Free Content Audit Template (Google Sheets)

A content audit tells you which pages are pulling their weight, which are dragging the site down, and where the biggest opportunities are hiding. Done well, a content audit helps to base your content decision on data.

Most SEO and content marketing consultants have been there: a Screaming Frog export open in one tab, a Google Search Console report in another, a SE Ranking backlink export somewhere in the downloads folder, and a blank spreadsheet waiting to receive all of it.

I share with you the Google Sheets I use to conduct content audits. It may help you, since the structure is already there. The formulas are already in. The conditional formatting is already set up. You paste in your raw data and the master sheet marked as ⭐Content Audit⭐ summarizes.

Use the template, tweak it to your neesd.

No email. No sign-up. One click and it’s in your Google Drive.
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What Is a Content Audit (and Why Does It Matter)?

A content audit is a systematic review of all the pages on a website. The goal is to evaluate each page’s performance, and then decide what to do with it.

That decision usually falls into one of four categories:

• Keep as-is — the page is performing well and doesn’t need changes
• Improve — the page has potential but has clear on-page issues worth fixing (thin content, weak title, missing meta description)
• Consolidate — the page covers similar ground to another page; merging them would create a stronger, more authoritative piece
• Remove — the page has no traffic, no backlinks, no strategic value, and is better off redirected or deleted

A proper content audit gives you the data to make those decisions confidently, at scale, across an entire website.

For SEO consultants, it’s typically one of the first deliverables in an engagement. For content marketing consultants, it’s the reality check that precedes any new content strategy. Either way, the quality of your audit directly determines the quality of your recommendations.

The Problem With Building This From Scratch

If you’ve ever tried to build a content audit spreadsheet from scratch, you know how much time goes into the setup before you can do any actual analysis.

First, you figure out which data points matter. Then you design the column structure. Then you export from three different tools with three different column formats and figure out how to join them by URL. Then you write VLOOKUP formulas (and debug them when they return errors). Then you add conditional formatting so the flagged issues are actually visible at a glance. Then you realize you missed a column. Then you redo the formatting.

By the time the spreadsheet is ready to use, a significant chunk of your audit time is already gone — and you haven’t looked at a single page yet.

The template I’m sharing here does all of that for you.

What’s Inside the Template

The template has one master sheet and eight raw data input sheets.

The Master Sheet: Content Audit ✨

This is where the analysis happens. You don’t enter data here manually. The master sheet uses VLOOKUP formulas to pull data from each of the input sheets automatically, using the URL as the unique key.

Every row is one page. Every column checks something specific. Issues are flagged automatically with annotations — you can see immediately which pages have problems, without scanning through raw numbers.

The master sheet is organized into logical sections:

Every column that needs attention gets automatically annotated. The conditional formatting adds a color layer on top: green for good, red for issues that need attention. You get a visual overview of the whole site’s content health without reading a single number.

The Eight Input Sheets

Each input sheet corresponds to one export from one tool. The sheets are labeled clearly so there’s no guesswork about where data goes:

1. Raw data GSC – performance (clicks, impressions, average position)
2. Raw data GSC – indexed pages (which pages Google has indexed)
3. Raw data Screaming Frog – page title (title tag content and length)
4. Raw data Screaming Frog – meta description (presence or absence of meta description)
5. Raw data Screaming Frog – word count (content length per page)
6. Raw data Screaming Frog – H1 (H1 tag data)
7. Raw data Screaming Frog – internal links (how many internal links point to each page)
8. Raw data SE Ranking (referring domains per page)

You paste each export into the corresponding sheet. The master sheet does the rest.

Tools You Need (and How to Export From Each)

The template pulls together data from three tools. Here’s exactly what you need from each.

1. Google Search Console (Free)

Google Search Console is non-negotiable for a content audit. It’s the only source that tells you how a page actually performs in Google Search — how many people clicked through, how many times it appeared, and at what average position.

What to export: Go to Performance → Search results. Set the date range to the current year (or whatever period makes sense for your audit). Click Pages to see data by URL. Export as CSV. You’ll need this export for the performance data (clicks, impressions, position). For the indexed pages, go to Indexing → Pages and export the list of indexed URLs.

2. Screaming Frog (Free up to 500 URLs)

Screaming Frog crawls the website and collects on-page data for every URL. It’s the fastest way to get title tag length, meta description presence, word count, H1 content, and internal link counts for the whole site at once.

What to export: After the crawl is complete, go to Bulk Export to export multiple reports at once — or use the individual tab exports for each data type (Page Titles, Meta Description, H1, etc.). Export as CSV. Screaming Frog’s export column names match what the template expects — paste them in as-is.

3. SE Ranking (For Backlink Data)

Backlink data tells you which pages have external authority behind them. A page with strong referring domains is a very different strategic asset than a page with zero — and that difference matters when you’re deciding what to fix versus what to leave alone.

I use SE Ranking for backlink data. Their Backlink Checker gives you referring domain counts per page, which is the metric that goes into the template. It also covers rank tracking, keyword research, and site auditing — a solid all-in-one tool for SEO consultants.

What to export: In SE Ranking, go to Backlink Checker → Analyzed Backlinks for the domain. Filter by page and export the referring domain count per URL. If you don’t have an SE Ranking account yet, you can get started here.

