A site’s health is a key factor that influences the ranking of your website. In today's post, we look at the basic search engine optimization (SEO) audit checklist, and more.
Keeping up with all the latest trends can be crushing for someone who has just started out SEO. Besides, making sure that the existing SEO operations are in place as per the latest Google algorithm changes can be an overwhelming task for some.
To make sure that you and your site are up-to-date and are not missing out on anything obvious from an SEO point of view, you should perform an SEO audit of your website regularly. With an easy-to-follow ready checklist, you do a standard SEO audit task that ensures none of the critical factors are missed.
In today’s post, I will brief you with a comprehensive checklist that will help you execute the SEO audit of your website effectively and efficiently.
The benefits of having an SEO audit checklist are:
Beware of keyword cannibalization, is another damaging factor for your website. It occurs when more than one page of your website competes with each other for the same keyword. Make sure that you implement resolutions to take care of it.
- Helps you identify the site’s configuration issues and work on them
- Helps you with your site’s on and off-site SEO
- Helps you improve your site’s speed and performance optimization
- No need to depend on others for website auditing
- Helps you increase the organic traffic
- The checklist helps you find any SEO exclusions or unlawful activity
- Help you improve the website’s ranking on SERP
I have tried my best to create a comprehensive checklist so that you don’t miss out on the key parts of SEO.
Now, let’s explore the checklist for your next SEO audit.
Before you dive in, determine the purpose of your work to know why you need an SEO audit. These objectives will eventually define the scope of your checklist and help you navigate smartly.
For example, if your website is not achieving the desired load speed results, you might want to conduct an SEO audit accordingly to figure out what’s causing the trouble. Or, if there is a sudden downfall in the traffic metrics, your line of action will be different to fix things through an SEO audit. Well, there may have many separate or inter-connected goals behind performing an SEO audit; so by carefully assessing them, you will be able to perform an SEO audit more effectively.
That’s the reason, there will be certain areas that I have purposefully skipped from this basic checklist.
Now, let’s explore the checklist for your next SEO audit.
Define the scope of SEO audit
Before you dive in, determine the purpose of your work to know why you need an SEO audit. These objectives will eventually define the scope of your checklist and help you navigate smartly.
For example, if your website is not achieving the desired load speed results, you might want to conduct an SEO audit accordingly to figure out what’s causing the trouble. Or, if there is a sudden downfall in the traffic metrics, your line of action will be different to fix things through an SEO audit. Well, there may have many separate or inter-connected goals behind performing an SEO audit; so by carefully assessing them, you will be able to perform an SEO audit more effectively.
That’s the reason, there will be certain areas that I have purposefully skipped from this basic checklist.
1. Keyword analysis
Analyzing keywords is a good idea to begin your audit with the analysis of the keywords your site is targeting and if you’re using the right ones.
In general, the right keyword will be relevant, measurable, and obviously will help you do business better. A few tools that you can use are -
In general, the right keyword will be relevant, measurable, and obviously will help you do business better. A few tools that you can use are -
- UberSuggest
- SEMrush
- Google keyword planner
- Ahrefs
- Google trends
Beware of keyword cannibalization, is another damaging factor for your website. It occurs when more than one page of your website competes with each other for the same keyword. Make sure that you implement resolutions to take care of it.
2. Content analysis
Content that’s on your site must be unique and free of plagiarism, which is a basic requirement of doing SEO properly. Well, there are several other facets of content analysis checks that must be safeguarded.
Begin by checking the presence of duplicate content on your site with help from tools such as Siteliner.com. You can also take the help of the Copyscape tool to see if any of your content has been plagiarized or not.
Typically content that helps your website rank better is customer-engaging and search engine-friendly. Make sure that you are using the targeted keywords throughout a page on your website. Some recommended places are -
Begin by checking the presence of duplicate content on your site with help from tools such as Siteliner.com. You can also take the help of the Copyscape tool to see if any of your content has been plagiarized or not.
Typically content that helps your website rank better is customer-engaging and search engine-friendly. Make sure that you are using the targeted keywords throughout a page on your website. Some recommended places are -
- Keyword in the title of the post/page
- Keyword in the first paragraph
- Keyword appearances in the H1 Tag
- Use of keyword in the meta description of the post
- Keyword appearances in the URL structure
- Keyword in the alt text of the image used
- Keyword appearances towards the end of the post’s content
To make sure that your content is engaging, always answer the user-generated queries through the content of your landing pages. Keep updating old content with regularly publishing new content for the audience so that you can get a fair share of traffic on both.
Making sure that your content is containing the right information is just as important as using the right language. Create the right content strategy which is well balanced with both text and multimedia content including a regular content publishing plan is sure boosts your SEO.
Making sure that your content is containing the right information is just as important as using the right language. Create the right content strategy which is well balanced with both text and multimedia content including a regular content publishing plan is sure boosts your SEO.
3. UX and UI analysis
The UI furnished by a website is a huge determinant of the site’s UX and the conversions from landing pages.
