Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of the most critical aspects of digital marketing. It refers to the practice of maximising a site’s “findability”. The best way to improve your SEO and site ranking is to perform an SEO audit. We will cover some of the basics to get you started, highlight some considerations, and give you a detailed breakdown of the steps involved. Before that, let’s explore what exactly an SEO audit entails and what you need to do to prepare.
What Does “SEO Audit” Mean?
The complex algorithms of search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing) analyse many factors when determining SEO ranking. The higher the ranking, the higher your website will appear on search engines for relevant queries. But what do these algorithms consider? Well, everything, from content to page links and engagement (of many different kinds). They also look at technical elements such as site metadata and structure.
If you want to understand how well these elements are working and improve your search engine performance, then that’s when you should perform an SEO audit. An SEO audit evaluates how well your website meets search engine requirements and identifies potential issues. With this information, you can focus on ensuring your website has the best chance of ranking well.
SEO is essential for enhancing a site’s visibility, and an SEO audit is the first step to improving rankings. An audit assesses your website’s content, links, engagement, metadata, and structure, helping you identify and address areas that may affect search engine performance.
Preparing for an SEO Audit
The first step in preparing for an SEO audit is to familiarise yourself with the terminology. You will also need access to your website’s backend. This means you need to know what website package you are working with and who your host provider is. The webmaster usually has that information.
You will work closely with this individual throughout the entire process. If you have outsourced your website to another company, you will need to contact them for some of the relevant information. They may also perform the final SEO upgrade after the analysis is done.
Finally, you’ll need both time and money to do an audit properly. There are some free SEO audit tools, including Google Analytics and Search Console; however, many other paid third-party tools exist, which we’ll cover in more detail shortly.
How Much Does an SEO Audit Cost?
The size of your website largely dictates the cost of an audit. A site with a homepage and a handful of product pages will take little time to optimise. A more comprehensive site, however, could cost thousands. At a minimum, you can expect to pay around £500 for a basic audit.
More experienced SEO companies will charge more, but their expertise could prove invaluable, so it’s important to get several quotes while checking reviews and testimonials from previous clients.
Finally, there’s the scope of the tools you use to audit your site. Again, if your site isn’t that complex, then simple, free tools may be enough to identify potential issues.
How Long Does an SEO Audit Take?
While the various tools available may only take a few days to identify surface-level issues, deeper analysis (and the corrective action that goes with it) takes the most time. Search engine optimisation has many nuances, so a dedicated audit company will use the data to create an action plan. You can expect to wait at least a month for a full, detailed audit. However, this is also largely dependent on your website’s complexity. The more intricate your website design, the longer it will take to complete a full audit.
What Tools Do You Need?
The good news is that you can use various free tools to complete an SEO audit. The most prominent is Google Analytics, which provides a deep dive into website performance. However, without previous experience, it’s hard to know what you’re looking for and which corrective actions will have the most significant impact. That’s where paid tools come in.
These are usually far more comprehensive, giving you a detailed breakdown of issues and opportunities for improvement. Each has pros and cons, so balancing the tool’s cost and complexity against your needs is important.
Examples of popular paid SEO tools include:
- Moz Site Crawl
- Semrush On Page SEO Checker
- Ahrefs Site Audit
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider
To prepare for an SEO audit, ensure you have backend access, time, and resources. For a comprehensive review, use tools like Google Analytics or paid options like Semrush and Ahrefs. Audit costs depend on website size, starting at £500, and typically take at least a month to complete.
How Do You Perform an SEO Audit?
Performing an SEO audit can lead to better organic search traffic, lower bounce rates, and improved business metrics. The key is to give yourself plenty of time to get stuck into the details, as there is a lot of ground to cover. Below, we’ve outlined the main actions you must take, and what you must look out for at each stage.
1. Instal the Tool(s) You Need
Having reviewed the various SEO audit tools available, now’s the time to sign up and familiarise yourself with the interface. It’s also worth speaking directly to the supplier or searching YouTube for how-to videos so you know how the tool operates. There’s no point committing to a paid SEO tool only for it to be underutilised.
Semrush, for example, has a detailed step-by-step blog that works alongside its On Page SEO Checker to ensure you don’t miss any key areas. Once you’ve run a site crawl, you’ll see errors, warnings, and notices that need addressing. Each comes with a detailed explanation, not just of the issue but also of how to fix it.
2. Map Out Your Organic Traffic
Organic search traffic is the lifeblood of a well-performing website and refers to any traffic that comes naturally (unpaid). All the tools listed above have a feature that lets you check the organic traffic to your site, which can then be filtered by timescale. You’ll want to look for apparent peaks and troughs, with the latter usually a sign of an error or issue that needs addressing.
It’s also worth reviewing the release date of Google’s algorithm updates, as these can temporarily reduce organic traffic. In worst-case scenarios, a sudden drop in organic search traffic may be due to Google taking a manual action against your site. You can check the status of any manual actions (and find out how to remedy them) in your Google Search Console.
3. Analyse User Experience Metrics
Another crucial part of Google’s ranking considerations is user experience (UX) metrics, such as page speed, bounce rate, keyword rankings (more on this later), indexed pages, and time spent on the site. The SEO tool you ran from step one will provide plenty of details on which metrics need improving.
Your corrective approach will differ depending on the issue, but if your homepage has a high bounce rate, review the page’s structure and layout. Also, ask yourself: are visitors able to navigate the page easily? Are your text or images clear and well-presented, and do they load quickly? If not, there are website speed test tools you can run to identify which parts of your webpage are causing hang-ups.
