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Content inventory and audit

Last updated on March 4, 2026

Content inventories and audits help you see what you have and how good it is. They help you clean up content and lower the risk of wrong information being shared by search engines or AI tools.

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Creating a content inventory

Inventories help you manage content and identify missing or duplicate information. 

An inventory should list all the pages and related online assets you and your team manage or contribute to. It can also include information such as:

  • Page titles
  • Current URLs
  • File names and types (PDF, XLSX, etc.)
  • Page types and level (theme, topic, etc.)
  • Relationship to other pages: what are the parent or child pages
  • Related content: is there other content on gov.bc.ca that covers the same topic or is closely related (this may be managed by other teams or ministries)
  • Dependencies or references (such as linked forms or campaigns). This helps prevent accidental broken links.
  • The type of record the file or page is 
  • Content type (policy, service, etc.)
  • Content authors or publishers
  • Primary audience
  • Relevant metadata
  • Status (published, unpublished)
  • Key dates (publish, review, update, removal)

They're usually a large table or set of tables built in Excel or Word that are regularly updated. It's helpful to list each page or asset in its own row, with important information in columns. This allows you to easily see everything you have and plan your next steps. Include a column identifying how often you'll review the content and then set reminders in your calendar.

You can use our content inventory template or create your own.

When to create a content inventory

If you do not already have one, you should start one now. It will tell you how much of what you have and how the content works as a whole. Learn more about information architecture. 

Doing a content audit

A content audit is the process of reviewing each page and asset in your inventory for accuracy, duplication and relevance. It will help you manage content and determine what needs to be updated, replaced, archived, merged or kept as-is. It may also identify where new content is needed.

Auditing content helps reduce the risk of outdated or conflicting information being surfaced as current, especially when content exists in multiple places.

When doing an inventory or audit, look beyond the content your team manages. Topics often span branches or ministries, and related or overlapping content may already exist on gov.bc.ca. Consider what someone using the content is trying to do. This will help you decide whether the information should be added to existing content or linked to it. You may also need to work with other teams to place related content close together in the information architecture.

Use the Web Analytics Guide to learn more about how your content is performing.

Make sure to regularly audit content to confirm it meets Web Content Standards.

When to audit content

Audits should be done at the beginning of a site redesign and included regularly as part of ongoing site maintenance. They're part of maintaining healthy content life cycles.

Audit high impact content more often than low impact content. High impact content has the most value for your audience and will often have the most visitors. Analytics can help you determine which content is high impact.

Always record the rationale for changes in the 'history' tab. This helps others understand what changes were made and why.