Ultimate Guide to SEO Audit

 

If you aim to stimulate organic traffic to your website and develop your search rankings, you need to manage website audits regularly. Performing an SEO Audit of your website is vital for many reasons. First, you can identify problem areas that need improvement and build an action plan to correct them, and second, a proper SEO audit will keep your website up to date with the latest changes in search marketing and on top of the competition.

 

What is SEO Audit?

Before diving into the details on ways of conducting an SEO audit, it is important to understand the meaning of it and expectations as a result.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) audit is a process for evaluating the search engine visibility of a website in a couple of ways. While there are different tools and techniques you can manage to audit a website, the best solution is to either perform the audit by following a guide or hire a professional SEO Auditor to perform the work for you.

With the help of a completed SEO audit, you will manually review the website and come up with recommendations of what needs to be improved and what needs to be corrected so that the performance and visibility of the website in search engines are improved.

 

How To Conduct An SEO Audit

 

After my research on website audit for SEO and testing different audit tools, I came up with a guideline that covers everything you need to check.

Here are three options in case if you want to audit your web page by yourself.

Do it yourself. There are a number of resources on how to manage a Local SEO audit of your website by yourself from tips of "how to get started," to operating the world’s greatest Local SEO audit, to even "how to conduct a 45-minute Local SEO audit". You can easily find even more devices through a simple search.

Although, this alternative won’t cost you any money, consider that it will take a lot of time of yours if you want to do it in the right way. A full website audit for SEO could take your time up to 2 days, and not all of us have that kind of time.

Run some software. Another alternative is to enter your URL and Google Analytics information to a website, which will then operate the audit for you. Many of these are out of money and simple to use, but consider that it may not be as specific to your web page as if a person were to conduct it because it performs the same indicators on all web pages, regardless of their purpose.

Hire a professional. The last option is to hire an expert to manage your audit. This choice will cost you, but if you’re fighting to get the traffic you want, it may be worth it. It’s a good option because you won’t have to spend hours of your time on it, and you’ll get personalized suggestions for improvement.

SEO Audit Checklist For Beginners 

Numerous SEO issues could be preventing your website from ranking high on Google. Regardless of how good your SEO content is, any SEO problem can reduce your site’s ranking, incur penalties or worse, Google and other search engines may not see your website and index it. 

However, there are ways to solve the problem. The infographic below will give you simple steps on how to audit your SEO. After, follow the guidelines outlined in this guide to have an overall coverage on how to audit your site. 

So, let's go through step by step. To make it easier, in this guideline we will go through these steps:

• Local SEO Audit

• Technical SEO Audit

• On-Page SEO Audit

• Off-Page SEO Audit

 

What is a Local SEO Audit?

 

A Local SEO audit is an evaluation of the web page's approachability and ranking success. A Local SEO audit includes an analysis of your Google My Business locations, as well as recommendations for how to improve it and raise your ranking. Local SEO Audit works a little differently than the mainstream versions. Local buyers (searchers) are often searching from an area that is close to your business, and they’re likely interested in local information like phone numbers and directions.

 

Does the business have a real address in the target location?

 

The real address of the business in the target location is significant due to some factors that can increase the selected goals of your business. And you should check this option in your website audit for SEO process.

Why is the location of business so important? Your choice of the business location directly influences your expenses and income. Even in today's world where people can buy and sell through the internet and project teams can cooperate from various states and countries, location plays a meaningful role in your company's success or failure.

 

Is the content helpful, accurate, and unique?

 

“Content care” is another key factor in Local SEO audit. So what is helpful, accurate, high-quality content? To cover that question you have to understand Google’s ultimate aim for search. Let's take a more in-depth look at search, how it’s evolving, and how that affects SEO. Then we’ll review the difficulties you face as a content creator and what you need to do to create higher quality content on your web page.

It’s important to understand why Google is moving this kind of "content care." Google, the king of search engines, is a type of machine being responsible for answering people's questions and processes over three and a half billion searches per day. And since we discuss search engine optimization, they answer this question pretty well.

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-founded Google in 1998, they did so to organize the information to make it further accessible and useful. The purpose is the same even today but has changed quite a bit over the years. Google’s algorithms are continually evolving to deliver, as they say, “…relevant and useful results in a portion of a second.”

The “relevant and useful results” that Google is trying to deliver are the parts of the contents that are accessible throughout the web. These parts of the content are ranked by their order of relevance and usefulness to the user performing the search, which means, if you want your content to have any SEO value at all, it needs to be useful to searchers. But how you make sure your content is beneficial for searches?

Some tips by Google to help in your Local SEO Audit :

Useful and informative: If you are launching a site for a restaurant, you can insert the location, operation hours, contact info, menu, and a blog to distribute upcoming events.

More useful and valuable than other sites: if you write about some specific theme, make sure your article provides better value or a different perspective than the numerous articles on the web on a particular theme.

Credible: Show the credibility of your site by using original research, links, citations, testimonials, and reviews. A biography of author or testimonials from real customers can help increase your page's reputation and trustworthiness.

High quality: Your web page's content should be specific, unique, and high quality. It shouldn't be mass-produced or outsourced on a large number of other web pages. Don't forget that the primary goal of your content should be allowing visitors to have a good user experience, only then ranking in first pages in search engines should bother you.

Engaging: Add images of products, yourself, or your team and bring life and color to your site. Ensure there are no factual, stylistic, and spelling errors. A large number of ads, as a rule, is also confusing for visitors to your site. Try to increase visitor engagement through comments, social media widgets, and regular updates.

