A SEO test is a health examination of your website. It enables you to know what works and what does not, and enables you to make improvements on the basis of what you find. This can lead to an improved performance – both on the search results pages and in the way in which visitors get in touch with their website.
What is a SEO audit?
In an SEO audit, it examines how well a website works in search results to find areas that need work. It helps to find technical SEO problems, to analyze on-page elements, to evaluate core web vitals and site speed and to analyze the user experience and the quality of the content. An SEO audit also deals with external variables such as backlinks and competing tactics to identify improvement areas. If you make sure that your website is optimized for users and search engines, it can better maneuver and attract more organic traffic.
A helpful guide
An SEO audit checklist
Read on for the step-by-step process below, but here you will find a SEO audit checklist that you can start with quickly.
⬜️ Crawl your website with screaming frog (or similar tools)
⬜️ Analyze your website with an SEO tool (e.g. Semrush or Ahrefs)
⬜️ Call reports from Google Analytics and Search Console
⬜️ Create a centralized table for results
⬜️ Check the user experience (check CTAS, menus, etc.)
⬜️ Audit website content (double and thin content)
⬜️ Optimize the internal link
⬜️ Optimize page titles and meta descriptions
⬜️ Improve content with the correct headings (H1 to H6)
⬜️ Sure the correct use of canonical tags
⬜️ Add the Scheme Markup and validate
⬜️ Monitor and improve Kern -Web -Vitals
⬜️ Improve the general performance of the website
⬜️ Improve mobile responsiveness
⬜️ Increase users commitment
⬜️ Follow the metrics regularly
⬜️ Check the search console reports
⬜️ Plan regular check-in
Step 1: Preparation of a SEO audit
To make your website a success, you have to prepare well. You need to collect the right information about your website via SEO tools, understand how problems are diagnosed and prioritize corrections.
Creep your website with a screaming frog (or the like)
The first step is to crawl your website with crawler software. This helps to find technical SEO problems that would otherwise not be so visible. Screaming frog is one of the most trustworthy names in this, but Sitbulb another is highly recommended. The free version of Screaming Frosch crawls 500 URLs, but you can make an upgrade if necessary.
The crawling of your website is simple. Simply download the Screaming frog and install it. Open the tool and enter the homepage -URL of your website. Then meet start and the crawl is running. As soon as the scan is complete, export the data for further sorting and prioritization to a CSV file.
What should you look for?
Screaming frog creates a lot of data, so it is good to prioritize the result. Scan after missing, double or excessively long titles and descriptions. Each page should have clear, targeted metadata. Find pages or links that (404) return errors as broken on the left and injure the SEO. Then identify oversized assets that slow down your side loading time, e.g. B. pictures, JavaScript and CSS files. Last but not least, make sure that canonical URLs are properly implemented in order to avoid double content problems.
Use an all-in-one-SEO tool (Semrush or Ahrefs)
In addition to a technical crawl, you can use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs carry out a detailed SEO exam. These tools offer many findings, including keyword rankings, backlink health and performance of competitors.
With these tools you can also carry out a site audit with which you offer a technical health value. You will find many improvements, such as pages blocked by robots.txt, or problems with internal link. The tools also check the quality and relevance of your backlinks and give you ideas on how to get high quality new links. You will also receive keyword rankings to follow how individual pages for target keywords execute. Identify opportunities to refine content or aim to target new search terms.
Download the most important reports and refer you with your screaming frogxport.
Pull off data from Google Analytics and Search Console
With the combination of all this findings with the user behavior and the commitment data of your website, your SEO audit comes alive. It helps you to understand how people use their website and how they experience them to determine pages to improve. Export your results from Google Analytics and Search Console to include your examination comparisons.
Check the top performing target pages in Google Analytics and their commitment rates. Pages with low commitment rates can have poor content or a separation between user expectations and side design. Also take a look at the session and exit rates to find pages where people leave their website quickly.
