How to Do an SEO Content Audit

Has your website traffic plateaued (or worse, fallen) lately? Are your conversions stagnating? Bounce rate rising? These are all signs that it’s time to do an SEO content audit.  

In this article, we’ll guide you step-by-step through how to audit your content for SEO, including how it differs from a regular content audit. 

In This Article, We’ll Cover: 

• What information you need to gather to make your audit as thorough as possible
• How to spot underperforming content and what to change to help it rank better
• How to create an action plan with your next steps so that you can start seeing results

Get a best-in-class suite of tools for your content marketing strategy! Check out Originality.ai’s Predictive SEO Tool, AI Checker, Plagiarism Checker, and Grammar Checker.

What Is an SEO Content Audit?

An SEO content audit is a deep dive into your website’s content to help you uncover areas of improvement when it comes to your search engine rankings. 

That means taking steps to make sure your pages are optimized for the user’s search intent, that they guide the user through the customer journey, and use proper SEO best practices, including: 

• Keyword optimization
• Technical SEO
• Metadata
• Internal links
• Site structure

SEO Content Audit vs. a Regular Content Audit?

A regular content audit often focuses on things like:

• Brand voice consistency
• Audience personas
• Content strategy
• Readability
• Identifying content gaps
• Data review (from engagement to traffic and conversions)

The aim is to improve and optimize content so that it’s more engaging and appealing to your audience. 

An SEO content audit, on the other hand, focuses on optimizing your content to be understood and rank well in the search engines.

Both types of audits are necessary and designed to improve engagement with your site, which is one of many different signals search engines like Google and others use to determine your ranking. 

So it’s not a matter of “should I do an SEO content audit or a regular content audit?” The answer to both is “yes.”

Now, let’s move on to the individual steps: 

Step 1: Gather and Analyze Website Data

The first step is to gather important data about your site to serve as a starting point (keep in mind that some of these metrics may overlap with a content audit — make a note of which to optimize your workflow). 

You can use a variety of free and premium tools to gather this information; whichever you’re most comfortable with and have experience using. 

You’ll want to gather: 

• URLs: including a full list of all indexed pages (check Google Search Console)
• Page titles and meta descriptions: as you’ll want to look for missing, duplicate, or poorly written metadata.
• Headings (H1, H2, H3): to make sure you’re using your primary and secondary keywords in them.
• Word count: for any thin content that needs to be expanded upon.
• Keyword rankings: You may need a keyword tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush to find out where each of your pages ranks for its target keywords.
• Search intent: To make sure your page aligns with the user intent you’re aiming for (is it informational, transactional, etc.). 
• Click-through rate (CTR): Google Search Console can also help you spot pages with a low CTR that need better metadata
• Organic traffic trends: Use Google Analytics to see which pages have fallen lower in the SERPs and need a refresh.
• Bounce rate and time on page: To see if there are any engagement issues.
• Internal and external links: To check how your links are distributed and also if there are any broken links.
• Backlink profile: To find pages with a high or low number of backlinks. 
• Content optimization scores: Use the Originality.ai Content Optimizer to identify which blog posts need improvements to drive better rankings.

Step 2: Identify Underperforming Content

Once you’ve got the aforementioned information, it’s time to go through and flag the pages that need to be optimized for SEO. 

• Pages that aren’t getting much traffic might need anything from a little keyword update to a complete rewrite. 
• Pages that have low engagement might indicate a disconnect between the user’s search intent and the content on your page. 
• You may also have instances of keyword cannibalization, where two or more of your pages are competing for the same keywords. It’s best to consolidate these where you can. 
• Keep in mind as well that low-value content doesn’t rank as well on Google, so you may need to take the time to merge or improve pages that are unusually thin on content (read more about Google penalties and AI content and Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines).

Streamline the process of checking your published content for AI with the Originality.ai Site Scan.

Step 3: Make On-Page SEO Improvements

The great thing about doing an SEO content audit is that, oftentimes, you can improve your rankings with just a few on-page SEO improvements. 

