When I initially started optimizing websites for search engines, I was often overwhelmed by the number of elements to consider. It wasn’t until I created a rigorous SEO audit checklist that I felt comfortable evaluating and improving my websites. In this article, I’ll provide you with a complete 15-step SEO audit checklist to help you assess and improve your website’s performance. This guide is jam-packed with insights and recommendations that go beyond the basics, ensuring you’ve covered all of the important components of an SEO audit.
What is an SEO Audit?
An SEO audit is a thorough review of your website’s search engine optimization efforts. It assists in identifying difficulties that may be hindering your website from ranking better in search engine results pages (SERPs). According to SEMrush, 37% of marketers conduct SEO audits at least once a month. Regular audits keep your website optimized and competitive in the ever-changing SEO landscape.
When I completed my first SEO audit, I identified several neglected issues that, once addressed, greatly increased traffic to my site. This experience demonstrated the need to conduct regular and thorough audits.
Types of SEO Audits
If you have a huge website, it’s important to prioritize different sorts of SEO audits and separate them.
#1. SEO Content Audit
This refers to recognizing opportunities to improve the accuracy, timeliness, and quality of content on pages where you want to increase traffic or rank. Google E-A-T is your guidance here. We’ll go into more detail about updating and refreshing content later in this post. This type of audit may also entail identifying chances to optimize for the featured snippet. People also inquire about section and passage ratings.
#2. On-page SEO Audit
This type of SEO ensures that a page’s backend elements are optimized for search crawlers. An on-page SEO audit would involve checks for meta descriptions, meta titles, picture alt text, compression, and other factors.
#3. Off-Page SEO
An off-page SEO audit would involve looking at other sites and even other domains that link to the pages you’re attempting to improve—which can include the quantity, quality, distribution, and recency of these links.
#4. Technical SEO Audit
This type of SEO audit will include on-page work such as image optimization, but it primarily focuses on performance indicators such as site speed and security. A technical SEO audit will reveal opportunities to fix, remove, or restructure code, avoid spam, migrate from HTTP to HTTPS, and more.
#5. Local SEO audit
Local SEO is a set of tactics that assist your business rank in local searches. A local SEO audit will be slightly smaller, but it will include features from all of the above audits, including listings (off-page), content (locally focused pages and posts), on-page (keyword insertion and targeting), and technical (site speed and security).
SEO Auditing Tools
Some tools will be required to do the SEO audit covered in this article. This includes:
- SEO software: Ahrefs, Moz Pro, and SEMrush all include a site audit or site crawl tool that allows you to crawl your website and identify not only overall search health but also frequent inefficiencies that are weighing down your site’s organic performance. They also provide a variety of other tools, such as keyword research and backlink assessment. I would recommend downloading at least the free trial edition of one of these tools before performing a full SEO audit of your website.
- Google Search Console (previously Webmaster Tools) can be used in a variety of ways for SEO auditing, including keywords, organic CTR, technical corrections, Core Web Vitals, and submitting any reoptimized pages for reindexing.
- Google Analytics: The goal of an SEO audit is to increase traffic to your website, so you’ll need Google Analytics to track the effectiveness of your efforts. This will also allow you to prioritize your action items based on which pages receive the most traffic or have had major declines in traffic.
- Page speed tools: Google PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix are both reliable and free.
SEO Audit Checklist
#1. Check for crawlability
Make sure search engines can simply crawl your website. Use tools like Google Search Console to check for crawl failures and rectify any problems.
According to Moz, 33% of websites have crawl problems that impact their SEO performance.
I discovered that a forbidden section in my robots.txt file was preventing search engines from indexing crucial pages. Fixing this problem increased my website’s prominence.
#2. Test Site Speed
Site speed is an important ranking criterion. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to examine your site’s loading times and suggest areas for enhancement.
Google discovered that 53% of mobile consumers abandon sites that take more than 3 seconds to load.
After improving my site’s pictures and utilizing browser caching, I noticed a 20% decrease in bounce rate and increased user engagement.
#3. Ensure mobile-friendliness
With the majority of consumers accessing the internet through mobile devices, be sure your website is mobile-friendly. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly.
