Website SEO Audit is one of the toughest digital marketing jobs to do because there are so many things to consider even before you get your hands dirty. On top of that, there are a lot of different factors ranging from the platform the website is built to the nature of the business that the website represents. In short, there is not any single solution which fits all. Still, there will be some general rule of thumb which can be applied to most of the websites when doing the SEO audit.
I have divided those Audits into some major categories and I will talk in brief about those major categories because most of the items mentioned will be self-explanatory if you know the basics of SEO. Also, if you are looking for a sample SEO Audit report, the link is given at the bottom of the post.
Page Contents
SEO Audit Report Formatting
Have a look at the screenshot taken from the SEO audit report created by me:
I like to categorize major SEO topics into categories. Each category then further can be subcategorized. Then we can list down the points that we want to check. Each point will have a status, current problem, and solution. A status could represent your finding outcomes such as you “found” the use of robots.txt file on the website.
Possible that you shall also be sharing this report with your client. In that case, you do not want to elaborate on the current problem and solution much. You just give them an overview of what the problem is and what the possible solution could be.You can download the SEO audit format from the bottom of the post and feel free to update the sheet as you want and even suggest me to add more fields in the comment below.
SEO Audit Report Categories
Here is the list of categories and sub-categories that I like to define and what do they stand for:-
Search Engine Accessibility
How accessible & easy the website is to the search engine
- Robots.txt Restrictions
- Meta ‘noindex’ Tag
- Fetch as Googlebot & BingBot
- Content Accessible with JavaScript Disabled
- Content Accessible with Cookies Disabled
- Content Accessible with CSS Disabled
- Pages with blocked resources
- Contains JavaScript links
- Contains JavaScript contents
- NoIndex only in original HTML
- NoFollow only in original HTML
- Correct Status Code
Sitemap
- Cloaking or User-Agent Switching
- Crawl Errors
- XML Sitemaps Listed via robots.txt
- XML Sitemaps Submitted via Google Search Console
- XML Sitemaps Submitted via Bing Webmaster Tools
- Use of Doorway Pages or Splash Screens
- Orphaned URLs
- URLs not in sitemap
- Non-Indexable URLs in sitemap
- URLs in multiple sitemaps
- XML sitemaps with over 50,000 URLs
- XML sitemaps with over 50 MB size
AMP Accessibility
- Non-200 responses
- Missing Non-AMP Return link
- Missing canonical to Non-AMP
- Non-Indexable canonical
- Missing <html amp> tag
- Missing <head> tag
- Missing <body> tag
- Missing canonical
- Missing AMP script
- Contains disallowed HTML
Website Integrity/ Security
Does the website need an upgrade from the security point of view? Search Engines do not prefer websites with security loopholes.
- Redirection
- Correct Use of 301s / No Bad Redirects
- canonicalization
- canonical Domain Version Established via Redirection
- Canonical Version Specified via Google Search Console
- Canonical Mismatch
- Correct Use of the Rel=Canonical Tag
- Malware Reported
- Manual Actions / Penalties
- HTML Improvements
Mobile Optimization Audit
Mobile Optimization ensures that visitors from mobile devices experience an optimized experience across the website
- Mobile Compliant Site in Operation
- Alternate Annotations in Use for Separate Mobile Sites
- No Faulty Mobile Redirects
- Search Console / Mobile-Friendly Test Mobile Usability Errors
- Viewport Correctly Configured
- Legible Font-Sizes in Use
- Tap-Targets Appropriately Sized
- App Download Interstitials Appropriate Placed
- Analytics Configured for a Separate Mobile Site
- mobile intrusive interstitials penalty
- Tap Area
- Page Size
- Image height & width attribute
Structured/Markup data
Search engines use structured data to generate rich snippets, which are small pieces of information that will then appear in the search results.
- Image Alt-Text Used
- No Depreciated Tags or Attributes
- Organisation / LocalBusiness Schema
- Logo Schema
- Social Profile Schema
- Search Sitelinks Schema
- Breadcrumb Schema
- Product Schema
- Review Schema
- Site Navigation Element
- Any Other Relevant Schema
- Other missing structured data
- Validation errors
- Validation warnings
- Parsing errors
International websites SEO Audit
International Targeting checks the website usability in different languages and across geographies.
