What is a Website Audit and How Does It Work?

A website audit is a thorough examination of your website's performance, functionality, and overall user experience. It's like giving your website a check-up to identify areas for improvement.

During an audit, a team of experts will review your website's code, structure, and content to identify technical issues, usability problems, and opportunities for optimization. They'll also analyze your website's performance, including loading speeds and mobile responsiveness.

The goal of a website audit is to provide a clear picture of your website's strengths and weaknesses, and to offer actionable recommendations for improvement. By addressing these issues, you can improve your website's credibility, user engagement, and ultimately, your online business's bottom line.

A website audit is a thorough examination of your website's overall health and performance, specifically its search engine optimization (SEO) health. This process can be daunting, but breaking it down into manageable steps makes it more approachable.

There are 11 key steps to focus on when performing a full SEO site audit, which will give you a clear picture of your website's strengths and weaknesses.

A website audit is essential to identify areas that need improvement, such as technical issues, content quality, and user experience. This will help you make informed decisions to enhance your website's performance and visibility online.

Performing a website audit can be a time-consuming task, but it's a crucial step in maintaining a healthy and successful online presence.

A website audit is a thorough examination of a website's performance, and preparation is key to getting the most out of it. This involves identifying the goals and objectives of the audit, such as improving search engine rankings or increasing conversions.

To begin, gather all relevant information about the website, including its history, architecture, and technical specifications. This will help you understand the website's strengths and weaknesses and identify areas for improvement.

Types of Audits are crucial for any organization to ensure compliance and efficiency in their operations. There are several types of audits, but let's focus on the ones that are relevant to our discussion on preparation and planning.

Internal Audit is a type of audit that is conducted by the organization's internal team, focusing on internal controls and risk management. This type of audit is essential for identifying areas of improvement and ensuring that the organization's systems and processes are operating effectively.

Compliance Audit is another type of audit that focuses on ensuring that the organization is adhering to laws, regulations, and industry standards. This type of audit is critical for organizations that handle sensitive data or operate in highly regulated industries.

Financial Audit is a type of audit that focuses on the organization's financial statements and transactions. This type of audit is essential for ensuring that the organization's financial records are accurate and reliable.

Operational Audit is a type of audit that focuses on the organization's operational processes and systems. This type of audit is critical for identifying areas of improvement and ensuring that the organization's systems and processes are operating efficiently.

Risk-Based Audit is a type of audit that focuses on identifying and mitigating risks within the organization. This type of audit is essential for ensuring that the organization is taking a proactive approach to risk management.

Regular SEO audits are a must to keep tabs on your SEO strategy's progress. You should think about auditing your site on a regular basis.

At the very least, you'll want to do an SEO audit during major milestones. These include times when you're launching a new website or making significant changes to an existing one.

You'll want to perform an audit when considering improvements to your existing SEO rank, which helps you figure out which resources you need to prioritize.

This audit will help you determine if you need to fix technical SEO issues, which may require hiring more developers.

You might find that your website is missing key content, which calls for content writer support.

A thorough audit will also help you identify areas where you can improve your content to better match user intent.

By understanding your resource needs, you can allocate your budget and team effectively to achieve your SEO goals.

It's essential to prioritize your website audit categories based on your specific needs.

Worried about page load speed? You can start by sorting your title and meta tags, but if that's already done, you can move on to other categories.

You need to choose parameters that reflect your needs, such as checking page load speed, which is a common concern for many website owners.

By selecting the right categories, you can focus on the areas that will have the greatest impact on your website's performance.

Page load speed is just one example, and you can choose other categories that are relevant to your goals.

You should regularly audit your website to keep tabs on your SEO strategy's progress over time. This helps you identify areas that need improvement and make data-driven decisions.

There are several major milestones when you should consider performing an SEO audit, but you can also do it on a regular basis.

Before starting an SEO audit, you should choose the categories that reflect your needs, such as page load speed or title and meta tags.

A good place to start is by conducting an initial URL check to ensure that only one version of your website is browseable. This means making sure that any variations in the URL, such as http or https, or www or not, all redirect to the canonical version.

