SOP: Content Quality Audit

SOP-003 4-8 hours

Identify and fix quality issues based on the Panda patent.

Objective

Audit site content, identify quality issues, and create remediation plan.

Prerequisites

• [ ] Full site access
• [ ] Analytics access
• [ ] Search Console access
• [ ] Content inventory or crawler data

Procedure

Step 1: Generate Content Inventory

Create a spreadsheet with:

URL	Title	Word Count	Traffic	Bounce Rate	Category

Step 2: Categorize Each Page

Grading Criteria:

Grade	Traffic	Content	Action
A	High	Unique, comprehensive	Enhance
B	Medium	Good foundation	Improve
C	Low	Thin/duplicate	Consolidate
D	None	No value	Remove

Step 3: Quality Checklist Per Page

For each page, evaluate:

Content Quality:

• [ ] Word count > 300
• [ ] Original content > 70%
• [ ] Answers user intent
• [ ] Well-structured with headings
• [ ] No grammar/spelling issues

E-E-A-T Signals:

• [ ] Author attribution
• [ ] Author credentials visible
• [ ] Date published/updated
• [ ] Sources cited
• [ ] Contact information accessible

Technical Quality:

• [ ] Page loads < 3 seconds
• [ ] Mobile-friendly
• [ ] No intrusive interstitials
• [ ] Images optimized
• [ ] Internal links present

Step 4: Identify Duplicates

Look for:

• Same content on multiple URLs
• Very similar pages targeting same keyword
• Template pages with minimal unique content

Action for duplicates:

1. Choose canonical version
2. 301 redirect others OR
3. Consolidate into one comprehensive page

Step 5: Create Remediation Plan

For A-Grade pages:

- Add updated information
- Improve author bio
- Add related internal links
- Consider multimedia additions

For B-Grade pages:

- Expand thin sections
- Add unique data/insights
- Improve formatting
- Update outdated information

For C-Grade pages:

- Identify related A/B pages to merge into
- Create 301 redirect plan
- Preserve any backlinks

For D-Grade pages:

- Noindex OR
- 301 to relevant page OR
- Delete with 410 response

Step 6: Execute Plan

Priority order:

1. Remove/redirect D-grade pages (stop the bleeding)
2. Consolidate C-grade pages
3. Improve B-grade pages
4. Enhance A-grade pages

Step 7: Monitor Recovery

Track weekly:

• Indexed page count
• Overall organic traffic
• Core Web Vitals
• Crawl errors

Verification

After 4-8 weeks:

• [ ] Fewer pages indexed (if removed thin content)
• [ ] Higher average time on page
• [ ] Lower overall bounce rate
• [ ] Traffic improvement on consolidated pages

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Traffic dropped after removal	Ensure 301 redirects in place
Pages not deindexing	Add noindex, resubmit sitemap
Consolidated page not ranking	May need more time; check technical issues
New thin content appearing	Implement content standards

Related Patents

• US 9,135,307 - High Quality Sites (Panda)
• US 9,767,157 - N-gram Quality Prediction
• US 10108694 - Content Clustering