- URLs Indicate International Variants
- Hreflang / Rel=Alternate Tags
- Hreflang / Rel=Alternate Sitemap Declarations
- Hreflang Return Tags Configured on International Sites
- Country Content Geographically Targeted
- Currency Reflects Country
- URLs Reflect Native Language
- Server Location & TLD vs Location of Target Audience
- Search Console
- Root Domain Country Targeting via Search Console
- Sub-Section Country Targeting via Search Console
- hreflang Errors
Social Media & Engagement
Ensures the ease of User engagement & social media sharing.
- UGC on Blog/News Pages
- Twitter Meta Tags
- Facebook Meta Tags
- UGC on Product Pages
- Use of Social Sharing Features
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is used to track the website data. Just to check if perfect organic data is being captured or not.
- Analytics Tracking Code Installed Throughout Site
- Only One instance of a GA property on Each Page
- Demographics Tracking Configured
- Adwords and Adsense Linked
- Search Console Linked
- Internal IP Addresses Excluded
- Google Analytics Linked to Search Console
- Branded Terms Setup in Google Analytics
Search Console
Search console is used to track the organic data of a web property.
- Markup Data errors
- No Errors under HTML Improvements
- AMP Pages
- Index Status
- Crawl Errors
- URL Parameters
- Rich Snippets in SERP?
- Have you used Search Console data in Data Studio to track the ranking pages?
Off page SEO Audit
Off-Page SEO strategy focusses mainly on the website authority and quality backlinks from contextual websites.
- Does the anchor text distribution look natural?
- Are there any signs of malicious linking?
- # Of backlinks
- # Of Linking Domains
- # Of Internal Links
- Domain Authority
- Backlinks from Edu or Gov sites?
- Wiki Page Setup?
- Toxic backlinks
- Broken backlinks
Site Architecture Audit for SEO
Site architecture looks at the intuitiveness of the website
- 301 redirect Setup for all website versions to one website
- Pagination Issues – rel=prev/next
- Bad URLs
- Concise URLs
- URLs Contain Keywords
- No Special Characters in URLs
- Critical iFrames
- Critical Flash
- Browser Compatibility
- Correct Error Page for Caught Errors
- Breadcrumb Navigation
Navigation & Internal Linking
Navigational & internal linking analyzes the website’s internal contextual linking along with natural link distribution
- Vertical Linking Structures in Place
- Horizontal Linking Structures in Place
- Contextual Linking/ Internal
- Top Pages with highest Internal Links aligned with SEO Objective?
- Excessive Footer Links
- Internal Anchor Text Distribution
- Noopener used for links originating on another source
Content Optimization
Content optimization focusses around the content being optimized towards the targeted keywords.
Keywords
- Keyword Analysis
- Competitor’s keyword research
- Keyword research
- Keyword mapping
HomePage
- Homepage Content is Present
- Homepage Content is Accessible
- Content Supports Keywords
- Document Outline Supports Keywords
- Content Presentation/Formatting Adequate
- Category, Sub-Category, Services Pages
- Content is Present
- Content is Accessible
- Content Supports Keywords
- Document Outline Supports Keywords
- Content Presentation/Formatting Adequate
Blog / News
- Blog or News Section in Use
- Good Use of Headlines on Blog Posts
- Content Supports Keywords
- Content Utilises Internal Linking
- Content Presentation/Formatting Adequate
General
- All Content Offers User-Value
- Content Placement -> Above the Fold
- Amount of Content vs Ads
- Keyword Cannibalization
- Keyword Stuffing / Spam
- No Hidden Content
- Document Outline
- Google Recognises Important Keywords
- Any thin content pages?
- Are thin content pages No-Indexed
Content Duplication
Content duplication checks the quality of the content internally as well as externally due to certain conditions.
- Internal Duplication
- HTTPS Duplication
- Non-WWW Duplication
- Index / Default File
- Check for Duplication as a Result of Pagination
- Check for Duplication as a Faceted Navigation
- Other Query-Parameter Duplication
- External Duplication
- Sub-Domain Duplication
- Duplication on Other Owed Sites
- Duplication on Social Properties
- Development / Staging Servers blocked from crawling?
Meta Title & Description
Meta title & description checks make sure that meta title & descriptions are as per the search engines standards.
