What can a website SEO audit tell you about your website?

A website SEO audit is a must-have for website owners and businesses that want to make sure their site is optimised for both users and search engines. A fully optimised website is more likely to appear on page one of the organic search rankings at the same time as providing a great user experience. This means more people will be directed to your website and, with a good UX, are more likely to explore it to find out more about your brand.

In this guide, we’ll explain what a website SEO audit is and how to do one in a methodical way to make your site more visible and work better. However, if you’d prefer, we’re happy to do a Free Website SEO Audit for you with our recommendations to help you improve your website’s SEO.

What is a website SEO audit?

A website SEO audit is a detailed examination of a website’s content, performance, and structure to identify what needs to be altered to increase visibility and move it higher in search engine rankings. It entails examining the site’s on-page features such as titles and metadata, as well as off-page aspects such as backlinks and social network presence. It also considers how fast the site loads and how the URLs are set up.

The Three Main Types of Website SEO Audits

Technical SEO Audit – A technical SEO audit looks at the technical parts and infrastructure of a website to make sure it’s set up correctly for search engines. This type of audit examines a website’s source code, looking for errors in HTML tags and analysing the URL structure to ensure it is SEO friendly. It will also check the website is meeting all other necessary criteria for proper indexing and ranking.

On-page SEO Audit – An on-page SEO audit focuses on the content, structure, and layout of a website. This type of SEO audit looks at factors such as page titles, headings, and page meta tags to ensure they are created with SEO best practices in mind. Additionally, an on-page SEO audit will check the content for any errors or broken links that need to be corrected. It will also look at the internal linking structure to make sure it helps search engines can easily crawl the site and nothing gets in the way.

Off-page SEO Audit – An off-page SEO audit looks at and improves a website’s links from other sites. This kind of audit looks at your inbound link profile and checks for any possible link manipulation or bad backlinks that point to your domain. It will also check outbound links to make sure they don’t hurt your website’s chances of ranking well in search engine results pages. An off-page audit also looks at linking domains. This helps you find influential sites and build relationships with them so that your site’s overall rankings go up.

10 reasons why you need a website SEO audit

A website SEO audit is a proven method for identifying issues that are affecting our website’s performance and visibility in search engine results pages. Here are ten reasons why it is critical:

1. Improve SEO rankings – The higher you rank on a search engine result page (SERP), the more probable it is that prospects will see you and visit your website.
2. Detect broken links – Broken links can result in people leaving your site and a higher bounce rate, both of which are detrimental to your search engine rankings.
3. Improve user experience and retention – To rank highly in organic search engine results, a website must understand what users want and give them a good user experience (UX). When the website matches the search intent of its clients, research shows that those clients always return to the site.
4. Increase site speed – When it comes to prioritising search results, Google favours fast sites over slow sites. Fast sites mean a much better user experience, which is why site speed is a ranking factor.
5. Understand content optimisation requirements – This is the process of ensuring that content is written in such a way that it reaches the widest possible target audience. It involves ensuring the presence of relevant keywords in the copy, adding relevant meta and title tags, and generating pertinent links.
6. Spot duplicate content issues – Even though duplicate content isn’t technically a penalty, it can still hurt your search engine rankings because it confuses Google and forces it to choose which of the pages with the same content to put at the top.
7. Identify and correct indexing errors – Proper website indexing helps search engines see all your vital pages and provides a significant boost to your site. If a page receives too many failed crawl attempts, search engines will demote it in the rankings and finally remove it from the index. If enough pages are damaged, the quality of the site as a whole suffers, potentially harming the site’s rankings.
8. Stay ahead of the competition – By keeping a constant eye on your competition, you can seize opportunities to grow and expand into the voids left by competitors that don’t audit their sites. Businesses need to battle to boost sales and win new clients by continually modifying their SEO strategy. More consumers equal a larger market share, and more sales equals greater profits. Maintaining a competitive advantage is therefore crucial.
9. Discover security vulnerabilities and malware – When it comes to website rankings, search engines prioritise user safety. Poorly secured websites are subject to cyberattacks, financial and sensitive data theft, and reputational damage. Google penalises such websites and this adversely affects their organic search position drastically. Furthermore, websites with inadequate security may be blacklisted.
10. Assess technical SEO signals – This refers to the crawling and indexing optimizations you’ve put in place to make it more likely that Google and other search engines will place your website higher in the search results.

The Top 10 Technical SEO Audit Tools

Technical SEO audits are a must if you want to improve the performance and visibility of your website. But before you can launch into an audit, you need the right tools to do it. Fortunately, there are a variety of excellent options available to make your job easier.

