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Prepared by The B2B Mix®
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How to Use This Template
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This template helps you take stock of your content, decide what's working, and plan what to do next. It's split across three working tabs: Content Inventory & Audit, Content Update Action Plan, and a Drop-down Data tab. Here's how to use it.
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Steps
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1. Define your scope.
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Don't try to audit everything at once. Pick a date range, a topic cluster, or a single content type to start. You can always audit more later. (Trust us. Trying to audit the entire site at once is how good intentions go to die.)
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2. Inventory first, audit second.
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Use the 'Content Inventory & Audit' tab. Fill in the inventory columns (left side, teal headers) first — title, URL, dates, persona, keywords. Then work the audit columns (right side, orange headers) once your performance data is gathered.
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3. Pull your data from the right places.
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Recommended sources: Screaming Frog for URLs and metadata, Google Analytics 4 for engagement and traffic, HubSpot for leads and conversions, and your CMS for everything else. AI tools can do a first pass on categorization and topic clustering — just sanity-check the output.
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4. Pay attention to the AEO columns.
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Schema / Structured Data, AI Citations, and AI-Assisted are new for 2026. They matter because AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews) are now a real discovery channel. Even a quick yes/no entry is more useful than leaving these blank.
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5. Decide an action for each piece.
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Use the Action column: Keep, Update, Consolidate, Redirect, Remove, Repurpose, Review, or Monitor. Add your reasoning in Rationale. This is the most important column in the spreadsheet — it's where the audit becomes a plan.
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6. Move to the Action Plan tab.
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Title, URL, Action, and Rationale pull in automatically from the inventory tab. Add Priority, Next Steps, Assignee, and Due Date to turn the audit into actual work humans can execute.
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7. Re-audit on a cadence.
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Update the Date Last Audited column each time. A real content inventory is a living document, not a one-time project. We recommend a full re-audit annually and lighter spot-checks quarterly.
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Tips for getting the most out of this template
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• Most of the data-entry columns have dropdowns. If you need different options, edit the 'Drop-down Data - Do not Delete' tab — your changes flow through automatically.
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• The example rows in the inventory tab use B2B Mix's actual ICP personas (Legacy Modernizer, Next-Gen Champion, Marketing Department of One). Swap in your own personas before you start auditing.
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• If a piece of content doesn't have schema markup yet, that's an immediate quick-win to add — regardless of what else you do with the post.
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• When you're stuck on what action to take, ask yourself: 'If I were a buyer reading this for the first time today, would it help me?' If no, the answer is Update, Consolidate, or Remove.
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The B2B Mix is a registered trademark of Jackson Marketing, Inc.
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