Recently updated: May 29th, 2024
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential part of boosting a website’s visibility to impress potential customers and drive growth for the business. An SEO audit is vital to evaluate your website’s health, performance, and standing against the competition.
It helps you identify issues, opportunities, and strengths to inform an SEO strategy to improve your specific business goals, whether increasing web traffic, generating leads, or growing brand awareness.
Comprehensive SEO audits involve evaluating multiple key elements, from technical site infrastructure and speed to on-page content optimization. It also includes assessing backlink profiles and mentions across the web, as well as analyzing keyword rankings and website visitor behavior.
An SEO audit examines both on-page and off-page elements to identify areas for improvement. It helps answer vital questions, like how accessible and optimized my website is for search engines. Or how well does my content target relevant topics and keywords?
In this guide, we will discuss essential SEO audit checklists for the best SEO strategy.
Why Is an SEO Audit Checklist Important?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is key for any business to gain visibility and increase website traffic. Performing a technical and performance audit can help develop an effective SEO strategy specialized for your site and target audience.
An extensive SEO audit helps in deciding how your site is performing foundationally for organic search and content marketing. It allows you to correct problems causing underperformance as well as reveal untapped areas offering opportunities for traffic gains.
Having an essential SEO audit checklist in place lets you uncover tangible, actionable steps to technically configure, optimize, and regularly improve your website. This helps develop and execute the right strategic initiatives over time to win in competitive digital landscapes.
6 Important SEO Audit Checklist To Create The Best SEO Strategy
It allows you to use your strengths and fix issues that impact SEO performance. This checklist focuses on six key areas:
- Technical SEO Audit
- On-page SEO Audit
- Off-page SEO Audit
- Competition Analysis
- Keyword Research
- Site Performance Review
1. Technical SEO Audit
A technical SEO audit examines the backhand elements of a website that enable search engines to efficiently crawl, index, and understand its pages correctly. It checks critical components like site speed, proper functioning of XML sitemaps, robots.txt rules, page 404 errors, and broken internal links.
Technical audits assess if webpages use appropriate title tags, URL structures, image alt text, and hold valid HTML markup without errors. They evaluate site security and mobile-friendliness for delivering a positive user experience.
Conduct regular technical SEO checks, identify issues that may be inadvertently blocking bots or visitors, and prevent common errors that hinder SEO performance despite efforts in other areas like content. It ensures search engines can easily access and interpret all pages.
Key aspects include:
Fast page load times enhance the user experience and search visibility. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix and Pingdom to check speed on desktop and mobile devices. Streamline code, compress images, minimize redirects, and upgrade hosting to improve times.
With over 50% of searches happening on mobile devices, responsive web design is vital. Audit with the Google Mobile-Friendly test to check if pages adapt seamlessly on phones and tablets. If not, implement a mobile optimization strategy.
A robots.txt file guides bots on what they can and cannot crawl. Assess whether it is blocking pages that should be indexed using tools like ScreamingFrog. Remove restrictions on important content not meant to be hidden from search.
Broken internal and external links negatively impact crawling and the user experience. Check for 404 errors and faulty pages using dead link checker tools. Redirect or remove broken links as needed.
- Site Architecture Analysis
Evaluate the information architecture and ensure a logical hierarchical structure with target keywords in URLs, short links, and XML site maps. Check if migrations have caused issues. Improve page structure complexity if needed.
2. On-page SEO Audit
An on-page SEO audit evaluates the content and structure of the pages themselves to determine optimization levels for target keywords and search queries. It checks whether pages use effective title tags, meta descriptions, header tags (H1, H2), and body content to match user search intent.
The audit examines if pages feature-rich information that answers searcher questions and offers value. On-page factors analyze keyword placement, density, and integration within the copy to avoid over-optimization. The audit also checks page speed, internal linking, media use, and proper alt-text labels.
Reviewing all these elements determines the technical and content-quality signals each page sends to search engines about relevancy for ranking well. An on-page audit reveals content gaps and helps improve pages’ organic visibility through search.
An on-page audit evaluates page-level elements and content that influence relevance and rankings for chosen keywords. Core components involve:
- Page Title and Meta Descriptions
Page titles and meta descriptions summarize page content and appear as headline snippets in SERPs. The review of titles is descriptive and targets primary keywords; the limit is under 60 characters or 580 pixels. Meta descriptions highlight value propositions for searchers, restricted to under 155 to 160 characters or up to 920 pixels.
Analyze the copy of top-ranking target pages. Check keyword density, frequency, and if phrases naturally fit content without over-optimization. Ensure useful, informative content for users that also targets relevant search queries.
Check if images, videos, and other media are labeled with title tags and have alt descriptions using target keywords where logical. Transcribe/caption audio/video content.
- Duplicate Content Detection
Duplicate or thin content across multiple pages dilutes relevance signals for individual pages. Use tools like Copyscape to detect any duplication issues and address them accordingly.
3. Off-page SEO Audit
An off-page SEO audit evaluates external signals and backlinks pointing to a website to examine its authority and ranking credibility according to search algorithms. It assesses the number, type, and quality of backlinks from external sites, along with link anchors, referring domains, and the flow of links (velocity) over time. The audit checks if existing link-building tactics are proving effective for the site.
Tracking brand mentions and links published on quality sites demonstrates domain authority and awareness. An off-page audit also studies social sharing presence and visitor sentiment analysis to benchmark popularity.
