Content Audit Spreadsheet
Import canonical URLs and add observed organic sessions, query/rank context, backlinks, freshness, quality score, and overlap status. The editable recommendation formula prompts Keep, Update, Consolidate, Review removal, or Review manually; a missing quality score remains a manual review. A manual override controls the final action, and the Summary tab counts reviewed actions. The separate Work Queue lets a team assign owners and validation steps. Review a page’s links, conversions, and history before any removal or consolidation.
What you get
- URL audit sheet with evidence and 1–5 quality rubric
- Recommendation and manual-override formulas
- Final-action counts on the Summary tab
- Work queue plus field definitions and import steps
Who it's for: Content strategists and SEO managers auditing existing site content for quality and performance.
What this template is
The Content Audit Template is an Excel workbook for deciding, page by page, which content to keep, update, consolidate or review for removal. It is deliberately conservative: suggestions are triage prompts, and the Start Here tab says to use editorial review before removing or merging anything.
What is inside, tab by tab
Start Here lays out a six-step workflow: export canonical URLs from a sitemap or crawl, add traffic and query data from one documented reporting window, add backlinks and dates while noting the tool and export date, score quality from 1 to 5, mark duplicate overlap only when two pages serve substantially the same intent, and review the recommendation.
URL Audit is the working sheet, with space for up to 200 URLs. Columns cover canonical URL, page type, organic sessions, top query or rank, backlinks, last updated, quality score, overlap, an automatic recommendation, reason or evidence, an override and the final action with owner and date. The recommendation formula applies a simple order: overlap suggests Consolidate; a missing quality score suggests Review manually; a score of 4 or 5 suggests Keep; anything else with traffic or backlinks suggests Update; the rest is flagged Review removal.
Summary counts the pages in each final action and pairs each with the question to ask, such as whether a page is still accurate and useful, or which canonical page should remain.
Work Queue is where reviewed items go, with an owner, due date, status and validation step.
Field Guide defines each input, including the caution that missing data is not zero and that Review removal is a prompt to investigate conversions, referral links, compliance and redirect plans, not an instruction to delete.
How to use it
Keep one canonical URL per row, use the same reporting window for every page, and score quality by hand against the rubric. Override the automatic recommendation whenever context says otherwise, and write the reason. Copy only reviewed items into the Work Queue so it stays a to-do list rather than a data dump.
Who it is for
Content and SEO teams cleaning up a blog or service library, and site owners preparing a migration who need an evidence trail for each decision.
Would you rather have this done for you? Fill out the form on our contact page, tell us about the business, and we will come back with a quote.
Frequently asked questions
- Will the template tell me which pages to delete?
- No. Its removal flag is a prompt to investigate links, conversions, history and business need before any decision.
- How many pages can it hold?
- The URL Audit tab and the Summary formulas are set up for 200 URLs. Split larger sites into sections or extend the ranges.
- Where should traffic and backlink data come from?
- Use one documented window from GA4 and Search Console, and record which backlink tool and export date you used, because tool exports vary.
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