A website content inventory is a list of every page on your site, with a few facts about each one and a decision about what to do with it. It is the most useful planning document in a redesign, and the one most often skipped.
Without it, the new site gets built from memory. Pages that bring in calls get dropped. Old pages nobody needs get carried over. And nobody knows which addresses need a redirect. With it, the project has a map.
This guide shows you how to build one with a spreadsheet. It is part of our website redesign guide and pairs well with a website audit before a redesign.
Inventory or audit: what is the difference?
They sound alike, so here is the plain split.
- An audit looks at how the site performs as a whole: speed, tracking, trust, technical health.
- An inventory looks at the pages one by one: what each is, what it is for, and what happens to it.
Do the audit first or at the same time. The audit tells you what to look for. The inventory gives you the list to act on.
What you need
- A spreadsheet tool such as Google Sheets or Excel.
- A list of your pages. You can get one from your sitemap, from your website admin screen, from a crawler tool, or by clicking through the site.
- Access to Google Search Console and Google Analytics, if you have them.
- One to three hours for a small site. A larger site takes longer, and that is normal.
Step 1: Get the full list of pages
Start with every address you can find. Use more than one source, because each one misses something.
- The sitemap. Many sites publish one at an address like yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. It lists the pages the site wants search engines to see.
- The admin screen. In WordPress, open Pages and Posts and list them all, including drafts and private ones.
- Google Search Console. The Performance report shows pages that get impressions, which may include some your sitemap forgot.
- A crawler. Free tools can scan your site and list what they find by following links.
- Google itself. Searching site:yoursite.com in Google shows what it has indexed. It is rough, but it can surface old pages.
Combine the lists and remove duplicates. Do not worry about order yet.
Step 2: Set up your columns
Keep the sheet simple. These columns are enough for most small business sites.
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Page address | The full address, copied exactly |
| Page title | What shows in the browser tab |
| Page type | Home, service, location, about, contact, blog post, other |
| Purpose | One short line: what this page is for |
| Main topic | The one thing it is about, such as “driveway paving in Carlisle” |
| Visits | From Analytics for a set period |
| Search clicks | From Search Console for the same period |
| Leads | Whether calls or forms come from this page, if you know |
| Quality | Good, okay, weak, out of date |
| Decision | Keep, improve, merge, remove |
| New address | Where this page will live in the new site, or where it redirects |
| Notes | Anything worth remembering |
Use the same date range for visits and clicks on every row. A simple range such as the last twelve months works well. Write the range at the top of the sheet.
Step 3: Fill in the facts
Go row by row. Open each page and answer the simple columns first: title, type, purpose, topic. This is the dull part, but it is where you find surprises. You may find a page you forgot you had, a service you no longer offer, or three pages about the same thing.
Then add the numbers. For each address, look up visits and search clicks. Do not chase perfection. If a page has no data, leave it blank or write zero. Zero is information.
For the leads column, use what you know. If your contact form sends the page address along, check it. If you use call tracking, note which numbers appear on which pages. If you do not know, write “unknown” and move on. Do not guess.
Step 4: Rate quality honestly
For each page, choose one word: good, okay, weak, or out of date. Use simple tests.
- Good. Accurate, clear, helpful, has a next step.
- Okay. Correct but thin or hard to scan.
- Weak. Vague, repeated, or written for search engines instead of people.
- Out of date. Wrong information, old offers, dead links, or photos from years ago.
Be fair. The goal is not to criticize your own work. It is to know where the effort should go.
Step 5: Spot the problems
Once the sheet is full, sort and filter it. Look for patterns.
- Duplicates and overlaps. Two pages with the same main topic. Mark them for a merge.
- Orphan pages. Pages that no other page links to. They are hard to find, for visitors and for Google.
- Dead weight. Pages with no visits, no clicks, no leads and no reason to exist.
- Quiet winners. Plain pages with steady visits or leads. Protect them.
- Gaps. Services you offer that have no page, or questions customers ask that no page answers.
- Thin pages. Pages with only a few lines, such as old location pages with the same text and a different town name.
Add the gaps as new rows with the decision “create.”
Step 6: Make the decision
Give each page one of five decisions. The full rules are in what to keep when you redesign a website, but here is the short version.
| Decision | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Keep | It works. Move it over with light edits. |
| Improve | The topic is right, the page is weak. Rewrite it. |
| Merge | Two or more pages cover one topic. Combine them. |
| Remove | It has no purpose, traffic or links. |
| Create | A real need has no page. |
When a decision changes the page address, fill in the New address column. For merged and removed pages, name the closest new page where the old address should redirect. This column becomes your redirect list later. Google’s guidance on site moves says to send each old address to its closest match and to avoid sending many pages to one unrelated page, so this is where that planning happens.
Step 7: Turn the inventory into a plan
At this point you have three useful things.
- A page list for the new site. Every Keep, Improve, Merge and Create row.
- A redirect list. Every row where the address changes or the page goes away.
- A content to-do list. Every Improve and Create row, sorted by importance.
Share the sheet with whoever is building the site. It will answer dozens of questions before they are asked, and it makes quotes more accurate, because the scope is visible.
A small example
Here is a made-up example of a few rows, to show the format. These are not real pages.
| Address | Purpose | Visits | Decision | New address |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /services | Lists all services on one page | Steady | Improve: split into one page per service | /services/ plus new service pages |
| /sealcoating and /driveway-sealing | Both describe sealing | Some on each | Merge | /sealcoating/ and redirect the other |
| /summer-sale-2019 | Old promotion | None | Remove | Redirect to /services/ |
| /contact-us | Contact form | Steady, leads | Keep | /contact/ |
Real inventories are longer. Small business sites often have a few dozen pages, and a good inventory makes the project feel more manageable rather than less.
Mistakes to avoid
- Only listing what is in the menu. Pages outside the menu can still have traffic and links.
- Skipping the numbers. Without visits and clicks, every page looks equally important.
- Deleting pages that look old but rank. Check the data first.
- Forgetting blog posts and landing pages. They count too.
- Changing addresses with no redirect column. That is how traffic gets lost.
- Never updating the sheet. Treat it as live until the new site is live.
- Making it too complicated. If a column is not used to make a decision, drop it.
After launch
Keep the inventory. After launch, use it to check that each old address redirects where you planned, and that the pages you kept still perform. It also becomes the starting point for monitoring after the redesign.
If you want help building the inventory or deciding what to do with each page, book a strategy call and we will go through it with you.
Common questions about a content inventory
How many pages should I expect to list?
It depends on your site. Many small business sites have a few dozen pages once you count blog posts, old landing pages and hidden pages. A site with hundreds of pages is not unusual if it has a long blog.
Can software build the list for me?
Software can find pages and pull in numbers. A person still has to judge quality and decide what to do. Use tools to save typing, not to make the decisions.
Do I need to read every page?
For a small site, yes, at least quickly. For a large one, sort by importance. Review the pages that bring traffic or leads first, then skim the rest.
Who should own the inventory?
Someone who knows the business. The owner or a manager should make the keep and cut decisions, with help from whoever builds the new site. A designer alone cannot know which old service you still want to sell.
Keep reading
- Website Audit Before a Redesign: seven areas to check first.
- What to Keep When You Redesign a Website: decide keep, improve, merge or remove.
- Redesign a Website Without Losing SEO: the redirect and ranking plan.
Ready to talk it through?
Not sure what your redesign should include? Webfactory Media is a web design and marketing agency in Carlisle, PA. See our website redesign service or book a call and we will look at your current site with you.
