Use this when
- Several old service, blog, FAQ, or location pages answer the same buyer question.
- Search Console shows impressions for pages that no longer match the current offer.
- AI answers quote a stale blog post instead of the best service or proof page.
- You need a safer cleanup plan before deleting, redirecting, or rewriting content.
Copy/paste page decision worksheet
Page URL: [paste exact URL]
Current page type: [service / FAQ / location / blog / proof / policy / product / other]
Current owner: [name/role]
Last updated: [date or unknown]
Verified traffic/query source: [Search Console / analytics / logs / unknown]
Top query or buyer question: [paste exact query/question]
Does this page still match the current offer? [yes / partly / no / unknown]
Overlapping page(s): [paste URLs]
Best source-of-truth page: [URL or unknown]
Useful proof/facts to preserve: [services, locations, prices, photos, reviews, policies, credentials]
Outdated/risky claims to remove: [list]
Backlinks or referral traffic to protect: [yes / no / unknown]
Recommended action: [keep / refresh / merge / redirect / noindex / remove after backup / monitor]
Redirect target if applicable: [exact URL]
Human approver: [owner/manager/developer]
Next check date: [date]Decision guide
| Signal | Likely action | Human review |
|---|---|---|
| Page still earns relevant queries and contains current facts. | Refresh title, intro, FAQ, proof, and internal links. | Owner verifies business facts and claims. |
| Two pages compete for the same buyer question. | Merge the stronger content into one source-of-truth page. | SEO/developer verifies canonicals and redirects. |
| Old page describes a discontinued service, location, or offer. | Update with current alternative or redirect to the closest live page. | Owner approves offer and service-area wording. |
| Thin post has no useful traffic, proof, links, or current answer. | Backup, remove from navigation, noindex, or redirect only after evidence check. | Developer verifies no important links break. |
| Policy, pricing, warranty, legal, medical, or financial language is involved. | Do not rewrite or redirect until the source-of-truth owner approves. | Owner/legal/qualified reviewer signs off. |
AI audit prompt
Prompt
You are helping a small business review website pages for AI search visibility. Use only the verified URLs and data below. Do not invent traffic, rankings, backlinks, conversions, redirect history, services, prices, guarantees, locations, or legal/policy details. For each page, return: (1) keep/refresh/merge/redirect/noindex/remove/monitor recommendation, (2) exact facts to preserve, (3) risky or stale claims to verify, (4) possible source-of-truth page, (5) internal links to add, (6) redirect or canonical questions for a developer, and (7) the human approval required before publishing. Data: [paste worksheet rows].
Human-review rules
- Never delete or redirect a page because an AI tool says it is thin without checking Search Console, analytics, backlinks, and customer usefulness.
- Do not let AI choose redirect targets for legal, pricing, warranty, emergency, medical, financial, or regulated pages without owner/developer review.
- Keep a backup of old copy, title, meta description, target URL, and decision reason before changing public pages.
- After redirects or merges, verify the old URL, new URL, sitemap, internal links, and important buttons in a browser.
- Schedule a follow-up check for impressions, clicks, conversions, and AI-answer accuracy after the cleanup goes live.
Next step
Pair this with the Search Console query triage worksheet and the redirect/status code checklist. For the full AI-search cleanup system, see SEO After AI.