An SEO audit aims to evaluate how well your website is optimized for search engines by identifying errors that prevent your site from ranking and highlighting opportunities that can help you gain more visibility.
So, what is included in an SEO audit?
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Read on to learn more about what aspects are included in an SEO audit.
A content audit is a key task that should be carried out towards the start of any SEO campaign.
As part of a content audit, the written copy on your website will be analyzed to see how well it performs. Typically, the categories involved in a content audit include:
To have a positive impact on SEO, there needs to be a substantial amount of content on all of the key pages on your website. This allows you to include important SEO and Google ranking factors such as:
Additionally, as you may already know, duplicate content is bad for SEO for multiple reasons.
Most importantly, it confuses search engines, forcing them to choose which version of the content should rank higher. Using the same content as another website also adds little value in terms of SEO and user experience.
The keyword section of the content audit is another very important section.
Without properly using carefully selected keywords, your website will struggle to rank as you’d like.
This stage will give you insight into how your keywords are currently being used and any changes that need to be made.
Our favorite tool for keyword research is a fantastic SEO platform called Semrush. This all-in-one toolset provides a comprehensive look at your keyword rankings and site performance.
Having a great SEO tool kit is essential for every marketer looking to boost rankings. The best rank-tracking tools will allow you to keep a close eye on low-hanging fruit and make the most of your SEO efforts.
This stage of the content audit will inform some of the high-priority tasks you'll conduct in the initial stages of your campaign. Tasks in this category include, but are not limited to:
In addition to a content audit, a technical SEO audit helps a Search Engine Optimiser, a website owner, or any other involved parties understand where a website is failing or succeeding.
Once the technical audit has been completed, an SEO professional can prioritize which areas of the website need focus first.
To read more, look at this insightful article, 'How To Perform a WordPress SEO Audit (Step-by-Step).' So, what does a technical SEO audit look like?
If your pages are not indexed in Google’s database, Google won’t be able to rank them. To see whether your pages have been indexed, it's best to check for issues directly in Google Search Console.
Remember, not all pages have to be indexed - only the ones you want to rank in search results.
Whilst auditing for indexing issues, an SEO professional will identify any obvious problems with how the site is indexed and presented in Google’s results. They will look for:
A crawler (e.g., Googlebot) scours the web by ‘crawling’ from page to page, often via internal and external links. It’s crucial that search engines can effectively crawl key pages and all resources on a website to provide the clearest picture of what the site offers.
Google’s algorithm has consistently taken user experience into consideration when determining rankings. User experience improves organic search marketing performance, helping websites rank well on SERPS.
So, what factors should you consider when evaluating how user-friendly your site is?
When it comes to SEO, backlinks can improve your rankings because search engines view the quality and quantity of the links as votes of confidence from other websites.
Essentially, your site can rank higher if you gain a good number of quality backlinks.
Remember that it’s not just about quantity but also the quality of the backlinks. For example, there’s no point in having large amounts of backlinks to untrustworthy sites.
You can use the “Backlink Gap” tool on Semrush to find missed backlink opportunities. All you need to do is enter your domain and the domain names of up to four competitors.
The tool will then show a list of domains that link to your competitors but not to you. These types of domains are likely to link to your website as they are already linking to similar sites.
On top of the content and technical aspects mentioned above, a good SEO audit should also help you see where you stand compared to your competitors.
A great way to do this is to use the “Domain Overview” on Semrush. This tool will give you a solid comparison of the key metrics of the selected domains to see where you are falling behind.
To get the best overview, it’s best to focus on these metrics:
By conducting a competitor analysis, you can also see what keywords your competitors target. Using Semrush, open the Keyword Gap tool and enter your domain and up to four competitor domains.
Click “Compare,” and the tool will compare the sets of keywords for which the analyzed domains are ranking. The list will most likely reveal hidden keyword opportunities you may not have considered.
To wrap up, we cannot stress enough the importance of SEO audits in this article. Regular audits will give you insights into your website’s overall performance and keyword rankings.
By following and implementing these content and technical aspects, you can ensure that your website is successfully optimized for SEO at all times.