When these elements are in their order, you maximize the potential of the value of SEO in your content. If you dismiss them, your content will have very little value. You have a chance to maximize the potential SEO value of your content when these elements are fulfilled.

Once you miss these elements, your content will have very little value. But, creating great content isn’t the only way of success. There’s also a technical side of the content you need to be aware of as well. The SEO value of content depends on how informative, useful, valuable, credible, and engaging it is.

"Optimizing content" is significant: If your content is not optimized, you won't rank in search engine optimization as effectively as you aim. To create optimizing content, you should follow some instructions in order to have "Audience-Centric" content. Audience-centric is the technical stuff involving factors like keywords, meta titles, meta descriptions, and URLs and means that you are concentrating on what audiences want to see or hear rather than what you want to talk about.

 

Does the location have consistent NAP-W information across all citations?

 

NAP consistency is when your location’s (company's) name, address, and phone number are entered the same way across the web, from your web-page to your social media profiles to directory listings. It’s necessary to make sure your web address is listed consistently as well, even though NAP stands for name, address, phone number. Consistent listings cover not just the same primary information, but the same spelling and formatting, as well. SEO is all about the details! Take into consideration this fact in your Local SEO Audit.

When your company's (business, location, etc.) NAP is consistent, the related information shows up on all profiles and in all directories, which supports search engines recognize who you are, what type of business you do, and how searchers can find and reach your location.

So, let’s think these three listings using the same NAP shown in the example above:

 

Listing 1: The Correct Listing

Jake John’s Heating & Air Conditioning

456 Dover Street

Charlotte, NC 23152

444-444-4444

www.jakejohnsheatingandcooling.com

 

Listing 2: The Close-But-No-Cigar Listing 

Jake John’s HVAC

456 Dover St.

Charlotte, NC 23152

(444) 444-4444

jakejohnsheatingandcooling.com

 

Listing 3: The Casual Listing

JJ’s HVAC

Corner of Dover St. & Main St.

Charlotte, NC 23152

444.444.4444

http://jakehvac.com

 

Accordingly, depending on the number of social media profiles your business has, and how many directories it is listed in, it’s possible that your NAP seems like this. We notice it with our customers all the time. It’s just not something people often consider when creating profiles or listings.

When all three of these listings are drifting around, not only can users get confused about which listing is the exact one for the service they’re seeking, but also so can SEOs. And probably you don’t need to mislead the search engines. We recommend that you take note of this in your website audit for SEO. 

 

How NAP Consistency Impacts SEO and do I need to take care of it in Local SEO Audit check?

 

Many business owners brush off the significance of consistent NAP information, considering that both users and SEO are smart enough to know that two almost similar listings, like Jake John’s Heating & Air Conditioning and JJ’s HVAC, are the same.

Unluckily, that’s not the case.

The truth is, NAP consistency is vital for businesses aiming to improve their search rankings, increase the traffic to their web page, and get more sales from the web. When users notice your business listed under multiple names, with different addresses, or using inconsistent phone numbers, they get confused. So, they choose a company whose data is consistent because they have more trust and confidence in that style of listing. And because searchers think and act this way, search engines also think and work the same way.

If SEO is finding different information about your NAP, they’re not going to know for sure what your business is or where it's location. When the search engines find various details related to your company, they lose confidence in your listing—so they are more likely to provide searchers with another listing that they’re more confident of. So, your company's NAP consistency is your first step if you aim to perform a website audit for SEO in the search results for related keywords in your service field.

 

What is GMB listing and how it affects to Local SEO Audit?

 

Google My Business Listing

For many years businesses have used phone books to put themselves on the map, so they’re visible when a buyer, user, or customer needs to search them. With times changing and online becoming our primary source for virtually all our recent needs from vital needs and daily needs to fitness, health, and even cleaning products, it’s not too often you use that big phone book of local business listings.

With the function of Google’s business being search and the fact that more than 80% of online journeys start with the search engine use, it should come as no surprise that the different search engines provide their local business listings. Google points to its local business listing platform as Google My Business. The resulting Google My Business listings include a business’ Name, Address, Phone number, and website.

You can have access to this business listing information through some of Google's properties — for instance, Google Maps. For everything you want your potential buyer find and use from your services, and your products, you can use Google My Business. This way, you can react to client reviews as well as can add visuals for your business stand out in the long run.

Google’s local listings, as a rule, are attached to local Search Engine Optimization. When searchers write localized terms/keywords in the search bar, they will find content with related local business listings, attached to the keyword used for the search as an updated form of the original display. The Google three-pack included seven too cluttered results.

It is important to work on your website audit for SEO and enhance your local SEO efforts for your GMB listing. That way, you can end up at the top of the rankings according to the keywords which are indispensable to your business. The top three places at the top get more traffic than those lower ones.

 

Is the business using unique, high-quality images on their GMB listing?

 

When an issue comes to competing for local search real estate, there are a lot of determinants that can make a variation. One essential of those factors is the (use) management and optimization of images. In Google’s system, images support to show that your business is a legitimate organization.  

It dispenses off some of your business personality and helps to strengthen trust, putting a visual to a name as such. It is little surprise that Google compensates businesses that include higher quality images on their Google My Business profile. Having several, consistent images in your listing will assist your business to stand out from the crowd, reach higher rankings, and attract interest to your business.

 

How to add the correct images to your business?

 

We all aware of the fact that the image factor is one of the most important ones in the Local SEO Audit.

Your listing should include at a minimum: A profile photo, a cover photo, a logo of your business.

If you want it, ideally your profile should consist of at least five images of products that you offer, services, business, or team premises.

