If you’re spending time writing blog posts but not getting the results you want, you’re not alone. Content marketing takes effort. But if your blog has started to feel like a junk drawer full of half-used ideas, outdated posts, and random how-to’s, it might be time for a blog content audit.
A blog content audit helps clean up what you’ve already created. It can reveal where you’re missing opportunities, what content’s pulling its weight, and what just needs to go. It’s the smartest way to make your old content start working harder, instead of constantly churning out new posts that don’t do much.
Here’s why a blog content audit should be on your to-do list—and how to get started.
Quick Takeaways
- A blog content audit reviews existing blog posts to assess performance, accuracy, and relevance.
- You’ll find gaps in your content and outdated posts that need updates or removal.
- Content audits help improve SEO, engagement, and lead generation.
- An audit gives you a clear plan to reuse and improve your best-performing content.
- You won’t need to guess what works—data will show you exactly where to focus.
What Is a Blog Content Audit?
A blog content audit is a full review of your blog content. It’s a way to organize, evaluate, and fix existing blog posts. Instead of writing something new every time traffic drops, an audit helps you focus on improving what you already have.
Think of it like doing a yearly clean-out of your closet. You’re not throwing everything away. You’re figuring out what still fits, what needs some repair, and what doesn’t belong there anymore. With blogs, it’s the same idea. Some posts are still relevant but need fresher links or better formatting. Some just don’t align with your goals anymore.
You’ll walk away from a content audit knowing what stays, what goes, and what can be better. It’s one of the most efficient ways to improve traffic and engagement without writing 20 new posts.
Why You Need One for Your Website
Old content piles up. Blog posts from five years ago might still be live, even if the information is outdated or off-brand. That can drag down your site quality, especially when search engines crawl your content.
An audit solves that. You can:
- Identify top-performing content and boost it even more
- Spot outdated posts and update them with new data or sources
- Merge smaller posts into larger, more valuable pieces
- Redirect or remove underperforming posts to clean up your site
It’s not just about deleting. A good content audit can bring some of your best ideas back to life—updated, polished, and ready to drive new traffic.
How To Conduct a Blog Content Audit
Let’s walk through the steps. You don’t need a giant team or expensive tools. Just a little time, a spreadsheet, and access to your analytics.
Step 1: Create an Inventory
List every blog post currently on your website. You can do this manually, or use a tool like Screaming Frog or a simple WordPress plugin. Make sure your spreadsheet includes:
- Title
- URL
- Publish date
- Author
- Word count
- Target keyword (if applicable)
This becomes your audit base. You’ll use it to track updates, identify trends, and spot any problem posts.
Step 2: Pull Performance Data
Now check how your content’s actually doing. Tools like Google Analytics and Search Console can show you:
- Page views
- Bounce rate
- Average time on page
- Conversion rate (if you’ve set one)
- Click-through rate (from email or social posts)
Color-code your data if it helps. Maybe green for high-performing, yellow for average, and red for underperforming. That way, you get a visual sense of what’s working right away.
Step 3: Review SEO and Technical Factors
Strong content still needs technical support. Look for:
- Broken links
- Missing meta descriptions
- Duplicate content
- Slow page load times
- Poor mobile formatting
You don’t need to be an SEO expert, but fixing these basics can lift your rankings.
Step 4: Evaluate Quality and Relevance
Is the post still helpful? Is it well-written? Does it match your brand’s voice today? Sometimes your older content doesn’t reflect your current tone, product focus, or audience.
Ask yourself:
- Is this still accurate?
- Would someone learn something useful from it?
- Can I improve it with a graphic or updated stat?
- Does it link to newer posts or resources?
Add a column to your spreadsheet for comments. Mark posts for revision, rewrite, or removal.
Step 5: Take Action
Now it’s time to do something with what you found. You’ll probably have three categories:
- Keep As-Is: These posts are performing well and don’t need updates.
- Update or Improve: Posts with potential, but need better formatting, SEO, or clarity.
- Remove or Redirect: Content that no longer serves your audience or your goals.
Redirecting removed posts is important—especially if they’ve earned backlinks or had some traffic. Use a 301 redirect to send users to a newer, related post.
How Often Should You Audit?
You don’t need to do this every month. Twice a year is enough for most sites. If you publish dozens of posts a month, quarterly might make sense.
Audits don’t need to be massive, either. You can tackle one section of your blog at a time. Start with your top 50 posts, or those written more than 12 months ago.
Benefits of a Blog Content Audit
You’re not just improving your blog for fun. Content audits lead to real results:
- Better SEO: Updated posts often rank higher.
- More Traffic: Improved content brings new readers.
- Longer Session Times: Clean formatting and stronger calls to action keep people on your site.
- Higher Conversions: Clearer messaging leads to better outcomes, whether it’s form fills or downloads.
- Faster Publishing: Once you repurpose old content, your calendar fills faster—with less effort.
What To Do After Your Audit
You’ve got a refreshed blog. Great. Now build on that momentum.
Start planning your content calendar based on the gaps you found. Maybe you noticed several older posts about beginner topics—but nothing advanced. Or you realized half your how-to guides link to outdated tools. Fill those gaps.
Repurpose your updates into newsletters, infographics, or social media snippets. You’ve already done the work—use it in more places.
Blog Audits Aren’t Just for Big Sites
Smaller sites sometimes think audits are only worth doing when you’ve published 300+ posts. Not true.
Even with 25 blog posts, you’ll find ways to make your site better. And unlike writing new content from scratch, you already have something to work with.
An audit gives your blog a second wind. Some posts just need new life breathed into them. Others were never optimized in the first place.
Either way, you’ll walk away knowing exactly what to fix, reuse, or highlight.
Keep Your Blog Working as Hard as You Do
Content marketing shouldn’t be a guessing game. A blog content audit gives you hard data and clear next steps. It helps you stop publishing just for the sake of publishing—and start getting results from what’s already live.
It doesn’t take fancy tools. Just time, patience, and a willingness to look honestly at your content. If you’re tired of writing new blog posts that get ignored, stop and look back. Your best-performing content might already be on your site, you just haven’t cleaned it up yet!
The good news? We can help with an in-depth technical blog audit! We analyze what’s working, what’s outdated, and what’s missing. Then we build a strategy around your audience, your competitors, and the topics that matter most to your business. You’ll walk away with a clear plan and 100–200 SEO-focused article ideas to move your blog forward.