It’s undeniable: the world is awash in SEO audit methodologies. Whether you’re a small business looking to boost your site’s visibility on search engines or an agency working towards the same goal for a client, it can be overwhelming. Figuring out where to start, how deep to delve, and which SEO tools offer the most valuable insights is no easy feat.
See what I mean? To help clear the clutter, we’ve distilled the process into 10 essential components of a successful SEO audit. And we’re not just outlining the steps involved – we’re also providing guidance on how to address the issues you uncover. Whether you’re an SEO veteran or a small business owner managing a DIY Squarespace website, successfully implementing the 10 steps outlined in this guide will put your website on the fast track to dominating organic search results. Let’s begin!
Table of contents
Jump to a section:
What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit involves thoroughly examining your online presence to ensure your website achieves the best possible performance in search results. This encompasses identifying:
- Existing strengths and achievements to leverage or expand upon.
- Errors to rectify and easily achievable improvements to capitalize on.
- Ineffective strategies to abandon.
- Areas requiring enhancement. Given the multifaceted nature of SEO, this process can quickly become overwhelming. This post simplifies the SEO audit into 10 key steps. However, for websites with extensive content, consider categorizing your SEO audit for better management. Keep reading to explore different types of SEO audits. RELATED: The Complete Website Audit Checklist (in One Epic Google Sheet)
Types of SEO audits
For larger websites, understanding the different types of SEO audits can aid in prioritization. You can even break down your SEO audit into separate audits based on these categories:
SEO content audit
This audit focuses on pinpointing areas to enhance the accuracy, relevance, and overall quality of content on pages where you aim to increase traffic or improve ranking. Google’s E-A-T guidelines are crucial here. We’ll delve into content updating and refreshing later in this post. This audit might also involve identifying opportunities to optimize for featured snippets, the “People Also Ask” section, and passage ranking.
On-page SEO audit
On-page SEO ensures the technical aspects of a page are optimized for search engine crawlers. An on-page SEO audit encompasses reviewing meta descriptions, meta titles, image alt text and compression, and more.
View our on-page SEO checklist here.
Off-page SEO
An off-page SEO audit scrutinizes other webpages and domains linking to your target pages for improvement. This assessment considers factors like the quantity, quality, distribution, and freshness of these links.
Technical SEO audit
While encompassing on-page elements like image optimization, a technical SEO audit primarily focuses on performance metrics such as site speed and security. It identifies opportunities to fix, remove, or restructure code, combat spam, transition from HTTP to HTTPS, and more.
Local SEO audit
Local SEO encompasses practices aimed at improving your business’s visibility in local search results. A local SEO audit, though smaller in scope, incorporates elements from the aforementioned audits concerning listings (off-page), content (locally-focused pages and posts), on-page optimization (keyword usage and targeting), and technical aspects (site speed and security).
SEO audit tools
To perform the SEO audit outlined in this guide, you’ll need a few essential tools:
- SEO software: Any reputable SEO software will suffice. Ahrefs, Moz Pro, and SEMrush offer site audit or site crawl tools, enabling you to not only assess your website’s overall search health but also pinpoint common inefficiencies hindering your site’s organic performance. They also provide a wealth of other tools, including keyword research tools and backlink analysis tools. It’s advisable to at least utilize the free trial of one of these tools before undertaking a complete SEO audit of your website.
- Google Search Console: Formerly known as Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console offers numerous ways to conduct SEO audits related to keywords, organic click-through rates (CTR), technical fixes, Core Web Vitals, and submitting re-optimized pages for reindexing.
- Google Analytics: Since the ultimate goal of an SEO audit is to enhance website traffic, Google Analytics is indispensable for measuring the impact of your efforts. It also helps prioritize action items based on page traffic volume and significant traffic drops.
- Page speed tools: Google’s PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix are both trustworthy and free options. Get an instant SEO audit with the LOCALiQ Website Grader—it’s free!
SEO audit checklist
Based on the types of SEO audits discussed earlier, we’ve created a comprehensive checklist for a well-rounded SEO audit covering technical, off-page, and on-page SEO. To jump to a step:
- Identify link building opportunities
- Find potential information architecture improvements
- Find (and fix) thin content
- Identify (and nix) duplicate content
- Scan for keyword optimization
- Optimize metadata
- Identify page update opportunities
- Run page speed analytics](#pagespeed)
- Scan for site errors
- Switch from HTTP to HTTPS
Step 1: Identify link building opportunities
Acquiring backlinks is crucial for building website authority, making recommendations for internal and external link building an indispensable part of any SEO audit.