Images are categorized as: At work, by a customer, by the owner, interior, team, product, identity (branding).

If you’re looking for an easier and quick solution, then you can settle for stock photos or pictures from the web in the case if you have nothing to put on your listing.

 

Tips to rank high in SEO via using the image option of GMB

 

Create high quality, engaging images. This sounds so simple, but it is something that many businesses don’t consider. Yes, you want to be sure that you’re adding visuals to your Google My Business in a way that you can draw in customers, but if those pictures are missing quality, it won’t benefit you in the long run.

It’s perfect for getting a professional camera and photographer to make your business pop. One of the best options you can do is to hire a professional photographer, who will come to your business and take professional and high-quality photos of your location. If it’s impossible for you to hire a photographer, the newest smartphones all have excellent camera quality, so use what you can. It's necessary to make sure that the photos are engaging, exciting, and high quality by using different angles, good lighting, and well-thought-out shots.

In your website audit for SEO, make sure that your visuals are uploaded in a suitable format, size, and resolution.

Format: JPG or PNG

Size: 10 KB to 5MG

Resolution: 720 x 720 pixels at least

 

Add images regularly. This option is something that so many businesses survey when building their GMB listing. A lot of people believe that once you add information and photos to your listing, then you are done, which is not the truth. Google works with algorithms that they use to settle which businesses stay on top of search results, and they always support the business listings that are continually updating their GMB. It requires time, but it is crucial if you want to stay on top.

Once you add your base images, you should be adding new photos every seven days if you can. This doesn’t mean an immense number of new photos every week, just one or two recent pictures of your latest products, service projects, employees, or events. Think like the consumer: if you’re searching for a new business online, you need to familiarize yourself as much as possible with the business, its location, and service/product. Repeatedly updating your photos is the best way to do this.

Optimize your image information. A huge part of a successful website audit for SEO is optimizing the information of images, called EXIF data. To do this, you should regularly rename each image with the appropriate keywords before you upload it. You also need to add tags and descriptions to your pictures whenever possible.

You also need to use an option of Geotagging all of your photos, which adds a location to your image using correct coordinates. This is essential for GMB and at the same time for Local SEO Audit since your entire listing is based on your location and Google Maps.

This will primarily connect your photo with your business location. Your SERP position will be strengthened thanks to it. There is various software that will be helpful with this as well, including ASAP maps, where a team of specialists will do this for you!

Completing this website audit for SEO yourself or by the team you hired these steps shows Google that you are one of the most appropriate business in the area and have the most reliable SEO techniques. That will give you a chance of a higher ranking than your competitors in search results with the help of Google's algorithm.

Avoid irrelevant photos. This point is especially crucial if Google auto-generated your business listing before you claimed it by yourself. Google will pull visuals that they assume are associated with your business, and often they are not ideal. Add a lot of new, updated images to make sure that your photos are the ones that are shown first not Google's but consumers.

Also, you may have some photos with good quality a few years ago with items or services that are on the list you don't offer anymore. Even if these are beautiful photos, you want to avoid uploading them so that you don’t mislead customers who may come looking for what was in that image. The same technique goes for uploading photos of an old location if you recently moved your business.

Lastly, this is mostly self-explanatory, but avoid taking photos of your building if the weather is not appropriate or upload poorly cropped images. In case you’re unsure of a picture, think to yourself: “Would I use this photo in an ad?” You should add photos that you are proud of, and that will confidently showcase your business.

Yes, it is a fact that it is not as easy as it seems, but it’s worth it. If you are willing to put the time and effort into optimizing your photos on your GMB page, Google will reward you with increased search results and surely add you to the highly coveted “Top 3.”

Review images added by the public. Google has an option that customers can add photos to your business. Google does this to make sure that whoever is observing your page gets the real impression of your business, showing images from both the owner and from actual clients. This can have its drawbacks if customers upload unflattering or unrelated to your business photos.

Unluckily, if you don't like it, you can’t just delete a customer photo. You have to report it to Google and have them approve the deletion if you want a picture to be removed. Because of this, you need to continually check the customer photos to make sure that you avoid those adverse outcomes as much as possible and quickly take care of any problems.

 

Is the target keyword in the title and the first sentence?

 

In keyword research, look for ways to insert your keywords compatibly in the title and description. Local SEO Audit requires being concentrated on these factors. For SEO driven blog posts, you can consider long-tail keywords, 3–4-word keywords you want to use. If you have a solid understanding of language, you won't face trouble naturally putting these into a title.

Let’s imagine you are a nutritionist and you run a blog to present your expertise. You might have used certain keyword combinations like “nutritionist in Los Angeles” etc. on your homepage. But, for your next post, you want to focus on offering customers fillings. So, you identify “best ways of diets” as a high-traffic, low-competition keyword. You might use the title “How to Choose the Best Ways of Diets.” Similarly, you might write in your description. “…explains how to select the best ways fillings to make your right choice…”

The point is, you want to use the keyword in a way that you use in normal conversation. One of the big issues that people ran into years ago with SEO is that they looked to put in unrelated keywords. I remember when I was first learning SEO, doing work for a medium-sized firm, I had a real problem with it.

They would ask for the most unnatural keywords, and I could hardly fit them in using proper English. Fortunately, this has changed, and now “natural” is the key to success.

So, whether it’s a single word or a long-tail keyword, make sure it makes sense when you say it.

 

Does the local target page have an embedded map?

 

We know how vital showing up in search results is for your business and when someone Googles you, your business, or your services, products you want to be found by them. We are also aware of how showing up in local search results can drive local customers to your business, website, product, and location.

