Website Health Audit: A Comprehensive Guide to Improved Performance

A website health audit is a thorough examination of your website's performance, identifying areas of improvement to boost speed, security, and user experience. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process, ensuring your website runs smoothly and efficiently.

A healthy website is essential for online success, with 53% of users abandoning a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Slow-loading sites not only drive away users but also harm your search engine rankings.

To begin, assess your website's technical foundation, including its hosting, domain, and SSL certificates. A reliable web host can significantly impact your website's speed, with shared hosting plans often being the slowest option.

A website's user experience is equally important, with clear navigation and intuitive design elements making a significant difference in user engagement.

You should think about auditing your site on a regular basis to keep close tabs on how your SEO strategy is progressing over time.

At the very least, you'll want to do an SEO audit during major milestones. This is when you'll want to assess your website's health to see if your SEO efforts are paying off.

To perform a full SEO site audit, you should focus on 11 key steps. Don't worry, I'll break them down for you in a separate section.

Performing a regular website health audit is essential to rank higher in search engine results and attract more organic traffic.

A website health audit can reveal many issues that might be driving traffic away from your site. Broken links, 404 pages, and redirects can all contribute to a poor user experience.

These issues can be detected during a thorough website audit, and resolving them can help improve your site's credibility and increase user engagement. In fact, a website audit can help you identify errors such as broken links404 pagesredirects that can make users think your site is not well-maintained.

Identifying and fixing these issues can have a significant impact on your site's performance and user experience.

User experience and accessibility are crucial for any website. A website that is slow to load or difficult to navigate can drive away potential customers and negatively impact your site traffic.

Google uses the concept of "core web vitals" to measure how quickly pages load and how fast a visitor can begin to interact with them. In May 2021, Google will incorporate these core web vitals and other user experience metrics into its ranking algorithm.

A website audit can give you useful insights into website speed, responsiveness, user interface, and other factors that impact user experience. This includes page load speed, mobile responsiveness, intuitive navigation, and clear calls-to-action.

Thoroughly reviewing your menus, navigation elements, image alt text, and other elements that ensure a positive user experience is essential. Make sure that your site architecture is easy to follow and doesn't lead people to missing pages or other dead ends.

Accessibility isn't always thought of as part of SEO, but the two concepts are closely linked. Many issues that make a website less accessible for users with disabilities are also SEO ranking factors.

Here are some key areas to focus on for user experience and accessibility:

By addressing these areas, you can improve the user experience and accessibility of your website, which can lead to better SEO and more engaged users.

Analyzing error messages is a crucial step in identifying issues with your website's performance. You should take a close look at the errors listed under the overview tab.

The errors display issues of the highest severity, with the most significant impact on your website's performance. These include duplicate title tags, 4xx status codes, duplicate content issues, and duplicate meta descriptions.

To fix these errors, click on the 'Errors' link to get a complete list of errors identified during the crawl. You'll find errors like duplicate title tags, 4xx status codes, duplicate content issues, and duplicate meta descriptions.

If you're unsure how to address one of these errors, click on the 'Why and how to fix it' link for a detailed description of the error and the steps required to rectify it. This will help you understand the issue and take the necessary steps to fix it.

You should also analyze and fix the 'Warnings' and 'Notices' identified during the crawl. While these aren't as critical as the errors, they can still impact your site's overall search performance.

Some issues may have complex solutions, requiring the help of a digital marketing agency that specializes in technical SEO.

An SEO audit can identify a wide range of issues with your website, including problems with user experience and indexing & crawlability. It's surprising how many websites have crawl errors that can be fixed with a few simple tweaks.

An SEO audit evaluates how user-friendly and engaging a website is for visitors, focusing on factors like page load speed, mobile responsiveness, intuitive navigation, and clear calls-to-action. This is crucial for keeping visitors on your site and encouraging them to take action.

The audit also identifies if the website's architecture is well-organized to boost its SEO score, ensuring that all relevant pages are discoverable and there are no crawl errors. A well-structured site is essential for optimal visibility in search results.