How to build internal links
Internal links distribute link equity within your website, playing a crucial role in establishing authoritative hierarchies. A simple and effective way to build internal links is by conducting a site search for older, related content (ideally with established equity) whenever you publish new content. Then, within the older content, locate anchor text that naturally links to the new content. For instance, if you’ve created a new resource on Facebook ads:
These are the pages you’ll want to link from – the top-ranking pages on your site for that keyword, according to Google. A Chrome extension like MozBar provides this type of view. Prioritize linking from the page with the highest Page Authority (PA). While not official SEO metrics used by Google for indexing, PA and Domain Authority (DA) are estimations of a page’s or domain’s authority created by SEO software companies. Nonetheless, they offer valuable insights for determining suitable linking sources. Remember to consider user experience and information architecture (IA) when building internal links. Linking from credible pages is just one aspect. Think about where you genuinely want to direct visitors from a particular page and what would guide them closer to purchasing your product or service. We’ll elaborate on this in Step 2, but these are essential questions to ask when building internal links.
How to build external links
Securing backlinks from a variety of reputable domains is paramount for boosting Domain Authority. One straightforward method is searching for resource lists that could logically feature and link to your content. For instance, if you’re conducting an SEO audit for a private school in Massachusetts and need external link building recommendations:
Searching for “best prep schools in ma” will yield relevant resource lists that may or may not already include your client, presenting valuable outreach opportunities. A more efficient and impactful way to build external links is by seeking out unlinked mentions. Most reputable SEO tools offer content explorer tools that allow you to locate online mentions of your brand:
After sorting by Domain Authority and confirming that the target hasn’t linked to you, reach out to content managers through various channels like Twitter, email, or even traditional mail. Request a link back to your homepage and offer to reciprocate by sharing their article on your social media platforms.
Step 2: Identify site structure improvements
Information architecture (IA), broadly defined, refers to “the way information is organized and structured.”
How to improve site architecture
Within the context of an SEO audit, IA improvement involves restructuring internal linking patterns on your website to direct equity to pages that need it most. Here are some tips for tackling a messy site structure:
- Collaborate closely with developers and designers to create user-friendly solutions that enhance page authority without compromising UX (user experience).
- Increase blog posts per page: If your blog index only displays ten posts per page, older posts get pushed further away from the homepage (where the most equity resides), requiring 20-30 clicks to reach. Increasing the number of posts per page brings those older posts closer to the homepage, improving their visibility.
- Check for link duplication: Look for overlapping links in sections like “Related Posts” and “Popular Posts” on your blog or in the header and footer. Replace these duplicates with links to other pages you want to boost, maximizing the value of that prime link space. Unless you’re auditing your own website, IA-related recommendations should align with stakeholder goals. Consider which pages or sections they want to emphasize and whether the objective is to make the site intuitive or immersive. Your target audience and business goals will shape how you define and organize content.
Step 3: Find (and fix) thin content
Speaking of content, thin content won’t earn your pages any favor in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Panda, a 2011 Google algorithm update, penalized websites with thin content, ensuring its significance. “Thin” content fails to adequately address user needs. A 300-word blog post attempting to explain a complex concept is a prime example. However, realistically, not every page on your site can accommodate 1000-2000 words. Pages closer to the homepage often prioritize design elements like hero images, icons, and call-to-action buttons, along with product-focused copy.
So, which content warrants your attention?
- Select pages: Focus on pages that have experienced performance or ranking declines. Alternatively, if you’re an SEO service provider, prioritize pages specified by your client.
- Top pages: Export a list of your top 25, 50, or 100 pages by traffic (depending on site size) and ensure they are sufficiently comprehensive.
- All of it: Most site audit tools within the aforementioned SEO software can generate a comprehensive report on content length and quality after crawling your website. From there, export pages with minimal or no content and create page-level action items for improvement. Long-form content offers two primary advantages:
- More internal linking opportunities.
- Increased opportunities to incorporate target, ancillary, and LSI keywords to enhance page visibility (see Step 5).
