Your questions, answered one at a time.
You asked exactly the right things. Below is how each part actually works, with a picture of it rather than a promise. Nothing here changes the shape of Option 1, it is the same work described properly.
How far back does the data go?
Sixteen months, because that is everything Google keeps. Older posts are judged on what they say, not on numbers nobody has.
Search Console holds sixteen months of performance history and no more. Every post in the audit gets its own row of that data: clicks, impressions, average position and the queries people actually used to find it.
That window is enough to see the thing that matters, which is direction. A post from 2018 that still picks up steady clicks today is earning its place. A post from last year that has never been found is not.
If Google Analytics goes back further on your side, I will use it, and it makes the picture richer. If it does not, nothing is lost. Posts with no numbers are still read and judged on relevance and quality, and I will tell you plainly when a decision is based on judgement rather than data.
In practice
- Every post gets its own performance row, exported once at the start.
- Posts with meaningful backlinks are flagged separately, whatever their traffic.
- Anything older than the window is marked so you can see which calls were made on judgement.
What are the relevance, quality and dated tests?
Three questions asked of every post, in the same order, with the evidence written down next to the answer.
Still relevant. Does anyone still want this? Search demand for the topic, the clicks the post gets now, and whether the question it answers is still a question your buyers ask.
Quality today. Held against what you would publish this week, not against 2019. Depth, examples, structure, whether it reaches a point, and whether it sounds like Content 10x.
How well it has aged. Your dated test, scored the other way up so a low number always means trouble. Named tools that have changed or closed, screenshots of old interfaces, statistics with a year in them, advice that is simply no longer true. This is the test that decides how much work an update really is.
The three answers together give the decision. High relevance with low quality means update. Low relevance with high quality usually means merge into something stronger. Low on all three means retire.
In practice
- You see the scores and the reason, not just the verdict.
- Anything I am unsure about is marked for your call rather than decided quietly.
- You sign off the whole list once, before a single post is touched.
Traffic says keep it. Quality says rewrite the middle. Nothing about the URL changes, so nothing at risk.
How do the filters and categories get decided?
You pick the seven niches, I file every post against them. One niche per post, then as many tags as it earns.
The niches come out of the audit, not out of my head. Once 350 posts are in a sheet with their topics visible, the natural groupings are obvious, and I bring you a proposed list with the post count in each. You cut, rename and merge until it sounds like Content 10x. That list is then fixed, because the navigation depends on it.
Each post gets exactly one niche. That single choice is what keeps the blog easy to browse, because a post can only ever live in one place. It is also what makes the hub pages possible.
Tags are different. A post can carry as many as it deserves: the format, the industry if it is genuinely about one, and the stage the reader is at. Tags power the finer filtering and the Start here lists, and they never affect the main navigation, so you can add new ones later without anything breaking.
Your team gets a one page guide so new posts are filed the same way, which is the part that keeps this from drifting in six months.
In practice
- You approve the niche list before any post is filed.
- One niche per post, unlimited tags.
- A written guide for your team, so new posts land in the right place.
What is the design process for the theme?
Three short rounds, and you only ever choose between things you can see on screen.
This is a tidy up of the blog inside your current site, so your brand does not change. Same colours, same logo, same voice. What changes is the blog page, the hub pages and the article layout.
Round one is direction: two versions of the blog page with your real posts in them, different in feel but both recognisably Content 10x. You pick one and tell me what to change.
Round two is the pieces: the post card, the filter bar, the hub header and the article page, agreed one at a time so nothing is a surprise at the end.
Round three is sign off: desktop and mobile, real content, ready to build. After that the design stops moving, which is what keeps the four weeks honest.
In practice
- Nothing is designed in isolation, every screen uses your real posts.
- Mobile is designed at the same time, not adapted afterwards.
- Once signed off, the design is frozen so the build can be predictable.
Two versions of the blog page, same content, different feel. You pick one and say what to change.
Card, filter bar, hub header, article page. Agreed one by one, so nothing is a surprise later.
Desktop and mobile, real posts in it, ready to build. After this the design does not move.
Can I see an example of the finished result?
Rather than show you somebody else, here is your own blog after the work, drawn out screen by screen.
Past work for other clients would tell you how their site looks. This tells you how yours will. Every screen below uses your real post titles, your topics and your structure, laid out the way it would be on the day this goes live.
Better than watching it, open the working prototype and use it. Filter by topic, search inside a topic, open a post, follow Read next. It runs in your browser with dummy posts in place of your real ones, and every filter changes the address bar exactly as it would on the live blog.
Three things change for a reader. They can browse by topic instead of scrolling. They land on a hub that tells them where to start. And at the end of any article they are told what to read next, inside the same topic.
In practice
- The blog page, with one filter per niche and search inside a topic.
- A hub page per niche, with a Start here list.
- An article page that says what it is, how long it takes, and what comes next.
The Content 10x Blog
Over 350 blog posts on B2B content marketing, repurposing and distribution.
Discover a new post every 2 weeks.
Take a look at some of our most popular posts
New to this topic? These five are the place to begin.
Should your B2B brand start a podcast?Planning your first seasonTurning one episode into ten assetsEverything we have published on planning, recording, repurposing and measuring a B2B show. Forty one posts, grouped so you can start anywhere.
Five posts, in order, if this is new to you.
Should your B2B brand start a podcast?Planning your first seasonTurning one episode into ten assetsRead next in B2B Podcasting
Five posts that cover the basics in order.
Open the prototype and use it yourself.
Topic filters, search inside a topic, hub pages, an article page with Read next. Real behaviour, dummy posts, running in your browser.
What changes, line by line.
Ten things a reader or your team runs into. On the left is today, on the right is the same thing after Option 1.
A search box, and only if you already know the words to type.
Seven topic filters at the top of the blog, each with its own page and address.
One list, newest first, 350 posts deep.
Browse by topic, then narrow by format or reader stage.
A title and a thumbnail. A podcast looks like an article.
Format and length on every card, so the choice is made before the click.
Nowhere in particular.
A Start here list of three to five posts on every topic hub.
Nothing follows. The reader leaves.
Read next, matched to the same topic, at the foot of every article.
350 posts, some excellent, some from 2018, all treated the same.
Every post kept, updated, merged or retired, with a reason written next to it.
One prompt, the same for everyone.
The prompt matches the topic being read.
Publish and hope it gets found.
Publish, pick one niche, add tags. Ten seconds, and it files itself.
Nothing at risk, and nothing improving either.
Every URL kept or redirected, so rankings follow the content.
The blog page as it is today.
Same brand, same colours. A tidier blog page, hub pages and article layout.
Happy to walk through any of this live.
If something here does not match how your team works, that is useful to know before we start rather than after.