A thorough SEO audit examines the organization and hierarchy of a website's content, ensuring logical categorization, effective internal linking, and a well-defined sitemap. This helps search engines understand your site's structure and content.

The audit compares a website's performance, keyword rankings, backlink profile, and overall SEO strategy against its competitors, providing insights into areas where improvements can be made to gain a competitive advantage. This is a great way to stay ahead of the competition.

Here are some of the key areas an SEO audit can identify:

Identifying issues with your website's international presence is crucial for reaching a broader audience. The international SEO section can reveal problems affecting your site's global visibility.

Incorrect hreflang links can be a major issue, and you can see the number of pages on your site that have them in the international SEO section. This is a common problem that can lead to frustrated users and lost business.

Hreflang conflicts are another problem that can arise, and the international SEO section will show you the number of pages on your site that have them.

Up to 53% of users leave a web page that takes more than three seconds to load, making it crucial to identify large files and improper coding that impact page loading speeds.

Google favors pages that load in three seconds or less, and slower sites may suffer a ranking penalty, lower user engagement, and a drop in conversions.

To analyze your website's performance, check its usability, including navigation, user experience, and design, as well as its overall speed, which impacts conversion rates drastically.

You can use tools like Pagespeed Insights or Google Lighthouse to analyze your site's load time and resolve issues that might be causing delays.

Here are some key performance metrics to check:

These metrics will help you identify areas for improvement and prioritize your website's performance optimization efforts.

To check your organic traffic, you'll want to head over to Google Analytics. Here, you can see the amount of traffic you're getting from different devices and channels. You can also identify which pages are driving the most traffic.

In Google Analytics, you can find this information by going to "Reports" > "Acquisition" > "Traffic acquisition." Look for "Organic Search" as the primary channel group. You can tweak the timeframe to see your organic traffic performance over a longer time period.

It's essential to understand which pages on your site drive the most clicks from Google. You can do this using the "Performance" report in Google Search Console. This will help you prioritize your efforts during and after your SEO audit.

Search engines strongly prefer sites that load fast. Google favors pages that load in three seconds or less. Slower sites may suffer a ranking penalty, lower user engagement, and a drop in conversions.

Research shows that up to 53% of users leave a web page that takes more than three seconds to load.

Your site's performance issues can be found in the site performance section, which displays the average HTML page load speed and lists your site's performance issues. These issues should be shared with your development team to improve your site loading speed.

To speed up your site, clean up your site's HTML code using PageSpeed Insights. This test will also show you how you're performing in terms of your Core Web Vitals.

Here are three key metrics to focus on:

Crunching your images is also crucial. Huge images can bring your site speed to a screeching halt. Compressing your images with a tool like Kraken or Squoosh can help.

Analyzing your topical authority is crucial for ranking well in search engines. Topical authority helps make it clear to users and Google that you're a trustworthy authority on a given topic.

To check your website's topical authority, you can use a handy Topical Authority Analysis spreadsheet created in collaboration with Graphite. This spreadsheet automatically pulls information from your Google Search Console property.

This breakdown provides you with a clear understanding of the keywords and phrases your website ranks for and gets clicks for. This helps identify areas where your topical authority lies.

By analyzing this data, you can determine where you can expand or exploit your authority.

Analyzing your backlink profile is a crucial step in understanding how your website is performing. Backlinks are one of the top ranking signals for Google and other search engines, and they equate to a vote of confidence in your site.

There are two broad categories of backlinks: "good" links and "bad" or "toxic" links. Good links come from established and safe sources, and the more of these you have, the better.

A study of 11.8 million search results found that the top result in Google has 3.8x more backlinks than pages in positions 2-10. This highlights the importance of backlinks in ranking well.

To analyze your backlink profile, enter your domain into a backlink analysis tool, such as Semrush. You'll get a report on your links, including the number of referring domains pointing to your site.

Referring domains are the number of different websites that link to you. You want to pay attention to this number, as it's an indicator of your site's authority.