Step 4: Identify (and nix) duplicate content
The good news is that you’ll be examining the same subsets of your site as you did when searching for thin content. While some SEOs express concern over duplicate content and potential penalties, here’s a different perspective: Google can differentiate between intentional, malicious content duplication to manipulate SERP rankings and unintentional duplication. Chances are, if you have duplicate content, it’s unintentional. Perhaps your CMS (Content Management System) is automatically creating similar pages that haven’t been manually canonicalized in Search Console. WordPress, for example, does this with archive pages. However, anything that requires extra effort from Google’s crawlers can negatively impact your SEO.
Image source
If you’re worried about Google penalties for unintentional duplicate content, this post from Google should alleviate your fears.
Step 5: Scan for keyword optimization
Similar to enhancing thin content, fully optimizing every single page on your site for target and ancillary keywords isn’t always feasible. For instance, imagine you’re an employee scheduling software company. You’ve strategically placed “employee scheduling software” throughout your homepage. The highest volume, lowest competition keyword related to “employee scheduling software” is “best employee scheduling software.” While ranking for this keyword is desirable, claiming to be “the best” on your homepage might not be the most prudent approach. Reserve such keywords for blog posts (check out our SEO blog post templates here). Nevertheless, whenever possible, ensure all your pages are optimized for relevant keywords that will enhance their visibility in organic search. This process begins with keyword research.
How to do keyword research
Utilize one of the mentioned SEO products or a free keyword tool to search for keywords related to your topic that have high intent, high volume (monthly search queries), and low difficulty (competition level in the SERP):
For instance, “How to do an SEO audit” would be considered an ancillary keyword that could be naturally incorporated into this post – either in an H2 or within the body copy. Or, let’s say you know your post will have a section on conducting keyword research:
“How to Do Keyword Research” is a more optimized H3 than “how to conduct keyword research” due to its significantly higher search volume. As you might imagine, conducting industry-specific keyword research is a fantastic way to generate blog post ideas. Ideally, target keywords should be incorporated into the following elements:
- URL
- Title
- H1 (if applicable)
- H2 (subheadings in your post – at least one)
- Meta title (see Step 6)
- Meta description (ditto)
- Body copy (strategically distributed throughout) Ancillary keywords, on the other hand, should ideally be used in H2s and within the body copy. Naturally, integrating these keywords is much easier when crafting new content. When updating existing pages, prioritize making sensible adjustments. For instance, it wouldn’t necessarily be logical to change a URL solely for the purpose of optimizing for a new keyword.
Step 6: Make sure meta tags are optimized
Meta tags, comprising a meta title and a meta description, help Google understand the content of a webpage. They are crucial ranking factors and serve as concise advertisements for your content, informing users about the page’s content within search results.
Utilize your industry-specific keyword research to write or rewrite your meta tags, optimizing them with relevant keywords to improve search visibility. With meta tags in particular, and in general SEO copywriting, avoid keyword stuffing – cramming in keywords just for the sake of it. For example, “10 Great Instagram Captions, Good Instagram Captions, and Funny Instagram Captions That Will Make You ROFL” is not an effective title.
How to optimize meta titles
Google displays the first 50-60 characters of your title before truncating it with an ellipsis, potentially omitting essential keywords and appearing unprofessional in the SERP.
- Keep titles under 60 characters to avoid truncation in most cases. This useful, free tool from Moz can assist in crafting effective titles.
- Ensure your target keyword is used in its entirety within the title.
- Include your brand name to leverage its authority. For example: Target Keyword | Brand Name. So: “How to Choose the Right Running Shoes | Nike.”
How to optimize meta descriptions
While the ideal description length has fluctuated, it currently stands at 155-160. A winning formula for content is: target keyword + ancillary keywords (if natural) + descriptors/call to action. For example: “SEO audits are essential for ranking on Google. Learn how to do an SEO audit in 10 easy steps and get the tips and tools you need to succeed.”
Step 7: Identify page update opportunities
Regularly updating your webpages, even with minor changes, signals to Google that the page is current and relevant, improving its chances of ranking well. Focus on updating these two types of content regularly:
- Top pages, discussed in Step 3, are your highest-traffic pages. Keeping them updated ensures they continue attracting visitors.
- Opportunity pages are pages that would experience a significant traffic boost if they ranked slightly higher in the SERP. Popular SEO products offer rank trackers that display page rankings for specific keywords, track ranking changes, and show traffic generated by each keyword.
