Detailed SEO Audit: A Comprehensive Guide

A detailed SEO audit is like a health check for your website - it helps you identify areas that need improvement to boost your online presence. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process.

To start, it's essential to understand that an SEO audit involves analyzing your website's technical, on-page, and off-page elements. This includes checking your website's crawlability, mobile-friendliness, and page speed.

A good SEO audit should also examine your website's content quality, including keyword usage, meta tags, and header tags. This will help you determine if your content is engaging, informative, and optimized for search engines.

By following this guide, you'll be able to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to enhance your website's SEO.

On a similar theme: On Page Search Engine Optimisation

An SEO audit is a thorough examination of your website's technical and content-related issues that could be holding you back from achieving a higher ranking in search engine results.

It involves identifying and fixing problems that prevent search engines from crawling, indexing, and ranking your site properly.

A site-wide technical audit is a crucial part of this process, where we inspect and make an inventory of the technical issues on your site, providing actionable recommendations to fix them.

This can include issues like broken links, slow page loading speeds, and mobile responsiveness problems.

By fixing these issues, you'll be on a path toward a higher ranking and better search engine visibility.

A detailed SEO audit should also involve analyzing your website's content, including keyword usage, meta tags, and on-page optimization.

This will help identify opportunities to improve your content and make it more search engine friendly.

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Before starting a detailed SEO audit, it's essential to prepare and plan thoroughly. A clear understanding of the project's goals and scope will help you stay focused throughout the process.

Identify the website's target audience, and consider their search behavior and preferences. This will inform your audit's objectives and ensure you're addressing the most critical areas for improvement.

Gather relevant data and tools, such as Google Analytics, Search Console, and Ahrefs, to help you analyze the website's performance and identify opportunities for growth.

To prepare for an SEO audit, you'll need a few essential tools. Semrush, an all-in-one SEO suite, is a must-have for a comprehensive look at your site's performance. It helps improve your organic search performance and checks for over 140 on-page and technical SEO issues.

Semrush provides a Site Audit feature that's a game-changer for identifying issues. Google Search Console, on the other hand, is a set of dashboards and reports that allows you to monitor and troubleshoot any issues related to your website's presence on Google.

You can also start with a few free tools that cover the basics. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) and Google Search Console (GSC) are a great place to begin. Google Analytics is optional but can provide valuable insights into your website's traffic.

Here are the essential tools you'll need for an SEO audit:

To prepare and plan for SEO, you need to know what areas to focus on. Running an SEO audit gives you a clear direction on what to improve.

You'll get three main areas to work on: technical SEO issues, on-page SEO issues, and content opportunities. Fixing these issues can significantly boost your site's performance in search engine results.

Technical SEO issues are like the foundation of your website. Fixing them can improve your site's overall search performance. On-page SEO issues are like the interior design of your website, and fixing them can increase your organic clicks. Content opportunities are like the decorations on your website, and pursuing them can rank pages higher and for more keywords.

Here are the three main areas to focus on:

Fixing technical SEO issues can be a bit more complex, but it's worth it. If you want to dive deeper into technical SEO, you can read our guide to running a technical SEO audit.

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Running a site crawl is the most efficient way to gather data about every page of your website, giving you insights into crawlability, loading speed, internal linking, structured data, and on-page SEO.

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A site crawl can be performed using tools like Screaming Frog, which offers a free audit of 500 URLs, or Semrush's Site Audit tool, which assesses your site for over 140 issues.

To run your site crawl, enter your domain name and click "Start Audit" in Semrush. You'll then need to configure your crawler settings, such as setting crawl limits and choosing different user agents.

The "Overview" tab in Semrush showcases your site's overall health, including the number of errors, warnings, and notices. Click on each of these to learn more and fix the issues.

Some common issues that can be identified during a site crawl include crawlability issues, such as pages returning a 5xx status code, and on-page SEO issues, like missing title tags.

Here are some examples of URLs that don't have to be indexed:

Checking Google's indexing status is also crucial, as you may have different versions of your site indexed, such as HTTP and HTTPS versions. To check, head to Google Search Console and click the "Pages" report under "Indexing."

Running a full crawl is the most efficient way to gather lots of useful data about every page of your website.

You can gain insights about your website's crawlability, loading speed, internal linking, structured data, and on-page SEO.

A few different tools out there to help you perform a site crawl include Screaming Frog and Semrush.

Screaming Frog will give you insights on aspects of your site like title tags, meta descriptions, and images, and help you identify broken links and understand your website's architecture.