- Title Tags
- Reference Keywords
- Reference Brand
- Short Titles
- Long Titles
- Duplicate Titles
- Missing Titles
- Short Meta Descriptions
- Long Meta Descriptions
Duplicate Meta Descriptions - Missing Meta Descriptions
- Descriptions Prompt CTR
Blog/Newsroom
This check is to make sure that blogs have all the important attributes
- Author
- Published Date
- Modified Date
- Tags
- Category
- Comment
- Featured Image
- Image with alt text
- Breadcrumb
- Also Read
- Prev / Next Blog meta tag & at the bottom of the page
UI/UX
UI/UX checks for the user-centric performance of a website
Performance
- First Contentful Paint
- Speed Index
- Time to Interactive
- First Meaningful Paint
- Estimated Input Latency
Accessibility
- Do elements have a name?
- Do links have a name?
- Is zooming disabled?
Website Speed
Website speed checks focus on the site speed and speed of browsing experience
- Review Page Load Time for Key Pages
- Gzip Compression Enabled
- Browser Caching Enabled
- Images Adequately Compressed
- Are there many images with size >100 Kb?
- Images Served in Correct Dimensions
- NextGen images such as JPEG 2000, JPEG XR and Web P being used?
- Minification of CSS
- Minification of JavaScript
- Minification of HTML
- Consider Using a CDN for images
- Critical Request Chains Found?
- Preload Key requests used?
- Landing Page redirects?
- Any animated content?
- Excessive DOM Size?
- Too Many External HTTP Requests
- W3C Validation
- Properly sized images
- Defer off-screen images
Competitor’s research in SEO Audit report
Once you have got everything ready, you should also include some of the competitors and what they are doing online in terms of SEO. There are a few factors which you might to consider here. You are free to make an edit as per the client.
- Estimated Monthly Traffic
- Desktop Speed Score
- Mobile Speed Score
- Domain Authority
- # Keywords Ranked Page 1
- # Keywords Ranked Page 2
- Estimated On-Page SEO Score
- Total Backlinks
- Referring Domains
Once you have these things ready as well then you do keyword research and calculate the keyword opportunities. Then, you should summarize the entire findings, list out the top priorities and your SEO plan towards the same and present that to the client. Here is the link to the Sample SEO Audit Report
Yes, you would need some tools to do these SEO Audits. Some of the tools that I use are:
- Google page speed insights
- Search console
- Google Analytics
- Moz SemRush
- Screaming Frog
- Deep crawl
- Lighthouse chrome plugin
FAQs
How do I create an SEO audit report for my website? ›
- Run your website URL through a site audit tool.
- Find technical errors.
- Identify SEO problems.
- Analyze design and UX.
- Assess website content.
- Generate a checklist of all site issues and recommend fixes.
A technical SEO audit is a process that checks various technical parts of a website to make sure they are following best practices for search optimization. This means technical parts of your site that relate directly to ranking factors for search engines like Google or Bing.
How do I create a SEO checklist? ›- Crawl your website.
- Conduct an SEO audit and define your site architecture.
- Update URLs, page titles, and meta descriptions.
- Make sure your keyword is in your URL.
- Include your keyword throughout your page.
- Track keywords and topics for each page.
- Don't keyword stuff.
- Set up a connection to the auditing database (create a new data source).
- Create a query in Microsoft Query.
- Return data to Excel.
- Create a report in Excel (a table or a PivotTable report).
Solution. Firstly, extract all of your Search Console data using Search Console API (or by using Google Sheets extension if you want to avoid any coding). Then use to extracted data to build powerful, flexible, and very insightful set of SEO reports using Excel (or alternatively in Data Studio).
What is an ideal SEO checklist? ›We advise on technical SEO elements such as site structure, mobile optimization, and website speed. The checklist also covers information about best practices for title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and more for on-page SEO. We explain how to do keyword research and incorporate keywords into your content.
What is off-page SEO checklist? ›Get backlinks from relevant and websites that have authoritative in the subject. Linking site's popularity, relativity to subject, anchor text, trustworthiness and authority. Build positive reviews gives a strong signal to search engines of trustworthiness and authority in your niche subject.
What is an off-page SEO technical audit? ›Off-page SEO – Refers all the SEO taking place externally (but relating) to your site which help search engines to determine the level of trust, value and authorship of your site.
What are the 5 contents of an audit report? ›Audit Report Contents are the basic structure of the audit report which needs to be clear, providing sufficient evidence providing the justification about the opinion of the auditors and includes Title of Report, Addressee details, Opening Paragraph, scope Paragraph, Opinion Paragraph, Signature, Place of Signature, ...
