A spreadsheet that describes each unique page element within an existing site structure. The document takes a uniform approach to classifying all the site content and can be enriched by looking at metrics associated within key areas (see Web Metrics).

Typically, this type of audit will take a few days to complete at the very start of a project, and full content inventories (where every page is analyzed) will take much longer.

The benefit of doing an audit is that it gives the design team a good overview of the site and prepares the way for informed decisions, without surprises. This ensures that when the site is redesigned important content can be tracked and kept, and redundant content can be removed.