A regular SEO audit is essential for maintaining the health and visibility of your website, ensuring it ranks well on search engines. You can identify and fix any issues that hurt your search engine rankings by conducting an SEO audit. This blog post will discuss 14 simple steps on how to conduct an SEO audit of the website. We’ll cover all the essential steps, from checking for indexing issues to analyzing your site’s speed and core web vitals. So, let’s dive into it!
What is an SEO Audit?
An SEO audit is a process of evaluating your website’s performance in terms of search engine optimization. It involves assessing your site architecture, content quality, backlink profile, and keyword optimization, impacting your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
It helps identify and address potential issues affecting your website’s ranking and offers solutions to make necessary improvements. Through an SEO audit, you can create an effective SEO strategy and make sure your website provides a seamless user experience and performs well in search engine rankings.
1. Check for Indexing Issues
The first step in conducting an SEO audit is to check for basic indexing issues. It’s essential to ensure that search engines can properly crawl and index your website’s pages. To determine if your pages have been indexed, check Google Search Console for any issues. In the left-hand menu, go to “Index” and then “Coverage.” Here, you can see a report that provides insights into how Google indexes your site. Look for any issues marked as errors, warnings and notices.
The other way to do this is by submitting a sitemap to Google Search Console. A sitemap provides search engines with a roadmap of your website’s structure and ensures that all relevant pages are discovered and indexed.
2. Check for Duplicate Versions of Your Site
Duplicate content has a negative impact on your website’s SEO performance. Multiple versions of your site may confuse search engines, making it difficult for them to decide which version to rank.
To a search engine, these are all different versions of the site:
- http://www.example.com
- https://example.com
- http://example.com
- https://www.example.com
If your website uses more than one of these URL versions, it may lead to various problems with crawling, indexing, and ranking. In particular, Google will consider them to be duplicates. However, to avoid confusion, choose one version (preferably https://www.example.com) and implement redirects from the other versions to the preferred one.
3. Run a Site Crawl
To uncover potential issues with your website’s SEO, conducting a thorough site crawl is crucial. To do that, you’ll need a website SEO auditing tool. This tool will crawl your entire website and provide you with a complete report of any technical or on-page SEO issues that need attention. It will also analyze issues like broken links, missing meta tags, slow-loading pages, markup issues and more.
4. Check for Manual Actions
Google may issue manual actions against your website if it violates Google spam policies. These manual actions impact your website’s ranking and organic visibility. To check if your site has received any manual actions, log in to Google Search Console and navigate to the ‘Manual Actions’ section.
Here are some reasons why you have received a manual action from Google:
- Thin or low-quality content
- Unnatural links
- Keyword stuffing
- User-generated spam
If your site has a manual action, it’s essential to take steps to fix the issue and submit a reconsideration request to Google.
5. Check for Mobile-Friendliness Issues
With the majority of internet users accessing websites through mobile devices, it’s essential to ensure your site is mobile-friendly. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to check if your website is optimized for mobile devices. The tool will provide all issues related to mobile-friendliness and suggest improvements that directly influence your ability to rank in search results. A mobile-friendly website contributes to a better user experience and can positively impact your search rankings.
6. Analyze Your Site’s Speed
Page speed is essential to user experience and search engine rankings. A slow-loading website can lead to a higher bounce rate and lower conversion rates. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to analyze your web page speed. These tools will provide recommendations and insights to help you optimize your site’s speed, such as compressing images, minimizing CSS and JavaScript files, and leveraging browser caching.
7. Analyze Your Core Web Vitals
Google’s Core Web Vitals are three metrics measuring crucial aspects related to user experience and page speed. The three core web vitals to focus on are:
– Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This metric measures the time it takes to load the largest content element on a web page.
– First Input Delay (FID): FID measures the time it takes for a web page to respond to the first user interaction with a page. A lower FID indicates a more responsive website.
– Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): CLS measures the visual stability of a web page by quantifying how much elements shift around unexpectedly during the page load.
By analyzing and improving these core web vitals, you can enhance the overall user experience on your website.
8. Analyze Your Internal Links
Internal links play an integral role in optimizing your website’s structure and help you direct link equity throughout your site. Analyze your internal links to ensure they are relevant, well-structured, and support a good user experience. Use tools like Google Search Console or a website crawling tool to identify any broken or inefficient internal links. Fixing these issues can improve your website’s overall crawlability and user navigation.
9. Check Your Organic Traffic
One of the critical indicators of your website’s SEO performance is organic traffic. Analyze your website’s traffic data using tools like Google Analytics to understand how well your site is performing in organic search. Look for any fluctuations or patterns in organic traffic, which can be an indication of algorithm updates, penalties, or on-page issues. Monitoring your organic traffic regularly can help you identify areas for improvement and measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
10. Benchmark Against Your Competitors
To gain insights into your website’s performance in comparison to your competitors, use a tool like the Domain Overview tool. Enter your website’s domain and your competitor’s domain. The tool will compare various metrics for both domains, providing you with an accurate picture of your areas of success and failure.
To get the best overview, focus on these metrics:
– Authority Score: This metric measures the overall strength and trustworthiness of a website’s backlink profile.
– Organic Traffic: It gives you an idea of how much organic traffic a website is receiving.
– Organic Keywords: This metric represents the number of keywords a website ranks for in organic search results.
– Referring Domains: It indicates the number of unique websites that link to a particular domain.
Analyzing these metrics will help you identify areas where your website may be lagging behind your competitors and create strategies to improve your performance.
11. Find Keywords You’re Missing Out On
Keywords are the foundation of SEO. You can attract relevant organic traffic to your website by targeting the right keywords. Use the Keyword Gap tool to identify keywords that your competitors are ranking for but you’re not. The tool will help you:
- Discover hidden keyword opportunities.
- Strengthen your keyword strategy.
- Develop content around these keywords to attract more organic traffic.
12. Find Missed Backlink Opportunities
Backlinks are crucial for establishing your website’s authority and improving its search rankings. The Backlink Gap tool can help you identify backlink opportunities that your competitors have, but you don’t. The tool will provide insights on:
- The domain authority of websites linking to your competitors.
- New backlinks your competitors have received.
- Websites you can target for outreach to earn valuable backlinks.
By leveraging this tool, you can find missed opportunities and develop a comprehensive backlink acquisition strategy.
13. Audit and Improve Your Top Pages
Your top-performing pages are an important asset for your website’s SEO. Conducting an on-page SEO audit for these pages using the On-Page SEO Checker tool allows you to optimize your website for better ranking in SERPs. You’ll need to enter the page URL you want to analyze to do that. The tool will compare your data with top-ranking competitors and provide detailed insights into various on-page elements like meta tags, headings, keyword density checks, content optimization, and more.
Auditing and improving your top pages can improve your ranking and visibility in various on-page SEO audit areas.
14. Monitor Your Rankings
Continuously monitor your website’s search engine rankings to measure the impact of your SEO efforts. Use tools like Google Search Console or position-tracking tools to track your keyword rankings over time. Monitor both your overall rankings and any specific improvements you have implemented. Regularly reviewing your rankings will help you identify any fluctuations that may require attention.
Final Thoughts on SEO Audit of the Website
Conducting an SEO audit is a crucial step in maintaining the visibility and health of your website. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can identify and address any issues that are affecting your website’s SEO performance. Remember to regularly perform an SEO audit to stay ahead of the competition and ensure your website remains optimized for search engines. Implementing the necessary improvements will not only boost your search engine rankings but also enhance the overall user experience on your website.