That is the reason why you should fulfill this option in your website audit for SEO process. In the case, if someone is searching for your services or products of your business in your area, you want to show up the local results that appear highlighted on the map on the top of the SEO results page. If done well, you can show up on the map and the organic listings below it!

We all believe people are looking primarily for us by name, but more often, they are looking for our services in their area. They might use a general term, like “dentist” and not a business name, like “Jake's Dentist Centre.”

This is the point why local search performs an immense role. At this point, a lot of businesses start claiming their GMB account, Instagram, FB page and address, etc. This is all very necessary, but we keep seeing businesses overlook the updates they should make to their site to be ready for local searches.

Here are three places on your web age you should update to claim high rank for local search:

Make sure that you add a Google Map to Your Contact Page. Almost every webpage has a contact page. Google likes the situation when the contact page has a google map embedded on the page.  Attaching an interactive map for people looking for your location is super helpful to the searcher and very simple to do.

Use the google map that points to your Google My Business listing, and you can customize the look and feel of that map. Once you have the map the exact way you want it to appear, one thing you need to do is to copy the embed code and drop it into your site.

Add your location to your page title. Your website's page title is in the code of your site and says what this content is about. It also shows up in search results. Most local searches have a ‘thing/need' location so you should have your page title set up the same way.

Be aware of your meta descriptions. Your meta description is a snippet of code that shortens your page’s content. Not only does this help SEOs, but it also shows up in the search results pages, too. This is an appropriate place to add your location or contact number. Someone could get all the information they need before even clicking through to your webpage.

To optimize your business to be found in local search, you need to update your NAP meaning name, address, and phone, listings on local sites, and directories, but don’t forget to update your website too!

 

What is a Technical SEO Audit?

 

Technical SEO is an instrument to optimize your website for the crawling and indexing phase. With the help of technical SEO, without any problem will search engines access, crawl, interpret, and index your site. The reason it is called “technical” is that it has nothing to do with the actual content of the website or with website promotion.

The primary goal of technical SEO is to optimize the infrastructure of a website. Technical SEO Audit is SEO planning which contributes profits of SEO Audit and reduces the charge. A right developed website audit for SEO checklist helps to increase the quality of the website which will be famous among the user and easy access for search engines. In other words, SEO Audit is a whole process of investigation of the site.

The auditing process is the best way of anticipation in which you can count the increase and create opportunities. The main thing that you must take into account is to find all the technical problems about contacting with search engines. It means that you should determine hinders if your search results are not good. Everyone wants to know the situation of their site. Thus, the Technical SEO Audit is necessary.

 

 

In order to launch the Technical SEO Audit, you need to adjust the points for your website. We have collected 17 of them in this article, but if you have other criteria that you suppose that are vital, you can add them. As this part of SEO Audit is technical then we will go through it technically by answering a detailed question.  Now, we are ready to start our audit checklist.

 

Indexing

 

How many indexed pages do you have by Google? How many pages are examined by the crawler (for example, Deepcrawl)?

It is necessary to compare indexed pages and examined pages by Deepcrawl. You can search for site:example.com and see the numbers. This action helps you to come up with none indexed pages, to find out the reasons. Maybe you have some indexed pages, which you can’t get them via the website.

 

Does the main page appear in the first line while searching in search engines?

Make sure your website is on the first page of search engines. You can obtain your website in search engines by applying the brand name. If it is not visible on the first page, then your site has probably had problems with updating algorithms.

 

Does the website have refused index?

You should compare decreased organic traffic in Google analytics and the number of pages in the Google index. Firstly, it is better to find out organic traffic results, and then you can check the status of the Google index. If there is a difference, you may have some refused index. So you ought to pinpoint these pages and take into account the crawl budget.

 

Crawling pages in the Deepcrawl. Are there many of them that can’t be crawl?

It would help if you organized the control of crawling. In this way, you can control it through the Deepcrawl. Sometimes there would be a problem with the server. So, please check it too.

It is essential to be sure if there any copies of your website.

For this, you may apply some actions. For instance, take various contents from your website and search for it in a search engine. Moreover, you can use mirror site checker tools for it. You have to be aware that, 100% of similarity triggers mirror site problems. Additionally, it causes an external duplicate.

If you created a reflected site to balance server loads, they must be no index. What does it mean?
If you carry out all changes firstly, in the tested website, then the “no index” control is an obligation. Make sure that there is a "no index" tag in the pages of the reflected site. If there is not any "no index" tag, it will be indexed in the reflected site, and it will cause extra problems.

 

Usage of sitemap or max index

You have to create an XML folder which encompasses indexed pages (you are planning to index them). You can make it manually or with the assistance of some tools. It is critical because this file estimates your content.

 

Is the XML structure of a sitemap relevant to basic standards of protocol?

What does it mean? The XML format is an ideal structure for sitemaps. Google supports a basic sitemap protocol, and it must be related to http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.

Can you update the sitemaps from an automatic server or via static forming? It will help if you have controlled that the sitemaps are in a dynamic structure or a static one. It is an easy action. If you change something on your webpage and it also changes in the sitemap, then it is a dynamic structure. However, it doesn't turn then it is a static one. The sitemaps in dynamic structure always update themselves, no need for manual intervention.

 

Did you add the sitemap to Robots.txt file?

The current sitemap also has to be added to the Robots.txt file. You also need to update the webpage after adding the sitemap to the Robots.txt file. It makes easy bots to communicate with the sitemaps.