You should make a list of the pages on your website and ask yourself questions to evaluate them for optimization opportunities. This will help you identify areas where you can improve your website's performance.

A website audit checklist should include ensuring that only one version of your website is accessible, and that the others are 301 redirected to the canonical version.

You should consider performing a website audit on a regular basis to keep track of your SEO strategy's progress over time.

At the very least, you'll want to do an SEO audit during major milestones.

You can start thinking about auditing your site when you notice a drop in traffic or engagement.

You should focus on 11 key steps when performing a full SEO site audit.

These steps will help you identify areas for improvement and optimize your site for better search engine rankings.

You can refer to these steps to ensure you're covering all the necessary aspects of your site's SEO health.

A technical audit is a crucial part of a website audit, and it's where you'll assess the technical aspects of your site to ensure it's running smoothly and efficiently.

You'll need to loop in a developer or someone from your IT department to help with this part of the process. This can also be done with an outside agency, but make sure to do your homework first.

A technical evaluation will address issues related to website performance, SEO, and conversion rate, all of which can impact the user experience (UX).

You may need to revisit some of the assessments you did earlier, such as website performance and SEO, as they can be related to technical issues.

A technical SEO audit looks at structural elements that affect how easily search engines can crawl and index your site.

Some common issues to look out for include error response codes like missing pages (404) or server issues (503), missing or improper use of structured data (schema.org), and general site structure problems like orphan pages with no internal links.

Here are some key technical SEO audit elements to check:

Site speed is also crucial, as slow-loading pages can lead to higher bounce rates and lower conversions. To check your site's speed, you can use a tool like MozBar to analyze page load times and server response times.

A website audit wouldn't be complete without evaluating your website's performance and mobile friendliness. Search engines and your readers strongly prefer sites that load fast, with Google favoring 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. Your SEO audit should include identifying large files, improper coding, and other factors that impact page loading speeds.

Google also looks at how easy it is for users to navigate your site via mobile devices. Do the visuals load properly for mobile users and are the navigational elements easy to operate via swipe gestures?

The average loading time for a web page is 5 seconds, but you want to be aiming for sub 2 seconds if possible. Page speed has an impact on user experience, affects bounce rates, and is a factor in search rankings.

To check your response time, use a tool such as Pingdom Speed Test. Your server response time can be affected by budget hosting and geolocation, so consider having a UK based hosting provider if your business is located in the UK and your customers are also from the UK.

As a general rule, more files to load increases the number of server requests and can subsequently increase page load time, and your overall site speed. It's a good idea to remove unnecessary files or consolidate files like styles and scripts where possible.

Correctly formatting and compressing images can have an important impact on page load performance. There are some free tools out there if you don’t have image editing software, such as Kraken.

A website audit is a thorough examination of your website's performance, and one crucial aspect of this is usability and accessibility.

Making your website user-friendly is key to a good user experience. This includes using proper meta tags and alt attributes, which are also important for SEO.

Usability and accessibility are closely linked, and many issues that make a website less accessible for users with disabilities are also SEO ranking factors.

The best sites are user-friendly, so it's essential to make your website work better and improve your user experience.

A user-friendly website should be easy to navigate, with clear and concise language that helps visitors find what they're looking for.

The key to a great user experience is to keep things simple and straightforward, avoiding clutter and unnecessary complexity.

A good website should also be accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities or disabilities.

Accessibility is a crucial aspect of usability, and it's closely linked to SEO. Many issues that make a website less accessible for users with disabilities are also SEO ranking factors.

Using proper meta tags and alt attributes is essential for accessibility. This includes providing a clear and concise description of images, which is also beneficial for search engine crawlers.

Providing HTML and XML sitemaps is another important aspect of accessibility. This helps search engines understand the structure of your website and crawl it more efficiently.

Accessible web design and navigation are also crucial for usability. A well-designed website should be easy to navigate, even for users with disabilities.

Readability levels are another important factor in accessibility. A website should be easy to read and understand, regardless of the user's abilities or disabilities.

