29 Easy Steps to Conduct SEO Audit: The 2023 Checklist
If you are keen to know the best practices to conduct an SEO audit, then you are at the right place. In this article, I will share with you some simple techniques to conduct an SEO audit.
If you want to draw more organic traffic to your website it is necessary that you pertain to those healthy habits that are necessary to rank higher in the search engine web pages. Conducting an audit enables you to analyze how effective your practices are.
If you are well aware of the concept of SEO you must be knowledgeable of the various SEO techniques that can help you to rank your website content on the search engines. Apart from creating good content, it is also important to follow some simple steps to get your content to rank higher on the search engines.
There are various steps to follow, but in this article, I will share some simple methods so that you can easily conduct an SEO audit and find out the real causes of not getting a higher rank on the search engines. Let us quickly go through the processes.
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The Necessary Steps to Follow:
1. Manual Searching:
To conduct an audit properly first you have to look for the probable reasons that are responsible for not getting a proper SEO ranking on the search engine web pages.
Searching for the probable error manually can be a little intimidating at first, but this is important if you want a better result. What are the things you should look for, I will discuss them here.
The first thing you should ensure is that you have successfully increased your brand awareness to get better results and you are following the proper guidelines to create SEO-friendly content for getting a higher rank on the Google search engine.
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2. Checking Site Speed:
Checking your site speed can be a part of the process of conducting an SEO audit. Site speed plays a very important role in drawing more organic traffic to your website because readers or visitors usually spend 5 to 10 seconds on our website page.
If your site speed is not that fast the readers and visitors will lose interest and that will increase the bounce rate of your website. It can negatively affect your website popularity that is why you must use the proper tools to ensure your better site speed.
3. Website Crawling:
Website crawling can be highly beneficial for you if you want to conduct an audit properly. Website crawling is a simple yet very effective method to compare thousands of website content at the moment.
The process is done with the help of an internet bot or search bot that can help you to compare all the web content available on the internet. By doing the website crawling, you will be able to analyze the data available on the internet and are performing really well in terms of Google search engine ranking.
Also, you can review the content you are provided with by the search engine bot that will help you immensely to get an idea of the proper format to create website content.
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4. Browsable HTTP Site:
Make sure that a single version of your site is browsable since search engines cannot ‘see’ your website content; it is not possible for the search engines to recognize multiple versions of your sites. If you do not fix this issue it can lead to unlikely circumstances.
Some websites support only HTTP format and if your site is such a website that supports HTTP format then you should publish your content only in the format. It is considered a less secure format because it is not encrypted; but for best results, it is advisable to follow the proper format while creating and publishing the web content.
5. Proper Page Title:
Creating good website content is not enough if you do not add a proper page title. Because of the same reason, search engines will only rank your website content according to the page title.
For example, if you have written content about SEO techniques, then you should create a page title that is relevant to the subject matter, and hence, it will be easier for the Google search engines to rank your content whenever people will search for the best SEO techniques.
6. Meta Descriptions:
Meta descriptions play a very important role in ranking the website content. Meta descriptions consist of a line or two describing the subject matter of the content in short.
Google search engines will rank your content according to the content explained in the meta description. It is considered that meta descriptions cannot directly affect the search engine ranking but, it plays a very important role in getting a higher search engine ranking.
7. Proper Usage of Keywords:
Usage of proper keywords is very important if you want your web content to get a higher search engine ranking. That is why, if you are planning to conduct a proper audit then you have to make sure that you use your keywords properly in the web content.
The first thing you have to ensure is that you use the word at least once in the meta description of your content so that when people will search with the relevant topic, Google search engines will bring up your content as the relevant searches or web content.
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8. On-page SEO Check:
On-page SEO checking is a very good option to conduct an audit properly. On-page SEO checking enables you to get an idea of the methods you can implement to improve the ranking of your web page.
It will provide you with an all-encompassing idea about the proper length of your content, how you can improve the readability of your content and how you can utilize the internal and external links for better SEO ranking.
It will also provide you with enough knowledge about how you can improve the quality of your web content. You can use various tools to conduct an on-page SEO check. There are multiple tools available on the internet and one of them is a highly popular one and that is SemRush.