Use the performance report in the search console to see which pages and queries drive most clicks and impressions. This will also highlight low CTR pages – maneuvering well, but no viewfinder attract. Then check the since indexing report for crawl errors, warnings or blocked pages and check the Kern -Web -Vitals report to find pages that fail in the event of speed or usability metrics.
Create a centralized table
As soon as you have all the data, please combine everything in a large table. How to set up this is with you because everyone uses something else. But you could use something like this:
- Pages URL
- Technical problems (e.g. broken left, slow load speed)
- Engagement metrics (e.g. commitment rates, time on page)
- Keyword rankings
- Optimization information (e.g. missing metadata, double content)
- Priority (high, medium, low)
This table leads your fixes during the examination.
Minimal SEO audit (optional)
Not every audit has to be a deep immersion in your website. Sometimes they don’t have the time, but still have the need to work on their website. In this case, you can carry out a simpler, faster health check and evaluate certain regions of your website to determine whether they do well. Such a minimal SEO audit is an optimized version of a full audit to find and fix critical performance problems.
Here is a basic framework for a brief exam:
- Check whether your website is indicated by searching
site:yourdomain.comin Google. - Perform a Google Pagespeed Insights test for slow load pages.
- Examine the titles and meta descriptions of your most important pages (e.g. homepage, service pages and important sales pages).
- Fix broken links with a screaming frog or a fast manual in your navigation.
This light SEO audit still finds problems with high priority without being a time obligation for a complete review.
Step 2: User experience and content SEO
The next step can be seen how people perceive their website and interact with them. Take a look at the user experience and check whether you can find things that can improve. You can bring people to your website by using high -quality content that is directed towards the right search intent and the audience. Not only that because they want to have them returned.
Improvement of user experience
Do you know if your users can find what you need quickly? If not, you may leave your website quickly. If you give you a good experience, miracles will work in the long run. Start in your SEO audit with the diagnosis of these common UX factors:
Make sure the colors fit your branding and are easy to read. Take a look at the contrast, as this is particularly important for buttons and links. Make CTAs (such as “now” or “more”) visually.
Check whether the most important design elements are above the fold. Key messages and CTAs should be visible without scrolling. Imagine this as the overconfectant – it must attract attention immediately. Add customer testimonials, notes from third-party providers and safety badges (e.g. SSL or payment protection signs) to build credibility.
Pay special attention to your menus. Test menus, dropdowns and search functions. Breadcrumbs also help users to recognize where they are in the website hierarchy.
Audit website content
SEO is mostly about content. Therefore, check the quality and improve if necessary. The Semrush/Ahrefs -Site -Audit should have given you a lot of clues. Start with this list of the following work.
Check the keyword stargeting of your content. Make sure that each page represents a primary key word. Ahrefs and Semrush show which keywords their sides apply to gaps and identify gaps.
Check if you have double or thin content. Avoid weak, double or low value. If necessary, bring together similar pages into an incoming article. Offer implementable, valuable content.
Remember the helpful content standards from Google. Create content that offer a real value and focus on user intent. Your content should answer questions with implementable solutions oriented by audience. Finally, you demonstrate experience, specialist knowledge, authority and trustworthiness (EEAT): Add authors bios, quote reliable sources and link references if necessary to develop specialist knowledge and trustworthiness.
Internal link and related content
SEO is not just about bringing users and search engines to your website, but also about keeping and showing them. One of the most powerful opportunities to do this is the internal link. So go to your SEO audit.
Check how to link your most important pages such as Cornerstone articles or product categories. Their content should have a few links based on relevance and importance, but not too many. In addition, you should record an associated section of content on your pages to promote further reading.
The anchor text should contain relevant keywords or describe the linked page and try to avoid generic phrases such as “click here”.
An internal search function is another important aspect to show people on their website. Make sure that your search bar delivers relevant results, especially on large websites. Monitor what people are looking for to inform their content strategy.
