Ecommerce Content Audit: 6 Steps & Key Tips (2025)

Ecommerce Content Audit Guide: 6 Steps + Considerations (2025)

Creating high-quality and up-to-date content is crucial for every business, particularly in the ecommerce space. Your website is not just a digital storefront; it also acts as a greeter, sales team, and customer service desk all rolled into one. What’s more, robust content not only enhances user experience but also significantly boosts your SEO performance, helping your target audience find your products and converting visits into sales.

A content audit is an invaluable process for ecommerce businesses looking to streamline and enhance their existing content strategy. In this guide, we’ll explore what a content audit is, why it’s vital, and how to effectively execute one for your ecommerce store.

What is a Content Audit?

A content audit is more than just a review; it’s a comprehensive assessment of your business’s content. This process involves gathering, analyzing, and evaluating your existing content to understand its performance and how well it aligns with your business goals. A successful content audit provides a clear and actionable picture of all website content, which is imperative for any SEO strategy. It enables you to identify what content to retain, remove, improve, or repurpose to enhance your site’s overall performance and usefulness.

Why is a Content Audit Important for Ecommerce?

Conducting a content audit offers valuable insights into the effectiveness of your content strategy and helps delineate your target audience more accurately. Specifically, an SEO-focused content audit can enhance your website’s visibility in search engines, leading to increased relevant traffic. Here’s how:

• Evaluate Content Quality: Identify high- and low-performing content, which empowers data-driven decisions in your content marketing strategy.

• Identify Opportunities for Improvement: Discover broken links or technical issues affecting page performance.

• Optimize Existing Content: Properly evaluate on-page SEO aspects, such as structure and keyword usage, to enhance content visibility.

• Understand Audience Needs: Gauge how different content types engage your audience, enabling you to focus on what truly resonates.

How Often Should Businesses Run Content Audits?

It’s best to conduct content audits on a set schedule—quarterly is ideal, while annual audits are the bare minimum. You should also consider conducting an audit when:

• Your content marketing efforts aren’t yielding results.
• You’re making significant changes to your brand strategy or content marketing.
• Your site content feels disorganized or confusing.
• You’re updating your content management system (CMS) or redesigning your website.

How to Perform a Content Audit

Executing a thorough content audit requires time and effort, yet it’s essential for an effective content strategy. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Set Goals and Define the Scope

Start by outlining your objectives. What do you want to achieve? Examples may include increased site traffic, improved conversion rates, or lower bounce rates. Use the SMART goal framework (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) to structure these objectives. For instance, aim to boost brand engagement by increasing average session length by 20% by the end of the fiscal year.

2. Create a Content Inventory

A content inventory is an organized inventory of every piece of content on your website, usually in a spreadsheet. Ensure you include:

• Content title (or H1)
• URL
• Focus keyword
• Topic or content category
• Meta title and description
• Content type (e.g., blog post, product description, case study)
• Content format (e.g., video, infographic)
• Date last modified
• Call to action (CTA)

Leverage tools like Screaming Frog or Google Analytics to facilitate this process.

3. Add Performance Metrics

Identify performance metrics that align with your audit goals. Utilize SEO tools like Semrush and Moz to track essential metrics such as traffic volumes, conversion rates, and engagement statistics.

Here are some common metrics to consider:

• Organic traffic volume
• Search ranking
• User engagement metrics (time on page, bounce rate)

Avoid overwhelming your spreadsheet with too many metrics; focus on what’s essential based on your specific audit goals.

4. Analyze Content

Now it’s time for the nitty-gritty—analyze your content based on your goals:

• Identify high- and low-performing content. Sort data by performance metrics to discover trends related to topics, formatting, and more.

• Check for content gaps. Evaluate if your content distribution aligns with your overall strategy and audience needs.

• Review on-page SEO. If using SEO software, verify keyword performance. If not, check for best practices such as title tags, meta descriptions, and optimized URLs.

• Investigate technical SEO issues. Look for anything that could hurt your SEO, such as broken links or slow page speeds.

5. Create an Action Plan

Compile your findings into an action plan with four options: retain, remove, improve, and repurpose. Here’s what each entails:

• Remove: For pages that aren’t performing or are outdated and do not align with your content strategy.

• Improve: For content that is valuable but needs optimization.

• Retain: For pages that are meeting goals and have no issues.

• Repurpose: For pages that could perform better with a new angle or format.

6. Implement Changes and Evaluate Results

Execute your planned changes and continuously track your progress. Revisit your performance metrics after a few months to evaluate the impact of your modifications. It often takes three to four months for changes to reflect in site performance metrics.

Content Audit FAQ

How do you conduct a content audit?

To conduct a content audit, follow these seven steps:

1. Set goals and define the scope.
2. Create a content inventory.
3. Add performance metrics.
4. Analyze content.
5. Create an action plan.
6. Implement changes and evaluate results.

How often should you conduct a content audit?

The frequency of content audits varies based on your content volume and business goals, but two to four times a year is optimal; an annual audit is the minimum.

How long does a content audit take?

The duration of a content audit depends on your content volume and the scope of your intended changes, but it can often be a time-consuming process.

Taking the time to implement a thorough content audit is more than just an exercise; it’s an investment into the future of your ecommerce business. By routinely refining your content strategy, you position your brand to not only attract new customers but also foster loyalty among your existing audience. So, roll up your sleeves and get ready to supercharge your ecommerce content!