9. Include Proper Internal Link:
Including a proper link can change the entire game of website ranking. Whenever you publish web content you should include at least one or two internal links.
Similarly, being aware of the proper method to include the internal link is also very important. If you publish your content without any internal link that will not help your website and web content to get a proper SEO ranking and also, you have to make sure that you include only those internal links that are relevant to the topic and it will lead the target audience to the right place.
If the audience ends up landing on a page that is not relevant and is not informative enough, there is a high chance that they will not visit your website anymore. That is why you have to take special care while including the internal links.
10. Proper Usage of External Links:
Using the proper external link is also very important and making sure that you only use the proper external links can be a good SEO practice for conducting an SEO audit.
External links can lead the readers or the visitors of your website to a high domain authority site and externally linking your website content or web page to a high domain authority site can be highly beneficial for getting a higher ranking. That is why you should always include outbound links that lead to a high domain authority site such as Wikipedia.
11. Track Your Website Traffic:
Use online tools such as Google Analytics or Google metrics to compare your website traffic with your previous experiences. The comparison will help you to get an idea about how well your website is performing in drawing traffic and it is an important step to conduct a proper SEO audit.
Compare the content of your previous websites with the current website and it will provide you with enough knowledge about the necessary factors to look for that can contribute to drawing more traffic and then converting them into leads and potential customers.
12. Check Bounce Rate of The Site:
Bounce rate employees the numbers of your visitors that could have been the potential leads, but due to some errors, the visitors were not converted into the leads. Checking the bounce rate of the website is also an important part to consider if you are conducting an SEO audit.
It can help you to analyze and identify the possible drawbacks of your website in terms of content and website presentation and that will, in turn, help you to fix those errors to ensure better site performance.
13. Double-Check The Backlink:
Proper usage of the backlinks can prove to be highly beneficial for you if you want your website to get a better SEO ranking. Backlinks are also called inbound links that can lead your potential leads to another website page created by you.
Using proper backlinks in your website content can strengthen the presence of your website content on the internet and also ensure a better ranking on the search engines.
If you utilize the technique of including the inbound links in your content it can increase the visibility of your website content on the internet. Also, if you internally link your web pages, your website will draw more organic traffic. That is why using the backlinks properly can be an important part of conducting an SEO audit.
14. Look at Competitors’ Keywords:
If you are having a hard time choosing the proper keyword to include in your content, the best way to get done with this problem is to look for the competitors’ keywords.
The keywords used by your competitors can provide you with the necessary clues that can help you select the appropriate keyword for your web content.
It is quite apparent that the keywords used by the competitors are the actual keywords people search for web content with and that is why it can provide you with the necessary insights about selecting the proper keyword for your web content that can help your website content getting a higher SEO ranking and appear in the search results.
15. Be Active on Social Media:
It is not something directly associated with conducting an SEO audit but it can be regarded as a very important step. To analyze how well your website content is performing on the internet you need to make sure that you are visible on the internet.
Also, you need to make sure that the visitors are well familiar with your active presence on the internet, and only then will they visit your websites frequently.
16. Check Indexation Issues:
Make sure that the backlinks you have included in your web content are leading the traffic to an original website page.
This is very important because if they land on a page containing duplicate content it can negatively affect the reputation of your website.
17. Brand Awareness:
If you want people to get familiar with your active presence on the internet and want to draw more traffic to your website, the most important thing you need to ensure is a gradual increase in brand awareness.
In this digitalized world everything is available at the fingertip, people will only visit those websites that are highly popular and provide them with the necessary information that they are in search of.
18. Check The Number of Title Characters:
Checking the characters of the title of your web page is also considered a vital part of conducting an SEO audit. There are some hard and fast rules regarding the title of your web content if you want a better SEO ranking. It is regarded that if the title of your content contains 50 to 60 characters, it is ideal for getting a high ratio rank. That is why make sure that you follow these rules while creating SEO-friendly content.
19. Ensure That Proper Heading Tags Are Maintained:
Also, while creating SEO-friendly content you need to maintain the proper heading tags. If you are using Google docs or Word format for creating the content, you will notice that there are options to select from the wide range of heading tags.