Transmit the sitemap via Search Console. It is an obligation to transmit the sitemap via Search Console. You can do so by clicking on Search Console > loading via Sitemaps. In this way, you will provide Google with your sitemaps, in the case if you have mistakes, Google will inform you.

 

Create maps for different types of sitemap

It will help you if you present different sitemaps for mobile, image, video, and news. The better method for it to benefit from the tools or you can do it manually. If you have a massive website, you should create different sitemaps for images and videos.  Especially, do it if you possess news records. We also emphasize it for mobile websites.

 

Do your sitemaps have links more than 50,000? Do their not squeezed type more than 50 MB?

Check the number of links and the squeezed types of the sitemaps. Scan the sitemap and download them, then you can check them by the tools. Consider that there must be maximum 50,000 links in the sitemaps, and the limit for the squeezed form is 50 MB.

 

Did you find different sitemaps for each classification and categories?

In your website audit for SEO, check the different sitemaps. Firstly, you can pinpoint a strategy for sitemaps. For the best result, you should realize separated sitemaps in the big websites.

 

Is there any distinguished reduction in Search Console's crawl statistic?

Consider the crawl statistics of Search Console. You can implement it with the Search Console Scan > Scan Statistics. There may be some shortages as reducing of indexed pages. Always take it to control.

 

Did you see the indexed URL in Search Console's URL parameter tab?

Check the index problem for URL parameters. You can check it via the Search Console Scan > URL Parameters tab. We do not recommend to index the URL parameter. That's why it is better to choose canonical implementation.

 

Are there any problems in Robots.txt files?

Check the robots.txt files. You can check it via Search Console. Sometimes we see that Robots.txt file does not work correctly.

 

Are there any blocked pages in Robots.txt which are not valid?

You can block the pages which you don't want to be indexed in Robots.txt. Make a list of the blocked pages in Robots.txt and control it. You can use the crawl budget effectively in this way. Furthermore, you can avoid the trash index.

 

Are there any crawl loaded pages on the website?

If yes, did you block them in Robots.txt?You can block the pages if you don't want to be indexed in Robots.txt. You will not choose to index the pages like "Sign in" or "My favorites." You can use the order disallow: /admin for these pages. 

 

Are there any blocked pages with noindex tag?

Noindex mark is useful for blocking the pages which we do not want to index. You should add these marks to your site. There are some pages that they don't have extra value. That's why we recommend the Noindex mark to increase average index quality.  

 

Are there any pages linked with the “no follow” tag?

Check the web page and determine where “no follow” tags carry out its service. You can control it via Deepcrawl tools. If you have some pages that you do not want that search engine bots to see it, then you should use the “no follow” tag.

 

Accessibility

 

Is URL structure SEO friendly?

URL must be simple, stable, and readable, and it also should contain relevant keywords. The URL structure ought to be adjusted correctly. Your SEO friendly URL brings about bots to collect information about your content.

Do you use parameters in the URL? Control if your URL has parameters like "#,?" After checking the whole website, you can investigate the URL structure. Some actions cause the URL parameter (for example, filter choices). However, we recommend you not to use parameters frequently.

 

Are the contents readable when javascript and cookies are closed?

The main point is that you should keep content readable even when javascript and cookies are unable. You may control it with the "Browseo" tool or some browser extensions. It is necessary that all bots coming to the page can read the contents.

 

There are some exceptional situations that you use JS, but the page is indexed. Did you try manual control?

Contents which located in Javascript pages must be controlled. You can determine with “cache: URL” parameter how Google see the pages. Another choice is the Google Search Console's "bring like Google." Sometimes Google has some misunderstandings with javascript so that it may index javascript.

 

Do the navigation links work whether javascript is unable?

Make sure that navigation links are formed with javascript codes. Checking of navigation links is possible by turning off Javascript in browser settings. Fixing navigation links by Google is a crucial process. For better work, Google must crawl the navigation links correctly.

 

Architecture

 

Is the website tree structure correct?

Tree structure refers to all the pages of the website from the main page to inbound link categories. Adjusting of valid link strategy (hierarchic) is the must. Search engine bots use the inbound links when they visit your website. That's why you have to apply a strong tree structure.
 

Are all categories and subcategories useful and sufficient?

Visitors require a lot of categories and subcategories. So try to have many choices. You can do it by assisting with Keyword Researches and the examination of companions categories. You can cooperate with all fields in your sector, and it will be profitable.
 

Is the URL structure relevant to the inbound hierarchy?

URL structure must be associated with the inbound hierarchy. A detailed examination finds out where to change the URL structure. Determining URL paths by categories will increase the user experience. Additionally, it helps to search engine bots to find the site easily.

 

Essential landing pages should be near to the homepage (by the level)

Try to link landing pages with the homepage (or related to it) in your website audit for SEO. It makes bots find these pages easily.
We know that the homepage is the most valuable page. So if your other pages link with the homepage or pages related to it, it will increase effectiveness.  Make sure that you can transfer the value of the homepage to the others.

How many category pages does your website possess? The numbers must be relevant.
It will help if you pinpoint the category page numbers and compare them with an average in the sector. Examine the rivals, how they categorize these elements. The appropriate category page numbers are essential because it makes pages to focus on a topic.

 

On-Site Links

 

Do you have the pages which Crawler cannot connect by inbound links, but it situates in the sitemap?

It will be profitable to check these types of pages. You can check it via crawl tools. Each page has to be linked via inbound links. For setting a good user experience and hierarchy, it is critical.
 

