Content Audit for Higher Education: How to Clean Up Legacy Pages

University and college websites usually grow over many years. Every semester new study programs appear, new events are announced, guides for students are created, and different departments add their own pages. Over time, the website becomes bigger and bigger.

At first this seems like a good thing. More pages mean more information for students and more chances for the website to appear in search results. But after a few years many university websites start to become quite messy and hard to navigate.

Old pages stay on the website even when the information on them is no longer accurate. Some talk about programs that no longer exist. Others repeat the same information in several different places. Over time the site fills up with old content that, in reality, nobody checks anymore.

This is where a content audit comes in. A content audit helps universities review all their pages, find outdated or useless content, and clean up the website a bit. When it is done properly, a content audit improves the structure of the website, helps SEO, and makes it easier for students to find the information they are looking for.

In this blog, we will explain what legacy pages are, why they are a problem for university websites, and how marketing or web teams can run a simple content audit and clean up the site.

What Are Legacy Pages on University Websites?

Before starting the cleanup process, it is important to understand what legacy pages actually are.

Legacy pages are old pages that are still active on the website but no longer have much value. Sometimes the information on those pages is outdated. Sometimes the page talks about something that no longer exists.

For example, a university may have:

• pages for study programs that were closed several years ago
• event pages from previous years
• old instructions for applying to studies
• duplicated student guides
• multiple versions of the same article

All of this can become legacy content.

The problem is that universities rarely delete old pages. Departments create new ones every year, but the old ones remain online. After some time the website can end up with thousands of pages, and many of them no longer serve a clear purpose.

That is why a content audit for higher education websites is very important. It helps teams understand which pages are still useful and which ones should be improved or removed.

Why Legacy Pages Are a Problem

At first glance it may seem like having many pages is not a problem. However, a large number of outdated pages can create several serious issues.

Confusing experience for students

Students usually visit a university website to find clear answers. They want to learn things such as:

• how to apply
• which study programs exist
• when the deadlines are
• what documents are required

If they land on an old page with outdated information, they can easily become confused. They might see the wrong deadline or instructions that are no longer valid.

If this happens often, people start to feel that the website is not very reliable.

SEO problems

Legacy pages can also affect search rankings.

Search engines try to understand which pages on a website are the most important. If a university has many outdated or duplicated pages, search engines may struggle to determine which page should rank.

This can weaken the overall SEO performance of the website.

A well-organized content audit helps solve this problem by removing or improving pages that no longer provide value.

Harder website management

Another problem appears within the organization itself. When a website becomes too large, it becomes harder to maintain.

Marketing teams often do not know:

• who created a certain page
• who is responsible for updating it
• whether the information is still accurate

Cleaning up legacy pages helps make the website easier to manage in the long run.

What Is a Content Audit?

A content audit is a process in which a team reviews all the content on a website.

The goal is to understand what exists on the website and decide what should be done with each page.

During a content audit, the team usually:

1. creates a list of all pages on the website
2. looks at how those pages actually perform and whether people visit them
3. reviews whether the information is still accurate
4. decides what should be done with each page

After the review, each page usually falls into one of these decisions:

• keep it as it is
• update it
• merge it with another page
• delete it or redirect it

For universities and colleges, a content audit is especially useful because their websites often keep growing for years while old pages are rarely cleaned up.

That is why a regular university website content audit helps keep everything organized and makes it easier for people to find what they need.

Step-by-Step: How to Audit Legacy Pages

Cleaning up legacy pages does not have to be complicated. A simple process with a few steps is usually enough.

Step 1: Create a list of all pages

The first step is to see the full picture.

You need to create a list of all URLs on the website so the team can review each page.

This list can be created using:

• crawling tools - these are tools that "walk" through the entire website and automatically find all existing pages. For example, tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb can scan a whole site and give you a list of all URLs within a few minutes. This way you quickly get a complete list of pages without searching manually.
• a sitemap file - a sitemap is basically a map of the website that shows all the pages that exist on the site. For example, you can often see the sitemap by typing an address like: site.com/sitemap.xml in your browser. This opens a list of all URLs on the website so you can easily see the site structure and extract the list of pages.
• exporting data from the CMS - most CMS systems (such as WordPress or other content management systems) allow you to export a list of all pages. This is often the fastest way to get an overview of all the content on the website.