How to Use the Template: Step by Step

1. Make a copy. Open the template and go to File → Make a copy. Give it a name (I usually include the client name and the year) and save it to your Google Drive. Never work directly in the shared template — always in your own copy.
2. Add all client URLs to the master sheet. In column A of the master sheet, paste all the URLs you’re auditing. One URL per row. These are your lookup keys — the formulas use the exact URL string to pull matching data from the input sheets. Make sure the URL format is consistent (trailing slash or no trailing slash — pick one and stick to it across all your exports).
3. Populate the input sheets. For each input sheet, paste the corresponding export from your tool. Work through them one by one: GSC performance, GSC indexed pages, Screaming Frog page titles, meta descriptions, word counts, H1 data, internal links, and SE Ranking backlinks.
4. Check the master sheet. Once the input sheets are populated, switch to the master sheet. The formulas will have pulled in all the data and the conditional formatting will have flagged the issues. You’ll instantly see which pages have thin content, missing meta descriptions, title problems, or weak backlink profiles.
5. Add a remark per page. Column B is your Remark column. This is where you note your recommendation per page: improve, consolidate, redirect, remove, or keep. The data tells you what the issues are — you provide the strategic judgment.

How to Interpret the Flagged Data

The template flags issues automatically, but knowing what they mean — and how seriously to take each one — is where your expertise comes in.

Thin Content (Under 400 Words)

A page with fewer than 400 words isn’t automatically a problem. A contact page or a category page doesn’t need to be long. But for a page that’s trying to rank for an informational query, 350 words is almost certainly not enough to compete. When you see the thin content flag, ask: what is this page for? If it’s supposed to rank, it probably needs more depth. If it’s a transactional or navigational page, the word count is irrelevant.

Page Title Length

Titles under 21 characters are almost certainly too vague to be competitive — they’re probably missing the target keyword or not describing the page clearly enough. Titles over 65 characters will be truncated in search results. Whether this matters depends on what’s getting cut off: if the keyword is in the first 60 characters and only filler is being cut, it may not be a priority. If the keyword or value proposition is being truncated, it’s worth updating.

Missing Meta Description

Google often rewrites meta descriptions anyway, but that’s not a reason to leave them blank. A well-written meta description that matches search intent can influence click-through rate — particularly for pages where Google would otherwise pull an arbitrary snippet from the page body. Flagged missing meta descriptions are a quick win: write one, move on.

Not Indexed

If a page isn’t indexed, it’s invisible in Google Search — full stop. This is always worth investigating. Was it excluded intentionally (via robots.txt or noindex tag)? Or is it an oversight? Check the Coverage report in GSC for the specific reason.

Average Position 11–20

These are your low-hanging fruit pages — close to page one, but not quite there. A targeted optimization (improving the title, adding depth to the content, building a few internal links) can often push them over the line. This is usually one of the first places I look for quick wins in an engagement.

Low Referring Domains + High Impressions

A page that ranks and gets impressions but has zero or very few referring domains is doing well on content quality alone. That’s a good sign — it means there’s real potential if you decide to build links to it.

High Referring Domains + Low Clicks

This is worth investigating. The page has external authority but isn’t getting clicks. Possible reasons: the title isn’t compelling in the SERP, the keyword it ranks for has very low search volume, or the ranking position is too low. Worth checking what keyword it actually ranks for in GSC.

What to Do With the Results

The template is your internal working document — not something you hand to a client directly. Once you’ve gone through every page and added your remarks, you have everything you need to build your client deliverable: a slide deck with key findings and recommendations, a Notion document with a prioritized action plan, or a workshop with the client’s content team. If the client wants to reference the detail behind your recommendations, you can share view access to the Google Sheet.

In terms of prioritization, I typically recommend clients focus in this order:

1. Fix indexing issues — anything not indexed needs to be resolved before anything else
2. Improve pages ranking in positions 11–20 — fastest path to more traffic
3. Fix on-page issues on high-traffic pages — missing meta descriptions, title length problems on pages already getting clicks
4. Address thin content on strategically important pages — pages you want to rank, not pages you’re planning to remove
5. Consolidate or remove low-value pages — often the most impactful long-term move, but requires the most careful thought

Why I Built This Template

I’ve been running content audits for years. At some point, I had a well-functioning spreadsheet that I was rebuilding from scratch — or patching — for every new client. That’s a waste of time when the structure is essentially the same every time.

So I built a clean, reusable version. I standardized the input sheet structure to match tool exports. I wrote the VLOOKUP formulas so the master sheet populates automatically. I added conditional formatting so issues are visible without having to filter and sort. I added annotation-based flags so the specific problem is visible right in the cell, not just a red color with no context.

The result is a template where the setup time is minimal and you can get straight to the analysis. If you’re an SEO consultant or content marketing consultant who runs audits regularly, this is the starting point I wish I’d had earlier.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this work in Excel?

The template is built for Google Sheets. You could export it as an Excel file (File → Download → .xlsx), but the formulas reference named sheets and may not transfer cleanly. I recommend using it in Google Sheets.

Can I add more columns?

Yes — the template is fully editable once you’ve made your copy. You can add columns for canonical tags, page speed scores, schema markup, or whatever else is relevant to your specific audit.

What if my URLs have inconsistent formatting?

The VLOOKUP formulas do exact string matching. If your master sheet has https://www.example.com/page/ and your Screaming Frog export has https://www.example.com/page (no trailing slash), the lookup will fail. The easiest fix is to use Find & Replace to standardize the trailing slash across all sheets before you start.

How many URLs can it handle?

There’s no hard limit — Google Sheets can handle thousands of rows. The template comes with placeholder rows, but you can add as many as you need.

Do I need SE Ranking specifically for backlink data?

You need a tool that gives you referring domain counts per URL. SE Ranking works well for this and is what I use. If you use a different backlink tool (Ahrefs, Majestic, etc.), you can paste their export into the SE Ranking input sheet as long as the URL and referring domain count columns are present.

Get the Free Content Audit Template

No email. No sign-up. Click, make a copy, start auditing.

If you use the template and find it helpful, I’d love to hear how it’s working for you. Connect with me on LinkedIn or leave a comment below.

Would you rather outsource the content audit entirely? Schedule a free discovery call and let’s talk about what makes sense for your site.