How You Can Conduct a Free Website SEO Audit

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Last Updated on July 22, 2024

What is an SEO audit? Do you need one?

An SEO audit checks how well your website is optimized for search engines. An audit looks for errors that prevent your site from ranking high in search results. At the same time, it looks for opportunities to gain more visibility. If you would like to improve the visibility of your website, you should conduct an audit!

You can use an SEO audit to win new customers, create a case study, or simply to get under the hood of a website to see how it works. An audit can reveal a lot. Find those things that are easy to resolve first. Quick Wins! (Low Hanging Fruit).

a man conducting an seo audit on his laptop.

The Big Picture. Quick and Dirty Audit. (On-Page/Tech SEO circa 120 minutes.)

An off-page SEO audit and a keyword audit are not included in a simple web audit. Focus on the on-page and technical aspects first. This may lead to you being asked to do the off-page and keyword audit anyway.

Why do an SEO audit? To create an overview or as a pre-sales tool. Use the opportunity to evaluate a website as an offer for more work. At worst, you’ll have a case study for your website. And that’s a good exercise.

What should you measure? What is the goal, target audience, strategy, of the website?

Important! Ask customers first: for what do you want to be found? by whom? where? and why? Concentrate on analysing the customers and not on ‘average values’.

How often should you conduct an SEO audit? A least quarterly when running your own website, or that of a client.

The Big Picture Audit in 9 Steps

  1. https://www.seobility.net/seocheck/ or https://www.seoptimer.com/ to create an overview.
  2. https://semrush.com/ as a possible 3-point option, but it is better to leave this for a complete audit. (create an overview)
  3. Screaming Frog : identify on-page problems from 1
  4. Sistrix : identify links / off-page problems from 1
  5. https://pagespeed.web.dev/ : identify performance problems from 1. As a guideline, aim for a score of at least 80. This indicates a website with strong performance.
  6. https://webbkoll.dataskydd.net/ : identify security issues from 1. https? cookies? are they disabled in your cookie plugin?
  7. domain.de/sitemap.xml : is there a sitemap? why not?!
  8. Google: site:domain.de : is the website indexed at all?
  9. Do you have access to Google tools? (analytics, search console … ) If yes, you can see tendencies.

Full SEO Audit. (On-Page/Tech SEO/Off-Page/Keywords circa 360 minutes.)

Step 1: Global SEO Audit

SEMRush is a more complicated tool than seobility or seoptimer. Use it for a full audit. Otherwise you could be overwhelmed with too much data.

  1. audit tool https://www.semrush.com/siteaudit
  2. benchmarking https://www.semrush.com/position-tracking / (also sistrix)
  3. competition https://www.semrush.com/analytics/overview
  4. structure – screamingfrog.co.uk
  5. google ranking factors (what’s new with Google and Bing?)
  6. accessibility & CO2 values:
    • + WCAG 2.1 AAA: This level, labelled ‘comprehensive’, offers the highest possible accessibility and should be aimed for if possible.
    • + CO2: As a guideline, aim for a rating of at least B.

Step 2: Tech SEO Audit

If your website isn’t working, or isn’t listed, then you have bigger problems than what’s happening onpage.

  1. sitemap & indexing: site:domain.com / screaming frog / search console (access) index problems: search console
  2. domain https://iplocation.io/domain-age-checker how old is my domain? for how long do I still have it? https://web.archive.org/ (history)
  3. Are there Security & Manual Actions? google search console (access)
  4. page speed: web.dev – optimisation potential / Can also use managed hosting / CDN content delivery network. As a guideline, aim for a score of at least 80.
  5. security: https://webbkoll.dataskydd.net/de & law: GDPR, cookies https? cookies? are they disabled in your cookie plugin?
  6. structured data: https://search.google.com/test/rich-results. SEO plugin creates schema data. Your website should have an SEO plugin.

Mobile Audit

  1. mobile: https://ready.mobi / web.dev
  2. usability! page experience – android and ios, tablet, phone, legacy phones
  3. ranking limited to mobile search (only from 2016 but now from July 2024. No mobile friendly website, no Google index).
  4. mobile apps – separate audit but note the links. content marketing, ranking, and social signals.

