Strategies for Improving Subpar Content
In the dynamic digital landscape of 2025, smart marketers are prioritising performance-based publishing. One essential aspect of this approach is conducting quarterly content audits. These audits help identify underperforming content, a critical factor in maintaining visibility, competitiveness, and trust online.
Underperforming content can negatively impact a website's SEO and AI search visibility. It can also lead to a decrease in user engagement, which, in turn, can affect rankings. To identify such content, tools like Google Search Console, Semrush, or Screaming Frog can be used to check indexation status, look for low-quality signals, and run a site crawl.
Diagnostic questions for underperforming content include whether it was ever ranking for anything, if it is helpful, if it matches the current search intent, and if it is optimised for Featured Snippets or AI Search. Large Language Models (LLMs) rely on structured, reliable, and trustworthy content, making a site filled with outdated content less likely to be picked up in AI snapshots and SGE results.
Moreover, underperforming content can slow down crawl efficiency, potentially causing search engines to deprioritise or waste time crawling deadweight content instead of valuable new pages, especially for larger sites. It can also confuse search intent signals and damage a website's authority.
Google now evaluates a website's content as part of a whole, and a bloated, low-quality blog can dilute expertise signals. After identifying underperforming content, it's important to diagnose the reasons for its poor performance. Low-quality signals include high bounce rates, low time on page, thin content, lack of internal links, no backlinks, no impressions, and no engagement.
Once the issues are diagnosed, each blog should be decided upon for its next course of action. If the blog is still useful but outdated or stale, it can be refreshed to breathe new life into it. On the other hand, if a blog is found to be irrelevant or of poor quality, it may need to be completely overhauled or removed.
Examples of clients with future-ready websites in 2025 include The Goat Agency and UPP. Smart marketers also include EEAT signals in content briefs, ensuring their content is Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness-focused, aligning with the evolving priorities of search engines and users.
In conclusion, in the era of AI, content audits are not just a tool for cleaning up a website but a strategic move towards maintaining a competitive online presence. By ensuring their content is AI-ready, marketers can maximise their visibility, engagement, and ultimately, their success.
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