Digital graphic with the word 'SEO' in the center, surrounded by related terms like Keywords, Reporting & Analytics, Site Structure, and Off-Site strategies, representing the complexity of search engine optimization.

How to Conduct a Pro SEO Audit

ByKristina Louise Treadwell

To perform an SEO audit, you need to first understand your website’s strengths and weaknesses. Then you can develop a tailored SEO strategy that addresses your specific issues.  Prioritizing your SEO tasks allows you to develop a roadmap for achieving your goals. Additionally, scheduling regular website audits will help identify any changes in search engine algorithms that may affect your website’s ranking. 

Before you can begin an SEO strategy, you need to know how to perform an SEO audit. It’s important to take a thorough analysis of a site’s performance, structure, and content.  Analyze website speed, content quality, user experience, backlinks, and mobile-friendliness, among others.

Why should you perform an audit like this? A good SEO audit helps identify issues that may affect the site’s position on search engines so you can fix them.

A comprehensive website audit is a tedious but essential part of any SEO strategy. While it may be tempting to cut corners, skimping on the audit means you miss out on vital information. 

Let’s review how to perform an SEO audit that you can use as a starting place for your SEO goals.

We recommend using the following sub-sections for your audit. 

  • Technical SEO. 
  • On-Page SEO. 
  • Off-Page SEO. 
  • Accessibility. 
  • User Experience. 
  • And finally, Analytics and Tracking. 

If you’re making one big list, consider adding each of these items as their own tab. 

Let’s look at examples of things you may find and need to notate within each sub-list. 

First, What to audit for Technical SEO

  • Find and make note of broken links.
  • Ensure proper implementation of 301 redirects. Check for duplicate content.
  • Ensure your website is mobile-friendly/responsive. Test page load speed, paying special attention to oversized images and videos. Identify pages that take longer than 2 seconds to load.
  • Determine if the robots.txt and sitemap.xml files are properly set up.

Second, What to Audit for On-Page SEO

  • Ensure each page has a unique title tag and meta description.
  • Check that subheadings (h2, h3, h4) are being used sequentially and that there is only one H1 per page.
  • Ensure that the website’s content is unique and not plagiarized. AI-generated content should be rewritten or edited to match your brand’s voice. 
  • All content should be relevant to your target audience. And it should be authoritative and factually correct with citations, if needed.
  • Identify where the website’s internal linking structure is difficult to navigate and needs re-organization.

Want to learn more about on-page SEO? 

Third, What to audit for Off-Page SEO

  • Review all the backlinks and ensure that they are from relevant, high-quality websites.
  • Check for any negative backlinks. 
  • Find places for the website to be listed in relevant directories and local listings. 
  • Review all testimonials and reviews on third-party websites. 

Next, What to Audit for Accessibility?

  • Find places where the color contrast between text and background does not meet the Web Content Accessibility Guideline standards.
  • Test that you can access all content on the website using only a keyboard. Not everyone can or wants to use a mouse.
  • Check to see if all links have meaningful and descriptive names. Make sure that they are easily distinguishable from the surrounding text. 
  • Test the website with a screen reader. Ensure that all content and functionality is in the correct order.

What to audit for User Experience

  • Check for clear call-to-actions on each page.
  • Check for broken links and missing images or videos. These can make your site look untrustworthy, abandoned, or spammy.
  • Ensure that the website is secure with an SSL certificate. Some browsers will give alarming warnings or won’t even load your site if your SSL is missing or expired.

Finally, What to Audit for Analytics and Tracking:

  • Confirm that  Google Analytics and Google Search Console are properly set up.
  • Set up goals and conversion tracking to measure the website’s performance.
  • Ensure that data filters are set up to exclude internal traffic, bots, and other irrelevant traffic from your reports. 
  • Install other third party tracking tools and report data to their dashboards. This can include chat, call, or form events.

Want to learn more about tracking and reporting on SEO campaigns?

SEO Audit Tools

If any of the tasks we mentioned sounded difficult or technical, there may be a tool you can utilize. 

Tools should complement your human-based activities, not replace them.

 Here are some popular options:

  • SEMrush. This all-in-one marketing toolkit offers site audit tools that provide comprehensive insights on technical SEO, on-page SEO, and website usability.
  • Google Search Console. This free tool from Google offers insights into website performance. It alerts users to any technical issues that could impact SEO.
  • Ahrefs. This SEO toolset offers a site audit feature that checks for technical and on-page SEO issues. This includes broken links, crawl errors, and duplicate content.
  • Screaming Frog. This desktop software crawls websites to identify technical SEO issues. These can include broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta descriptions.
  • WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. This free tool provides an accessibility audit of a website. It offers detailed reports on accessibility issues to address.
  • Axe Browser Extension. This free extension identifies and reports on accessibility issues on a webpage. It also gives you detailed information on how to fix each issue.

Congrats – you’re ready to begin! Your completed audit and resulting fixes will not only improve your website’s SEO, but set you up for future SEO success.

Frequently Asked Question

Can I do an SEO audit myself or do I need to hire a professional?

If you want, you can absolutely do your own audit. Remember that it may not be as comprehensive or useful as one by a seasoned professional. Hiring a professional can save time for you, but it’s important to give the pro the time they need.

Do automated SEO audit tools work?

Automated tools can detect a lot of issues. But nothing can beat the expertise involved in human testing. A blend of both methods is usually best.

How should I format an SEO audit?

It’s a good idea to use a spreadsheet for your audit. That way you can track and organize problems, create tasks for fixing them, assign dates to tasks, and track which items have been completed. 

When doing an audit, should you fix issues as you go or make a list and go back?

You can fix issues as you identify them, but sometimes it can be easier to create a list and address them all at once. This method is ideal if you plan to share the workload.

Louise is the founder and CEO of Web Pro Geeks and it's related brands, including SEO Pro Geeks. She's an eternal web development geek, social media junkie, native of Metro Detroit, and alumnae of the University of Michigan. Kristina learned about the human side of computer science while earning a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science and has fined tuned her web developer skills over the course of a 20+ year career building, breaking, and fixing sites for a multitude of startups.

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