Don't sweat the exact numbers too much, but take note of your domain's Authority Score. This score tells you how much authority your site has, based on factors like the quantity and quality of your backlinks.

Here's a breakdown of the types of links you might see:

If you notice that most of your links are from shady sites, you might want to disavow those links using Google's "Disavow Links" tool. But be careful, as you usually won't need to use this tool unless you've received a manual action.

You should think about auditing your site on a regular basis to keep close tabs on how your SEO strategy is progressing over time. Regular audits can help you detect issues such as broken links, thin content pages, long signup forms, or low traffic pages hindering your site's performance.

At the very least, you'll want to do an SEO audit during the initial stages of formulating your SEO strategy. This gives you a tangible benchmark to measure your future SEO efforts against. Conducting an SEO audit at this point will also help you identify your first-priority actions and areas that need significant improvement.

An effective SEO audit starts with a comprehensive overview of every content item living on your site in an inventory.

This inventory should include elements like customer-facing URLs, images, videos, scripts and embeds, downloadable files and documents (e.g. PDFs), and sitemaps (if you use separate sitemaps for different sections of the site).

Compiling a content inventory can reveal underserved areas that call for new or updated content. You might also spot obvious gaps between the topics you're currently covering and your long-term website goals.

Taking stock of your existing items can help you plan your content calendar and identify opportunities to drive more sales and better ROI.

Here are some types of content you should include in your inventory:

This data can be used to plan your content calendar and identify areas for improvement.

The time it takes to complete a website audit can vary depending on several factors. Google favors pages that load in three seconds or less, and slower sites may suffer a ranking penalty. Up to 53% of users leave a web page that takes more than three seconds to load.

The speed at which you set your crawl has a huge impact on the time it takes for a site audit to run. Different site audit and crawler tools have different capabilities in terms of how fast they can crawl. Some crawlers can't read JavaScript pages.

The amount of pages being crawled is another factor that affects the time it takes to complete a website audit. You can inform a crawler to ignore certain pages, which can affect completion time. Research shows that a crawl speed of pages crawled per second is a key factor in determining the audit completion time.

Using the right tools can make a huge difference in your website's health audit. Google's Mobile-Friendly Test Tool is a great place to start, as it checks if your website is mobile-friendly.

You'll also want to use Google Search Console and Analytics to get a thorough picture of your organic performance. They provide useful insights into how crawlable and indexable your site is, detect technical issues, and show how your pages rank.

Sitechecker is another all-in-one SEO audit and website monitoring tool that offers a comprehensive Website SEO Checker. It performs detailed site audits to uncover technical and content-related issues impacting search results.

Ahrefs is an all-around SEO tool that can help you with your site's optimization. You can use it to run site audits by creating projects for specific pages or the entire site.

Some key ranking factors that you can't work on with free SEO site audit tools include:

To perform a backlink audit, you can use a backlink analysis tool like Semrush's Backlink Analytics tool. This will give you a report on your links, including the number of referring domains and your domain's Authority Score.

Here are some tools you can use for a website health audit:

Optimizing your website is a crucial step in maintaining its health. Regular website audits can help spot and eliminate new issues and errors, ensuring your site performs at its highest potential.

To optimize your website, start by improving your on-page SEO. This means identifying your 5 most important pages and optimizing them with strategies like including your keyword in the title tag, first 100 words, and adding 5+ external and internal links.

Here are 5 strategies to focus on when optimizing your 5 most important pages:

Additionally, don't forget to speed up your site by optimizing your HTML code, compressing images, and considering upgrading your hosting.

Improving Core Web Vitals is crucial for a smooth user experience and better SEO. Google measures core web vitals to analyze your site's user experience.

Page speed and core web vitals are essential ranking factors. Google and other search engines measure core web vitals.

To improve your site's core web vitals, start by cleaning up your site's HTML code. You can easily find problems with your code with PageSpeed Insights. This test will also show you how you're performing in terms of your Core Web Vitals.

Core Web Vitals are three metrics that cover how fast your site loads, how responsive it is to user interactions, and whether there are any unexpected layout shifts as your page loads.