The technical SEO audit tools Cariad Marketing’s SEO Team uses include the following:

1. SEMrush – Semrush Inc. is an American public company that offers a SaaS platform known as SEMrush. The platform is frequently employed for keyword research and online ranking statistics, such as search volume and cost per click.
2. Ahrefs – With Ahrefs, you can do anything from link building and keyword research to competitor analysis, rank tracking, and most importantly, site audits.
3. ScreamingFrog – The Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a web crawler that improves on-site SEO by extracting data and inspecting it for typical SEO issues.
4. GTmetrix – Carbon60 created GTmetrix as a simple tool for customers to test the performance of their websites.
5. DeepCrawl – DeepCrawl is a robust platform that crawls webpages and functions as an analysis tool for site architecture. SEO specialists and web developers use the software to comprehend a website’s staging environment, analyse data, monitor external sites, conduct backlinks, and organise sitemaps as required.
6. Google PageSpeed Insights – This is a Google tool that examines the loading speed and behaviour of a page on mobile and desktop devices and, based on the results, offers specific recommendations for improvement.
7. Moz Pro Tools – Moz Pro is a popular piece of all-in-one SEO software that has tools to help websites rank higher in search engines. Link Explorer, Keyword Explorer, and Rank Tracker are some of the most important features.
8. Majestic SEO – A SEO software tool that specialises in link analysis. Unlike other SEO tools, it only focuses on backlinks.
9. Google Search Console – is a Google tool that lets developers, site owners, and search engine optimization experts see how well a website does in Google Search.
10. Yoast Content Analysis Tool – Yoast offers a real-time analysis of your website’s content. Examine the essential elements of your posts and pages to ensure they correspond to SEO best practices.

How to do a website SEO audit

Once you have all the tools you need, you can begin your website SEO audit. Cariad Marketing’s SEO Audit process consists of the following ten steps, listed in order of importance:

1. Ensure that your website is secure.
2. Scan your website for errors and indexing issues.
3. Analyse the website’s architecture – we’re looking for duplicate versions of your website and the way web pages are ordered or structured.
4. Ensure that your website’s meta tags are optimised.
5. Perform a keyword optimisation scan.
6. Find any instances of duplicate content and update accordingly.
7. Find and identify thin content (and either add content to those pages or combine two or more relevant pages).
8. Determine potential link-building opportunities – both internal linking and external linking.
9. Run page speed analysis to get suggestions on how to improve page speed.
10. Check for manual actions to check if your site violates Google’s spam policies.

At Cariad Marketing, we specialise in turning audit insights into impactful strategies. Take the next step towards optimising your website by reaching out for our professional SEO services. Our team is dedicated to not only decoding the audit findings but also implementing effective strategies for your online success.

Moreover, we understand the value of affordability. Explore our range of affordable SEO packages, ensuring that quality solutions are within reach. Don’t let your website’s potential go untapped; connect with Cariad Marketing today, and let’s transform your online presence together.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an SEO Audit?

An SEO audit is a comprehensive analysis of your website’s online presence, performance, and optimisation strategies. It involves a thorough examination of various elements, such as technical aspects, on-page content, backlinks, user experience, and more, to identify areas for improvement and develop a strategic plan for enhancing your website’s search engine visibility and organic traffic.

What is the Difference Between a Website Audit and an SEO Audit?

Both a website audit and an SEO audit involve evaluating aspects of a website, but they each focus on different areas. Aspects such as website design, usability, functionality, and security are covered in a website audit while an SEO audit looks at optimising your site for search engines, targeting issues like keyword optimisation, backlink quality, site structure, and technical SEO elements.

What to Do After an SEO Audit

After conducting an SEO audit, it’s essential to implement the recommended changes and improvements identified in the audit report. This may involve optimising on-page content, fixing technical issues, improving site speed, enhancing the user experience, and refining your overall SEO strategy. Regularly monitoring and adjusting your website based on audit insights can lead to better search engine rankings and increased organic traffic over time.

Is an SEO Audit Free?

The cost of an SEO audit can vary depending on the complexity of your website and the depth of analysis required. Some agencies or tools may offer basic SEO audit services for free, providing a general overview of your site’s performance. However, for a comprehensive and in-depth audit, it’s recommended to work with experienced professionals or agencies that offer specialised SEO audit services. At Cariad, we offer a free SEO audit to discover how well your website is performing and how to enhance its performance.

Why You Need an SEO Audit

An SEO audit is crucial for understanding the current state of your website’s search engine optimisation efforts. It helps identify areas where your site may be underperforming or failing to meet best practices. By addressing these issues, you can enhance your site’s visibility in search results, attract more organic traffic, and ultimately improve your online presence and business growth.

How Many Hours Does an SEO Audit Take?

A website SEO audit can take anywhere from a few hours to several days, depending on the size of your website, the difficulty of the technical problems, the level of analysis needed, and the experience of the people doing the audit. A quick SEO audit of a website could take a few hours, while a thorough one might take several days or even weeks. For accurate insights, it’s crucial to make sure the audit is complete and includes all pertinent factors.

How to Do an SEO Audit of Your Website

Performing an SEO audit involves several steps:

1. Technical Analysis: Evaluate site speed, mobile friendliness, URL structure, and indexing status.
2. On-Page SEO: Review keyword usage, meta tags, headings, and content optimisation.
3. Backlink Analysis: Assess the quality and relevance of your site’s backlink profile.
4. User Experience: Examine site navigation, layout, and overall user friendliness.
5. Content Audit: Analyse the quality, relevance, and engagement of your website’s content.
6. Competitor Analysis: Study competitors’ SEO strategies and performance for insights.
7. Reporting and Recommendations: Compile findings into a comprehensive audit report with actionable recommendations.

While it’s possible to conduct a basic DIY audit using online tools and guides, partnering with experienced SEO professionals can ensure a more thorough and effective analysis of your website’s optimisation needs.