---
title: "Step 2: How to setup Sites and audit your website"
description: "A step-by-step workflow for auditing your website with Sites."
url: https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/11394435-step-2-how-to-setup-sites-and-audit-your-website
collection: "Audit and optimize your existing content"
updated: 2026-10-25
language: en
alternates: [fr, de]
---

# Step 2: How to setup Sites and audit your website

A step-by-step workflow for auditing your website with Sites.

Why is it important?

You already paid for content—now you need to make sure it ranks over time.

SERPs change. Competitors update and release new content. Google moves the goalposts with algorithm updates.

If you don’t re-optimize, you will fall behind.

What’s in it for you?

When you set up **Sites + Content Audit**, Surfer will:

-   Scan your whole domain
    
-   Flag underperforming pages
    
-   Recommend top articles to refresh
    
-   Unlock a 5-step re-optimization workflow
    

What you’ll need:

1.  **Google Search Console** connected to Surfer
    
2.  At least **30 days of Google Search Console (GSC) data**
    
3.  **Content Audit** in **Sites**
    
4.  **Content Editor**
    

When to do it and how often?

**Set it up once → Check insights weekly**

You should set up Sites (and Content Audit) as soon as possible. After the setup, you should monitor content performance and review refresh recommendations at least once per week.

## Prepare

> **Warning:** First, check how many Site projects you may need. A single [Surfer workspace](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/12944172-workspaces-in-surfer.md) can hold one Site project, and the number of available workspaces depends on your subscription plan. [Visit our pricing to learn more](https://surferseo.com/pricing/).

1.  Make sure your website is connected to **Google Search Console**. If not, do that first → [**How to set up Google Search Console**](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/11394197-step-0-how-to-setup-google-search-console-gsc.md)**.**
    
2.  For Sites to work properly, make sure you have at least 30 days of data in your **Google Search Console.**
    
3.  Connect your **Google Search Console** to your Surfer account (see [**How to add Google Search Console to Surfer**](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/11394329-step-1-how-to-add-google-search-console-to-surfer.md) for more details).
    

## Step-by-step

> **Info:** If you’ve already gone through the onboarding steps and didn’t add a GSC account and a Site project yet, you can do it at any time under the **SEO** section on the left menu bar → **Performance**.

> **Info:** If you’d like to manage multiple Site projects under your account, you need to set up separate workspaces for each of them.

1\. Pick the domain for auditing (use search if you’ve got many) during **Workspace setup**, or under the **SEO → Performance tab**.

**Note**: Domain property means that its site includes data from all directories and subdomains for a given website. If you want to optimize a smaller part of your website, create a separate property in GSC (see How to set **up Google Search Console (GSC)** for more details) or filter specific sites in the next steps.

2\. Select the location your website is targeting. This location will serve as the reference point for all optimization guidelines in **this** **project** going forward. Locations are arranged by the number of clicks your website is getting—**the location at the top generates the most traffic**.

**Note:** Some locations have multiple language options (e.g., location “United States” targets American-language results in the USA, but “United States - ES” targets Spanish content in the USA)—pick the most relevant option or create multiple Sites to cover more than one variant.

3\. Select **Next - Set up Brand Kit** to proceed. Review your automatically generated Brand Knowledge, and select **Get started** to complete the setup.

4\. Surfer will start building your **Performance**, **Content Audit**, and **Topical Map** (takes a few mins). You can explore Performance data while you wait.

5\. Surfer will automatically audit up to 100 top-ranking pages from your domain. You can review them under the **SEO → Content Audit** section on the left menu bar.

6\. Add and/or remove **pages** from your audit:

-   The “Top 50 - 500 pages” buttons will select pages with top **traffic** ratings**.**
    
-   You can search for specific paths and directories or select the top 50, 100, 200, or 500 pages ([available limits differ per subscription plans](https://surferseo.com/pricing/)). Use the search bar for easier setup.
    

> **Warning:** **Important:** Only indexed pages with at least some traffic will show up as available for auditing (up to your top 20,000 ranking pages).

> **Success:** Even if you reach your page audit limit, you can still access and use Sites features, you'll just need to manage which pages are included in the audits to get the most out of your plan.

🎉 Done! Your first Content Audit is live. Now let’s [find the best pages to update for a quick traffic recovery →](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/11394490-step-3-how-to-keep-your-content-up-to-date.md)  
  

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