For each page, it is useful to record several basic details:

• page URL
• page title
• last updated date
• estimated traffic

This list becomes the foundation of every content audit.

Step 2: Look at page performance

Once you collect all the pages, the next step is analyzing their performance.

Analytics tools can help answer questions such as:

• does the page get organic traffic
• do people stay on the page or leave quickly
• does the page rank for any keywords

Pages that receive very little traffic are often good candidates for additional review. Sometimes they just need improvement, but sometimes they are legacy pages that no longer serve any purpose.

For example, in Google Analytics you can open the "Pages and Screens" report and see how many people visited each page. If you notice that a page only receives a few visits per month or almost none, that is a clear sign that it should be reviewed during a content audit.

Reviewing performance helps teams make smarter decisions during a content audit for university websites.

Step 3: Find outdated or duplicate content

The next step is to actually read the content.

Check the following:

• Is the information still accurate?
• Does the program or service still exist?
• Is there another page that explains the same thing?

If not, the page may be considered legacy content.

Many universities discover that they have several pages talking about the same topic, just written at different times. This is very common on older university websites.

What to Do With Legacy Pages

Once you identify legacy pages, the next step is deciding what to do with them. Not every old page needs to be deleted. Sometimes a simple update is enough.

Update the page

If the topic is still relevant but the information is outdated, the best solution is to update it.

This can include:

• correcting dates
• clearer explanations
• adding new information
• improving the structure of the text

Updating important pages can significantly improve both user experience and SEO.

Merge similar pages

Sometimes several pages on the site talk about the same thing. Instead of having five or six similar pages, it is often smarter to combine them into one clear and strong page.

This makes it easier for people to find information, and it prevents the site from being filled with duplicate or very similar content.

Delete unnecessary pages

Some pages simply no longer have any value.

For example:

• event announcements from many years ago
• outdated descriptions of study programs
• duplicate pages with almost identical content

Deleting such pages helps keep the website clean and easier to manage.

Tools That Can Help With a Content Audit

There are several tools that can significantly make the content audit process easier.

Analytics tools help understand how pages perform, while crawling tools help discover all the pages on a website.

Some of the most commonly used tools for a content audit of university websites include:

• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• Screaming Frog
• Sitebulb
• SEO tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush

These tools help teams see which pages bring traffic and which ones may need improvement.

Even simple analytics data can reveal very useful insights during a content audit.

Best Practices for Managing Content on University Websites

It is good to clean up old pages on a website, but it is even more important to prevent the problem from appearing again later.

There are several simple things universities can do to keep their websites organized and up to date.

Assign a content owner

Each page should have a person responsible for it.

When someone owns a page, there is a much higher chance that it will be updated regularly and outdated information will be removed.

Plan regular content audits

A content audit should not be done only once.

Many organizations run a content audit once a year or every six months. Regular reviews prevent the website from filling up with legacy content again.

Create simple content rules

It is helpful to have clear rules about how content is published.

For example:

• who can create new pages
• how often pages should be reviewed
• when old content should be archived or deleted

These simple rules make long-term website management much easier.

How Content Workflow Tools Can Help

Large university websites usually involve many teams. The marketing team, admissions office, different faculties, and professors often contribute content.

Without a clear system, managing all of those pages becomes very difficult.

Content workflow tools can help organize the process of creating, reviewing, and approving content.

Such tools allow teams to:

• track who is responsible for each page
• manage the approval process
• plan updates
• organize regular content reviews

One such tool is EasyContent. In EasyContent you can create a structured workflow and assign roles to team members so everyone knows exactly what they are responsible for. Version tracking is also very useful, because you can see all content versions in one place and follow changes directly in the editor. You can also create your own templates for any type of content you work on.

The approval process works automatically. Once you define the workflow and assign roles in the team, you can simply add people to the workflow and each person will receive a notification when it is their turn to review or approve something. This significantly speeds up the process and helps keep the website healthy while preventing the accumulation of legacy pages.

Conclusion

University websites constantly grow. Every time a new program, event, or student guide appears, another page is created. After a few years many pages accumulate on the website, and some of them are no longer accurate or useful.

Such pages can easily confuse students. They may find incorrect information, and the website itself becomes harder to maintain while SEO performance may weaken.

That is why universities often run a content audit. When this process is done, the website becomes much clearer and easier to use. And when the site is organized and structured, students can find the information they need much faster, while the university can present its programs and information more clearly online.