According to Google, 70% of mobile searchers have used click-to-call to contact a business directly from the search results.
I previously made a client’s website more mobile-friendly, which resulted in a 30% boost in mobile traffic.
#4. Review on-page SEO
Evaluate your on-page SEO features, such as title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and keyword usage. Make sure they are optimized and relevant.
According to Backlinko, pages that include a keyword in their title tag are 2.5 times more likely to rank higher. My click-through rates from search results increased dramatically when I optimized my title tags and meta descriptions.
#5. Check for duplicate content
Duplicate material can hurt your SEO. Use tools like Copyscape to find and remove duplicate content from your website.
SEMrush discovered that 50% of websites have duplicate content concerns. I once eliminated duplicate content from my site, which resulted in a considerable rise in organic traffic.
#6. Optimize the URL structure
Ensure that your URLs are clean, descriptive, and contain important keywords. Avoid long, convoluted URLs.
According to Ahrefs, shorter URLs outperform longer ones in search results. Simplifying my URLs and deleting superfluous parameters increased my site’s SEO performance.
#7. Evaluate Internal Linking
Examine your internal linking structure to verify it promotes link equity and improves navigation.
Stat: According to HubSpot, websites with strong internal linking architectures perform better in terms of SEO.
Personal experience: Improving my internal linking strategy enhanced my website’s crawlability and user experience.
#8. Evaluate the Backlink Profile
Analyze your backlink profile with tools like Ahrefs and Moz. Identify and remove any hazardous or spammy backlinks.
Backlinko discovered that the number of domains linking to a page is associated with higher ranks. Cleaning up my backlink profile and adding quality backlinks dramatically improved my search rankings.
#9. Check for broken links
Use tools like Screaming Frog or Broken Link Checker to identify and fix broken links. According to Moz, broken links can negatively impact both user experience and SEO.
Fixing broken links on my website decreased bounce rates and increased user engagement.
#10. Optimize for local SEO
If you own a local business, optimize your website for local SEO by claiming your Google My Business listing and using local keywords.
Google claims that 46% of searches have local intent. Optimizing my website for local SEO enabled me to acquire more local clients and enhance my search rankings.
#11. Assess Content Quality
Ensure that your material is high-quality, relevant, and adds value to your audience. To check for grammar and readability difficulties, use tools such as Grammarly.
HubSpot discovered that firms who blog get 97% more links to their websites. Regularly updating and upgrading my content has kept my audience interested and my website competitive.
#12. Check Site Security
Implement HTTPS to ensure your site’s security. Use SSL certificates to encrypt data and safeguard user information.
HTTPS-enabled sites rank higher on Google. After encrypting my website with HTTPS, I observed a tiny but considerable increase in my search ranks.
#13. Evaluate Social Channels
Check your social media presence to ensure that your material is shareable and entertaining. According to Hootsuite, social media accounts for 31% of referral traffic to websites. Improving my social media strategy enhanced my site’s referral traffic and engagement.
#14. Monitor analytics
Use Google Analytics to monitor your website’s performance and identify areas for improvement.
A Forrester study discovered that firms that use analytics are 5 times more likely to make better decisions. Regularly monitoring my analytics enabled me to discover patterns and refine my content approach.
#15. Review Technical SEO
Check your site’s technical SEO for flaws such as XML sitemaps, structured data, and canonical tags. SEMrush discovered that 80% of websites have technical SEO issues that affect their results. Regular technical SEO audits have helped me keep my website healthy and running well.
The Use of Templates in SEO Audits
Using an SEO Audit Checklist Template will help you expedite the audit process and ensure you cover all of the important details. This template provides an organized way for identifying and addressing concerns.
Ready to optimize your website for better search engine performance? Download our comprehensive SEO Audit Checklist Template now to streamline your audit process and ensure you cover all critical aspects of SEO.
Conclusion
Regular SEO audits are essential for maintaining and boosting your website’s performance. By following this 15-step checklist, you may discover and resolve issues that are impeding your SEO efforts. Have you done an SEO audit recently? What were your challenges, and how did you overcome them? Let’s continue the conversation in the comments section.
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