How to Conduct a Deep SEO Audit
Written by
Macro Webber
Published on
July 21, 2024
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A comprehensive SEO audit resembles visiting a doctor for your website. Much like regular checkups that ensure you're always fine and fit, your website too requires frequent checks to keep up the performance and ranking on search engines. Whether you are an independent small business owner or a seasoned digital marketer, knowing how to conduct a deep SEO audit should be paramount. It supports the detection of issues, provides increased website performance, and boosts your search engine rankings. Now, let's go further into how to perform an effective SEO audit.
Imagine you're getting ready for an important presentation. You wouldn't just walk in unprepared, right? You'd check your slides and speech to make sure everything is perfect. It's pretty much the same thing when you do an SEO audit. It's checking that your website is in good shape and will perform well in search engine rankings. So let's roll up our sleeves and really get into it.
Step-by-Step SEO Audit Guide
Step 1: Check for Google Penalties
First of all, see that your website is not penalized by Google. Penalties can drastically affect your rankings.
Google Search Console: Log in to Google Search Console and check for any manual actions under 'Security & Manual Actions'. If any, then Google will specifically mention what's wrong and how to fix this.
Step 2: Check Your Website Performance
A fast loading site is important to user experience and SEO.
Page Speed Insights: Check your site's speed using Google's PageSpeed Insights. Target less than 3 seconds for load time. It will give you recommendations on how to make improvements to your speed.
Mobile-Friendly Test: Ensure that your site is mobile-friendly by utilizing Google's Mobile-Friendly Test. As the proportion of users accessing it through mobile grew, responsive design grew in importance like never before.
Step 3: Do a Technical SEO Audit
Technical SEO makes sure search engines can crawl your site and index it efficiently.
Crawl Your Website: Run tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs over your website to find problems with broken links, duplicate content, and other crawl-related problems.
Check for HTTPS: Ensure the site is running on HTTPS. There's more to a secure site than just gaining user trust; it's a ranking factor as well.
Robots.txt File: Be sure that the robots.txt file is not blocking any key pages from search engine crawls.
XML Sitemap: Check if the XML sitemap has been updated and is submitted to Google Search Console.
Step 4: On-Page SEO Audit
On-page Search Engine Optimization refers to individual page optimization for better rankings and earning more relevant traffic.
Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Every page is unique and needs to have a different descriptive title tag and meta description. The tags should include your main keywords, all within the recommended length: 50-60 characters for title tags and 150-160 characters for meta descriptions.
Header Tags: Header tags should structure your content. This means there is only one H1 tag per page and includes relevant keywords.
Check the quality of the content pertaining to relevance. Ensure that it contains quality information and does not have any grammatical errors. Use variations of keywords naturally in the content.
Image Optimisation: Ensure all images have descriptive alt tags and that image sizes are optimized for better loading time. Ensure keywords are present in the alt text.
Step 5: Off-Page SEO Audit
Off-page SEO refers to the technique of improving the authority of a site through backlinks and social signals.
Backlink Analysis: Run tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush to understand your backlink profile. Ensure that there are excellent and relevant backlinks; disavow those that look like spammy or low-quality ones.
Social Media Presence: Ensure your social media accounts are active and engaging. This is a more indirect way to influence SEO performance, through social signals.
Step 6: Analyze User Experience
The user experience is all about keeping visitors on your website and getting them to come back for more.
Bounce Rate and Dwell Time: Monitor your bounce rate and dwell time through Google Analytics. A high bounce rate, combined with low dwell time, may indicate that the user experience is off.
Navigation and Design: Ensure that the website design is clean and intuitive. Help the user find what they're looking for by making navigation and internal linking obvious.
Step 7: Audit Your Content
Content is king in SEO, and conducting a content audit identifies gaps and areas for improvement.
Content Inventory: List all your existing content. Tools like Screaming Frog will help you with this activity in an automated way.
Analyze Performance: Use Google Analytics to find out how each of your content is performing. Check page views, bounce rate, time on page, among other metrics.
Content Gaps: Identify topics that are missing or underrepresented on your website. Research keywords for new content ideas.
A complete SEO audit may be complex and time-consuming, but it is obviously crucial for the continued maintenance and performance improvement of any website. These steps will help you find out what's wrong, how to optimize your website, and provide users with the best experience. Remember: SEO is an ongoing process. Regular audits and updates are key to staying ahead in the ever-changing digital landscape.
Frequently AskedQuestions
1. How often should I conduct an SEO audit?
A full SEO audit is advisable at least once a year. For example, in the case of larger sites or highly competitive industries, more frequent audits may be very useful.2. Which are the key tools for an SEO audit?
The following are the main tools that can support an SEO audit: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google PageSpeed Insights.3. Can I really do an SEO audit myself?
Yes, you can really perform an SEO audit by yourself, especially with so many online tools and resources that can facilitate this process. However, if it's way too overwhelming or outside your skill set altogether, then it would be well worth your time to hire somebody from the professional ranks who deals with SEO.4. What are some of the most common problems an SEO audit uncovers?
The more common ones are those related to slow page speed, broken links, and duplicate content; issues with missing or poorly optimized title tags and meta descriptions; poor mobile usability; and weak backlink profiles. Beating these issues can significantly improve your site's performance.4. Why is the Content Audit so important in an SEO Audit?
A content audit is useful in understanding how effective your current content is, any gaps in it, and finding opportunities to augment it. Relevant and quality content goes in line with the guidelines of ensuring visitors come and stay on your site and equips your search engine rankings.Related Blogs
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