4. Evaluate Mobile Responsiveness
A natural follow-up to user experience metrics is how well your website performs on mobile. It’s paramount that your website provides as seamless an experience on mobile as it does on desktop. Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning if your site isn’t optimised for mobile devices, it simply won’t rank well.
Many website-building tools allow you to switch between desktop and mobile modes, so you can check the functionality of images, buttons, and links. Just ensure that any time you change a webpage, no matter how small, you check its performance on mobile, too.
5. Check SSL Certification
The next thing to do is check SSL certification, which is an integral part of secure transactions. SSL certification is usually supplied when you purchase a web domain. It verifies a website’s identity and encrypts data transfers between the website and its users.
If you’re planning to hold any visitor details or sell products online, an SSL certificate is a non-negotiable requirement. In fact, when you visit a webpage without an SSL certificate, web browsers such as Google Chrome will display a “not secure” warning in the address bar.
6. Identify Bad Reviews
Unfavourable reviews appear in search engine results, so you must respond to such comments or remove them if you believe them to be malicious. It doesn’t happen often, but you may find negative reviews left by competitors.
You’ll need to keep a watchful eye, but provided you’re focusing on customer service, you should have little problem with bad reviews. Most customers will approach you about possible issues before leaving a review, so ensure you’re timely with any corrective action.
7. Check Your Business Information
You will also need to keep your site information up-to-date. Business hours, location, and contact information are all important. These factors also help significantly with local SEO, as the more information about your business, the more likely Google is to recommend your services. Moreover, in some jurisdictions, this information is legally required, so it’s crucial you check local regulations and add any missing details.
8. Analyse Your Links to Socials
In addition, ensure that all of your social media accounts are linked to a central analysis tool. Google My Business is one option, but there are others. These tools let you see how your audience interacts with your content, which is integral to creating a keyword strategy. Combining audience intent with the right keywords can push webpages further up the rankings.
9. Audit Your Site Map
Page hierarchy matters, as pages that cannot be indexed by search engines or found by your customers are essentially invisible. You’ll also want to ensure your site has a logical flow. Before adding pages or product categories, check your site hierarchy to make sure visitors can easily click through to the relevant pages. Related to this is the addition of an XML sitemap, which allows search engines to index your entire site more easily.
10. Solve Indexing Issues
If Google cannot index your site, it can’t evaluate its effectiveness. As such, solving indexing issues should be a top priority. The tools we mentioned earlier will highlight indexing issues as critical errors, so target these first. You could fix and improve every aspect of on-page SEO, but your work is meaningless without indexing.
11. Fix Broken Links
Checking internal links is also essential. If links are broken or absent, your overall customer experience will suffer, as will your SEO. Make sure that your “anchor text” (i.e. the text you attach a link to) uses keywords, and that you fix all broken links with redirects. When you do this correctly, search engines understand this is a redirected page. A “301” redirect is a permanent, recognised, and legitimate redirect link code.
12. Audit Your Backlinks
Backlink auditing is also known as “off-site” SEO. Your backlink profile measures the overall strength of links pointing to your site. If those links come from reputable sources, you are in good shape. Otherwise, you will need to remove low-quality links.
To help you identify low-quality links, try services such as Majestic, Moz, and Semrush to check the quality and traffic volumes from each domain. Spammy links should be removed as soon as they are identified. You should also update your website’s disavowed links list.
13. Check for Content Gaps
Performing an SEO audit isn’t just about rectifying and optimising existing pages; it’s also about identifying areas of opportunity. One of those opportunities is capitalising on keywords that are easy to rank for while still being relevant to your audience. The Semrush tool lets you filter organic keywords by position and cross-reference these popular keywords against your existing pages.
14. Analyse Metadata, Descriptions, and Tags
Often overlooked, metadata, descriptions, and tags feed into your search engine optimisation. Meta descriptions must be unique and title tags must also be optimised in coordination with a keyword strategy. Tags should be short but informative; if they are too long, they will be cut off in search results. Thankfully, these minor issues are easy to fix. You’ll even find that website builders, such as Wix, scan your site and highlight pages with missing metadata.
15. Examine Your Keyword Strategy
Building on the work you did cross-referencing popular keywords, you can start to build a keyword strategy. While keyword research helps you identify the keywords relevant to your audience, your strategy tells you which ones to focus on first—essentially, which keywords will provide the greatest return on investment. Make sure you drill down into those keywords in positions 2–15, then filter them by ranking difficulty.
16. Analyse Your Competitors
The final step of your SEO audit involves a competitor analysis. What is working well for them, what keywords do they rank for, what is their backlinking strategy, and which pages are their strongest performers?
As long as you have a URL, you can perform the same analysis on a competitor’s website as your own. Comparing their information against your own can help you establish a comprehensive SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis and further guide your keyword strategy.
Critical steps of an SEO audit include using SEO tools to identify issues, analysing user experience metrics, ensuring mobile responsiveness, checking SSL certification, auditing links and sitemaps, reviewing business information, and building a strong keyword and backlink strategy, including competitor analysis, to further refine performance.
Find and Fix Potential Issues With an SEO Audit
On the face of it, an SEO audit is a lengthy and, in some cases, costly process. However, the benefits to your business, no matter the size, are significant. Even improving page rankings by one or two positions can dramatically affect click-through rates and, ultimately, help you achieve your business goals.
Encouragingly, your improvements will only need to be addressed again if you make sweeping changes to your website. However, if you’re struggling with the steps outlined above, don’t hesitate to contact the experts. SEO metrics constantly evolve, and Google’s algorithm becomes more sophisticated with each update.
