How to Audit an Old Website Before Deciding What to Keep

An old website can feel like a house with too many extensions: some rooms still work, some are awkward to use, and it is not obvious what should be saved. A careful audit gives you evidence to make those decisions before you spend time rewriting pages or paying for a rebuild.

This website content audit checklist is for small businesses and independent organisations that need a practical review, not a complicated analytics project. You will look at what each page is for, whether it helps visitors, and what could be lost if you remove or change it.

Start with the reason for the audit

Write down what has prompted the review. Perhaps customers cannot find basic information on mobile, the business has changed direction, or the site is difficult to update. A specific reason helps you judge pages against a real need instead of treating every old design choice as a problem.

Choose a realistic scope. A small service business might review its main pages, blog posts from the last few years, and any landing pages still receiving visits. You do not need to assess every image or archived news item on day one. If the project may lead to a new site, a simple website brief can help turn audit findings into clear requirements.

Build a page inventory

List the website’s pages in a spreadsheet. You can copy the links from your navigation and sitemap, then add pages found through a site search or a crawl if you have access to one. Include pages that are not linked from the main menu: an old campaign page may still appear in search results or be linked from somewhere else.

For each URL, record a few useful details:

• Page title and current URL
• Its intended audience and purpose
• Whether the information is current and accurate
• Evidence of use, such as visits, enquiries or downloads, if available
• Any known issues, such as broken links or a poor mobile layout
• Your initial decision: keep, improve, combine, remove or investigate

Do not treat low traffic as automatic proof that a page has no value. A contact, pricing or policy page may be essential even if few people land on it directly. Likewise, a popular article may bring visits but no longer reflect the services you offer.

Judge each page by its job

Check the content and business value

Ask what a visitor should be able to do after reading the page. A service page might explain who the service suits, what is included and how to enquire. If it only contains a vague paragraph and an old phone number, it may need substantial work even if the subject remains important.

Check facts that can quietly become outdated: prices, opening hours, staff names, service areas, product details and references to old events. Look for duplicate pages too. If three articles explain the same service with slightly different wording, consider combining them into one clearer resource rather than maintaining all three.

For example, a local accountant may have separate pages for “small business accounts”, “accounts for start-ups” and “bookkeeping help”. If the offerings overlap, one well-structured page may serve visitors better. Keep distinct pages where the audience or service is genuinely different, not simply because the old site happened to have them.

Look at evidence, not just impressions

If analytics are available, use them as clues. Compare a sensible period, such as the last year, with an earlier period where seasonal patterns matter. Note which pages lead to enquiries or other useful actions, not only which pages receive the most visits. If you use Google Search Console, its Performance report can show which search queries and pages receive impressions and clicks.

Numbers need context. A page may have few visits because it is hard to find, not because nobody needs it. Ask staff what questions customers repeatedly ask, and check whether the website answers them. If you have no reliable analytics, make a reasoned decision and mark the uncertainty rather than inventing certainty.

Review usability, accessibility and technical health

Try the site as a visitor on a phone and a computer. Can you identify what the business does, find key information and understand the next step? Test important forms, phone links and navigation. A page can look dated but remain useful; a polished page can still make a basic task difficult.

Check accessibility alongside usability. Can you navigate the main parts of the site using a keyboard? Do images that convey information have useful text alternatives? Is text readable against its background? The W3C overview of WCAG explains the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a recognised framework for making web content more accessible. A quick review is not a full accessibility assessment, but it can reveal issues worth prioritising.

Also note broken links, missing images, pages that load incorrectly and forms that fail to submit. Check whether important pages are indexed in search if search visibility matters to the business. Keep a list of problems with their impact: “the quote form fails on mobile” is more actionable than “the site feels broken”.

Choose what to keep, improve, combine or remove

Use four decisions rather than a simple keep-or-delete choice:

• Keep: The page is accurate, useful and still has a clear purpose. It may only need minor maintenance.
• Improve: The topic matters, but the page is incomplete, hard to use or out of date. Retain the URL where practical and make a focused plan for the update.
• Combine: Several pages serve the same purpose or repeat information. Move the strongest, most useful material into a single page.
• Remove: The page is no longer relevant and has no useful replacement. Check for links to it before taking it down.

Keep an “investigate” option for uncertain cases. A page with little measurable traffic but an important customer task may deserve a closer look. A short conversation with the person who handles enquiries can sometimes settle the question faster than more spreadsheet work.

When removing or changing a URL, do not leave visitors and search engines at a dead end. If a genuinely equivalent page exists, redirect the old URL to it. Google’s guidance on site moves and URL changes describes redirects as part of managing changed URLs. Do not redirect every deleted page to the home page; that usually gives visitors no clear answer. If there is no relevant replacement, a clear not-found page may be more appropriate.

Turn the audit into a manageable plan

Sort your decisions by impact and effort. Fix inaccurate contact details and broken enquiry paths first. Then prioritise pages that support important services or answer frequent customer questions. Lower-priority archive material can wait.

Before writing replacement content, check whether the site structure still makes sense. A small-business sitemap plan can help group pages around visitors’ needs and reveal where information belongs. Your final audit does not need to be perfect. It needs to make the next decisions easier, record why you made them, and protect useful content from being discarded simply because it looks old.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I audit my website content?

Review high-impact pages whenever services, prices or policies change. For the wider site, an annual check is a useful starting point for a small business, but the right interval depends on how quickly your information changes.

Should I delete pages with no traffic?

Not automatically. Check whether the page supports an important customer task, receives links from other sites, or contains information people need after reaching it through navigation. Low traffic is one clue, not a decision by itself.

What should I do with outdated blog posts?

Update a post if its topic remains useful and the advice can be made accurate. Combine it with a stronger related page if it repeats the same information. Remove it if it is genuinely obsolete and has no suitable replacement, while checking for useful links first.

Do I need analytics to audit my website?

No. Analytics can help you understand visits and actions, but you can still review accuracy, usability, customer questions and technical problems without them. Record what you do not know so assumptions are not mistaken for evidence.

Is a content audit the same as an SEO audit?

They overlap, but they are not identical. A content audit focuses on the purpose, accuracy and usefulness of pages. An SEO audit also examines how search engines discover, understand and display the site, alongside technical issues that can affect visibility.