Inbound link strategies must be reliable

Plan your strategy for it and have a system to control it regularly. The way is to use crawl tools and follow Search Console > Search Traffic > Internal Links. The appropriate hierarchy helps pages to share the right volume.
 

Contents and blog pages must provide to each other links with anchor texts

Investigate the content for linking other pages. You can do it with the assistance of the crawl tools. It makes the user spend more time on the website and also helps to establish the hierarchy.

 

Does the logo provide a link to the homepage?

The logo on every page of your website should link to the homepage. You can check it manually. User experience increased in a way that when pressing the logo, it goes to the homepage. You can also determine your most valuable page.
 

Are there a lot of inbound linked pages?

In your website audit for SEO, count the number of inbound links. It is to determine it with crawl tools. Remember that unneeded inbound links mean the waste of crawl budget.

 

On-page In Technical SEO Audit

 

Do all images have names?

The investigation is necessary to find out that all images coincide with file names and targeted keywords; you can implement it with Screaming Frog. Screaming Frog gets all file names of the images on your website.  Search engine spiders cannot read the image contents. The primary way to inform spiders about an image is to name the file with keywords.
 

Are the image's name separated with a hyphen?

If the image name consists of two words (minimum), they must separate with a hyphen (-). You can find all image names with Screaming Frog. Search engine spiders can quickly identify the contents which separated with a hyphen.
 

Do all images have subtext tags?

Check the pages for subtexts of all images. Screaming Frog can carry out this mission. It is the best way to help spiders to figure out the image content.
 

Did you optimize the image sizes?

Images must have the same size provided for them on the page. You can easily crop them with online design resources like which to Photoshop. Try to avoid images with huge memory. It lessens the speed on the website.
 

What is CSS Sprite? Do we have to use or get rid of it?

Check the icons or some other image contents which you use for a design element and make sure they are combined in one file. You can create some images in one file with Photoshop or some other online design programs. Additionally, you can use CSS to show each part of the pictures. Combining the images which we use as a design element can improve the speed of the website.

 

Content

 

Do you use a pagination tag on the particular pages?

The pages (in the pagination structure) ought to have pagination tags (rel=prev, next). You can examine the pagination tag with crawl tools and Screaming Frog > Directives > Filter > Next/Prev report. You must take into consideration the contents which separated two or more pages. Search engines sometimes cannot identify them.

 

Are crawlers able to see the pagination tags?

Search engine spiders must identify the pagination tags. So make sure that you implemented it correctly. Examine the pagination tags with Crawl tools and Screaming Frog > Directives > Filter > Next/Prev. It is essential to use Pagination tags and its' element in the HTML part.

 

Does the pagination link indicate a valid URL?

With the assistance of Rel=prev, following tags, you can ensure the indication of valid pages. Examine the pagination tags with Crawl tools and Screaming Frog > Directives > Filter > Next/Prev. Make sure that the pages (in pagination structure) indicate "prev" or "next" tags. Don't use rel=prev on the first page and rel=next on the last page.

 

Is there a canonical tag instead of pagination?

Examine the pages. Make sure that pages consist of any canonical tag instead of pagination. You can check the canonical address with Screaming Frog. Except "See more" choice, never use the canonical tag on the page. It is recommended to apply this tag with el=prev, following tags.

 

Do the paginated pages provide organic traffic?

Make sure that the paginated pages get traffic from search engines. See the details of Google Search Console > Search Traffic > Search Analyse > Pages > Reset Pages > following URL or Google Analytics > Opening Pages report. Using pagination tags makes pages powers consolidate on the first page.
 

Analytics/E-Commerce

 

Does analytics track code enough lack on pages?

Determine the pages which do not contain Google Analytics follow codes. You can check all pages with the scanning of Screaming Frog > Configuration > Custom > Search > Analytics ID. Make sure that you control all pages which get traffic. It is vital to receive reports about traffic, user experience, demographic information.

 

Do you use Shopping Feeds on the webpage? (Product Feed Specification)

• Which search engines do you choose for your Shopping Feeds?

• Did you fill all areas for website feeds?

• Does Shopping Feed use acting categories?

• Do the feeds possess pictures?

• Is your feed in an acceptable format?

• Do you update the feed frequently?

• Does Shopping Feed use Custom Fields?

• Is your product description identical?

• Do the product variations exist in a unique URL?

• If yes, did you use canonical tags to prevent duplicate page issue?

 

Mobile In Technical SEO Audit

 

Did you block any version of JavaScript, CSS, and photo sources for Google Bots?

Blocking these sources may hinder your site's explanation. To control this blocking, you can use the robots.txt file. On the other hand, you can use Google Search Console ("bring as Google") for controlling other items. Search engines want to explain your website altogether. Furthermore, it also intends to benefit from JS, CSS, and picture files.

 

Is there any Vary HTTP Header?

This header usage helps to indicate a website content to the user agents. It recommends using the "Htaccess" file, PHP, and Nginx. If the different contents come to mobile agents, you should use it.

 

Is the placement of rel=” alternate” and rel=” canonical” tags valid?

Explanation of both desktop and mobile sites equally is essential. rel=”alternate” and rel=”canonical” tags show their relation. If the mobile site's URL is different, you can use alternate in the desktop to show the mobile website's URL and canonical in the mobile website to display the URL of the desktop. The contribution of this relation is possible with alternative and canonical tags.

 

If the mobile site's URL is not equal to desktop's, make sure that guidance is coherent

Instructions must be done for agents. Choose a mobile agent and examine how instructions work. Invalid instruction for user agents may cause the disappearing of website content. If a user handles a mobile device, then the website should guide him (or her) to the mobile version.