Pages just outside the top 10. Pages ranking just outside the top 10 should be frequently updated to increase their chances of reaching page one. Similarly, prioritize updating pages that rank just below the top 3. Traffic significantly declines after the first three positions and plummets after the first page.
How to make page updates
Check out our post on updating evergreen content, but here are some key takeaways:
- Add new information and research: For example, if you have a blog post about Google algorithm updates and a new update is released, that post requires an update. Keeping content current ensures you’re meeting the needs of organic visitors, reducing bounce rates, and potentially improving rankings.
- Add keywords: Identify related, ancillary keywords that are driving traffic and incorporate them into your page.
- General housekeeping: Compress images and address or remove broken links. Large images slow down loading times (more on this in Step 8), while broken links create a negative user experience (more on this in Step 9). Addressing these on-page elements can significantly boost your page’s ranking potential.
- Content pruning: This type of update involves removing content from your site. While seemingly counterintuitive, pages with minimal organic traffic might be dragging down your overall rankings by lowering your site’s average value in Google’s eyes. Identify pages with little to no organic visits in the past year and either overhaul them to add value or deindex them.
Step 8: Run page speed analytics
Page speed is critical, especially with Google’s Speed Update and Page Experience Update. The rise of mobile searching plays a role here. Mobile users won’t tolerate slow-loading websites. The faster your website, the higher Google is likely to rank it. PageSpeed Insights is your go-to tool for this task. It provides detailed insights into page speeds and suggests areas for improvement. You can analyze page speed at both the site-wide level:
And at the individual page level:
As you can see, you can also analyze both mobile and desktop versions of your site. Suggestions for improvement from these tools can range from technical recommendations like minimizing JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content to simpler tasks like image compression. (Find more website maintenance tips here.)
How to speed up your site:
- Compress your images: For quick and effective page speed improvements, prioritize image compression. Use a simple image compressor like this one to compress images listed in the report, then re-upload them to your CMS. Depending on the size difference before and after compression, you could see significant performance gains.
- Implement lazy loading: This ensures that the initial portion of your website loads as quickly as possible.
- Check for common mistakes: Here are some common things that could be slowing down your site.
Step 9: Scan for site errors
A 404 error, indicating “page not found,” is typically caused by broken links and images within your website. For instance, if a page on your site links to content that has been deleted, anyone clicking that link will encounter a 404 error.
Contrary to common belief, broken links don’t directly lead to site penalties. As content is added, removed, and updated, and your website’s structure evolves, 404 errors naturally occur. However, broken links in critical locations can disrupt your internal linking structure and create a frustrating experience for users.
How to find and fix broken links
Site audit tools can identify all 404 errors on your website. Once identified, prioritize fixing them based on their importance to your linking structure and user experience. If a page no longer exists or has a new URL, ensure that high-traffic pages previously linking to it now 301 redirect to the new page or at least to your homepage. This chrome extension is helpful for pinpointing broken links on individual pages.
Step 10: Switch from HTTP to HTTPS
In today’s digital landscape, using HTTP is highly discouraged. HTTPS is faster, more secure, and considered a ranking signal by Google. To verify that your site uses HTTPS, manually enter different non-HTTPS versions of your domain – www.site.com; site.com; http://www.site.com—and – and make sure they all 301 redirect to the HTTPS version. Next, search the index for any instances of non-HTTPS URLs. Use the Index Status report in Search Console to see which versions of your URLs are canonicalized. If needed, manually canonicalize the HTTPS versions. For a comprehensive guide on migrating from HTTP to HTTPS, read this.
Use this SEO audit checklist to get more traffic and rank higher
The lack of a universal SEO audit formula exists for a reason – just like the ever-evolving nature of SEO “best practices.” Google’s algorithms are constantly changing, often without clear explanations. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach to SEO audits is unrealistic. However, rest assured that these 10 steps represent tried-and-true, fundamental elements of a successful SEO audit. By addressing the issues they uncover, you’ll be well on your way to dominating the organic search landscape.
- Identify link building opportunities
- Find potential information architecture improvements
- Find (and fix) thin content
- Identify (and nix) duplicate content
- Scan for keyword optimization
- Optimize metadata
- Identify page update opportunities
- Run page speed analytics
- Scan for site errors
- Switch from HTTP to HTTPS
*SEO periodic table in introduction provided by Search Engine Land