Step 3: General on-page SEO
On-page SEO concerns the technical and content-related improvements that you make on certain pages. This helps to understand search engines. It also helps your readers find what they want.
Optimize the page title and meta descriptions
Side titles and meta descriptions are the first things that a visitor sees in search results. While search engines generate this based on relevance, you can still influence how it appears for maximum CTRs.
For your side titles, make sure that each page has a clear title on your website. Double title confuse search engines that you don’t want. And although there is no limit to how long titles can be in the SERPS, you will be cut off visually according to a specified number of characters. Try to find the Sweet Spot.
Integrate your primary keyword close to the beginning of the title, but avoid filling the keywords. For example, instead of “SEO tips SEO tips SEO tips” “10 SEO tips for beginners-step-by-step instructions”. Don’t forget to add your brand name at the end of the title, e.g. B. “How to carry out a SEO audit – your brand”
For your meta descriptions, make sure that you explain precisely what the page is about. You should also specify the primary keyword and ensure that the text flows naturally. Don’t forget to promote actions. Integrate a call-to-action (CTA) such as “Learning more”, “Discover how” or “start now”.
Optimize the head structures (H1 to H6)
Headings are excellent tools for structuring and facilitating your content. They also support search engines in finding how important the information is on each page.
- Start with an H1: The H1 is the main heading for the website and should contain your targeted keyword. Each page should have a single H1 day.
- Use H2S for important sections: Use H2 tags to divide content into logical sections. Consider this as the main sub -formation of your article.
- Add H3S or H4S for sub -sections: You can have more sub -sections under H2S if you want to break it down with H3 or H4 to get better structuring.
- Keep it logical: Do not skip the head height (e.g. from H1 to H4) or only use headlines for styling.
- Be descriptive: Write headings that describe the content of the section. For example, instead of “Step 1” “Step 1”: Analyze your traffic metrics “.
Make sure that canonical tags are properly used
Canonical tags show a search engine that is available on your website which version of a page that can prioritize on duplicates or almost duplicates on the same side. This is particularly important for online stores, as these have many variations of the same products due to filter or session urls.
You should always select a canonical version for one page. For example if both https://example.com And https://www.example.com There is a canonical URL to prevent double content problems. Don’t forget to add the canonical day to the HTML of each page section and be consistent in your internal linking. For instance, always link to one version of the URL rather than switching between http And https.
Check regularly problems with the screaming frog or Semrush to find pages that are missing canonical tags or those with contradictory canons.
Add and test the scheme
Structured data in the form of Scheme -Markup help to make your website more understandable. The code you add to your website helps to structure and identify your content in a way that can easily consume search engines. In some cases, this can even lead to highlighted search results, for example for products or ratings.
Yoast SEO simplifies the addition of scheme for WordPress, WooCommerce and Shopify users. The SEO plugin output JSON-LD (the format preferred by Google) to mark the HTML of your page directly.
There are many options for adding scheme, but you should start with the basics and things that are relevant for your website. For example, you should use them Article Scheme for article and blog posts as well as publication data, images, authors and headlines.
E -Commerce companies should use Product Structured data. This data should highlight pricing, equity availability, reviews and reviews. If it makes sense, you can also mark your FAQ pages that are no longer highlighted in Google’s Serps.
There are many other options, so you have to check what makes sense for your situation. For example, if you run a recipe, you can add Recipe Structured data or if you publish events on your website, use Events.
Don’t forget to test your structured data. Use Google’s rich result test tool from Google To check whether your structured data is correct and valid. Also check the search console for errors on the “Improvements” tab.
Check and improve your backlinks
Backlinks are more important than ever before. Every link from a relevant, high quality source is one of your authority. These links demonstrate search engines that their content is valuable and meaningful. Of course there is a lot of spam with left.