If you want your content to get a higher SEO rank, you need to maintain the proper heading tags and they are H1 the title, H2 for the subheadings or subtitles, H3 for additional information, and so on.
20. Maintain The Proper Length of Meta Description:
Maintaining the proper length of the meta descriptions also plays a very important role. The meta description should not be too long or too short.
It should follow the ideal length suggested for the meta description. It should contain 150 to 160 characters. The meta descriptions that consist of the prescribed number of characters usually rank higher on the search engines.
21. Double-Check for Avoiding Plagiarism:
While conducting an SEO audit, make sure that you double-check to find out if your content is plagiarized or not. It is not necessary that you must have copied the exact content from another website.
Sometimes what happens is that suppose, you have written content and also double-checked to make sure that it is not plagiarized. But someone else may have also written content related to that topic and some of the lines you wrote, match with the other article.
In this case, if you have not published your content before, there is a high chance that your content has plagiarism in it if another person has already uploaded the content meanwhile.
If this is the case, then make sure that you remove the plagiarized sentence structures from your article and re-publish the content.
22. Make Sure Your Website Page Loads Fast:
Also, make sure that your web pages load as fast as possible. It will increase the audience engagement to your website.
23. Check If There Is Any Structured Data Error:
Sometimes there is a chance that your content is not getting a higher SEO ranking because of the structured data errors. Structured data errors imply the errors that are present in the structures or the format of your content.
In this case, you can opt for various structured data testing tools that can help you to find the errors and you will be able to work with the most prominent errors that will, in turn, help you to optimize your content according to the rescue guidelines.
24. Prioritize Drawing Organic Traffic:
The digitalized world provides you with a lot of opportunities and options to increase the number of traffic visiting your web pages. There are two ways to do it; one is the organic way another is, increasing traffic by paying the search engines.
But if you’re looking for a sustainable option and a long-term visibility of your website page then you should always opt for the organic method.
25. Proper Keyword Density:
Another very important step to get a higher SEO ranking is to include the keywords in a proper way. If you want your website content to appear in the top search results you must include the proper keywords while maintaining the proper keyword density.
Usually, it is considered that if the keyword density of your content is 0.5 %, then it is likely to get a higher rank on the search engines.
26. Long-Tail Keywords:
Long-tail keywords can help you in avoiding the competition with the top-ranking websites appearing in the search engine results. Also, long-tail keywords will help you to increase the visibility of your website on the internet.
27. Fix Broken Links:
Make sure that all the links that you have included in your website content are valid and relevant. If there is any broken link inserted by you, make sure that you fix it because broken links or invalid links can lead the traffic to a landing page that does not exist or is not valid and it will not be helpful for you.
28. Ensure Fixing A Content Gap:
Analyzing the content gap is a must if you are planning to conduct an SEO audit because it is a strategic method that can help you to re-check and optimize the content of your website.
Also, you can compare and analyze the actual performance of your content with the content performance that was expected.
29. Ensure Conducting A Full Content Audit:
Once you are done with all the above-mentioned steps, make sure that you do the same for all your social media content because your presence on social media platforms can also affect the visibility and performance of your website page.
Frequently Asked Questions:
- What is meant by SEO audit?
SEO audit is a technical process that helps you to re-analyze and re-check the factors that can contribute to the growth of your website.
It also helps you to fix any issues that can pose a hindrance to your website to get a higher SEO ranking. By conducting the audit you can improve your web page content along with increasing your brand visibility on the internet.
- How Search Engine Optimisation auditing can help my website to get a better SEO ranking?
Auditing can help you in multiple ways. The first thing you should consider is that it will provide you with the knowledge of the various factors that are contributing to the growth of your website and also of those factors that are not helping.
With the provided knowledge you can make improvements with an objective to achieve more traffic and convert them into leads and customers.
- Is optimizing the web page content according to the SEO guidelines important?
If you want to grow your business or want your content to reach a larger audience you must follow the rules and optimize your content according to the SEO guidelines.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned steps are some of the basic practices to conduct a technical audit for optimizing the web content according to the SEO guidelines. These techniques are very simple and effective to increase the visibility of your website.
