How To Do a SEO Content Audit For Your Website in 2024

You’ve astir apt heard the saying, “content is king.”

While having a technically dependable website and beardown nexus illustration are large accelerators for SEO dominance, these days, they’ll hardly determination the needle if you don’t person a coagulated contented strategy.

As an experienced integer marketer who has built aggregate palmy affiliate websites, I recognize the value of contented successful driving results.

Making definite that things similar your leafage titles (aka rubric tags), headings, and meta statement are optimized for your superior keyword is important too, but thorough contented audits volition assistance seal the deal.

In this article, you’ll larn however to execute a website contented audit successful item and item wherefore you should marque it a portion of your SEO and contented selling strategy. You’ll find retired the value of penning contented that is casual to work and is written with the intent of the halfway keyword you privation to people successful mind.

I’ll besides amusement you however to guarantee that you don’t person landing pages with bladed content, duplicate content, and keyword cannibalization. Lastly, we’ll look astatine however to audit your contented for E-A-T signals which volition assistance physique your site’s authority.

This contented audit spreadsheet checklist volition assistance maximize your contented selling efforts and scope your SEO contented goals, arsenic we’ll marque definite that nary chromatic is near unturned.

Quick Summary

What is simply a Content Audit?

A contented audit is the process of analyzing the main substance of your web pages to guarantee that it is adjuvant to your users and bots similar Google.

This process tin assistance find and hole issues specified arsenic debased readability, duplicate content, oregon keyword cannibalization, each of which could wounded the hard enactment you’ve enactment successful with your SEO efforts.

Remember, contented audits aren’t astir optimizing leafage titles, headings, and meta descriptions. If you privation to audit these, you should usage Screaming Frog (or immoderate different crawler of your choice). A contented audit spreadsheet ensures that your site’s contented assets (i.e., landing pages, blog posts, etc) are created with some Google and the end-user successful mind.

Why Do You Need a Content Audit?

You request a contented audit due to the fact that it volition assistance you place and instrumentality banal of which pages connected your tract enactment good and which don’t.

Content audits are chiefly astir improving contented metrics specified arsenic readability truthful that users volition beryllium much apt to walk much clip connected your website.

For example, if you are moving an eCommerce business, the magnitude of clip your users walk browsing your website straight impacts your sales.

Conducting a contented audit besides ensures that you’re providing your assemblage with the champion imaginable acquisition portion making definite that the substance is optimized for Google.

To enactment it straight, contented audits volition assistance refine your site’s contented assets arsenic good arsenic summation conversion rates and societal shares.

Content Audit Template & Checklist

I’ve compiled a database of cardinal Google analytics tools, a contented audit information template, and a checklist to marque this process arsenic creaseless arsenic imaginable for you.

Content Audit Tools

Search Intent

What is Search Intent?

The hunt intent of a keyword is the underlying crushed for the user’s query – i.e., it’s astir knowing why and what the idiosyncratic is looking for.

There are 4 main types of intent:

Important: not each informational keywords are questions. For example, users searching “Elon Musk” are apt looking to find retired much astir Elon Musk.

Why is Search Intent Important?

Search intent is important due to the fact that the superior extremity for Google is and ever has been to supply users with the champion and astir applicable results for their queries.

While you could beauteous overmuch get distant with ranking successful the apical 5 positions with links and mediocre contented before, this contented strategy doesn’t enactment successful today’s SEO climate.

Google’s knowing of a portion of contented and its quality to supply applicable results is continually improving done instrumentality learning techniques similar Natural Language Processing and its BERT algorithm.

If your contented selling strategy doesn’t relationship for what the extremity idiosyncratic is looking for, however tin you expect your SEO goals to beryllium met? As a result, it’s 1 of the astir important steps successful this contented audit process.

Search Intent Audit Checklist

The champion mode to “audit” intent is to comparison your contented to the sites that are ranking successful the apical positions for your halfway keywords. Then, you privation to cheque whether your contented aligns with what Google is rewarding.

It’s apt intolerable to audit each azygous leafage connected your site, particularly if you person an online store with 100s oregon possibly adjacent 1000s of products. Therefore, you should commencement by making a database of the astir important contented pieces you privation to audit first. Kind of similar a contented inventory!

A speedy Google hunt for your halfway presumption volition amusement you what kinds of results Google (and successful crook users) is looking for. For example, below, you tin spot that for a transactional query similar “Samsung telephone cases”, Google leads with paid ads/shopping results.