 

Is the usage of mobile websites for tablets right? Should users use it?

If the user comes from a tablet site must provide the user to the mobile version. You can organize it by using JavaScript, CSS, .htacces, PHP, and ASP codes. Providing tablet users to the mobile version is necessary.

 

International In Technical SEO Audit

 

Is your website oriented to the language or the region?

International websites can address specific languages or regions. Websites should be adjusted to the pinpointed language and region, and then you can apply "hreflang" signings. Addressing a particular language and region will increase the effectiveness during searching.

 

Some international websites have an option to choose a local language. Do you have a site like this?

If yes, then did you create content localization? If your website available in various languages, you should design your content for each of them. It is strictly recommended that you specialize in your website for the targeted country's language. In this type of website, specifying content to languages are popular. For example, a user must see the price in their local currency on an e-commerce website.

 

If the site target is only one country, do you inform Google Search Council about it?

You can find out the targeted country in Google Search Council. This option is available in Search Console - Search Traffic - International Targeting. This determination makes Google to explain quickly and to show the web pages in related searches.

 

Do the site have local IP (in the case of the targeted country)

It is an opportunity to have the local IP of the target country. It may be profitable to work through the local providers. The performance of websites that have local IP is better than others.

 

Are there rel=” alternate” hreflang=”x” tags?

It is a code that gives information about the language of the website. This code should be added to all bilingual pages. When we add the code to the target page, we inform the search councils about the website's language.

 

Semantic Markup

 

Do you use the markup structure?

Examine if this structure is in the usage. You can check all the technical documents of the structures and then make sure about their stable integration. Markup structures help search engines to scan better your website. That's why we recommend it, here are some examples of them: microformats.org, schema.org, Facebook Open Graph, and so on.

 

Do you use rich snippet?

Rich snippets can influence search engine result pages (SERP) in order to show your website as user-friendly.  Examples are video, reviews, ratings, recipes, events, products, offers, etc. We recommend you get standards from Schema.org because your favorite search engine accepts it. Please, make your signings are related to these standards. You can improve your search result statistics by giving detailed information about your content to search engines.

 

Is markup submitted? Can you see it in the search results?

To show markup search results. You can use this Google tool. The integration of search engines has to be controlled. If their signings are not right, figure them out. However, it's not obligatory. 

 

Is there any microdata for local businesses?

You can use markup signings for local businesses too. To realize it, you need to apply the markup structure of schema.org. Look through microdatagenerator.org. This markup is able to help you with many duties. For instance, it can show search engines your work hours, photos, addresses, and other detailed information.

 

Do opponent web pages use the markup structure?

Investigate and make a report about an opponent's websites. You can take it quickly by searching your opponents in search engines. If your opponents apply this structure better than you, it means they can explain better. Additionally, they can possess better CTR.

 

Pay Per Clicks (PPC)

 

Did you contact your Adwords account to Google Analytics?

Control the Adwords – Analytics connection. You can carry out it by your Analytics account. The link between Google Adwords and Analytics brings about better computation.

 

Video

 

Do you see listed rich snippet videos while searching for brands?

Examine video rich snippets. You can find out it by Google searches and scrutinizing of source codes. Rich snippets are vital for better CTR values. Thus you have to do a complete implementation.

 

Is there a schema.org markup structure for all videos?

The control of schema for videos is essential. You can find out it by Google searches and scrutinizing of source codes. As rich snippets the schema integration also vital for better CTR values.

 

Do you have video sitemaps in the GWT?

Check the video sitemaps. You can control them by Google searches. One of the best ways to familiarize videos with Google is to create sitemaps.

 

If the video sitemap is ready, does it mean that all videos are indexed?

Control the video sitemap. You can control sitemaps through Search Console. As we indicated above, one of the best ways to familiarise videos to Google is creating sitemaps.

 

Business Strategy, Social Media, Design, And Branding

 

Did you list the business correctly in Google and Apple Maps services?

Make sure the validness of the business information is valid. You can carry out it manually. It intends to give correct information about your business to customers. Avoiding fake information is essential. Ask yourself the following questions: 

• Do you use UTM source tags for social media posts?

• Did you add UTM source tags to emails?

• Do you have social media post buttons?

• Can users comment quickly on your website?

• Do you embed videos from social network accounts?

 

Does your website have a favicon?

You need to inspect favicon, you can do so manually. It is essential for user experience and also for better branding. Do the logo links go to the homepage? Does your website have web links for brand searching? If not, you have to rectify it. 

 

What Is An On-Page SEO Audit?

 

On-Page SEO is the method of optimizing every page of your website to come up in the organic search for keyword searches associated with the topic of that page.

An on-page SEO audit can assist you:

• Be aware of your website’s SEO health

• Understand the issues that prevent your business’ online visibility

• Keep you up-to-date with the latest developments in search engine marketing

• Find out if search engines can and index your website

 

An on-page SEO audit will come up with good insights for analyzing your website. It would be better to perform these audits twice a year at least. Google algorithm updates, conditions change fast for SEO accordingly. Regular audits guarantee you get your website to be up-to-date and go hand in hand with the latest developments. So here are eight steps to conduct an on-page SEO Audit.

 

Title And Description For Every Page

 

Title Tags

Title tags and meta descriptions are vital for good SEO. Every page on your website should be unique, and you need a different title tag for every page. Title tags provide search engines what subject each of your pages is about. Title tags appear in the form of hyperlinked words in a Google search.

Be concentrated on writing proper title tags because title tags carry weight in Google rankings. Title tags should include keywords related to the page’s content, but also sound natural.