To get your site to load really fast, consider crunching your images. Huge images can bring your site speed to a screeching halt. That's why we recommend compressing your images with a tool like Kraken. Squoosh is another option. And it's free.

Here are some key metrics to focus on:

By focusing on these metrics and implementing the necessary changes, you can improve your site's core web vitals and provide a better user experience.

Ensuring mobile-friendliness is crucial for any website. Just under 55% of all global traffic is on mobile devices.

Google now uses mobile-first indexing, which means they use the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking in both mobile and desktop search results.

Google used to offer a mobile-friendliness test, but they discontinued it in 2023. You can use a tool like PageSpeed Insights to check your site's mobile-friendliness instead.

To improve your site's mobile friendliness, use a responsive design that functions properly on mobile devices. Many themes, especially those built for CMS like WordPress, are already responsive.

Create mobile-friendly content with short sentences and paragraphs for better readability on smaller screens. Ensure all your CTAs are clear and buttons or menus are easy to tap and navigate.

Use high-quality images that look crisp and clear on mobile. Avoid using lots of text-heavy images that may be hard to read on smaller screens.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

Removing Zombie Pages is a crucial step in optimizing your website. It can reveal up to 50-75% more indexed pages than you'd expect, which can be a major issue.

These extra pages, known as "Zombie Pages", don't drive traffic or help users, but they do use up your crawl budget. Irrelevant archive pages, empty category and tag pages, search result pages, old press releases, and thin content are common types of Zombie Pages.

Deleting Zombie Pages makes the rest of your SEO audit much easier, as it reduces the number of pages to review. It's like cleaning up a cluttered closet – once you get rid of the junk, you can focus on what's truly important.

Here are some common types of Zombie Pages to look out for:

By removing these unnecessary pages, you'll be able to free up resources and improve your website's overall performance.

Fixing indexing problems is a crucial step in optimizing your website. It's surprising how many sites have 50-75% more indexed pages than they'd expect, which we call "Zombie Pages".

These extra pages use up your crawl budget and don't drive traffic or help users. They're often irrelevant archive pages, empty category and tag pages, search result pages, old press releases, or thin content.

Deleting Zombie Pages can make the rest of your SEO audit much easier. Fewer pages mean fewer problems. It's like decluttering your digital closet!

To fix indexing problems, head back to Google Search Console and click the "Pages" report under "Indexing". This report will show you which pages Google isn't indexing.

Some common reasons for indexing problems include accidentally blocking a page with your robots.txt file or using a noindex tag. Not everything in this report is an issue to fix, but it's worth taking a closer look.

Here are some common reasons why pages might not be indexed:

A website health audit is crucial to ensure your site is secure and performs well. Google favors sites that load fast, with a preference for pages that load in three seconds or less.

Research shows that up to 53% of users leave a web page that takes more than three seconds to load. This can lead to a drop in conversions and user engagement.

Having a secure site is a must for business reasons, but web security is also a ranking factor when it comes to SEO. If your site doesn’t use the right SSL certificate, you’ll risk a drop in your search engine traffic.

To improve conversions and business performance, a regular site audit can help you identify which pages are getting more traffic and engagement. This analysis can help you put money in such pages rather than on pages driving low or zero traffic.

A website audit should include an analysis of mobile friendliness and site speed to help you spot any performance bottlenecks or showstoppers. Your website speed impacts your conversion rate drastically, with a study by Portent revealing website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time.

Here are some essential checks to ensure your website's performance:

* Website’s usability:

+ Is your website's navigation easy to understand?

+ Does your website reflect your Unique Value Proposition (USP) instantly?

+ Is your call to action easy to understand and read?

+ Is the font size big enough to read, or is the font style readable?

+ Look for the distraction in the conversion process. Does your site show lots of pop-ups or intrusive ads?

* Website’s overall speed:

+ Check your site's load time using tools like Pagespeed insights or Google Lighthouse.

By prioritizing your website's performance and security, you can ensure a better user experience and improve your search engine rankings.

