Is there a way to automate finding low quality content on your site?

[BatmanGoonie]

Hi all,

I have a site that was once #1 for many keywords. Fast forward a number of years and I am sinking lower and lower and it really started to sink low from September 2012 and appears to be due to an algo update.

How should I go about finding my low quality pages? I am told that I might have pages bringing my entire site down. I deleted heaps of low quality pages but not seeing any improvements (might be a little impatient).

Any tips for finding bad content?

[RobertFisher]

Alex

While your question is simple enough and there are answers... it is not easy. I would suggest running a couple of tools on the site first to see what stands out. 
Use Moz campaign, analytics and make sure your GA and GWMT are all hookedup.

Go into GWMT and ensure there are no errors, manual actions, messages.

Then there are a lot of tools, so I will give you a couple of ideas: First use Screaming Frog to check your pages for the basics like duped title tags, metas, etc. Check response codes, etc.

Then use tools like RavenTools.com, WooRank.com, etc. as they can give you some right now info that could help.

Last, as to "poor quality content," you first must know what is or is not in your vertical. If you want to check for duplicate content on the web, you can use Copyscape.com

Note - Just because something is not a duplicate, does not mean the content is good. There are a lot of posts and Q & A on Moz around what is or is not good content and you will need to read. Also, one thing I believe and I know Google, etc. want is to have fresh and relevant content. If your content is the same content that was there  a year or more ago, you need to be blogging, improving it, etc. to maintain relevance and freshness.

Hope that helps, but your question is MUCH broader than you may realize.

Best, 
Robert

[BatmanGoonie]

Thanks Robert, really appreciate your answer. I will start on the 'to-do' list you provided now.

It really is a broad question and one that I didn't know where to even begin so thanks for understanding. Reading some of the old threads now but like your game plan.

Thanks!