Website content audit: decide what to keep, rewrite or retire

Set the audit boundary before reading every paragraph

A content audit answers a specific question: which existing material should the new site carry forward, and in what condition? It is an editorial inventory, not a site-structure plan or a redirect implementation. Include service pages, project examples, FAQs, downloads, and contact details when people still use them. Decide the review boundary before the team begins editing.

Give every item a purpose. A service page might help a buyer decide whether to ask for a quote. A downloadable specification might help an existing customer prepare for delivery. A page with little traffic can still answer a real question, while a popular page can contain facts that no longer apply.

Google’s guidance asks site owners to check whether content is helpful, accurate, original, and useful to an intended audience. Apply those questions to the material in front of you. Do not turn them into a rule that every page must be long, attract search traffic, or use the same writing style.

map approved keep and retire decisions to URL destinationsreview homepage wording as its own buyer task

Build an inventory and name who checks the facts

Export the current page list and add files or content that live outside the main navigation. For every row, write the current address or filename, the people it serves, the job it does, and the source of its facts. Name the person who checks each item and record the date of the last review. “Marketing” is a department, not a reviewer.

Separate factual review from editing. A writer can make a paragraph shorter, but the person responsible for a service needs to confirm its scope, eligibility, materials, dates, or process. If the source of a claim is unknown, mark the item as unverified and assign someone to locate evidence before rewriting it as fact.

Use the fields below as a working sheet. Add a row for each page or document, then update the decision and next owner as you review it. The example fields are a template, not evidence about a real business.

Keep writing and fact-checking separate when different people handle them. The writer controls the wording. The person responsible for the service confirms whether the detail is true now. If no one owns that check, mark the row open and assign someone to resolve it.

Check accuracy and evidence before polishing style

Review details that change: service boundaries, opening hours, staff names, delivery areas, product specifications, booking steps, and contact details. Ask the person responsible for the service to confirm each item against a current source. Record the source in the inventory so the next writer knows whether a fact came from a service record, product sheet or old draft.

Look for statements that sound precise but have no support. A testimonial needs an approved source. A project description needs confirmation from someone familiar with the work. A promise about timing or availability needs an owner who can keep it current. If nobody can verify a claim, remove or qualify it until the business has evidence.

Check images and captions alongside the words. A photograph can show a discontinued product or work the business did not perform. Confirm the image and caption with the person who approves public materials. If approval is unclear, leave the image out.

Choose one of four decisions for each item

Keep the page when its facts remain accurate and it still serves a clear purpose. Minor corrections do not require a full rewrite. Record the source and the reviewer so another person can check the same facts later.

Rewrite when the subject is still useful but the explanation is outdated, unclear, incomplete, or aimed at the wrong buyer. Combine pages when they repeat the same answer and one page can present the information without hiding meaningful differences. Retire a page when its purpose has ended and no useful content needs to move elsewhere.

Make the reason visible. “Old” is not a decision. State what changed, which material to carry forward, and who should review the final wording. If the decision affects a URL, pass it to the person maintaining the relaunch map. Do not implement redirects as part of this editorial inventory.

Apply the inventory to a hypothetical repair business

Imagine a fictional home-repair company with an old “boiler checks” page, a second page called “heating maintenance,” and a PDF listing last year’s appointment window. The names make the pages look different, but the owner needs to establish whether both services still exist and whether the two pages answer the same customer question.

The owner confirms that annual maintenance remains available and that the boiler page contains the clearest preparation instructions. The writer carries those instructions into a current maintenance page, rewrites the opening to explain who the service suits, and marks the expired PDF for retirement. The owner verifies the final service details before approval.

The inventory records the facts retained, the old file’s status, and each owner. The migration lead later decides what to do with the former URLs. Keeping that implementation separate prevents an editorial decision from silently turning into a technical change.

The final rows could read: maintenance page, keep after review, owner confirms annual availability; boiler-check page, combine, writer carries over preparation steps; old appointment PDF, retire, owner confirms it is no longer current. These rows separate the content decision from the later treatment of each address.

Turn each rewrite into a bounded editorial task

A rewrite task should say who the page serves, what decision the reader needs to make, which facts are confirmed, and what remains unknown. Give the writer source material and name the person who approves factual statements. That starts the work without reopening the full website brief or changing its scope.

Ask the reviewer to check the draft for accuracy first, then review whether the explanation is easy to follow. Keep both rounds in the inventory. If the service owner changes a requirement, record the new source and the date. If the writer lacks a fact, leave a visible question for the owner instead of filling the gap with a guess.

For a combined page, list the unique details from each old item before drafting. This prevents a short page from erasing an important exception. For a retired page, note whether a useful answer belongs on another page. The writer can then make a deliberate move instead of copying or deleting material without context.

Close the audit with decisions someone can act on

At the end, filter the inventory by decision and owner. The keep list needs a final accuracy check. Rewrite and combine items need a writer, source material, and reviewer. Retired items need an approval record and a note about information to preserve. An item with no owner remains unresolved; it is not ready for publication.

Hand the approved decisions to the relaunch lead with the existing address, new content destination if known, and any buyer route that must remain available. The relaunch lead can translate those decisions into URL mapping and redirects. Use a separate status field for that implementation, so “content approved” does not get mistaken for “redirect tested.”

Retain the inventory after publication. It gives the business a factual reference for future edits and makes ownership visible when a claim changes. Schedule a review when a service, product, or operating detail changes, not because a fixed calendar interval automatically proves the content is stale.

After publication, compare the approved inventory with the pages that went live and note any material change made during production. Keep unresolved rows visible with a named owner and a next action.

Common questions