Follow this checklist to make sure you’re covering all of the basics: 

• Make sure your title tags are unique and keyword-rich, and that they’re 60 characters or less.
• Keep your meta descriptions interesting, enticing, and ideally under 160 characters.
• Use keywords naturally in your headings (avoid keyword stuffing) and follow a clear hierarchy in your content.
• Connect related content using keyword-rich internal links.
• Use short paragraphs, bullet points and images to keep your content readable and visually scannable.
• Expand on thin content areas to cover topics in greater depth (get tips on creating people-first content).
• Add structured data such as FAQ schema, product schema, and more to improve your site’s visibility in the search engine results pages

Step 4: Fix Technical SEO Issues

As well as making all of the changes in the previous steps, technical SEO is an important consideration. Check Google Search Console to make sure that your pages can indeed be indexed. Make sure you’re using a mobile-responsive template and that your page speed is fully optimized. 

Get more tips on SEO in our SEO basics guide.

Step 5: Improve Site Structure and Internal Linking

Internally linking your pages doesn’t just keep users engaged longer, it also helps search engines navigate your content and better understand how pages are connected. 

Make sure your best-ranking pages have internal links and use descriptive anchor text (“Learn more about content marketing” instead of “Click here to read more”). 

Then, fix any orphan pages, which are pages that don’t have any internal links pointing to them. 

Take the time to optimize your site’s navigation to direct users to your high-value content. That way, you can be sure that people and search engines alike are able to find what you’re publishing. 

Step 6: Analyze What Your Competitors Are Doing

Several tools, including Ahrefs, SEMrush, and SimilarWeb, can help you conduct a competitor analysis. 

Take a look at their top-performing content:

• What keywords and formats are they using? 
• What topics do they currently rank for that you don’t? 
• What topics are you ranking for that they don’t? (so you can stay at the top!) 

Don’t forget to do a backlink analysis on your competition as well to see who’s linking to them, and how you might earn those backlinks as well. 

Routinely doing a competitor analysis can help you keep a finger on the pulse of what your competition is up to. 

Step 7: Create Your Priority Plan of Action

Doing an SEO content audit seems like a tall order to fill, especially if you have hundreds, or even thousands, of pages. The good news is that not all pages need the same amount of attention. 

Take the time to organize fixes into three categories: 

1. Quick wins: These are the pages that need little metadata updates, broken link fixes, or internal links added to them; they’re quick and easy to update. 
2. Moderate fixes: These are the pages that need a bit more, including content refreshers and better keyword optimization.
3. Major overhauls: These pages need a lot of attention, such as merging two different pieces of content (redirecting pages), overhauling the site structure, or rewriting poorly-performing content. 

Don’t forget that even after your content audit is done to track and measure how your efforts are paying off over time. 

Every few weeks, take the time to check Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and other SEO tools to see how your organic traffic, keyword rankings, CTR, and other metrics are doing, like bounce rate. 

These are all indicators that you’re on the right track! 

SEO Content Audit: Your Next Steps

Doing an SEO content audit isn’t a once-and-done task. Like with other SEO steps, it’s an ongoing process. 

Doing an SEO content audit regularly makes sure that your content is as optimized, competitive and engaging as it can be, while still staying true to the latest search engine optimization best practices. 

By periodically analyzing your content and improving it, you can make sure that everything you write and publish is designed to get the highest possible ranking, which in turn means more organic traffic and higher engagement from your ideal customer. 

From here, focus on the quick wins first, then keep optimizing and monitoring your results. Run an SEO content audit at least twice a year so you can continue to maintain those high standards that your brand is known for! 

Get a best-in-class suite of tools to streamline your content marketing projects with Originality.ai’s Predictive SEO Tool, AI Checker, Plagiarism Checker, and Grammar Checker.

Then, read more about content marketing best practices:

• Content Marketing vs. SEO: Top Similarities and Differences
• Content Marketing for Startups: The 2025 Definitive Guide
• 7 Ways to Leverage AI for Social Media Posts
• 5 Mobile Content Marketing Strategies & Tips
• 25 Content Marketing Lead Generation Ideas