Google Analytics and Search Console can help you fix the UX issues on your website to a great extent. Alternatively, you can figure out a smooth UI for your site’s audience so that they can seamlessly surf through the pages of your website and take the action you want them to do.
Another critical site UX ranking factor is the presence of any broken links or pages within the site. Link checker Tools can help you remove such links and ensure that your site doesn’t have them.
Google Analytics and Search Console can help you fix the UX issues on your website to a great extent. Alternatively, you can figure out a smooth UI for your site’s audience so that they can seamlessly surf through the pages of your website and take the action you want them to do.
Another critical site UX ranking factor is the presence of any broken links or pages within the site. Link checker Tools can help you remove such links and ensure that your site doesn’t have them.
4. Image optimization check
Make sure that you are optimizing the images present on your website. There are various tools available online which can help you optimize images. And don’t forget to implement the following -
- Use high-resolution images
- Resize them to match with your site’s UI
- Use a relevant image that matches with text surrounded by
- Name your image file appropriately (keyword focused)
- Use image alt attribute (keyword focused)
- Check for CDN settings for delivering image content appropriately
Additionally, check for copyright if you use ready-made images.
5. Social media account analysis
If your website is employing social media platforms to share its updates and news, make sure that they are well integrated and are working as planned.
6. Web hosting check
The right web hosting service boosts your site’s SEO efforts by adding its server reputation, website uptime, and the loading speed it offers. In an SEO audit, you must review the performance of your existing web host and if there is a need, search, and select a better service provider.
Resources like PCMag can be very helpful for comparing the performance of the hosting service providers.
Resources like PCMag can be very helpful for comparing the performance of the hosting service providers.
7. Website loading speed check
Use a tool like Pingdom and/or PageSpeed Insights to fix the issues (if any) with the speed of your website. If it is taking more than a set standard to load, make sure that you take the necessary steps at the earliest.
Don’t forget the website loading time to optimize for both desktop and mobile devices.
Don’t forget the website loading time to optimize for both desktop and mobile devices.
8. Site uptime
During the site’s SEO audit, you must check the site’s uptime records too. Site uptime means your website is up and running - accessible to its users. On the other hand, a website with frequent downtime will adversely affect your site’s ranking. To take care of your site’s maintenance and maintain uptime, you can leverage tools like Uptime Robot, Site 24*7, and Pingometer.
9. Back-link analysis
Make sure that the links from other sites to your website are relevant and working. Moz, Ahrefs, and Majestic are great link checker tools if you want to find out the quality of the backlinks to your website. These tools will help you classify the backlinks detected by their sophisticated web robots for given domains, subdomains, or URLs.
Besides, you scrutiny all the outbound and internal links present on your website and get rid of all the junk links.
Besides, you scrutiny all the outbound and internal links present on your website and get rid of all the junk links.
10. URL check
The right URL structure is critical for SEO as it tells quite a lot about the page on your site. All the URLs on your website must be SE optimized (and user-friendly too) rightly.
11. Google penalty check
Any Google Penalty can cause a lot of damage to your site’s online brand value which costs your site’s SEO work. If you are not aware of such a penalty being imposed on your website, all your efforts to improve your SEO score can go in vain.
Hence, during an SEO audit, Google Penalty check to see if your website has been penalized or not is an absolute must. There are several tools available such as Panguin and Fruition’s. You can through Google Analytics and Search Console tools though identify if anything bad happened with your site. A sudden drop in traffic will be an easy indication in many cases.
Hence, during an SEO audit, Google Penalty check to see if your website has been penalized or not is an absolute must. There are several tools available such as Panguin and Fruition’s. You can through Google Analytics and Search Console tools though identify if anything bad happened with your site. A sudden drop in traffic will be an easy indication in many cases.
12. Sitemaps
XML sitemap files help search engines better understand the structure of your website by sharing information about your site. All you have to keep the files free of any errors.
A Google Search Console feature will help you figure out how many URLs were indexed successfully after submitting the sitemap files through the tool. It will also notify you of any errors in files. Bing Webmaster Tools have a similar feature. Use tools like CodeBeautify and XMLValidation to check your sitemaps for errors before submitting them to Google and Bing for crawling.
A Google Search Console feature will help you figure out how many URLs were indexed successfully after submitting the sitemap files through the tool. It will also notify you of any errors in files. Bing Webmaster Tools have a similar feature. Use tools like CodeBeautify and XMLValidation to check your sitemaps for errors before submitting them to Google and Bing for crawling.
13. Site security check
A site’s security is another crucial factor that determines the ranking of your website. If you are doing SEO on an e-commerce website, security is even more important. Since having an SSL certificate is now obvious for a website, make sure that your website has it and while performing your next SEO audit, check the certificate hasn’t been expired.
In conclusion
Once you are making progress, periodical SEO audits will help you keep your SEO strategy alive. With the checklist provided above, you will be able to perform a more efficient SEO audit and run more effective SEO campaigns for your site.
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