Content Audit
A content audit evaluates the quality, relevance, and strategic alignment of your existing content. It identifies gaps in topic coverage, duplication that dilutes authority, outdated information that undermines credibility, and content that no longer serves business objectives.
Most businesses do not know what content they have, what it cost to create, or what value it produces. A content audit creates visibility. Content is an asset. Assets should be managed.
What a content audit examines
Content quality
Depth, accuracy, originality, and how well content answers user questions.
Common issues
- Thin content without depth
- Factually outdated information
- Content that misses user intent
- Poor writing quality
SEO alignment
Whether content is optimised for search and targets valuable keywords.
Common issues
- No keyword targeting
- Missing meta descriptions
- Poor internal linking
- Cannibalisation issues
Performance data
How content performs in terms of traffic, engagement, and conversions.
Common issues
- Pages with no traffic
- High bounce rate content
- Zero conversions
- Declining engagement
Audience relevance
Whether content speaks to your actual target audience.
Common issues
- Wrong tone or voice
- Misaligned topics
- Missing buyer journey stages
- No persona targeting
Content freshness
Whether content is current and maintained.
Common issues
- Years without updates
- Broken external links
- Outdated statistics
- Discontinued products mentioned
Editorial governance
How content is created, approved, and maintained.
Common issues
- No content calendar
- No approval process
- No content ownership
- No performance review
Common content problems
Content bloat
Hundreds of pages that generate no traffic and add no value. They dilute site quality signals and waste crawl budget.
Impact: Site-wide quality signals suffer. Good content is dragged down by bad.
Topic gaps
Missing content on important topics that competitors cover. Users go elsewhere for information.
Impact: Lost traffic to competitors. Missing opportunities to capture demand.
Duplicate content
Multiple pages covering the same topic in slightly different ways, competing against each other.
Impact: Authority diluted. Search engines struggle to choose which page to rank.
No content ROI
Content created without measuring what it produces. No way to know if content investment is worthwhile.
Impact: Budget spent on content that may generate no return.
Part of the wider Commercial Assessment
A content audit tells you what content exists and how it performs. It does not tell you whether your content strategy aligns with your commercial objectives.
- Content problems often have strategic causes: no content strategy, content created by committee, no clear ownership of content outcomes.
- Fixing content without fixing the content process means new low-quality content will be created.
- Some content should be deleted rather than improved: the cost of improvement may exceed the value.
The Commercial Assessment examines content alongside five other domains: channels and reporting, attribution, sales handoff, user experience, and team capability. Content is one asset in a larger system.
Learn about Commercial AssessmentContent is an asset
If your content is not producing value, that is worth understanding. But if you suspect the problem is systemic, not just editorial, you need a broader assessment.