How to Audit Content for Better SEO

Google’s frequent algorithm updates produce nonstop fluctuations in organic traffic and rankings. Content audits are essential to identify lost rankings, revive declining traffic, and find new topics.

Here’s how I audit content for better search engine optimization.

Evaluate Lost Traffic

Traffic declines from organic search can occur for multiple reasons.

• Over time, new articles push current ones deep into the archives. Updating articles with substantially new info and a new date will likely help regain traffic.

• Google’s core updates often focus on searchers’ intent. Many queries imply multiple intents. For example, a search for “backyard barbeque” could suggest a need for information (how to cook barbeque) or purchase options (where to buy a grill). This type of loss is not easy to fix, likely requiring a new landing page or article.

• Rankings of competitors’ pages surpassed yours. Shifting from position 1 to 2 can result in huge traffic losses. That, too, is not easy to fix. Closely analyze your competitors’ pages and backlinks to identify what may have led to their ranking increase.

• Changes by Google in search result pages, such as adding sections and lowering the visibility of organic results. There’s no fix.

Regardless of the cause, the first step is to know which pages account for the loss. Search Console is an easy and free tool for diagnosing organic traffic drops.

1. Go to the “Performance” section.

2. Click “Search results” > “Date” > “Compare.”

3. Select “Compare last 3 months to previous period” or “Compare last 3 months year over year,” depending on your audit frequency.

4. Click on the “Pages” and sort by “Clicks difference.”

5. Click any URL in the first column.

6. Click “Queries” and sort again by “Clicks difference” to see the search terms causing the biggest traffic drops.

Now search for those queries (keywords) in Google to evaluate what may have caused the decrease.

Search Console is an easy and free tool for diagnosing organic traffic drops. Click image to enlarge.

Identify Opportunities

There are two main ways to improve your organic search performance.

Identify and improve page 1 rankings

Even climbing one position on the first page will likely increase traffic substantially. Optimizing the page copy by adding more keywords and creating more internal backlinks will likely help.

To identify these pages, use Search Console’s Performance section again.

• Click “Search results” > “Average position” on top of the graph.
• Click the filter option (inverted triangle) and select “Position.”
• Click “Filter by Position” for “Greater than” 2.

Sort the queries by the number of clicks to see the top (and bottom) performers. Again, a page that climbs even one position will experience a huge traffic increase.

In Search Console, filter “Average Position” for “Greater than” 2. Click image to enlarge.

Identify and improve pages with external backlinks

Pages with many backlinks but few searchable keywords often fail to rank. For those pages, research keywords to help Google understand them.

Semrush’s backlink research tool can identify top-linked pages:

• Log in to Semrush and click “Backlink Analytics” under “Link Building.”
• Paste your URL and select “Root domain.”
• Click the “Indexed pages” tab.

The report is sorted by the number of linked domains for each page on your site. Heavily linked pages are easier to improve, rankings-wise.

Use Search Console for ranking opportunities, or run keyword research tools to find new queries.

Semrush’s backlink research tool can identify top-linked pages. Click image to enlarge.