What are the 5 C's of audit report writing? ›What Are the 5 C's of Internal Audit? Internal audit reports often outline the criteria, condition, cause, consequence, and corrective action.
Is an SEO audit worth it? ›
It will save you time and money.
By purchasing a professional audit from an agency, you'll not only free up time for yourself and your team to focus on other tasks, but you'll also save money that you would otherwise be spending to hire and onboard new employees.
If you've wondered, “Can I do SEO myself?” the answer is definitely. You don't need to hire an outside agency to improve your SEO, and this guide gives you some basic SEO tips to get started.
How do you write SEO in 4 easy steps? ›- Create a search engine friendly title. Include 1-2 keywords related to your topic. ...
- Optimize your abstract. Place essential findings and keywords in the first two sentences of your abstract. ...
- Use keywords throughout your article. ...
- Be consistent. ...
- Build links.
- Start with an idea. Each and every piece of content starts with an idea. ...
- Do your research. You know your industry like the back of your hand, probably. ...
- Determine the direction of your content. ...
- Create your headline. ...
- Write. ...
- Grab a drink. ...
- Proofread and publish.
Click the FORMULAS tab on the Ribbon. Click Show Formulas in the Formula Auditing group. The Formulas in the worksheet will appear, so that you will know which cells contain formulas and what the formulas are.
What is included in a website audit? ›An SEO audit measures how well your website is optimised for search, this can include analysing keywords, link profiles, traffic behaviour, goal conversions, meta data and image and video optimisation. There are also many technical aspects that will need to be audited.
What does an SEO report look like? ›To recap, the perfect SEO report should:
Be nice looking and easy to read, with excellent UX (user experience) Include your client's or your company's logo. Be accessible in the format your audience wants. Include all the data from the tools you already use to do your SEO work.
The automation of reporting in Excel is achieved by working properly with an input table, code lists and an interactive report generated automatically from a simple database in the background.. The result is: Error-free, controlled data entry, facilitated by mandatory fields with centralized code list.
What is SEO Tools for Excel? ›SeoTools for Excel is a plugin that adds a bunch of useful SEO-related functions and other web metrics directly to Excel. We've paired SE Ranking up with SeoTools for Excel to help you closer analyze your sites, competitors and keyword statistics in Excel. Data is transferred through the SE Ranking API.
What are the 12 things to know about SEO? ›- Target Relevant Primary and Secondary Keywords. ...
- Write Quality Original Content. ...
- Format Your Content for Search Engines & Target Featured Snippets. ...
- Optimize Your Page Title and Meta Description. ...
- Use Short, Descriptive URLs.
What are your top 5 SEO recommendations? ›
- Structured data matters. ...
- Page freshness. ...
- Internal linking (still matters) ...
- Title tags. ...
- Obtain backlinks.
These SEO metrics help measure whether your current strategies are working, how effective they are, and where there's room for improvement. Some of the most common SEO KPIs include rankings, organic traffic, backlinks, and pages indexed.
What are the 4 main techniques of off-page SEO? ›- Link building. Link building is a process of getting quality inbound links to your website. ...
- Content marketing. ...
- Social media marketing. ...
- Guest posting. ...
- Podcasts. ...
- Video marketing.
Building backlinks is at the heart of off-page SEO. Search engines use backlinks as indications of the linked-to content's quality, so a site with many high value backlinks will usually rank better than an otherwise equal site with fewer backlinks.
What is the difference between SEO and technical SEO? ›Technical and on-page SEO focuses on the methods that will improve your website, while off-page SEO works to improve your local SEOLocal SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank on the 1st page of Google for a search term and geographic location that is relevant to your business., link-building strategy, ...
What is the difference between technical and off-page SEO? ›As explained by Neil Patel, technical SEO refers to any SEO work that is done aside from the content itself. Meanwhile, On-Page SEO means all the things that you can do on your website/content, while off-page SEO naturally means everything that is beyond it.
What is the difference between onpage and offpage SEO and technical SEO? ›In a nutshell, on-page SEO is about optimizing your website for the users and search engines, off-page SEO is about building website authority by getting some link juice and technical SEO is about making sure that your website's code is clean and effective.
What are the 4 C's of auditing? ›As for directors, there are four features to consider when evaluating the sufficiency of any risk-based audit plan: culture, competitiveness, compliance and cybersecurity – let's call them the Four C's, for short.
What are the six parts of an audit report? ›The audit report template includes 7 parts of elements these are: report title, introductory Paragraph, scope paragraph, executive summary, opinion paragraph, auditor's name, and auditor's signature.
