The 10-Step SEO Audit Checklist To Boost Your Rankings

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Google's formula for ranking websites has over 200 factors, with regular additions being made.

Does this mean you must follow over 200 steps for a good SEO audit? Does it have to take weeks and lots of time and effort?

No, it doesn't.

While there are numerous factors, certain ones hold more significance to Google than others. By focusing on the most critical factors, you can achieve over 90% of the desired results with less than 10% of the effort. So, if your website appears visually appealing but struggles to attract visitors, resulting in a decrease in traffic, you're not alone. According to Ahrefs, around 90.63 percent of the content doesn't get organic traffic from Google.

So, how can you fix this problem? One solution is to conduct a website audit. That's where local SEO experts come in. They perform website audits to help improve your rankings, increase visitor numbers, and boost conversions. If you need help determining where to begin, this guide will walk you through the process. But before we delve into that, let's explain what an SEO audit is and why it's important.

What Is An SEO Audit?

An SEO audit is like a thorough website check-up to see how well it appears in search engine results. It helps identify areas where the website can be improved.

During an audit, local SEO experts analyze the website's optimization. They look for areas that can be improved and provide suggestions to raise the ranking in search results.

An SEO audit can also reveal opportunities for improvement, such as:

  • Content gaps

  • Technical SEO issues

  • Competitor analysis

  • Site speed

  • Ways to improve the UX

People usually spend only a short time on a website and quickly form opinions about a business based on its site. According to the data, a website only has about 50 milliseconds to hook a visitor's attention. This determines whether they will like your site or leave it. 

What Is The Importance Of An SEO Website Audit?

An SEO audit clearly shows where your website stands per Google's algorithm. Moreover, it can drastically improve the chances of your website ranking in the Google search results. Although it can sometimes be time-consuming, hiring professional SEO audit services improves your online visibility, and a regular audit keeps your website up-to-date.

In fact, audits can help you:

  • Identify technical, content, and structural issues hindering search engine rankings.

  • Analyze user behavior and website performance, and an audit aids in enhancing user experience, resulting in increased engagement and conversions.

  • Optimize on-page elements, such as meta tags and keywords. An audit helps improve search engine rankings, leading to more organic traffic.

  • Update websites with the latest SEO trends and algorithm changes to ensure compliance and prevent penalties.

  • Formulate effective SEO strategies for better positioning by analyzing competitors' strategies and identifying gaps.

Overall, an SEO audit is a crucial process to optimize a website, enhance its visibility, and drive organic traffic, ultimately improving its online presence.

10-Step Checklist for SEO Site Audits

With the number of factors Google uses to rank your content in the search results, it can take time to determine where you went wrong. Nevertheless, if you hire a company that provides digital marketing services, they will do a comprehensive checklist to uncover the cause and help you make a new action plan.

This 10-step SEO audit is a carefully curated checklist that incorporates all three pillars of SEO - technical, on-page, and off-page SEO. Let us look at them.

Discovering White Label Link-Building Prospects

This step involves finding potential websites or online platforms for external linking to your site. High-quality and relevant white label link building is important for SEO, as it can boost your site's visibility and credibility in search engine rankings. Moreover, internal links help potential customers read the relevant content they may have been searching for.

Identifying Potential Enhancements for Information Architecture

Information architecture refers to the organization and structure of your website's content. By evaluating your site's architecture, you can identify areas for improvement, such as optimizing navigation menus, improving site hierarchy, and making it easier for users and search engines to find and understand your content.

Locating and Resolving Thin Content Issues

Thin content refers to pages with low-quality or insufficient content that may provide little value to users. Identifying and addressing these pages by either improving their content or removing them altogether is important. This helps ensure that your site provides valuable and relevant information to visitors.

Detecting and Eliminating Duplicate Content

Duplicate content refers to identical or similar content appearing on multiple pages within your site or across different websites. It can negatively impact your SEO efforts. By identifying and removing duplicate content, you can avoid potential penalties from search engines and improve your site's visibility.

Conducting Keyword Optimization Analysis

This step involves analyzing the keywords used on your website and ensuring they are relevant, properly placed, and appropriately used. Keyword optimization helps search engines understand the topic of your content and improves your chances of ranking higher for relevant searches.

Optimizing Metadata Elements

Metadata elements, such as title tags and meta descriptions, provide information about your web pages to search engines. Optimizing these elements involves using relevant keywords, creating compelling descriptions, and accurately representing the content of each page. This can improve your site's click-through rates and visibility in search results.

Recognizing Opportunities for Page Updates

Regularly updating and refreshing your website's content can improve its relevance and appeal to users and search engines. This step involves identifying pages that need updates or improvements, such as outdated information, broken links, or formatting issues. Moreover, Google Business Profile (GBP) optimization can greatly improve the visibility of your website in search results.

Analyzing Page Speed Performance

The speed at which your web pages load is called their page speed. It's an important factor in user experience and search engine rankings. Analyzing page speed performance helps you identify any issues that may slow down your site and optimize it for faster loading times. Many companies use SEO tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics to get mobile usability reports, site architecture, etc., for all their pages.

Scanning for Site Errors

This step involves checking your website for technical or usability errors, such as broken links, missing images, or server errors. Fixing these issues improves the user experience and ensures that search engines can properly crawl and index your site. Many SEO audit tools, like SeMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, etc., can help you do quick site audits.

Transitioning from HTTP to HTTPS

HTTPS is a secure version of the HTTP protocol, and migrating to it can provide a secure and encrypted connection between your website and its visitors. This step involves implementing an SSL certificate and ensuring your site's URLs are redirected to the HTTPS version. This helps improve user trust and can positively impact your search engine rankings.

Note: This checklist is a starting point when you hire professional SEO audit services. Moreover, conducting a thorough analysis and addressing any specific issues unique to your website and industry is important.

Final Thoughts

There are only so many perfect recipes for a successful SEO audit, and that's because Google, the search engine we optimize for, is quite mysterious. Google constantly updates its algorithm without explaining why or how. So expecting one method to work for everyone is unrealistic.

However, these 10 SEO audits that local SEO experts use will be crucial for your business.

  • Discovering Link-Building Prospects

  • Identifying Potential Enhancements for Information Architecture

  • Locating and Resolving Thin Content Issues

  • Detecting and Eliminating Duplicate Content

  • Conducting Keyword Optimization Analysis

  • Optimizing Metadata Elements

  • Recognizing Opportunities for Page Updates

  • Analyzing Page Speed Performance

  • Scanning for Site Errors

  • Transitioning from HTTP to HTTPS

Additionally, you will be on your way to dominating organic search results by fixing the issues they uncover.

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