SEO Audit - 10 Things It Can Reveal About Your Website

Would you go years without a health checkup??

Probably not, but still, you neglect your website's health?

An SEO audit is a bit like a routine health check, and it's carried out on a regular basis to diagnose any underlying performance concerns or issues that could be holding you back from ranking high in the search results.

Think of it as a 'scan'. The audit will use software to scan your website and provide you with the 'results' in the form of an audit, detailing anything that needs to be fixed, optimized or worked on.

An SEO Audit Reveals RED FLAGS

An SEO audit does what it says on the tin. It evaluates how well your site is performing in terms of SEO and areas where it could be performing better.?But it can also identify red flags before they really f*** up your website.

Suppose you've spent hours writing keyword-rich website copy to help you drive traffic to your product or service pages. An SEO audit might reveal that your website isn't able to be crawled, or there are broken links causing awful user experience.

Just like a routine health check, prevention is far better than a cure. So catching these things early on is key.

What Do You Need For An SEO Audit?

Before you start handing over login details to a random digital marketer, be clear about what they will do. Generally speaking, a technical SEO audit using software such as Semrush doesn't require access to the website being crawled.

For instance, with my clients, I only require their website link in order to run a full technical audit, as I have Semrush Business.

I have all the SEO tools at my fingertips to empower my clients to make the most informed data-driven decisions ever. I recommend a technical SEO audit to be carried out every 3 months and a website health check monthly for maximum SEO impact.

Semrush itself states that - audit your site at least once per quarter (ideally monthly), or whenever you see a decline in rankings.

Remember, the more you stay on top of ‘your health,’ the better your site will perform without running into any major issues.

10 Things An SEO Audit Can Reveal?

An SEO audit can uncover many technical and optimisation problems that you likely aren’t aware of.?

Let's take a look at the top 10:

1: Broken Links?

Broken links may just seem like a small error on your website; however, they can have a massive effect on SEO ranking.

This is because broken links impact your website's authority, making it look less trustworthy.?

They can increase bounce rate (the number of users leaving your site) due to bad UX and also decrease the crawlability of your website, which is important for Google so it can rank your site effectively.

2: Poor Competitor Benchmark

With tools like Semrush, an SEO audit can reveal where your website stands on the SERPs compared to your domain competitors.?

A low authority score may indicate that work needs to be done on your backlinks and overall SEO so that your site appears more credible and trustworthy to Google.

3: Bad Mobile Usability?

How well your website performs on mobile has been an important ranking factor for Google since 2015.

Most SEO audit tools will have an option to check your site's mobile friendliness. Some factors, such as small text and content width, can impact your score.

4: Indexing Errors?

It’s normal to have some pages on your site that don’t need to be indexed (ranked by Google), but your other pages should be.?

Google Search Console can be used to index pages by URL and will also give you the guidelines to follow in case of any indexing errors.?

5: Slow Site Speed

The slower your site is, the lower it will rank on Google, according to Google itself. In fact, as Semrush states, the slower a site loads the more chance there is of a user leaving as the data shows.

You can check your site speed via tools like Semrush, and Google’s speed page insights.

6: Poor Security?

An often overlooked SEO factor is your website's security. Blacklisting by Google, malicious bots and other security issues can cause Google to be unable to crawl your site properly, resulting in a lower ranking.

7: Duplicate Website Content?

If your site runs on different URL versions, Google can have issues crawling your site, which will ultimately lower your ranking since it is identified as a duplicate.

When entering any variation of the URL, such as https://www.yourSEOsite.com vs https://yourSEOsite.com, the URL should redirect you to the correct one.?

8: On-Page SEO Errors?

Missing page titles, poorly optimised meta descriptions, and no alt text can hinder your on-page SEO content. Internal links and schema markups are essential for optimisation.

For example, a poorly written meta description without keywords will make you miss out on a chance to personalise your message on the search engine, according to Hubspot. This can then, in turn, reduce the click-through rate.

Nowadays, we know Google is pushing featured snippets, as highlighted in my 2024 SEO tips, so this is very important.

With Semrush, there is also a tool called keyword gap. This analyses your on-page content and suggests missing keywords that your competitors are ranking for, and you aren’t.

9: Core Web Vital Issues?

Since 2020, Google has three core web vitals that they check URLs for: LCP (how long it takes to load your longest content), FID (how long it takes for a user to interact and CLS, which relates to visual stability.

In an SEO audit, you will be able to improve how each URL ranks for these.

10: Google’s Manual Actions?

Your content might be violating Google's spam policies, which will mean your site has been issued for manual action.

This could be via spam content (another reason to avoid AI writing!), thin content or unnatural links.

When Was The Last Time You Had An SEO Audit?

Trying to figure out the right way to conduct an SEO audit on your website can be overwhelming.?

For a technical SEO audit, email me with your website link and your SEO goals for the next 3 to 6 months: [email protected]

As an SEO expert, I can provide both technical SEO audits, along with professional recommendations on how to resolve the issues the audit finds, and my team can provide both web development, web design and all aspects of digital marketing to support online success.