Wondering why your website isn‘t showing up on Google or converting visitors? An SEO audit is the best way for beginners to uncover problems and improvement opportunities.
I‘ll walk you through exactly how to audit your on-page SEO, site architecture, speed and performance. Follow this comprehensive guide and you‘ll be able to boost your site‘s search visibility in no time.
What is a Website SEO Audit?
An SEO audit examines both on-page and off-page factors to determine how search engine optimized a website is. It helps uncover issues that are impacting your site‘s ability to rank in search engines like Google.
Some key things an audit checks:
- Site architecture – Is your structure optimized for bots and visitors?
- On-page optimization – Do your pages have the right title tags, meta descriptions, headings and content?
- Technical SEO – Is your site mobile-friendly, secure, fast loading?
- Backlinks – How many quality links are pointing to your site?
Regularly auditing your site can help spot problems early and identify new SEO opportunities. Even minor issues you fix today could lead to outsized gains in organic traffic and conversions over time.
Step-by-Step Guide to Conduct Site SEO Audit
Follow this beginner-friendly methodology when performing your website audit:
1. Crawl Your Site
The first step is to crawl your site using a tool like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb. This scans all pages on your domain to detect any technical problems or indexing issues.
Pay attention to crawl depth and blocked URLs in your report. You want search bots to easily access all important pages.
2. Check Site Architecture
Once crawled, analyze if your site structure facilitates both search engine bots and users finding relevant content quickly.
Actions to take:
- Ensure you have a simple, logically organized information architecture
- Implement breadcrumb navigation on site
- Set up XML sitemaps in Search Console for efficient crawling
- Create a clean robots.txt file to manage bot access
- Fix any 4XX or 5XX server errors on site
3. Review On-Page SEO
Now drill down into your most important landing pages. Assess if these contain SEO best practices:
- Relevant title tags under 60 chars
- Unique meta descriptions under 160 chars
- Target keyword early in content
- Proper heading tag structure (H1, H2, H3)
- Quality images with descriptive alt text
- Outbound links to authority domains in industry
I recommend using Surfer SEO to evaluate pages quickly. Their Chrome extension makes audits super simple.
4. Check Technical SEO
With Google prioritizing site speed and user experience, it pays to audit technical SEO factors like:
- Page speed – Should be under 3 seconds on mobile
- Mobile friendliness – Use Google Mobile Friendly test
- HTTPS security enabled
- Responsive design across devices
- Proper use of tags like rel=canonical and robots
GTMetrix has excellent tools for monitoring these areas over time.
5. Assess Backlinks Profile
The number of referring domains and quality inbound links pointing to your pages influence SEO ranking potential.
Use Ahrefs or SimilarWeb to analyze your site‘s backlink profile relative to competitors. Focus on earning editorially-given links from authority websites related to your industry.
6. Check Indexing and Crawling
Login to Google Search Console to confirm Googlebot can properly access and index your newly optimized pages.
Quickly filter to:
- Pages with crawl errors
- Pages blocked by robots.txt
- Excluded pages from indexing
- URL inspection for issues
Resolve crawling roadblocks through this central hub.
Advanced: Tools to Take Audits Further
Once you get the basics down solid, consider expanding SEO audits with these industry-leading tools:
- Ahrefs (Paid): Full backlink analysis and site audit checks
- SEMrush (Paid): Thorough technical/on-page optimization checks
- Woorank (Free): Quick overall SEO site review
- Google Analytics (Free): Behavior flow, conversions tracking
Moz and Screaming Frog are two other top paid tools professionals use.
But don‘t get overwhelmed early on. Start with the basics above and expand as you advance.
Perform SEO Audits Regularly
Conduct website SEO audits every 1-3 months as you optimize. This frequency gives you adequate time to identify issues, implement fixes, and monitor improvements.
Ongoing audits also help spot new problems before they escalate. By staying on top of your website‘s health, you ensure maximum search visibility and conversion rates moving forward.
Hope this complete guide gives beginners a structured process for auditing and boosting site SEO systematically over time. Let me know if you have any other questions!