What 4 types of reports do auditors issue? ›- Clean Report or Unqualified Opinion.
- Qualified Report or Qualified Opinion.
- Disclaimer Report or Disclaimer of Opinion.
- Adverse Audit Report or Adverse Opinion.
What are the four 4 C's in doing a quality check of a report? ›
In this blog series, I will be breaking down each of the 4Cs – comprehensiveness, consistency, continuousness, and certification – to explain their place within the framework and the important role they serve in upholding the high level of quality our customers expect of us.
How many hours does an SEO audit take? ›As previously mentioned, an SEO audit can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks. During this time an SEO specialist is analyzing and uncovering SEO opportunities on your website. However, bi-weekly or weekly check-ins keep you and your team in the loop as to the progress.
Can I get a quality SEO audit for free? ›SEOptimer is a free SEO Audit Tool that will perform a detailed SEO Analysis across 100 website data points, and provide clear and actionable recommendations for steps you can take to improve your online presence and ultimately rank better in Search Engine Results.
How much does it cost to do a website audit? ›How much does a website audit cost? Although we would love to give you an exact answer, the price of a website audit varies greatly. because every website is unique! However, to give you a rough idea, prices can generally vary between $1,500 and $8,000.
What should an SEO report look like? ›To recap, the perfect SEO report should:
Be nice looking and easy to read, with excellent UX (user experience) Include your client's or your company's logo. Be accessible in the format your audience wants. Include all the data from the tools you already use to do your SEO work.
They typically include crucial SEO metrics like backlinks, technical website health, click-through rates, keyword rankings, organic traffic, conversions, etc. The main goal of an SEO report is to show your client the results of your SEO efforts and the impact your strategy is having on overall website performance.
Which one is the best tool to do SEO audit for your website? ›Best SEO audit tools #1: SE Ranking
As an all-in-one SEO tool/suite, SE Ranking competes directly with the likes of SEMrush, Ahrefs, and SpyFu. It particularly focuses on keyword research, backlink tracking, on-page analysis, PPC research, social media management, and website audit.
- Sign in to Google Analytics.
- Navigate to your view.
- Open Reports.
- Click Customization > Custom Reports > +New Custom Report.
- Enter a Title.
- (Optional) Click +add report tab. ...
- Select a report type: Explorer, Flat Table, Map Overlay, or Funnel. ...
- Define your dimension and metrics.
A good Site Health SEO score is anything above 80. If your score is over 90, it means your website is in the top 10% of the best technically optimized websites on the web. Once you reach a high SEO rating, you can: Schedule regular Site Audit crawls to spot any possible new issues.
What are 3 main areas of SEO? ›- On-page SEO – Anything on your web pages – Blogs, product copy, web copy.
- Off-page SEO – Anything which happens away from your website that helps with your SEO Strategy- Backlinks.
- Technical SEO – Anything technical undertaken to improve Search Rankings – site indexing to help bot crawling.
What are the 4 main components of an SEO? ›
- technical SEO: How well your content can be crawled and indexed.
- content: Having the most relevant and best answers to a prospect's question.
- on-site SEO: The optimization of your content and HTML.
- off-site SEO: Building authority to ensure Google stacks the deck in your favor.
- Panguin Tool. ...
- Wordtracker Scout. ...
- Lipperhey. ...
- Bing Webmaster Tools. ...
- Dareboost. ...
- Siteliner. Get a full SEO report for free. ...
- KWFinder. No-nonsense keyword research tool. ...
- People Also Ask. This free tool pulls questions that appear in the “People Also Ask” section of Google's search results.
- Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Level: Beginner through to advanced. ...
- Clearscope. Level: All levels. ...
- Semrush. Level: Intermediate through to advanced. ...
- Ahrefs. Level: Advanced. ...
- Moz. Level: Beginner through to intermediate. ...
- Surfer SEO. Level: All levels. ...
- SE Ranking. Level: All levels. ...
- WooRank.
- Setting goals. ...
- Collecting data. ...
- Processing data. ...
- Identifying key performance indicators (KPIs). ...
- Developing a strategy. ...
- Experimenting and testing.
- Identify the web metrics you want to track.
- Identify where that data is stored, such as Google Analytics.
- Start by selecting Instant Metrics such as Page Views Per Session.
- Create custom metrics by exporting a Google Analytics data.