Once I’ve checked the technical side of a website and nothing major looks wrong, I usually move on to the content.
This is where I often find the real problem.
And honestly, it's rarely as simple as “write more.”
I've seen short pages perform well and 2,000-word articles struggle. So instead of looking at word count first, I usually check three things:
- Is the content actually useful?
- Are multiple pages targeting the same thing?
- Are several pages too similar?
These three problems are worth looking at before publishing another batch of articles.
1. Your Content May Be Too Thin
Thin content doesn't necessarily mean short content.
A 700-word article can answer a question perfectly. A 2,000-word article can still leave the reader looking elsewhere for basic information.
I usually ask:
“If I were the reader, would I need to search again after reading this?”
If the answer is yes, the page probably needs some work.
That might mean adding examples, answering obvious follow-up questions, explaining a process properly, or removing unnecessary sections.
Tools like Google Search Console can show which queries are bringing impressions to the page, while Screaming Frog can help identify pages with very little content.
I've gone deeper into this in Thin Content.
2. Your Own Pages May Be Competing
This is one I find surprisingly often.
A website may have several articles that look different but are actually targeting the same search intent.
For example:
- How to Do Keyword Research
- Keyword Research Guide
- Best Keyword Research Strategies
If all three are trying to answer almost the same question, I'd take a closer look.
I usually start with Search Console and check which URLs are getting impressions for the same queries.
For larger websites, Semrush can also help identify ranking overlap and potential cannibalization.
But don't assume that two pages appearing for a similar keyword automatically means something is wrong. The pages may have different search intents.
I've covered the diagnosis in more detail in Keyword Cannibalization.
3. Your Pages May Be Too Similar
Duplicate content is another thing I check, especially on ecommerce and large websites.
Imagine 50 product pages where the product name changes but most of the description stays the same.
The URLs are different, but the useful information isn't.
That's when I start looking at duplicate and near-duplicate content.
Screaming Frog is useful for finding these patterns across a large site.
And depending on the situation, the solution might be rewriting the pages, combining them, redirecting one URL, or using a canonical.
I've explained the issue in Duplicate Content.
These Problems Often Overlap
This is the part that makes content audits interesting.
A page can be thin and also compete with another page.
Two pages can compete with each other and also contain almost identical information.
That's why I don't look at these problems in isolation.
For example, if I find two pages targeting the same query, I'll first check whether one is simply a weak version of the other. That's where thin content becomes relevant.
If the pages are almost identical, I'll also investigate duplicate content.
The goal isn't to delete as many URLs as possible.
It's to make the purpose of every important page clear.
What I Usually Check
When content seems to be the problem, I check:
- Search intent
- Topic coverage
- Existing pages
- Ranking queries
- Internal links
- Duplicate content
- Page quality
- Content overlap
I use Search Console for search data, a crawler for the site-wide picture, and manual review for the final decision.
No single tool tells you exactly what to do.
Don't Just Publish More
This is probably the biggest lesson I've learned from content audits.
When a website isn't ranking, publishing another 20 articles isn't always the answer.
Sometimes one existing article needs to be improved.
Sometimes two articles need to become one.
Sometimes a page needs to be completely differentiated from another.
And sometimes the page is simply too thin to compete.
Before creating another URL, check what you already have.
Start with Thin Content, then look at Keyword Cannibalization and Duplicate Content.
That gives you a much clearer picture of what is actually happening.