Semrush Site Audit is a comprehensive auditing tool that assesses your site for over 140 issues, covering site performance issues, internal linking optimization, and international SEO.

To run your site crawl, enter your domain name and click "Start Audit" in Semrush.

You'll then need to configure your crawler settings, setting crawl limits, choosing different user agents, and scheduling automatic site audits.

The "Overview" tab showcases your site's overall health, along with how many errors, warnings, and notices you have.

For another approach, see: Search Engine Results Page

You can click any of the linked numbers under these headers to learn more and get advice on solving the issue.

A free Semrush account lets you audit up to 100 URLs with Site Audit.

Here are some common issues you might find during a site crawl:

Fixing these issues can greatly improve your website's performance and user experience.

Indexability issues can get quite complicated, but you can check for basic issues fairly easily. First, check the Indexability report in Site Audit for "Noindex page" warnings. Google can't index pages with this warning, so it's worth checking they're not pages you want indexed. If they are, remove or edit the meta robots tag.

Not all pages have to be indexed, only the ones you want to rank in search results. It's completely normal to have some URLs that aren't indexed. Pages with redirects, admin pages, alternate pages with canonical tags, feed pages, and development or staging pages are examples of URLs that don't have to be indexed.

To check if your pages have been indexed, head to the "Pages" report under the "Index" section in Google Search Console. You'll see a graph of all pages based on their indexing status. Underneath, you'll see a list of reasons why the pages haven't been indexed. Go through all the listed reasons one by one and inspect all the affected pages.

Some common reasons why pages aren't indexed include being blocked by robots.txt or having a noindex tag. You might also want to block some pages with robots.txt or remove pages that no longer exist. But to avoid sending your readers to these pages, follow the next step.

Here are some examples of URLs that don't have to be indexed:

To request that Google index a URL, click the "Request Indexing" link in Google Search Console. You can also use the Google Search Console dashboard to see the URL's status by entering it into the top search bar.

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A clean on-site structure is crucial to any SEO strategy because Google crawls millions of web pages per day. This structure refers to technical issues like mobile site performance, page load speed, and Core Web Vitals.

Not having the proper structure in place can seriously hinder your ability to rank on page one, leading to frustrated users who leave your site without taking action. Users will get frustrated and leave your site if it doesn’t load fast enough.

Here are some key elements of on-site structure to review:

Regularly crawling your site for technical issues is essential, ideally once a month or more depending on the size of your site, to catch new issues that can pop up anytime.

Analyzing your site's speed is crucial for technical SEO. Better loading speed helps you rank higher on Google.

Data shows that the slower a page loads, the higher the chance of users leaving the website. This can be frustrating for users and hurt your site's credibility.

To check your site's speed, head to the "Site Performance" report from your Site Audit dashboard. This report will show you a list of all the issues affecting your site's loading time.

A clean on-site structure is crucial to any SEO strategy, and page load speed is a key part of that. Not having the proper structure in place can seriously hinder your ability to rank on page one.

Here are the key issues to check in your Site Performance report:

By fixing these issues, you can improve your site's speed and user experience, which will help you rank higher on Google.

Technical SEO is all about making sure your website is in top shape for search engines to crawl and index. A technical SEO audit can uncover dozens of technical issues, such as broken links, duplicate content, and slow page load speeds.

Regularly crawling your site for technical issues is a must, ideally once a month or more depending on the size of your site. This will help you catch new issues before they become major problems.

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One common issue is having too many indexed pages, also known as "Zombie Pages." These are pages that don't drive traffic or help users, but they do use up your crawl budget. The most common types of Zombie Pages are irrelevant archive pages, empty category and tag pages, search result pages, old press releases, and thin content.

You can find Zombie Pages by checking your Google Search Console and looking for pages that are indexed but shouldn't be. You can also use tools like Semrush to help identify these issues.

To fix indexing problems, head back to Google Search Console and click the "Pages" report under "Indexing." This will show you pages that Google isn't indexing, and you can click into any of these reasons to see a list of the pages with that issue.

Broken links are another issue that can hurt user experience and SEO. You can find broken links using tools like Broken Link Check or crawling software like Screaming Frog. Fixing broken links can be as simple as updating the link or removing the page altogether.

Internal links are also important for SEO, as they help search engines crawl your website, help users navigate, and direct PageRank to the most important pages. You can use tools like Semrush Site Audit to analyze your internal links and identify issues.

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A clean on-site structure is crucial for SEO, and technical issues like mobile site performance, page load speed, and user behavior can all affect your ranking. Checking on-site structure, reviewing technical errors, testing site speed, and analyzing on-site user behavior are all important parts of technical SEO.

