The Framework We Apply to B2B Content Marketing Audits

A content marketing audit is a systematic review of all your published content to determine what's working, what's underperforming, and what actions to take next. Most B2B marketing teams discover their content libraries grow faster than they can maintain them: you have a product comparison post that still references pricing from two years ago, a getting-started guide ranking on page two that nobody has touched since launch, and three separate blog posts competing for the same "workflow automation" topic.

Over time, those issues multiply across hundreds of URLs: outdated posts, keyword cannibalization, and missed opportunities that nobody flags because there's no system to catch them. HubSpot found that 76% of its monthly blog views and 92% of its leads came from previously published posts. For most teams, fixing what you have beats publishing something new.

We've refined this process across dozens of B2B audits, from SaaS and fintech to professional services and manufacturing, into a repeatable framework. In fact, it's one of the first things we do with a new client. This audit process connects content performance directly to pipeline and revenue, producing a prioritized action plan with owners and deadlines rather than a report that collects dust. This guide walks through that framework so you can run it internally and understand the methodology behind how we approach content audits for clients.

Key Takeaways

A content marketing audit reveals which 20% of your content drives 80% of results, helping you focus resources on high-impact updates rather than creating more content that underperforms.

Connecting audit metrics to ARR and pipeline ensures your findings translate into actions that stakeholders actually care about.

The keep, refresh, merge, or remove framework prevents decision paralysis by giving every piece of content a clear next step.

Regular audits (quarterly for high-growth teams, biannually for smaller ones) compound results over time and prevent content decay from eroding your organic performance.

Shifting budget from pure content creation toward measurement and optimization often produces better ROI than publishing more new posts.

What a content marketing audit solves for B2B companies

The bigger your content library gets, the harder it is to keep everything current. B2B teams feel this acutely because content spans multiple buyer personas, long sales cycles, and product or service lines that evolve faster than the blog does. Without regular audits, small issues compound across hundreds of posts until they start dragging down performance.

Older posts losing organic traffic as competitors publish fresher content and search algorithms shift what gets rewarded.

Unclear ROI on content investments because teams lack visibility into which posts actually drive pipeline and revenue.

Content is misaligned with your current ICP, where posts written for a previous audience keep attracting unqualified traffic.

Keyword cannibalization between similar posts, where multiple pages compete for the same terms and split your ranking authority.

Outdated product or service information that confuses prospects, whether that's deprecated features, discontinued service tiers, or old pricing creating friction in the buyer journey.

Organic growth (at least the revenue kind) centers on attracting the right audience rather than maximizing traffic volume. An audit identifies which content serves current business goals and which requires updates or removal.

Preparation checklist before you conduct a content audit

Preparation determines whether your audit produces actionable insights or becomes a spreadsheet exercise. Three  steps lay the foundation: clarifying growth goals and the ideal customer profile, selecting metrics that drive revenue, and assembling the right tools.

Clarify growth goals and ICP

Audits fail when disconnected from business objectives. You can't prioritize content without knowing what success looks like. Teams often begin auditing without defining whether they want to increase demo requests from organic traffic, reduce customer churn through educational content, or expand into a new vertical market.

Document your current ideal customer profile before starting the audit. Content written for a previous audience may require different treatment than content aligned with current targeting.

Select metrics that map to revenue

Traffic alone doesn't tell the full story about content performance. High pageviews without conversions might indicate content that's attracting the wrong audience or fails to guide visitors toward the business outcomes you want.

Track metrics that connect content to revenue: organic sessions, time on page, scroll depth, form submissions, pipeline influenced, and closed-won attribution. For a deeper framework on connecting content performance to business outcomes, see our guide on measuring content marketing.

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Attribution won't be perfect for every team initially. Start with available data and improve tracking over time.

Assemble crawl, analytics, and CRM tools

Four tool categories provide the data needed for comprehensive auditing:

Crawler tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb reveal technical issues. Analytics platforms like GA4 track engagement patterns. Search Console shows organic search performance. CRM systems connect content to lead quality and revenue outcomes.

Set up tool access before starting the audit to prevent mid-process delays.

The Ten Speed Content Audit Framework

This 10-step sequence is the same process we use with clients. It adapts to your team's resources and capacity, but the order matters: each step builds on the previous one's output. The goal is sustainable growth through systematic improvement rather than a one-time cleanup.

1) Inventory all URLs and assets

Pull a complete URL list using a crawl tool, then cross-reference with your CMS to catch discrepancies. Include non-blog assets tied to content marketing: landing pages, downloadable PDFs, webinar recordings, and resource libraries.

CMS exports often miss orphaned pages, redirected URLs, or content published outside the main system. Crawl tools capture the complete picture of what search engines see.

2) Categorize by funnel stage and format

Apply a simple funnel framework to each piece of content:

Awareness stage: Educates prospects about problems and solutions. Consideration stage: Compares options and provides implementation guidance. Decision stage: Focuses on your product, case studies, and competitive differentiators.

Categorization reveals gaps in your content mix and helps prioritize updates based on funnel needs. Add format tags (blog post, video, template, checklist) to identify underutilized content types.

3) Pull traffic, engagement, and conversion data

Export GA4 data for a 6–12 month lookback window to account for seasonal variations. Merge this data with your URL inventory to create a comprehensive performance view.

Add columns for sessions, average engagement time, bounce rate, conversions, and conversion rate. GA4 data can appear inconsistent due to privacy updates and tracking limitations. Focus on directional clarity rather than perfect precision.

4) Score content quality and identify SEO gaps

Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages compete for the same keyword, splitting ranking authority and confusing search engines. Google Search Console reveals cannibalization when multiple URLs from your site appear for the same query.

