritize actions using an impact vs. effort matrix:
Focus on high-impact, low-effort tasks first to efficiently improve SEO.
Refresh underperforming but promising pages:
Update potentially good content with fresh information, better formatting, or new keywords to boost rankings.
A/B test headlines and CTAs:
Experiment with headlines and calls to action to improve click-through and conversion rates.
Optimize for Featured Snippets:
Structure content with clear, concise answers to appear in Google's featured snippets.
Evaluate the search terms of the page:
Check Search Console and Ahrefs to see which queries drive impressions and clicks.
Reoptimize for new keywords:
Do fresh keyword research and adjust content for better terms.
Update meta titles and descriptions:
Refresh titles and descriptions to improve clicks and target new keywords.
Update internal and external links:
Add relevant internal links and replace outdated external ones.
Audit heading structure:
Ensure correct H1 usage and logical nesting of H2s/H3s for readability and search engine understanding.
Identify and address orphaned content:
Find and link to pages without internal links to improve discoverability for users and search engines.
Tag content by funnel stage:
Classify content by marketing funnel stage (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU) for targeted user journeys and CTAs.
Implement schema markup for content types (e.g., Article, FAQPage):
Use structured data to provide explicit content information to search engines for rich snippets.
Ensure your content pages are indexable:
Verify that no robots.txt or noindex blocks crucial content from search engine indexing.
Improve page speed and meet Core Web Vitals:
Optimize load times and Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) for better user experience and SEO.
Check for mobile-friendliness:
Ensure that users can access and interact with your page on their mobile devices.
Resolve all no-index errors:
With Google Search Console, check all the errors that prevent Google bots from indexing your pages and fix them accordingly.
Review your structured data markups:
Use Google's Rich Results Test to confirm valid and accurate schema markups.
Check for duplicate titles/meta descriptions:
Ensure each page has unique, compelling title tags and meta descriptions to improve SERP visibility.
Analyze your crawl budget through server logs files:
Review server logs files to study bot crawl frequency and efficiency to use your crawl budget more effectively.
Audit XML sitemaps:
Verify your XML sitemap is current, complete, and correctly submitted to Google Search Console.
Monitor the performance after the changes:
Track rankings, traffic, and engagement to measure impact and guide further updates.
Assign ownership for each content piece:
Designate a person or a team responsible for content maintenance and performance.
Set a regular time frame to audit your content:
Set schedules for reviewing and updating content. It is recommended to perform a content audit once a year.
Track historical performance for benchmarking:
Keep a record of past performance to compare them and understand trends.
Keep track of the change:
Keep detailed records of content changes to analyze the shift in performance or in case of troubleshooting.
Maintain consistent tone and voice:
Adhere to brand tone and voice guidelines for a consistent user experience.
Ensure accessibility compliance (alt text, contrast, navigation):
Implement accessibility best practices like alt text and sufficient contrast for all users.
Match content format to search/user intent:
Align content format (e.g., how-to guide, comparison) with user intent for optimal helpfulness.
Monitor behavioral metrics:
Analyze behavioral metrics like sessions, average time on page, scroll depth, and bounce rate to have an understanding of how users interact with your content.
Collect and review user feedback where available:
Check user comments, surveys, or reviews to identify content preferences and areas for improvement.
Optimize for user journey/pathing:
Enhance internal linking and CTAs to facilitate smooth user navigation toward conversion goals.
Set up dashboards to track the ranking and traffic afterward:
Monitor the performance of your updated content afterward by checking the ranking for the targeted keywords, traffic, and conversion rate.
Use analytics annotations to track updates:
Mark major content updates in analytics to correlate changes with performance shifts.
Monitor rankings and visibility over time:
Regularly track keyword rankings and visibility to assess audit effectiveness.
Track your content lead generation and conversion rates:
Create a report in GA4 or use UTM links to understand the effectiveness of your content in terms of lead/sales generation.
Set up dashboards to track the ranking and traffic afterward:
Monitor the performance of your updated content afterward by checking the ranking for the targeted keywords, traffic, and conversion rate.
Use analytics annotations to track updates:
Mark major content updates in analytics to correlate changes with performance shifts.
Monitor rankings and visibility over time:
Regularly track keyword rankings and visibility to assess audit effectiveness.
Track your content lead generation and conversion rates:
Create a report in GA4 or use UTM links to understand the effectiveness of your content in terms of lead/sales generation.
Identify high-traffic pages with low conversions:
Spot content that brings visitors but fails to generate leads or sales, and improve CTAs.
Ensure that your content aligns with your business objectives:
Your content needs to support your business goals, like brand awareness, lead generation, or sales.
Tailor your content for each stage of the sales funnel:
Customize your messaging and CTAs according to the sales funnel's stage to guide users through each stage.
Incorporate products or services contextually:
Embed offers within educational content without being overly promotional.
Evaluate what monetization options you have:
Evaluate what ways of monetization (affiliate links, ads) are best for your website.
Test affiliate links:
Track performance of monetized links and optimize placement.
Attribute conversions to content touchpoints:
Use multi-touch attribution models to evaluate content's real impact on sales funnels.
Identify evergreen content to promote:
Pinpoint updated or relevant content for multi-channel re-promotion to maximize reach.
Use different channels to promote your content:
Use channels like social media email to promote your articles, case studies, etc.
Identify content for repurposing:
Transform high-performing content into different formats (e.g., blog to infographic) to reach new audiences.
Submit content to niche communities:
Tap into platforms like Reddit, Quora, or industry-specific forums.
Localize high-performing content for different markets:
Translate and adapt content culturally and linguistically for broader exposure.
A well-structured approach is the cornerstone of successful SEO. That's why we’ve developed a series of in-depth checklists designed to streamline your SEO strategy. From building high-quality backlinks and optimizing your WordPress site to tackling on-page SEO and technical optimizations, our checklists offer precise, actionable steps to help you confidently navigate every aspect of SEO.
April 3, 2025