Content Strategy & Research

Content Audits

Get a reasoned keep, fix, merge, or cut decision for every page before making changes.

Your site contains pages that perform, pages that have slipped, and pages nobody remembers creating. A Content Audit gives every URL a keep, fix, merge, or cut decision based on performance and quality evidence. You walk away with a keep, fix, merge, or cut decision for every page in scope, the safe order to act in, and a post-change review already defined.

Review your content estate
Team organizing URL cards into keep, fix, merge, and cut groups

Some of the 500+ brands we've worked with

See all references
  • Hyundai
  • Yeditepe Üniversitesi
  • Güven Hastanesi
  • Odeabank
  • Canbebe
  • Doritos
  • Teyit.org
  • Amazon
  • BMW
  • Shell
  • PepsiCo
  • Red Bull
  • Decathlon
  • MediaMarkt
  • Bayer
  • Sanofi
  • EY
  • KPMG
  • GE
  • 3M
  • Domino’s
  • Lexus
  • Trendyol
  • Hepsiburada

How we run it

How each page gets a decision

We move from a verified inventory to a page-level action plan, with evidence supporting every decision.

  1. Build a verified inventory

    We collect every canonical URL and compare it with analytics and search performance rather than relying on a potentially outdated sitemap. The inventory is accepted as reliable only after a strategist checks a sample against the live site.

    A complete URL inventory verified against the live site and available data.

  2. Apply consistent criteria to every page

    We assess traffic, rankings, backlinks, content quality, and business ownership using the same criteria across the inventory. The strategist opens every borderline page and every proposed deletion before assigning its action.

    A scored inventory with quality and performance flags for each URL.

  3. Assign a keep, fix, merge, or cut action

    Every page receives one of four actions and a written reason. No page is removed on intuition alone. A strategist approves every keep, fix, merge, or cut decision before the action is finalized.

    A URL-level action sheet with evidence and reasoning for every decision.

  4. Sequence the changes safely

    We order redirects, consolidations, and content updates to protect live traffic and existing links. A strategist sequences the rollout to avoid disrupting pages that still receive traffic.

    A prioritized roadmap with redirect destinations and consolidation targets.

  5. Review the results after launch

    Once the changes are live, we check for broken redirects, ranking changes, and issues the plan did not anticipate. A strategist reviews the post-change evidence and decides which items, if any, require follow-up.

    A post-change measurement note with any pages or issues that need another review.

Nothing gets deleted on a score alone

Scoring makes a large URL inventory manageable. Agents apply the agreed criteria across hundreds or thousands of pages and bring the unusual or borderline cases to the surface. They never authorize a deletion or consolidation. A Zeo strategist opens each removal candidate, compares the data with the live page, and signs off before the site changes. If the evidence leaves two plausible actions, the audit records that uncertainty instead of hiding it behind a score.

What you get

What comes out of the audit

The action sheet gives each page a decision, while the rollout plan and follow-up review reduce execution risk.

  • an audit report with flagged rows

    Page-level action sheet

    A keep, fix, merge, or cut decision for every page in scope, with the supporting evidence.

  • a URL redirect mapping sheet

    Consolidation and redirect plan

    A precise record of which pages will be consolidated and where each redirect will lead.

  • a measurement note with a small trend line

    Post-change review note

    The signals to monitor after launch and the conditions that should trigger further investigation.

We call it done when: every page in scope has an evidence-backed decision, a person has approved every deletion or merge, and the post-change review is defined.

Who it fits

Evidence for keep, fix, merge, or cut decisions

An audit evaluates pages that already exist. If you are deciding what to create next, a research or planning method will fit better.

A good fit when

  • Your URL inventory has outgrown anyone's memory, so nobody knows which pages still exist on the live site.
  • You suspect thin pages, outdated claims, or competing URLs are creating problems, but the evidence has not been assembled.
  • Pages are about to be deleted, merged, or redirected, but the team still lacks one evidence-backed action list and rollout order.

Better handled as other work when

  • You want every low-traffic page removed automatically. Traffic alone does not determine whether a page is valuable.
  • The plan starts from an incomplete analytics export without checking it against the live site, so the inventory itself remains unverified.
  • Traffic recovery has to be guaranteed before any page changes, and an audit controls neither technical indexability nor implementation.

People who write and ship this content

Some of these consultants write the pages themselves. Others plan distribution or check how a piece performs once it's live, so the team below covers more than one stage of the work.

Content we've produced on this topic

Articleby Can MutioğluFive Steps for Optimizing Thin ContentArticleby Samet ÖzsüleymanMaking Efficient Decisions with Correlation Analysis in SEO

Tools we use

Tools behind this work

  • Screaming Frog

    the crawl that builds a verified inventory of every live page in one pass

  • Ahrefs

    which pages carry real backlink equity, so a cut doesn't waste it

  • LinkChecker.pro

    retests every planned redirect before the sequenced changes go live

  • Airtable

    the page action sheet: one row per URL, decision and reasoning attached

  • Google Search Console

    per-page impressions and clicks, so a quiet page isn't mistaken for a dead one

Start the work

Need a clear decision for every page on your site?

Send us the domain. The audit will return a reasoned keep, fix, merge, or cut call for every page in scope, along with the order for acting on it.
Talk to a Content Marketing specialist
Two people shaking hands on the start of the work

Before we start

Frequently Asked Questions

Will every low-traffic page be removed?

Low traffic alone never settles the action. A page may answer a real audience need or support another page that ranks, so its role is reviewed before removal enters the plan.

What happens if the analytics data is incomplete?

Missing fields are listed explicitly, and the action plan states where they limit the answer.

Can Zeo implement the redirects?

We provide a precise redirect map naming the destination for every consolidated page. Whether we implement it or your team does comes down to CMS access and how the rollout is sequenced. Either way the order matters more than the speed, because redirects and consolidations get staged to protect pages that still carry traffic and links. After launch we check for broken redirects and ranking changes, and anything the plan didn't anticipate goes into the follow-up note.

How often should the audit be repeated?

The timing depends on how quickly the content estate grows. A yearly review catches most accumulated issues, and the audit will flag any reason to return sooner.