Reviewing thematic reports is a crucial step in understanding SEO issues affecting your website. There are 7 types of thematic reports displayed by Semrush.

To demonstrate your progress, use the site audit report in two ways: show how improvements in usability affect the site's overall performance, and correlate your actions with successes in rank increases, traffic, or other metrics.

You can use various SEO tools to output the report, but it's essential to have a platform that allows you to do so with ease and create reports covering everything you need to justify the SEO program.

To present the audit report in context, you can use SEO tools like seoClarity's Reporting capabilities, which allow you to correlate all efforts with results and demonstrate the value of your work.

Here are the two key ways to use the site audit report:

To conduct a thorough website health audit, you'll need the right tools. Clarity Audits is a website audit technology that crawls your HTML and JavaScript, analyzing over 100 technical health checks just like Google's own crawler, Googlebot.

You can also use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test Tool to check if your website is mobile-friendly. This is a crucial step in ensuring a good user experience.

To help you get started, here are some tools you can use for your website health audit:

Clarity Audits will also validate your schema, canonical URLs, hreflang tags, pagination and more, providing insights to enhance your site's architecture and improve its performance.

A website health audit can help you detect and resolve issues diverting traffic, such as broken links, 404 pages, or redirects.

These issues can make users think you're not doing regular audits to fix such problems, driving traffic to your competitors instead.

A sudden loss of rankings can be a major concern, often caused by Google updates, manual actions, or internal technical issues.

Auditing your site can give you a clearer understanding of the underlying reason for the ranking loss, allowing you to address the issue and restore your ranking without delay.

Broken links and 404 pages can be a major turn-off for users, making it essential to regularly check for and fix these issues.

Regularly auditing your site can help you stay on top of these issues and maintain a healthy website.

Starting your website health audit is a great idea, especially when you're just beginning to formulate your SEO strategy. This gives you a tangible benchmark to measure your future SEO efforts against.

Conducting an SEO audit at this point will also help you identify your first-priority actions and areas that need significant improvement. An SEO audit makes perfect sense in the initial stages of formulating your SEO strategy.

Regular audits are crucial as they help you detect issues such as broken links, thin content pages, long signup forms, or low traffic pages hindering your site's performance.

To get started with a site audit, you'll want to select the "Start Site Audit" option, which will kick off the process. This is where the Semrush crawler comes in, analyzing your website's health and identifying any issues.

The primary metric you'll want to focus on is the site health score, which will give you an overall idea of your website's health based on the number of issues, including notices, errors, and warnings. A higher score is always a good thing, indicating that your website is better optimized for search engines and more user-friendly.

The Semrush crawler will also compare your site health to the average industry scores of the top 10% websites, giving you a better understanding of how you stack up against your competitors. This comparison can be a great motivator to improve your website's performance.

Starting your SEO strategy is a crucial step, and it makes perfect sense to conduct an SEO audit at this point to get a tangible benchmark to measure your future SEO efforts against.

Conducting an SEO audit will help you identify your first-priority actions and areas that need significant improvement.

To start your crawl-based audit, select 'Start Site Audit' to begin the process. Once the Semrush crawler completes the audit, you can see the site audit report in the dashboard.

Your site health is compared with the average industry scores of the 'Top 10% websites' to help you better understand how you line up with your competitors.

A higher score indicates that the website has fewer issues, is better optimized for search engines, and is designed to be more user-friendly.

Here are the key metrics to focus on:

By analyzing these metrics, you'll get a clear picture of your website's SEO health and identify areas for improvement.

Regular audits are crucial as they help you detect issues such as broken links, thin content pages, long signup forms, or low traffic pages hindering your site's performance.

To perform a full SEO site audit, follow these 11 steps.

However, for now, let's focus on the basics of getting started with your SEO strategy.

Start by conducting an SEO audit to identify your first-priority actions and areas that need significant improvement.

This will give you a solid foundation to build upon and help you create a comprehensive SEO plan that drives results.

Remember, a higher site health score indicates that your website is better optimized for search engines and is designed to be more user-friendly.

So, take the first step and start your SEO audit today!