Error messages can be frustrating for users, especially if they're not clear about what's going on. Technical errors like ones related to performance, SEO, mobile, and security can negatively impact a customer's experience on your website.

If you notice visitors aren't staying on a site for long, or you see a lot of abandoned shopping carts, it's a good idea to perform a website audit to find out why. This can help you identify and fix any issues that might be causing users to leave.

Having response code errors like 302-, 404-, and 500-level response codes popping up all over your website can be a sign that someone isn't cleaning up broken links. This can lead users to dead ends, which is not what you want.

It's essential to find those error messages and clean up your broken links to provide a better experience for your users.

A website audit is a thorough examination of your website's content and structure to identify areas for improvement. This includes assessing website content, such as blogs, landing pages, and product/service pages, to identify areas of improvement and ensure that the content targets readers at every stage of the buyer's journey.

A comprehensive content inventory is essential, covering all content items, including customer-facing URLs, images, videos, scripts, and downloadable files. This helps reveal underserved areas that call for new or updated content and highlights gaps between current topics and long-term website goals.

To ensure content quality, review each piece of content for uniqueness, readability, formatting, and relevance to the search query. A good SEO site audit also measures website health by identifying common errors like misspelled words and broken links. Studies show that consumers are less likely to trust a page with noticeable errors.

A content review is a crucial step in any SEO audit. It involves taking a hard look at your existing content to assess its quality and effectiveness. Content truly is king when it comes to SEO, and no amount of valuable backlinks and technical optimization will help you rank if your content is substandard and unengaging.

To begin with, it's essential to evaluate each piece of content individually, asking questions like: "Is each piece of content unique?", "How is its readability?", and "Are there typos or misspellings?". You should also consider whether the content is well-formatted, addresses the search query in a way that adds value to the reader, and is up to date.

A good SEO site audit looks at more than just the raw content on your site. It also measures your website's health by looking for common errors such as misspelled words and broken links. Studies show that consumers are far less likely to trust a page featuring noticeable errors.

Here are some key questions to ask during a content review:

By answering these questions, you can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to enhance your content's quality and effectiveness.

Canonicalization of content is a crucial step in SEO, and it's not just about making your website look good. You need to pick a canonical (preferred) URL as the preferred version of the page.

To gain more control over how your URLs appear in search results, you can indicate your preference to Google by inserting the canonical tag (rel=“canonical”) in an HTTP header of a page.

Duplicate content is a major issue in SEO, and it's not just about content on other websites. Any duplicate material found in multiple places on your own site will harm your SEO ranking.

Having a canonical tag properly implemented across the site is essential, making sure it points to the correct page and that every page doesn't point to the homepage.

Content duplication can happen even within your own site, so it's essential to check for and remove any duplicated content to avoid being penalized.

Using hreflang tags is crucial if your site exists in multiple language versions aimed at serving users in different countries, as it helps Google properly index the pages for the right region.

Proper use of hreflang and canonical tags helps you avoid indexing issues, such as multiple pages competing for the same keyword or irrelevant pages showing up on Google.

Keyword management is more complex than just picking the right words. A good SEO site auditing tool can help you curate a selection of targeted keywords that can positively impact your search results more precisely than a manual effort.

Keyword research is the starting point for SEO, and it's what helps you identify the words you want to rank for.

Compiling a list of target keywords is easy enough, but it leaves too much room for human error.

A good SEO site auditing tool helps you avoid that error and get more precise results.

Backlink profile analysis is a crucial step in SEO. It helps you understand where your site's credibility is coming from.

A good backlink profile is made up of links from established and safe sources, such as .gov domains, trusted news sites, or industry thought leaders. These are the "good" links that you want to nurture and build more of.

The more "good" links pointing to your site, the better. But be aware that not all links are created equal.

"Bad" or "toxic" links come from low-quality sources, including suspicious or unsafe domains, pirate sites, or spammy forums. These links can actually harm your site's credibility.

Here are the two main categories of backlinks:

In general, Google won't punish you for third-party behavior, but in some cases, it may become necessary to disavow these bad links using Google's "Disavow Links" tool.