Step 3: On-Page SEO Audit

  1. Title tags
    • + Primary keyword for the page in the title tag
    • + Title tag length within 50-60 characters
    • + Title unique and descriptive for each page
  2. Meta descriptions
    • + Compelling meta description that entices users to click
    • + Meta descriptions around 150-160 characters
    • + Relevant keywords without keyword stuffing
  3. Heading labels (H1, H2, H3)
    • + Heading labels to structure content in a logical hierarchy
    • + Primary keyword in the H1 labelling
    • + Relevant variations of the keyword in subheadings (semantic)
  4. Content optimisation
    • + High quality, comprehensive and engaging content?
    • + Primary keyword and its variations naturally in the content
    • + Good keyword density (approx. 1-2% for the primary keyword)
    • + Related keywords and semantic variations
    • + Duplicate content? Allowed 20%.
    • + Ai content? https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/hive-ai-detector/cmeikcgfecnhojcbfapbmpbjgllklcbi Chrome Extension
  5. Image optimisation
    • + Descriptive and keyword-rich file names for images
    • + Provide relevant alt texts for images to support accessibility and SEO
    • + Optimise image sizes for faster loading times (70%) Max approx. 300K.
  6. URL structure
    • + Short, descriptive and keyword-rich URLs. “Talking urls”?
    • + No unnecessary parameters, numbers or session IDs in URLs
    • + Logical URL structure that reflects the website hierarchy
    • + Keyword in the domain? Domain match: warrenlainenaida-seo.de vs warrenlainenaida.de
  7. Internal linking
    • + Link relevant pages within your website with descriptive anchor text
    • + Distribute internal links strategically to guide users and search engines
    • + Avoid excessive internal linking, which can dilute link equity. 3 external and 3 internal links?

Step 4: Off-Page SEO Audit

  1. Google Business Profile, Bing Places, amazon, ebay, reviews (google, yelp), media sources (outside social media)
  2. domain authority (ahrefs, sistrix)
  3. Backlink analysis
    • + Number of backlinks: Growth of high quality backlinks over time.
    • + Quality of backlinks: Backlinks from authoritative, relevant and trustworthy websites in your industry.
    • + Anchor texts: maintain a natural balance between branded anchor texts, naked URLs and relevant, keyword-rich anchor texts.
    • + Referring domains: links from a variety of referring domains.
    • + Toxic/spam backlinks: Identify and revoke low-quality or spam backlinks that could hurt your rankings.
  4. Online reputation and branding signals
    • + Social media presence: Maintain an active and engaged presence on relevant social media platforms.
    • + Brand mentions: Monitor and respond to brand mentions across the web, both positive and negative.
    • + Local SEO signals: Ensure consistent and accurate business listings in local directories and review portals.
    • + Industry authority: Establish your website as a trusted and authoritative source in your industry through content, PR and outreach.
  5. Competitor analysis
    • + Backlink gap analysis: Identify high-quality backlink opportunities by analysing the backlink profiles of your competitors.
    • + Content gap analysis: Uncover content gaps and opportunities by analysing your competitors’ best-performing content.
    • + Keyword gap analysis: Identify untapped keyword opportunities by analysing the keywords your competitors are ranking for.

Step 5: Keyword Audit

Don’t forget: social media hashtags / what are people talking about? Trends (home office, travelling, networking)

  1. Keyword rankings
    • + Check which keywords your website ranks for and in which positions. The aim should be to rank for as many relevant keywords as possible.
    • + Benchmark: Rank for at least 70% of the most important keywords on the first 3 pages of the search results.
  2. Visibility compared to competitors
    • + Analyse how visible your domain is compared to your main competitors for your keyword set. The higher the visibility, the better.
    • + Benchmark: At least equivalent or higher visibility than the 3 main competitors.
  3. Indexed URLs
    • + Check how many of your URLs have been indexed by Google. Too many or too few indexed URLs can be problematic.
    • + Benchmark: 80-90% of relevant content pages should be indexed.
  4. Traffic value from organic search
    • + Calculate the value of organic traffic you receive from your rankings. This should be higher than your SEO spend.
    • + Benchmark: Traffic value at least 20% higher than the annual SEO costs.

Wrapping up Your SEO Audit

SEO audits teach good website housekeeping, but here is no perfect audit.

Regardless of audit, remember that there are really only three things important for your SEO:

  • + Good Content
  • + Page Experience
  • + Relevant and Helpful Links

Content: Helpful, relevant content that makes decisions customers need to make easier.

Page Experience: A good experience is remembered — also a bad one. If getting it is easier, people will choose a poorer product over a better one. Make sure the UX is simple and good.

Links: Not just any links. Links that support the first two things. Citations. Links with authority. People you know and who know your brand builds brand loyalty and trust.

And don’t forget – SEO means getting found! Now, sometimes that’s an accident. Don’t shoo the person from your shop, your website, OR your social media. It happened for a reason. Win them over! #SEO

My Favourite Free SEO Website Audit Tools

In addition to the tools mentioned in the following steps, here are three excellent, free articles and tools. Try them out for yourself!

https://www.seoptimer.com

https://ahrefs.com/site-audit

https://www.semrush.com/blog/seo-audit

Thank you for the blog image! Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash