A content audit is how you decide where effort goes — which pages to keep, refresh, merge, or prune. Done well it produces a slimmer but stronger site, because consolidation concentrates authority instead of diluting it. This walkthrough turns the four-phase framework into a linear process you can run end to end.

Step 1: Set your audit scope

Match the audit’s size to your capacity so it actually gets finished. A full audit covers every page (do it annually or after a migration); a topical audit covers one cluster or pillar (quarterly); a health audit checks freshness, duplication, and E-E-A-T after a core update or traffic dip; a pruning audit targets low-value pages for merging or removal.

Step 2: Build the inventory

Create a complete list of URLs, then attach the data you’ll score against. Pull URLs, dates, and metadata from your CMS, structural data from a crawler like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs, and performance data from GA4 and Search Console. For each URL, capture its SEO elements, organic traffic and CTR, engagement, conversion role, and how AI-ready its formatting is.

Step 3: Analyze the data

Read the numbers as diagnostics, not verdicts. Quantitatively, low traffic suggests weak ranking or intent mismatch, high impressions with low CTR point to weak titles, and a stuck average position flags a refresh candidate. Qualitatively, judge accuracy, intent match, information gain (does the page add unique value or just repeat the consensus?), readability, and E-E-A-T.

Step 4: Score each page

Turn judgment into a consistent, defensible number. Score every page on weighted factors: traffic and visibility (25%), engagement (20%), conversions (20%), quality and E-E-A-T (20%), and relevance or intent fit (15%). A weighted score keeps keep-or-cut decisions from becoming gut calls.

Step 5: Assign an action

Give every page exactly one disposition based on its score. Keep and monitor strong performers, refresh pages with declining CTR or dated facts, expand thin coverage, consolidate overlapping or cannibalizing pages, redirect or prune dead weight — always with a 301 when removing — and repurpose high-traffic, low-conversion pages into new formats.

Step 6: Log owners and measure impact

An audit that doesn’t ship changes nothing. Record an owner and a revision date against each action so work doesn’t stall, then judge the results over the following weeks: organic traffic per cluster, ranking movement on revised pages (usually visible in 30–90 days), conversion uplift, and a lower indexed-page count confirming effective pruning. Run the whole cycle on a cadence — quality is a posture, not a one-off project.

Full guide → Content Audit Framework: Evaluating and Enhancing SEO Performance