Having a secure site is a must for business reasons, and it's also a ranking factor in SEO. This means that if your site doesn't use the right SSL certificate or links out to a high proportion of unsecured external sites, you'll risk a drop in your search engine traffic.

Google explicitly stated that HTTPS security and safe browsing will play a key role in ranking signals from May 2021. This is a clear indication that web security is a top priority.

Your website security should be scrutinized during any SEO audit. This includes checking for the right SSL certificate and safe browsing practices.

Here are some key areas to focus on:

By prioritizing these areas, you can ensure your website is secure and improve your chances of ranking well in search engines.

Running a website audit can be a daunting task, but with the right tools and automation, it becomes a breeze. You can run your website URL through a site audit tool to analyze its performance and get specific recommendations.

Automating your SEO monitoring is a game-changer. Using a third-party tool can significantly cut the time and effort required to organize your findings, freeing your team up to make the necessary alterations.

You can supercharge your SEO strategy by creating custom rules that generate the insights you need.

A website audit tool can help you analyze how your site is performing, but sometimes you need more specific insights. Run the website URL through a site audit tool to get started.

Custom rules can be created to test various important facets of a site, providing specific recommendations to improve performance. This is a game-changer for businesses looking to optimize their online presence.

By creating custom rules, you can tailor your SEO strategy to your site's unique needs and generate the insights that matter most to you.

Automating your SEO monitoring is a game-changer, making it possible to perform regular audits without sacrificing too much time.

You can automate your SEO audits using a third-party tool, which significantly cuts the time and effort required to organize your findings, freeing your team up to make the necessary alterations.

Regular automated audits enable you to act quickly to fix new issues or take advantage of emerging opportunities to improve your rankings, keeping your SEO vitals in check.

An automated report makes it easy to present concise, accurate, and understandable information to upper management, improving your chances of getting management buy-in for any big projects or significant adjustments.

Automated SEO audit reporting can save you a lot of time and effort, allowing you to focus on making the changes that matter most.

A free website SEO audit tool might give you a quick score, but it's not enough to keep your site search engine optimized. The algorithms that determine a web page's SEO score are constantly changing.

You can't work on all ranking factors with a free SEO site audit tool. Here are some key ranking factors that you can't work on with free SEO site audit tools.

Free SEO tools are limited in their ability to provide in-depth analysis. Keeping your site search engine optimized is a difficult task that requires often in-depth analysis.

A website audit is a thorough examination of your site's technical, content, and user experience aspects.

You can get audit reports sent straight to your inbox, saving you time and effort.

These reports can be laser-focused on a specific aspect of your site or provide a comprehensive analysis of your entire website.

With the ability to limit or expand the scope of the audit, you can tailor the report to suit your needs.

You can get website audit reports sent straight to your inbox, eliminating the need for time-consuming technical SEO audits.

Semrush's Site Audit Tool can be used to create a free audit report, but you'll need to create an account and answer some questions about yourself first.

Reports from HubSpot's Website Grader and Semrush's Site Audit Tool can provide a clear display of important website categories, such as SEO performance and security measures.

The report from Semrush's Site Audit Tool can look overwhelming unless you have technical experience, but it's a very thorough reporting option.

Having audit reports sent to your inbox can enable you to start making improvements yourself or to efficiently send the information to the appropriate teams within your organization.

Measurable progress is key to demonstrating the effectiveness of your efforts. This can be achieved by comparing website audit results and generating reports that clearly show your achievements.

The number of website pages audited is a crucial metric to track. It's a tangible measure of the work you've done.

Having a clear understanding of the number of pages audited allows you to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.

Fixing critical errors reported by the tool or filter is a crucial step in a website audit. This can be done by examining the extensive raw crawl data for unique insights.

Start by using the raw crawl data to identify and address errors that can significantly impact your website's performance. This data can provide valuable information on how users are interacting with your site.

Combining raw crawl data with expert tips can help you make more informed decisions about how to improve your website. This approach can help you identify areas for improvement that you may have otherwise overlooked.