Skip to content
Design Academy My progress

Stage 3 · Lesson 2 of 10

Content inventories

Listing what exists before deciding how to organise it.

  • Beginner
  • 30 min
  • 3 check questions
  • Exercise: 1 h

By the end of this lesson you can

  • Create a content inventory of an existing product.
  • Run a content audit to judge quality, accuracy and usefulness.
  • Use inventory findings to decide what to keep, merge, rewrite or remove.

The idea

Before reorganising anything, you need to know what exists. A content inventory is a list of everything in a product: pages, sections, documents, features. A content audit goes further and judges each item.

What to record

A spreadsheet works well. Typical columns: ID, title, URL or location, content type, owner, last updated, and traffic if you have analytics. For an audit, add judgements: accurate, useful, up to date, duplicated, and a recommended action.

Keep, merge, rewrite, remove

Most audits end with four actions. Keep content that is accurate and used. Merge duplicates. Rewrite content that is needed but unclear or outdated. Remove content nobody needs. Large sites often find that a large share of pages can be removed or merged.

Sampling

For very large products you do not need to audit every item in detail. Inventory everything automatically (with a crawler or CMS export), then audit a representative sample by hand.

Why it matters in real projects

You cannot design a good structure for content you have not seen. Inventories reveal duplication, outdated pages and gaps that would otherwise surface as surprises late in a project. They also give you evidence to persuade owners to remove content, and a checklist for migrating to a new structure.

A realistic example

A charity's website has grown over ten years. The designer exports all 1,400 pages from the CMS into a spreadsheet and adds page views from analytics.

The audit shows that 60% of pages had fewer than ten visits in a year, there are eleven different pages about "volunteering", and three event pages are for events that ended years ago. The team merges the volunteering pages into one clear guide, archives old events and removes hundreds of unused pages. The new site has about 400 pages, and the IA work becomes far simpler.

Step by step

  1. Export or crawl

    Get a list of all content from the CMS, a site crawler or by walking through the product.

  2. Set up the spreadsheet

    Add columns for location, type, owner, last updated and traffic.

  3. Add audit criteria

    Decide how you will judge accuracy, usefulness and quality.

  4. Review items

    Audit everything, or a representative sample for large products.

  5. Recommend actions

    Mark each item keep, merge, rewrite or remove.

  6. Share with owners

    Agree actions with the people responsible for the content.

Common mistakes

  • Mistake Skipping the inventory and redesigning navigation first.

    Instead Know what exists before you organise it.

  • Mistake Removing content without consulting owners.

    Instead Share findings and agree actions; some low-traffic pages are legally required.

  • Mistake Treating traffic as the only measure of value.

    Instead Consider importance and legal needs alongside page views.

Check your understanding

Choose an answer, then check it. There is an explanation either way.

Question 1 of 3What is the difference between an inventory and an audit?
Show answer

An inventory lists content; an audit judges its quality and usefulness. The inventory is the list; the audit adds evaluation.

Question 2 of 3Eleven pages cover the same topic. What is the likely action?
Show answer

Merge into one. Merging removes duplication and confusion.

Question 3 of 3Why not remove every low-traffic page?
Show answer

Some may be important or legally required. Value is not only measured by visits.

Practice exercise

Exercise · about 1 h

Mini content audit

Inventory and audit one section of a real website, such as a small business or club site.

Steps

  1. List at least 25 pages or items in a spreadsheet.
  2. Add audit columns for accuracy, usefulness and duplication.
  3. Mark each item keep, merge, rewrite or remove.
  4. Summarise the three biggest problems you found.

Deliverable

The spreadsheet and a short summary of findings.

Self-assessment

Tick each item when it is true of your exercise. Be honest; this is for you.

4 items

Summary

  • An inventory lists what exists; an audit judges it.
  • Use a spreadsheet with consistent columns.
  • Most audits result in keep, merge, rewrite or remove.
  • Agree actions with content owners.

Further reading

Third-party sources, chosen for reliability. They open in a new tab.

Your notes

Marking complete updates your course and roadmap progress.

Back to Information architecture Roadmap

PreviousOrganising information Next lessonCard sorting and tree testing