By examining these external metrics, an off-page audit identifies issues in current link-building and content promotion efforts and spotlights new link opportunities to use for accelerated SEO growth.
An off-page audit examines external signals like backlinks, mentions, and social shares that evaluate authority, trust, and influence search visibility. Core elements include:
Backlinks remain one of the strongest ranking signals for search algorithms. Audit backlink profile quantity/quality using SEMrush or Ahrefs. Check domains, anchor text, link velocity, and type. Identify bad links and disavow them if necessary.
Set up Google Alerts and social listening tools to monitor brand mentions and links from external sources like mainstream news/media sites and industry publications. Signals wider visibility and relevance.
Track brand share of voice on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. See total followers, engagement rates, clicks, and referral traffic. Enable social share buttons on pages to amplify visibility.
4. Competitive Analysis
Competition analysis forms a key component of SEO audits by benchmarking your website against other leading rivals in the industry. It identifies the sites that rank higher than you for important target keywords so that you can analyze why they perform better.
A competitive analysis examines strengths in the competitor’s website across aspects like technical metrics, page speed, content quality, backlink profile, domain/page authority, and business listing presence.
It reveals specific SEO areas where your competitors excel, so you can further optimize your website to bridge these gaps. The analysis also covers a keyword gap analysis between sites to highlight the terms competitors outrank you on so you can boost content to target those. Continual competitor analysis thus presents improvement opportunities for advancing your SEO strategy over industry peers.
Analyzing competitors who rank well delivers key insights on gaps to bridge through your SEO efforts:
Track and monitor ranking rivals on target keywords using tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz. Review why some rank higher and specific differences in link profile, technical metrics, and content.
Thoroughly compare high-ranking competitor websites with your own across essential metrics like page speed, mobile optimization, domain authority/page authority, markup implementation, and design aspects. Discover specific areas for improvement.
Prepare a spreadsheet comparing your keyword rankings versus those of competitors. Categorize keywords as:
- Shared – where you both rank
- Owned – keywords you rank better for
- Lost – keywords competitors outrank you on
Define an optimization plan to target ‘lost keywords’ through content and links.
5. Keyword Research
Keyword research is the process of identifying high-value search queries that align with a website’s offerings and have sufficient search volume to drive traffic. As part of SEO audits, keyword research evaluates if existing site content targets queries users frequently use to find relevant products/services.
It helps uncover additional related keywords with good monthly searches that are a strategic fit to target through new optimized pages or content. Tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs analyze search volume data, competition levels, and trends around keywords to inform this.
The audit examines if current keywords bring sufficient visits based on opportunity and if there are untapped search terms that the site can potentially rank for by creating suitable content. Ongoing keyword research expands site visibility for new topics.
Creating new optimized content requires identifying valuable search terms prospects use with enough search volume. Keyword research is therefore imperative:
Use Keyword Planner’s traffic estimator metric to assess monthly organic traffic potential for newly targeted phrases. Focus on low and medium competition terms driving sufficient volume. Add relevant long-tail variants too.
Analyze search trends over the past year using Google Trends to identify rising and falling queries. Increased interest indicates potential growth keywords to target through your content plan.
Review historical posts and analyze clicks, CTR, and rankings. See if supplementary content targeting new keywords will help revive old posts. Improve outdated information as well.
6. Site Performance Review
A site performance review analyzes actual website traffic, engagement, and conversions driven by ongoing SEO activities. It examines key metrics under organic search channels in analytics like number of visits, unique visitors, pages per session, average session duration, bounce rates, and goal completions.
The audit reviews search impression share and click-through rates for target keywords in the Search Console. It checks if the site performs well for all keywords it ranks for or needs content improvements. Analyzing user behavior flows highlights website pages that cause exits.
The performance audit quantifies SEO ROI and whether increasing rankings have grown potentially high for site visitors and revenues. It identifies factors hindering conversions for traffic segments. Evaluating these user engagement metrics determines the real-world value delivered through the site’s search visibility and guides optimization.
The final website audit step is an in-depth business and traffic analysis:
Connect Google Analytics and assess reports on overall users, page views, bounce rates, pages per session, goal conversions, and sales data for the past year. Check acquisition channels driving visits and highlight areas working well.
- Impression Share Performance
See click-through rates and impression share metrics for target keywords in Google Search Console. Improve content quality, links, and page speed to increase click-through rates. Address tech issues leading to impression share loss.
Look for leading indicators evidencing the impact of ongoing SEO activities like website traffic from organic search, a decrease in bounce rates, and better page dwell times. Shows positive progression towards goals.
Conclusion
Regularly conducting an extensive SEO audit following this full-fledged checklist will offer continual opportunities to boost organic growth. Prioritize quick technical fixes first, then focus on content and links. Most importantly, select action areas that align with business objectives. It will enhance website visibility and visitors’ experiences to stand out against the competition.
The structured audit across key aspects presents a 360-degree view to create a data-backed SEO strategy. It helps draw attention towards website and content improvement efforts that will deliver the best ROI on rankings and revenue growth.
Severe technical issues negatively impact all other efforts, so fix site infrastructure and accessibility first. Easy wins also include better content structure, meta tags, and faster speeds. Long-term gains require building high-quality backlinks at scale toward achieving thought leadership over the competition.
Execute plans derived from evidence-based audits to boost organic search presence successfully.