 

Meta Descriptions

The primary purpose of meta descriptions is to describe what your page is about, express the page’s value to the searcher, and have a call to action.

Actually, meta descriptions don’t directly influence your Google rankings but consider that a well-written description can help generate more clicks to your site. Like title tags, meta descriptions should be shorter than 300 characters and contain relevant keywords.

 

Original, Engaging And Relevant Content

Make sure that your content is unique and original. You can use wordcounter.net or Copyscape to check that you don’t have any duplicate content. You can easily remove or de-index any copied content you find. Content should be useful, informative, and engaging for your potential customer. Be concentrated on quality, not on quantity, but don't forget about the steady posting schedule.

 

Relevant Internal And External Links

Linking your pages together impact your Google search rankings and improves the user experience. If you provide your content with internal links, make sure that these links exactly match with the content that you direct your reader. Your page should not have more than ten internal and external links per page.

 

Short And Clean Website Page URL

URLs for each page should be properly formatted and unique.

 

Not ideal:    http://www.webzool.io/post=154125855

Ideal:          http://www.webzool.io/page-title

 

A proper URL includes brief and descriptive keywords. Note that, while descriptive URLs are ideal, if you don’t have them, this is a problematic website aspect to make changes. Suddenly changing your URLs may cause the opposite effect on your search engine rankings. Talk to an SEO expert before making any significant URL structure updates.

 

Broken Links

Broken links negatively impact your Google rankings and create a bad user experience on your website. Check all your links and make sure if all of them are working. You can use a tool like Online Dead Link Checker to check if you have broken links.

 

Logically Organized Content

An intuitive, clean structure of a website promotes friendly user experience and good SEO. Content should be structured and grouped into appropriate pages and categories. At the same time, your website should have a privacy policy, disclaimer, and page.

 

Correct Image Size And ALT Tags

Make sure you defined ALT tags of images to optimize your media for SEO. SEO use alt tags as part of their image search algorithm. Compress all images to reduce their size and avoid using too many large image files. Large image files can drastically slow your website down.

 

Website’s Load Time

To determine organic rankings, Google favors websites with quick loading times. The loading speed of your website can ascertain if users stay on or skip it away. Fortunately, Google provides us with a free tool to check a website's load speed. Any website that takes time longer than 3 seconds needs improvement in this issue.

 

What is Off-Page SEO Audit?

 

Off-Page SEO is a compilation of methods and techniques you can use to promote your website on the web. It is also known as link building. Off-page SEO refers to activities you can operate outside the boundaries of your website. SEOs have been trying for decades to come up with the best results for the searcher. On-site, off-page SEO, and some other quality factors are indicators of useful results.

The most important are:

• Link building

• Social Media Marketing

• Social bookmarking

A useful and high-quality site is more likely to have references from other websites. It is more likely mentions on social media and more likely to be shared and bookmarked among communities.

 

Benefits Of Off-Page SEO Audit

 

A strong off-site SEO strategy will generate the following advantages:

Increase in rankings: The website's rank rate will increase in the SERPs which means more traffic.

Increase in PageRank. Page rank - it is a figure between 0 and 10. It indicates the quality and importance of a website in Google's priority. This system was invented by Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and it is one of the key reasons that Google was so successful in performing the most relevant results to the searcher. Today page rank is only one out of 250 factors that Google is using in the ranking of websites.

More Exposure. Higher rankings also mean higher exposure. When a website ranks in the top: it gets more visits, more links, and more social media mentions. It is like a never-ending sequence of events where one thing leads to another and then to another etc.

 

Link Building

 

 

Link building is the most common and effective off-Page SEO method.  Basically, by inserting external links to your website, you are gathering as many ‘votes’ as you can, so that you can detour your competitors and rank higher. For example, if someone likes your article and references it from his/her blog or website, then this is like informing search engines that this page has useful and good information.

Webmasters have been trying to direct links to their websites over the years to get a higher ranking, and they invented different ways to increase link count.

The most popular tips are blog directories, forum signatures, comment links, article directories, shared content directories, link exchange schemes, etc. All these methods do not work today, and you should not even try them. If you attempt to “trick” SEOs by building artificial links, you are more likely to get a penalty rather than a boost in rankings.

 

So, if the above links are useless, what is a good link and how to get these links?

First, consider that the strategy of link building is not only a matter of quantity, but it is a matter of quality as well. It no longer matters how many links are pointing to your website, but it is more important the source of these links. As an example, think of a link from a typical blog. It doesn't have the same “weight” as a link from Wikipedia or a link from a blog of some famous person is not the same as a link from my blog.

Natural Linking refers to the process whereby other bloggers, webmasters or website owners links to your content. They do this because they think it's a worthy content that is helpful for their audience and also adds value to their site. 

 

Social Media Marketing

 

Social Media Marketing is also one of the most critical parts of off-page SEO and a form of link building at the same time. Almost all of the links from social media sites define as “no follow” But in fact, they surely have value. Social Media mentions are valuable as ranking factors, and appropriate form of social media profiles can also increase SEO.

 

Social Bookmarking

Nowadays social bookmarking is not as popular as it used to be in the past, but it is still a way to get traffic to a website. Depending on your niche you can easily find websites like scoop.it or reddit.com to promote your content.

 

Conclusion

If you want your SEO campaign to be successful, then you have to cover all the parts of this article. That was super long, but I didn’t want to leave anything out! You are now equipped to conduct a complete SEO audit. By following the recommendations above, you will improve your rankings and organic traffic levels.