During your audit, you should:

For example, a idiosyncratic searching for “how gangly is the Eiffel Tower” is astir apt looking for a short, numerical answer. Whereas idiosyncratic searching “why bash we yawn” whitethorn beryllium looking for a much in-depth answer.

Answering these questions arsenic portion of your website contented audit volition let you to pinpoint precisely what your people assemblage is looking for from their query.

It volition besides assistance place wherever you should spot definite pieces of content. For example, if you people a keyword similar “how to bash a cartwheel,” you whitethorn find that the apical ranking results see a video close astatine the apical of the page. Therefore, to lucifer the intent, you would bash the same.

Readability

What is Readability?

Readability refers to however casual it is for users (and hunt engines) to recognize and work the contented connected a web page.

Why is Readability Important?

Making readability a portion of your contented audit process is important due to the fact that speechmaking a large artifact of substance isn’t large for idiosyncratic experience. This whitethorn pb to an summation successful the bounce complaint (which you tin track connected Google Analytics) arsenic users whitethorn simply suffer involvement and permission due to the fact that they felt overwhelmed with information.

Therefore, you should guarantee that your website’s contented is casual to work truthful that visitors don’t leave.

Readability Audit Checklist

A large (and free) instrumentality for auditing the readability of a portion of contented is Hemingway. It’ll springiness you a readability people and supply suggestions connected however to simplify the text.

Thin Content

What is Thin Content?

More often than not, “thin content” is referred to arsenic contented that is excessively short. However, there’s much to it than conscionable length.

A much close explanation is contented that offers small to nary worth to the people audience.

It conscionable truthful happens that astir landing pages that are considered bladed contented by SEOs thin to beryllium abbreviated successful length. A speedy mode to spot these is via the tool Screaming Frog, which volition let you to bid your tract based connected the fig of words.

The leafage beneath has tons of text, but is it really invaluable to the user? Not really.

The astir communal types of pages that are considered arsenic bladed contented contain:

Why Should You Carry Out A Thin Content Audit?

Let’s instrumentality a look astatine wherefore your auditing contented strategy should see checks for bladed contented by looking astatine it from some the idiosyncratic and hunt engine’s perspective.

For Users

As mentioned above, bladed contented pages connection small worth to the searcher. As a result, they hinder the idiosyncratic acquisition and volition apt pb to a higher bounce rate.

You privation to make pages with affluent contented that satisfies what the searcher is looking for. Otherwise, users volition simply permission and sojourn a competitor. Because of this, different engagement metrics similar the mean clip connected leafage and conversion rates volition besides beryllium impacted.

For Search Engines

Google evaluates contented connected some a leafage and domain level; and bases the frequence astatine which it crawls your tract connected the prime of your site’s content. This means that:

If you’re inactive not convinced, a tract with excessively galore bladed contented pages tin beryllium penalized by Google with a manual penalty.

Check retired the video below, wherever Google’s Matt Cutts explains what it means if your tract has been penalized with a bladed contented manual penalty.

Thin Content Audit Checklist

When going done your contented inventory for bladed content, look retired for the following:

Duplicate Content

What is Duplicate Content?

Duplicate contented refers to contented that is identical oregon precise akin to existing contented connected the Web.

So, this…

And this…

…would some beryllium considered arsenic duplicate content.

It’s important to enactment that Google acknowledges that contented that is the aforesaid oregon identical successful astir cases are “not deceptive successful origin”.

In different words, duplicate contented is chiefly an contented erstwhile contented is “deliberately duplicated crossed domains successful an effort to manipulate hunt motor rankings oregon triumph much traffic”.

Why Should You Audit Pages With Duplicate Content?

Duplicate contented is an SEO contented that should beryllium avoided astatine each costs.

Google aims to supply its users with unsocial accusation and content. In fact, it makes a conscious effort during the crawling process to support a enactment of pages that incorporate contented that is deliberately copied from different sources and purposely crawls them little frequently.

Why? Because if a URL with the aforesaid contented already exists, past the duplicated leafage offers nary worth to the idiosyncratic and wastes crawling time.

The consequences of having excessively overmuch duplicate contented connected your website are that:

Duplicate Content Audit Checklist

It shouldn’t astonishment you that I’ve enactment unneurotic a checklist to assistance marque your duplicate contented audit a small easier.

Finding Duplicate Content

First of all, let’s amusement you the steps connected however to find imaginable cases of duplicate contented connected your website.

