Content Audit with Semrush: Update, Merge, or Kill Posts

If your website traffic has plateaued despite publishing new content regularly, your old posts might be holding you back. A strategic content audit with Semrush can help you identify exactly which pieces to update, merge, or kill to reclaim lost rankings and boost organic traffic.

Why Run a Content Audit with Semrush?

Traditional manual content audits take hours of checking individual post metrics, traffic data, and backlink profiles. Semrush’s dedicated Content Audit tool automates this process by pulling all your site’s content into a single dashboard with key performance metrics.

You’ll get instant access to data like monthly traffic, search rankings, backlink counts, publishing dates, and social shares for every post. This eliminates guesswork and lets you make data-backed decisions instead of gut feelings.

Step 1: Set Up Your Semrush Content Audit

Getting started takes less than 5 minutes:

1. Log into your Semrush account (or start a free trial if you don’t have one).
2. Navigate to On-Page & Tech SEO > Content Audit from the left sidebar.
3. Enter your domain name and click “Get Ideas”.
4. Connect your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts for richer traffic and ranking data.
5. Let Semrush crawl your site – this takes 10-30 minutes depending on your site’s size.

Once the crawl finishes, you’ll see a full list of all your published posts with color-coded tags (green for high-performing, yellow for average, red for underperforming) to speed up categorization.

Step 2: Categorize Posts Using Semrush Data

Semrush gives you 4 core metrics to evaluate each post’s performance:

• Traffic: Monthly organic visits per post.
• Rankings: Average position for target keywords.
• Backlinks: Number of external sites linking to the post.
• Freshness: How recently the content was updated, and whether facts/stats are still current.

Filter posts by these metrics to group them into batches for updating, merging, or deletion. Pair your analysis with a keyword research guide to find new topic opportunities for future content.

Step 3: Decide: Update, Merge, or Kill Posts

Use the Semrush data to assign each post to one of three action buckets:

When to Update a Post

Update posts that have untapped potential to rank higher and drive more traffic. Common signs a post is worth updating:

• Ranks between positions 11-20 for your target keyword (easy to push to page 1 with small tweaks).
• Has 5+ backlinks but gets less than 100 monthly visits (the content is valuable but outdated).
• Contains stats, tools, or facts that are more than 12 months old (critical for tech, finance, or health niches).
• Misses trending subtopics that top-ranking competitors cover.

Actionable update steps:

1. Replace outdated stats with 2024 data.
2. Add 2-3 new sections covering trending subtopics.
3. Optimize for featured snippets by adding FAQ sections or numbered lists.
4. Fix broken external links and update internal links to newer posts.
5. Refresh the meta title and description to include current year (e.g., “Best SEO Tools 2024” instead of 2022).

When to Merge Posts

Merge posts when you have duplicate or overlapping content that splits your ranking potential. Signs you should merge:

• 2+ posts target the exact same primary keyword.
• Thin posts (under 800 words) cover similar subtopics.
• Posts have overlapping search intent (e.g., 3 posts about “content audit tips” that all say the same thing).

How to merge correctly: Follow our 301 Redirect Best Practices guide to set up redirects without losing backlink equity.

1. Combine the best, most unique content from all posts into one comprehensive guide.
2. Add new original insights or examples to make the merged post stand out.
3. Set 301 permanent redirects from all old post URLs to the new merged post to preserve backlink equity.
4. Update all internal links pointing to old posts to point to the new merged URL.

Never delete merged posts without redirecting them – you’ll lose all the backlinks and traffic those posts built over time.

When to Kill a Post

Kill posts that add no value to your site and drag down your overall SEO performance. Red flags a post should be deleted:

• 0 monthly traffic for 12+ consecutive months.
• 0 backlinks and no social shares.
• Covers a discontinued product, outdated regulation, or niche you no longer serve.
• Is low-quality (spun content, 300 words or less with no unique value) – refer to Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines for low quality content benchmarks.

Deletion best practices:

1. If there’s a relevant existing post, set a 301 redirect from the deleted post to that page.
2. If no relevant content exists, let the post return a 404 error (Google will eventually deindex it).
3. Remove all internal links pointing to the deleted post to avoid broken links.

Step 4: Track Results After Your Audit

Changes won’t show up overnight. Check your progress 4-6 weeks after making updates:

• Use Semrush’s Position Tracking tool to monitor ranking changes for updated posts.
• Check Google Search Console for increases in organic clicks and impressions.
• Re-run your Semrush Content Audit every 6 months to catch new underperforming posts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to clean up your content and boost your SEO? Start your free Semrush trial today to run your first content audit, and let us know in the comments which posts you’re planning to update first!