Website redesign content audit: decide what to keep

Create one row for each public page#

Start with the live page addresses from your site and sitemap. Add pages your staff still send to customers, even if they are hard to find in the menu. Include useful documents such as a service brochure when they form part of the customer journey.

Copy the page title and write its purpose in one sentence. Then add the person who can confirm its facts. A service lead may own the scope, while the office manager owns the opening hours. Do not assume the web designer knows which details are current.

Keep a copy of the old content before editing begins. Give the working inventory a date and a clear owner. If two people use different versions, page decisions can drift before the build starts.

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Check the customer need behind the page#

Ask staff which questions customers repeat. Review enquiries and support notes without copying private customer details into a shared content sheet. These can reveal gaps a page count will miss.

GOV.UK's user research guidance recommends learning needs from evidence rather than assumptions. Apply that idea to your audit: separate what customers asked from what the team thinks they might ask.

For an imaginary garden care business, customers may ask whether green waste removal is included. That could justify a clear answer on the service page. It does not automatically justify a whole new page if a short section answers the need.

Source for this section: [1] GOV.UK guidance on learning user needs

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Use traffic as one clue, not the whole verdict#

Add search visits, useful enquiries and other available evidence to important rows. Keep the date range and note any tracking gaps. A page may look quiet because the service is seasonal or because visitors contact the business by phone.

Also ask whether staff use the page during sales. A detailed scope page may help customers after their first visit without attracting many people from search. That is still a useful job.

Do not create a score that hides the reason for a decision. A simple note such as used in quote replies, facts current, needs clearer exclusions can be more helpful than an unexplained number. Record missing evidence as missing rather than zero.

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Choose a content action for each page#

Keep a page when its job and facts still fit. Update it when the purpose is right but the answer is unclear or out of date. Merge only when one page can satisfy the same need more clearly. Remove content when it no longer has a useful or required role.

Google's helpful content guidance asks whether a page gives clear, reliable and original value. Use those questions in the review. A new layout cannot turn an unsupported claim into good evidence.

The fictional decisions below show how the reason leads to the action. They are not results from a client audit.

Source for this section: [2] Google guidance on helpful and reliable content

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Give claims a source and an approver#

Highlight claims about price, response time, qualifications and results. For each one, record where the fact comes from and who can approve it. If the claim cannot be supported, change or remove it before the designer uses it in a large heading.

Check whether customer quotes and project images are approved for publication. Keep the permission record in the right business system. A public page brief only needs to say whether the asset is approved and where the owner can find the record.

Write an example of a better answer when it helps the writer. Replace great service for everyone with the confirmed tasks, area and next step. Specific facts give the writer something useful to work with without inventing proof.

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Hand URL decisions to the migration owner#

A content decision and an address decision are related but separate. A rewritten page can often keep its existing address. When addresses change, Google recommends mapping the old URLs to relevant new destinations and updating links.

Do not send every removed page to the homepage. Google warns that irrelevant redirects can be treated as soft errors. If content is gone and has no relevant replacement, the technical owner should use an appropriate missing page response.

Add the approved destination to the inventory, then ask the builder to validate the actual behavior. Keep the technical migration checklist separate from the editorial approval, so neither is mistaken for the other.

Source for this section: [3] Google guidance on site moves with URL changes

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Finish with a brief the team can build from#

For each changed page, hand over the audience, main question, required facts, approved proof and next action. Link its place in the new menu and note any missing asset. Mark which decisions are approved and which still need an owner.

Review a small group of pages together before applying the format everywhere. The homepage, one service page and one guide can expose gaps in the brief while changes are still easy.

At the final content review, read the page against its original customer question. Check that the approved facts survived the rewrite. After launch, keep the inventory as a review list and choose dates based on how often those facts change.

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Common questions#

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