When we hunt for this wrong Google, we tin spot that 1,900 indexed results incorporate an nonstop lucifer for this sentence. It’s wide that a ample fig of websites person copied this text.

If you find duplicate contented pieces similar this connected your site, regenerate them with unsocial text.

Fixing Duplicate Content

Now, let’s instrumentality a look astatine the steps of fixing duplicate content.

This is simply a discarded of your site’s crawl fund – which is progressively important if you person 1000’s of URLs.

Ensure these are noindexed, redirected, with a 301 effect codification and canonicalized truthful that Google knows which URL to dainty arsenic the master. Find retired much astir each of these successful my Technical SEO audit guide.

For example, don’t nexus to https://www.domain.com/hello/ and https://www.domain.com/hello and https://www.domain.com/example/hello.html

For example, domain.com/example/ and domain/com/Example/  are treated arsenic 2 duplicate pages.

Likewise, domain.com/example/ and domain.com/example are besides treated arsenic unsocial URLs by Google.

E-A-T (aka Content Quality)

As overmuch arsenic backlinks are important, there’s nary denying that contented SEO is conscionable as, if not much important. In different words, adjacent if a landing leafage has tons of links pointing to it, without large content, it won’t fertile anyplace adjacent arsenic well.

Auditing your pieces of contented is incredibly subjective, and nary instrumentality oregon bundle volition beryllium capable to definitively find whether oregon not your web pages are of “good quality”.

That being said, whether you’re creating a caller web leafage oregon auditing an existing one, you privation to guarantee that you’re creating the champion pieces of contented connected your topic.

That’s wherever E-A-T, a comparatively caller facet of SEO (search motor optimization), comes into play.

What is E-A-T?

E-A-T stands for Expertise-Authoritativeness-Trustworthiness of the main contented connected a web page.

Why is E-A-T Important?

E-A-T is 1 of the “most important factors to consider” erstwhile determining the prime of content, arsenic stated successful Google’s 168-page Search Quality Rater Guidelines.

In addition, Google besides lists E-A-T arsenic fig 1 connected the database of characteristics of high-quality pages.

The bottommost line? It’s beauteous important.

E-A-T becomes progressively important with YMYL (Your Money Your Life) topics. These “types of pages oregon topics could perchance interaction a person’s aboriginal happiness, health, fiscal stability, oregon safety”.

For example, E-A-T isn’t truthful important for hunt presumption similar “dad jokes” wherever it doesn’t truly substance if you don’t find the results funny.

But if you’re searching for ways to amended your recognition score, you’re going to privation to cognize that the accusation provided is written by an adept wrong the tract and is published connected a trustworthy website with authority.

You tin larn much astir Your Money Your Life successful conception 2.3 here.

As seen above, conveying E-A-T is present a indispensable if you privation to win successful SEO contiguous and cement your site’s spot arsenic an authorization wrong your niche. Therefore, incorporating it into your contented audit is powerfully recommended.

E-A-T Checklist

It’s incredibly hard for computers oregon algorithms to cognize whether contented conveys E-A-T, which is wherefore Google asks its quality SEO evaluators to supply feedback connected this.

Likewise, nary instrumentality oregon bundle volition spit retired an E-A-T people for you, truthful carrying retired an E-A-T audit is besides a manual endeavor.

To marque it arsenic casual arsenic imaginable for you, I’ve prepared an E-A-T checklist for your contented audit.

For example, if you person a blog station like this that rounds up the “best turntables of 2020”, you’re going to privation to alteration it to 2024.

A speedy mode to cheque for retired of day contented is to usage the intitle relation connected a Google hunt console.

Articles similar this would request to beryllium kept up to day truthful that the accusation you supply is relevant. Otherwise, metrics similar your bounce rate, conversion rate, etc volition suffer.

On apical of this, if you person an nonfiction oregon a blog station similar the above, you’re going to miss retired connected ranking for caller hunt presumption similar “best turntables 20241” etc.

You’d request to alteration the rubric tag, headlines, meta description, and the day that the station was updated to amusement Google that the contented is up to date. You tin find much accusation connected auditing and improving these factors via my On Page SEO audit checklist.

If your contented isn’t factually close oregon accurate, users are little apt to nexus to you oregon adjacent walk clip connected your website.

Encourage your visitors to permission reviews astir your concern oregon website connected trusted reappraisal websites similar Yelp and Trustpilot, oregon Amazon and Google Shopping for eCommerce websites.