Common quality issues to flag: thin content under 500 words without clear value, statistics and data points older than 18 months, broken internal and external links, missing or duplicate meta descriptions, and images without alt text.

Score each page on a 1–5 scale across four dimensions to standardize assessment and make prioritization objective rather than gut-feel.

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Multiply each score by the page's monthly organic sessions to create a weighted priority score. A page scoring 2/5 across dimensions but pulling 3,000 sessions per month is a higher-priority fix than a page scoring 2/5 with 50 sessions. This weighted approach prevents teams from spending cycles on low-traffic content while high-traffic pages with fixable gaps sit untouched. For more on how content quality signals affect rankings, see our guide on EEAT SEO.

5) Compare against key competitors

Select 2–3 direct competitors and analyze their top-performing content for your target keywords. Examine differences in content depth, unique angles, format choices, and backlink profiles.

The goal is identifying coverage gaps and differentiation opportunities rather than copying competitor approaches. Look for topics they cover that you don't, or angles they miss that you can address more comprehensively.

6) Highlight quick wins and long-term plays

Quick wins are content pieces ranking on page two of search results, posts with high engagement but low conversions, or pages missing simple optimization elements. Small updates like adding conversion elements, updating meta descriptions, or refreshing statistics can improve performance rapidly.

Long-term plays require significant rewrites, new asset creation, technical fixes, or link building campaigns. Examples include consolidating multiple thin posts into comprehensive guides or creating video versions of popular written content.

7) Build a priority matrix

Plot content updates on a 2x2 matrix comparing effort required against potential impact. This visualization helps teams understand tradeoffs and resource allocation decisions.

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Start with low-effort, high-impact items to build stakeholder confidence and demonstrate audit value quickly.

8) Draft page-level actions using a standardized template

Assign every URL a specific next step using four action categories: keep, refresh, merge, or remove.

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For every URL tagged refresh or merge, document these fields in your audit spreadsheet:

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This template prevents the most common audit failure mode: a thorough analysis that produces no action because nobody knows who owns what or when it's due. Export the completed template as your team's working backlog and review it in sprint planning.

The "remove" decision often feels uncomfortable for content creators who invested time in original creation. Removing low-performing content frees crawl budget for higher-value pages and reduces ongoing maintenance burden.

9) Compile the content audit report

Structure your report with an executive summary, methodology explanation, key findings, prioritized recommendations, and raw data appendix. Lead with the most significant insights rather than overwhelming readers with data.

Include 3–5 visuals: traffic trend charts, funnel stage distribution, priority matrix, and top-performing content analysis.

10) Share findings with stakeholders

Tailor presentations to your audience. Executives want to understand business impact and resource requirements. Content creators want clear, actionable page-level instructions. Product marketing teams want to understand messaging gaps and opportunities.

Schedule a 15–20 minute walkthrough focused on top recommendations. Book a follow-up meeting to align on next steps and confirm ownership assignments.

Decision framework for keep, refresh, merge, or remove

Each piece of content requires a specific action based on performance data and strategic alignment.

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The "remove" decision often feels uncomfortable for content creators who invested time in original creation. Removing low-performing content frees crawl budget for higher-value pages and reduces ongoing maintenance burden. For a deeper look at when and how to refresh content specifically for SEO recovery, see our guide on content refresh strategy.

Post-audit execution: OKRs, cadence, ownership, and tools

Audits without follow-up metrics fail because teams lack accountability and lose prioritization discipline when competing requests emerge. Setting measurable objectives transforms audit findings into trackable business outcomes.

Establish 2–3 OKRs tied directly to audit findings. Examples include "Increase organic pipeline by 15% through refreshed bottom-funnel content" or "Reduce keyword cannibalization across 20 competing pages by Q3."

Track KPIs that demonstrate progress: pages refreshed, ranking position changes, conversion rate improvements, and time-to-publish for content updates.

Review progress monthly and adjust priorities based on early results. Not every content update will succeed, and some refreshed pages may perform worse initially before improving.

Audit cadence depends on team size and publishing velocity. High-growth teams publishing 50+ posts annually benefit from quarterly audits. Smaller teams can conduct comprehensive audits biannually with monthly spot-checks on top-performing content.

Content strategists or SEO leads typically own audit execution, gathering input from writers and product marketing teams.

Take the next step with Ten Speed

Thorough content audits require 15–20 hours of focused work that lean B2B teams struggle to find between product launches, client deliverables, and growth initiatives. Marketing teams often start audits but abandon them halfway through when urgent projects take priority.

Ten Speed handles both the audit process and execution of recommendations rather than delivering strategy documents that require internal resources to implement. Our team manages technical analysis, stakeholder interviews, and content optimization, while your team focuses on core business activities.

Book a call to discuss your company's growth goals and receive a tailored proposal. You can also learn more about Ten Speed's SEO and GEO capabilities.

FAQs

What team member typically owns content audits in lean B2B organizations?

A content strategist or SEO lead typically owns the audit, but in smaller teams, a marketing generalist with analytics access can run it effectively with a clear framework and stakeholder support.

How do I maintain content audit momentum after completing initial fixes?

Schedule monthly check-ins to review progress against your OKRs, keep a visible backlog of prioritized updates, and share quick wins so content optimization stays competitive with new requests.

How frequently do B2B teams run content marketing audits?

Most B2B teams benefit from a full audit every six months, paired with quarterly spot-checks on top-performing pages to catch traffic or conversion declines early.

What distinguishes a content audit from a content inventory?

A content inventory is a list of URLs and assets, while a content audit layers in performance data, quality evaluation, and recommended actions for each item.

Can I complete a content audit without CRM integration?

Yes, but you'll miss pipeline and revenue context, so prioritize GA4 and Search Console for performance signals first and add CRM-based attribution as your tracking matures.

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