If your website isn’t achieving the rankings you’re aiming for, it might be a good idea to think about conducting an SEO audit. This comprehensive process is designed to pinpoint and fix any issues that are holding your site back in search engine results. We’ll walk you through the essential steps to conducting a proper SEO audit.
1. Check Your Website’s Visibility on Google
To get started, type your domain into Google in the format site:yourdomain.com. This will show you how many of your pages are actually indexed. If only a few appear, it could mean there are some crawling or indexing issues.
2. Analyse Technical SEO Issues
Technical SEO ensures that search engines can effortlessly crawl and index your website.
Key elements to check:
- Site Speed: Check your loading speed with Google Page Speed Insights.
- Mobile-Friendly: Make sure to run Google’s mobile-friendly test.
- XML Sitemap: Don’t forget to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.
- Robots.txt file: Check that it’s not blocking any important pages.
- Broken Links: Use tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to identify any 404 errors.
3. Evaluate On-Page SEO Elements
Each page should be optimized with proper on-page elements.
Focus on:
- Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Ensure uniqueness and relevance.
- Heading tags (H1, H2, H3): Structured content improves readability.
- Keyword Optimization: Check if the target keywords are used naturally.
- Image ALT tags: improve accessibility and SEO.
- URL Structure: Use clean and keyword rich URLs.
4. Conduct a Content Audit
High-quality content is crucial for SEO success
- Update or remove any outdated blog posts.
- Find and merge any duplicate content.
- Include internal links to related posts or pages for better navigation.
- Make sure your content meets the needs of your audience.
5. Review Off-Page SEO Factors
Backlinks are still a major ranking factor
- Use tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush to analyze your backlink profile.
- Identify and disavow toxic or spammy backlinks.
- Focus on building high quality and relevant backlinks.
6. Evaluate User Experience (UX) and Core Web Vitals
Google emphasizes user experience in its ranking algorithm
- Core Web Vitals: Measure metrics such as LCP, FID, and CLS.
- Ensure Easy Navigation and Logical Site Architecture.
- Reduce pop-ups and intrusive interstitials.
7. Track SEO Performance Metrics
Use analytics tools to monitor your SEO progress.
- Google Search Console: Check performance, index coverage and problems.
- Google Analytics: Track traffic, bounce rate and user behaviour.
- Keyword Rankings: Track rankings for your target keywords.
Final Thoughts
Conducting an SEO audit isn’t a one-time job—you need to do it on an ongoing basis. By regularly checking your website, you ensure that it’s optimized, competitive, and easy for users to navigate.