Doing this volition not lone assistance physique E-A-T, but besides amended conversion rates and societal shares arsenic good arsenic trim bounce rates. This is due to the fact that users volition person a higher spot and, successful turn, volition walk much clip connected your web pages.

You tin enactment your writer bio astatine the apical oregon bottommost of a blog post.

Following this attack volition assistance improve your site’s E-A-T and show that you’ve created the champion imaginable portion of contented connected that topic.

Keyword Cannibalization

What is Keyword Cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization is wherever aggregate pages containing akin contented connected your website fertile for the aforesaid keyword.

For example, a blog station and merchandise leafage connected an eCommerce tract mightiness fertile for the aforesaid keyword.

In astir cases, this is unintentional, but each the aforesaid – keyword cannibalization tin perchance wounded your SEO and selling efforts.

Why is Keyword Cannibalization Important?

Apart from the information that cannibalized keywords interaction your site’s quality to rank, determination are respective different reasons wherefore you should absorption connected this successful your contented audits:

It’s besides worthy noting that not each cases of keyword cannibalization are atrocious – sometimes, it’s beneficial. The peculiar lawsuit is wherever respective pages are ranking successful the apical positions for the aforesaid keyword, which means that you’re expanding your chances of users clicking connected your website.

Fixing Keyword Cannibalization Checklist

De-Optimizing Unimportant Pages

When to usage this: When 1 of the competing URls is outranking the other, i.e. leafage A is ranking successful presumption 15 but leafage B is ranking successful presumption 79 for the cannibalized keyword. However, leafage B is inactive ranking for respective different important presumption and is bringing successful a bully magnitude of integrated traffic.

In this case, you should look to de-optimize the:

You’re fundamentally trying to region immoderate notation of the cannibalized keyword from the undesired page.

Merge Similar Pages

When to usage this: erstwhile the competing pages person precise akin content.

In this case, you should:

Delete Undesired Page

When to usage this: When 1 of the competing pages is outranking the other, i.e. leafage A is ranking successful presumption 15, but leafage B is ranking successful presumption 79 for the cannibalized keyword, and importantly, leafage B doesn’t connection overmuch worth to the user.

In this case, you should:

Implement Noindex Tag

When to usage this: When the undesired competing leafage is inactive utile for visitors, but you don’t privation it to origin immoderate further cannibalization.

In this case, you should:

Implement A Canonical Tag

When to usage this: When you privation to support the competing pages arsenic they connection worth to the user, but you privation leafage A to fertile implicit leafage B.

In this case, you should:

FAQs

What Is an SEO Content Audit?

An SEO contented audit is simply a thorough valuation of a website’s contented to place strengths and weaknesses successful narration to SEO. It aims to amended the site’s visibility and ranking connected hunt engines by addressing issues similar readability, keyword usage, and contented relevance.

How Do You Do SEO Content Audits?

To bash SEO contented audits, you systematically reappraisal your website’s content, analyse its performance, and place areas for improvement. This process involves knowing hunt intent, enhancing readability, rectifying bladed and duplicate content, and ensuring E-A-T guidelines are met.

What Should a Website Content Audit Include?

A website contented audit should see an valuation of hunt intent, readability, bladed and duplicate content, and E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) guidelines. It should besides impact the usage of SEO tools and checklists to streamline the process and guarantee a broad review.

The Bottom Line

Without large contented (and a coagulated contented strategy), your website volition conflict to rank, and your conversion rates, societal shares etc aren’t going to improve.

That’s wherefore making contented audits should beryllium a regular measurement wrong your SEO and contented selling strategy.

Whether it’s blog posts oregon different halfway areas of your website, pursuing this contented audit template and process volition assistance amended your chances of driving much integrated postulation and expanding assemblage engagement to your web pages.

With this audit, you’ll beryllium capable to place the close intent for each leafage connected your tract and marque definite that the contented provided is precisely what the searcher is looking for. If it’s not, your bounce complaint volition apt summation and the mean clip connected leafage volition drop.

You besides learned the value of utilizing short, elemental sentences that volition beryllium easier for some users and Google to understand. You’ve seen however issues related to bladed content, duplicate content, and keyword cannibalization tin drastically impact your site’s quality to rank.

Finally, we besides looked astatine however to optimize your contented to convey Expertise, Authority and Trust signals.

Paired with the technical audit and an on leafage SEO audit, this contented audit process volition guarantee that you’re well-positioned to scope your SEO and contented selling goals.