You can use tools such as MOZ, Ahrefs or Semrush to check your backlink profile. The results show a list of spam backlinks and links from irrelevant websites with low authority. If Spammy website linked to you, there is an option in the Google search console to reject these links. However, this is only necessary in very rare cases. Only derivation links that you are safe are harmful this is a last resort for links with low quality, which you cannot be removed manually.
It is more important to focus on earning high -quality backlinks. Create usable, high-quality content such as guides, research or infographics, while building relationships with related websites, bloggers or journalists for natural backlink options.
Step 4: Site speed and commitment
Check your site performance because the speed and commitment of the user and the user have a significant impact on success. Pages that load slowly are annoying for users and can achieve a bad score in the eyes of search engines. Low commitment rates can affect your results because users may stop visiting your website.
Understand and improve Kern -Web -Vitals
In order to underline the importance of performance, Google started the Kern -Web -Vitals. These key figures help the owners of Site to gain insights into the performance of their websites in real life and to get tips to improve these results. The metrics focus on loading times, interactivity and stability. Together they determine how pleasant users find their website.
LCP measures how long your largest property burden loads
The largest content color (LCP) measures how long it takes for the largest visible element on the screen (usually a picture, video or heading) to fully renders. If the performance is bad, you can improve this by optimizing images by compressing them without affecting the quality. You can use modern file formats such as WebP for faster performance and minimize render blocking resources such as heavy CSS or JavaScript files. Move unnecessary scripts and prioritize over the slide content.
Inp measures interactivity
Interaction to the next color (INP): Inp is the new Kern -Web -Vitals metric from Google, which tracks down how quickly your site reacts to user input campaigns, distortions and keyboard attacks. While FID only reported on the delay for the first interaction, INP evaluates all interactivity events for the meeting. This ensures a full score.
You can improve your performance by minimizing the JavaScript version. Use Screaming Frog or Pagespeed knowledge to mark heavy scripts and not to move or remove critical JavaScript. Use the browser caching to make JavaScript and other assets so that you do not reject unnecessarily and reduce the dependency on third-party scripts. You can unload strong tasks to web employees in order to release the main thread and process user interactions faster.
CLS measures stability
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures the stability of the visual layout of a website. It is checked whether the content moves unexpectedly when loading the page (e.g. if an image is loaded late and buttocks press buttocks elsewhere on the screen).
You can improve this by specifying dimensions (width and height) for all pictures and videos in your HTML/CSS. This prevents the browser from guessing dimensions and reorganizing the content. Avoid inserting ads, banners or other dynamic elements over the fold after charging the content. Please download important assets such as fonts or pictures to ensure that you appear to be quick and predictable.
Site speed optimization beyond the Kern -Web -Vitals
Kern -Web -Vital should be a main focus, but there are other strategies to improve the site speed and side experience. Faster websites are the same user satisfaction, reduce the bounce rates and make your audience more often in the future.
Reduce the number of HTTP requirements for a faster website. Combine CSS and JavaScript files in which practically practical, or use modern HTTP/3 protocols so that browsers can send several requirements at the same time. In addition, non -used CSS and JavaScript should be removed to reduce the file sizes and accelerate the loading times. The file compress can be used via Gzip or Brotli to compress the assets before being operated to the user. Compressed files load faster without losing quality. Most hosting providers or web servers can help you set up this. You can also draw your attention to tools like Google Lighthouse if the compression is missing.
Implement the lazy shop for pictures and videos so that only visible content is loaded immediately, while other assets are loaded if necessary. WordPress users can easily use plugins like SMOSH or LAZY LOAD from WP Rocket to achieve this, or custom JavaScript libraries such as lazysizes Work on other platforms. Distribute the static assets of your website with a Content Delivery Network (CDN) that delivers files from servers that are closest to users, which improves global load speeds. The popular CDN providers include Cloudflare, Akamai and Amazon Cloudfront. After all, tools for performance analysis such as Google Lighthouse, GTMetrix or Pingdom bottlenecks analyze the progress and ensure that your efforts work.