Here are some common technical SEO issues to watch out for:

Google updates its search algorithms all the time, and many of these updates target specific things like content quality or link spam.

Drops in organic traffic can be caused by two main reasons: Google algorithm updates and manual actions.

You can check if you've been hit by an algorithm update by plugging your URL into Ahrefs' Site Explorer and seeing if any traffic drops align with an update.

To double-check your organic search performance, go to the Search results report in Google Search Console, set the date to the Last 12 months, and look for any significant drops.

Significant declines in organic traffic are a good indicator of something that needs to be addressed.

If your traffic's gone to zero, you may need to check for a manual action, which is where a human reviewer at Google decides your site doesn’t comply with the Google search essentials.

To check for manual actions, go to the Manual actions report in Google Search Console.

If it says anything other than “No issues detected,” read our Google penalties guide.

If it's not a manual action, you may need to check further for Google algorithm updates, as they can significantly affect your site's organic traffic.

Here are the main reasons for traffic drops to check:

You can also use the Organic Research tool to quickly check your site’s organic traffic and spot spikes and dips in your site’s traffic.

A detailed SEO audit is not just about technical issues, but also about optimizing your website's content and on-page elements. Focus on your most important pages, as they bring the most conversions and target the most important keywords for your business.

You don't need to check all your pages, but instead focus on the ones that target the most important keywords and bring the most conversions. Use an on-page SEO checker tool to analyze their performance and find ways to improve them.

Here are some key on-page SEO elements to review:

Having multiple versions of your website can cause issues with crawling, indexing, and ranking. If Google sees them as duplicates, it can dilute PageRank, leading to a negative impact on your SEO rankings.

You should check for duplicate versions of your site, including http://www.yoursite.com, http://yoursite.com, https://www.yoursite.com, and https://yoursite.com. If you can access your site through various versions, use a 301 redirect for the other versions.

If your website has both secure and non-secure versions, such as https://domain.com and http://domain.com, you have an issue. These variations should redirect to the main version of your site.

To check that everything works as it should, install Ahrefs' SEO Toolbar and type each URL version into your browser. Then, check the HTTP headers to ensure they all redirect to the same "master" version.

Here are some common duplicate versions of a website:

On-Page SEO is a crucial aspect of content marketing, and it's essential to get it right. A general site crawl will help you find technical issues across your website, but it's also good to take a closer look at specific pages, especially your important ones.

To analyze their performance and find ways to improve them, use an On Page SEO Checker tool. This will help you identify areas that need improvement and provide actionable tips and recommendations.

You don't need to check all your pages, instead, focus on the ones that bring the most conversions and target the keywords that are most important for your business. For example, if you have a page that targets a specific keyword and is already ranking well, but has the potential to crack the top 5, it's worth optimizing.

To check the ideas for a specific page, go to the “Optimization Ideas” tab and click the “# ideas” button next to the page’s URL. This will give you a detailed list of all the suggestions, including tips and difficulty levels.

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On-Page SEO involves ensuring that every indexable page on your site has a title tag, meta description, and H1 tag. These basic on-page elements help Google understand your content and help you win more clicks from your rankings. You can check for issues in the “Issues” tab in the Content report in Site Audit.

Here are some common mistakes to avoid when it comes to internal linking:

To maximize your internal links, make sure you link to high-priority pages as much as possible. Aim for 5+ per page, but ensure they're all relevant. This will help avoid “orphaned pages” and make it easier for search engines and users to find your content.

Internal links also help minimize your website's crawl or click depth, which is the number of clicks it takes for a reader to get from your homepage to any given post or page on your site. Ideally, keep your crawl depth to 3 clicks at most, especially for your most important content.

Link building and backlinks are crucial for SEO, as Google views backlinks as votes of confidence. Backlinks from authoritative sources in your niche can significantly improve your site's chances of performing well in search results.

You can use tools like the Backlink Gap tool to find backlink opportunities. Simply enter your domain and up to four competitors' domains, and the tool will show a list of domains that link to your competitors but not to you.

These domains are likely to link to your website since they're already linking to similar sites. You can then try to replicate these backlinks by selecting relevant ones and clicking the "Start outreach" button.

Here are the key steps to find backlink prospects and reach out to domain owners:

It's also essential to perform a backlink audit to analyze your link profile. Use a tool like Semrush's Backlink Analytics tool to get a report on your links, including the number of referring domains and your domain's Authority Score.

Backlinks are crucial for SEO because Google views them as votes of confidence, especially when they come from authoritative sources in your niche.