Improvement of mobile performance and responsiveness
Mobile is everything these days. For most websites, this means that most of the data traffic of mobile devices will come. Search engines such as Google take the quality of your mobile site into account when you set your content. Therefore, it should always be on the top of her tongue.
Perform various mobile tests to see how your website is executed on telephones and tablets. Find layout problems, problems with interactive elements or slow pages or assets. Check if your reaction fast web design works properly so that your website dynamically adapts to all device sizes. Also ensure that your CTAs are mobile -friendly and your forms are accessible via mobile devices.
Increase in the user commitment on your website
Faster pages keep users on their website, but the commitment ensures that they take sensible measures. Thanks to the better performance of the website, you will receive higher commitment rates, which leads to better conversions, newsletter applications, product purchases and much more.
Simplify the navigation of your website to facilitate what you need. Use clear menus with logical structures such as categories and subcategories and add bread crumbs to show users where you are within the website. Dropdown menus should be intuitive and internal search strips have to return precisely and relevant results quickly. Also ensure that the most important call-to-actions (CTAs) such as “Register” or “Request of an offer” are placed prominently above the wrinkles or directly following important content sections. Use the descriptive, active language in your CTAs to make you more convincing and clicking.
Encourage users to explore your website with internal links and related content proposals. Add blog posts, infographics or product pages for social sharing buttons to easily share content on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn or X. If you end popups or offers for (e.g. you are thoughtfully designed and minimally intrusive. Make poor time -controlled or aggressive popups to track users away.
Tools for improving the site speed and engagement
To optimize, you can use Google Lighthouse, which shows you how your core web vitals are carried out as a whole.
Hotjar offers insights to the users click on how to scroll and how to behave as a whole. For WordPress users, WP Rocket is directed by various WordPress plugins add customizable buttons for social shares to improve the common use of the content, so that visitors are easier to share their contributions on their preferred platforms.
Step 5: surveillance and persecution results
SEO is a colossal effort; The process does not end there as soon as these initial efforts have been made. You have to monitor your actions to determine whether these changes work as intended. Regular surveillance is also a great opportunity to find improvements and better calibrate your SEO strategy. Due to regular monitoring, you can improve your website, adapt to the latest algorithm updates and maintain the course.
Why monitor the results?
By persecution of the results, you can measure the effects of your audit (e.g. increased ranking lists, traffic and commitment). It will also help to recognize new problems such as broken links, slow sides or fallen ranking lists. In the end, this helps you to improve your strategy by determining what the results drive forward and where you should concentrate next.
SEO is not in a month or something you are doing. It takes time and you could see the results in many months. Consistently follow and analyze.
To follow metrics
First look at traffic indicators. Organic data traffic shows how many users can find your website via search engines that you can monitor in Google Analytics under Accisition \> Organic Search. Check the recommendation to determine whether other backlinks send visitors to your website. This data shows how effective your SEO and Link Building work is.
Rate the next commitment and search performance. Metrics such as engagement rates and time on the page help you to understand how users interact with their content. Follow Keyword -Rankings with tools such as Wincher, Ahrefs or Semrush on the search page to see how well your pages cut out in the SERPs.
Use the Google search console to monitor your CTR and check for indexing problems in the cover report. Make sure that your most important pages are indicated. Monitor the loading speed, interactivity and layout stability in tools such as pagespeed knowledge.
Plan regular check-in
You have to make the surveillance results regularly. Checking the ranking, CTR and new crawl errors weekly. Check traffic trends, user behavior and corrections during the audit every month. Every quarter you should carry out a new crawl with a screaming frog, the competitors check for performance and update old pages based on new possibilities.
Conclusion via SEO audits
Completion of these steps helps to carry out a SEO audit, from preparing your data to the treatment of user experiences and technical SEO improvements. Make sure that every fixed correction you strive to align your goals and strategy. Due to the regular examination, your website is carried out from its best side and ready to manage in search results.