You can use the Backlink Gap tool to find backlink opportunities by entering your domain and up to four competitors' domains and clicking "Find prospects."

A list of domains that link to your competitors but not to you will be displayed, which are likely to link to your website since they're already linking to similar sites.

These domains can be expanded to show specific pages that link to your competitors, along with the anchor text and target URLs.

You can try to replicate these backlinks by selecting the relevant ones and clicking the "Start outreach" button.

Off-page SEO involves reviewing your link-building strategies, focusing on backlink analysis, disavowing spam links, and internal linking.

You should review and assess each individual link to determine its quality, using tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to download a list of your existing backlinks.

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Google has its own proprietary way of measuring link equity, but you can use metrics like Domain Authority or Domain Rating to compare your site to competitors and others ranking for your keywords.

Here's a checklist of off-page SEO tasks to ensure accuracy and completeness:

A backlink audit is essential to analyze your link profile, and you can use tools like Semrush to download a list of your existing backlinks and review their quality.

You should pay attention to how many referring domains you have pointing to your site, as well as your domain's Authority Score, which tells you how much authority your site has based on factors like the quantity and quality of your backlinks.

Spammy links are a normal part of any link profile, but you want to disavow those that are toxic or irrelevant to your site.

On a similar theme: Seo Link Audit

Reclaiming Rankings is a crucial step in maintaining and improving your website's link building and backlinks. You can find declining content to reclaim rankings by refreshing and republishing outdated content.

To do this, go to Google Search Console and follow these steps: go to the Search results report, set the date filter to compare mode, choose "Compare last 6 months to previous period", click the "Pages" tab, and sort the table by "Clicks Difference" from low to high. This will show you which pages have declined in performance.

You can also use a free SEO plugin for WordPress to automate this process and monitor for pages that no longer perform well. It will give you recommendations on how to fix them.

Here are some examples of how to republish content:

Mobile-friendliness is a crucial aspect of SEO, and Google no longer indexes sites that don't work on mobile devices. This means your site's usability on mobile devices can directly influence your ability to rank in search results.

Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means they use the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking in mobile and desktop search results. This process was completed in 2023.

To ensure your site is mobile-friendly, use a responsive design, and create mobile-friendly content with short sentences and paragraphs for better readability on smaller screens. Compress your images to avoid using lots of text-heavy images that may be hard to read on smaller screens.

Here are some key stats about mobile traffic:

Don't just assume your site is mobile-friendly; test it regularly using tools like PageSpeed Insights or Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool.

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Mobile friendliness issues can significantly impact your website's usability and search engine rankings. Just under 55% of all global traffic is on mobile devices, making it crucial to ensure your site is mobile-friendly.

Google has been using mobile-first indexing since 2023, which means they use the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking in mobile and desktop search results. You can check for mobile-friendliness problems using the "Issues" report in Site Audit.

To do this, make sure your "user agent" is set to a mobile crawler. If it's not, click on the gear icon at the top right-hand side of your page and select "SiteAuditBot-Mobile" from the drop-down.

A unique perspective: Mobile Seo Audit

Here are some tips to improve your site's mobile friendliness:

If you don't have access to Google Search Console, you can plug any page from your website into Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool. This will tell you whether any URLs have errors that affect mobile usability.

Here are some additional tips:

Mobile-First Indexing: What You Need to Know and Mobile SEO: 10 Optimization Tips to Build a Mobile-Friendly Site are both resources that can help you improve your site's mobile friendliness.

Local businesses often struggle to attract enough local traffic, but a website SEO audit can help. This tailored service provides solid, actionable advice to improve a site's visibility and attract more qualified leads.

For businesses looking to level up their current site, a website SEO audit is a great place to start. It's particularly useful for those who have difficulty acquiring enough local traffic.

Local businesses that invest in a website SEO audit can expect to see improvements in their site's visibility and lead generation. This can be a game-changer for businesses that rely on local customers.

A website SEO audit is a must-have for businesses that need help getting more qualified leads. It's a valuable tool for anyone who wants to improve their site's performance and attract more local traffic.

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A user-friendly navigation is crucial for a smooth mobile experience. We'll review your main navigation structure to ensure it's easy to use.

Your website's navigation should be intuitive, with clear labels and minimal clutter. A cluttered navigation can lead to frustration and a high bounce rate.

We'll make sure your most important pages are being linked to, so users can easily find what they're looking for. This includes your homepage, contact page, and any other essential pages.

A well-designed navigation can also improve your website's accessibility and search engine optimization.