Anyone who works with SEO knows that some projects require building a website from scratch. However, many projects—including those our team has taken on in recent years—already have a foundation.
That’s why knowing how to conduct an SEO audit is just as fundamental as understanding the basic rules of headings, meta titles and descriptions, and keyword density. In fact, a website should never skip audits because there is always room for SEO improvement.
Below, we’ll discuss how to conduct an effective SEO audit, drawing from our experience as well as relevant insights—since, in this phase of analysis and technical SEO, an overwhelming amount of data can sometimes confuse rather than help.
What to Prioritize When Auditing a Website
An SEO audit is like opening a black box. When taking on a project for the first time, it’s essential to separate the signal from the noise by prioritizing information. After all, there will be no shortage of data—especially if you use tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and paid audit tools such as SEMRush and Ahrefs.
So, what should you focus on? First, identify what might be negatively impacting your site’s ranking. Below, we outline the most important factors in an SEO audit guide.
Sitemap and Error Count
The sitemap is like a treasure map—it helps Google navigate your site. Issues such as broken links, non-loading pages, or pages with no content can significantly impact your SEO. Eliminating broken links from your sitemap and redirecting outdated ones is the first step to “reviving” your site.
Page Speed and Bounce Rate
Page load speed is an often underestimated factor—even by SEO analysts. How many times have you closed a website that took too long to load or appeared incomplete? Checking your site’s speed is crucial, and making necessary adjustments should be a priority in your strategy.
Link Quality
The quality of links is fundamental to technical SEO. A high-quality link pointing to your site can be invaluable—just as bad links (like spam) can significantly harm your rankings. Link quality should be continuously evaluated.
Optimization of Key Pages
A good SEO audit highlights well-ranking pages. Analyze what was done correctly and try to replicate it as much as possible with existing or new pages. Was the content well-written? Were keywords and headings used effectively? Did a long-tail keyword make a significant impact? Your audit should reveal what is working well—or what was implemented by previous professionals.
Additional Tips for Conducting SEO Audits
As you may have noticed, technical SEO is an ongoing process. Just as important as making improvements and new optimizations is understanding what is working and eliminating elements that bring no results or negatively impact your site. Below are more tips on this crucial function for webmasters and SEO analysts.
A Recurring, Complex Process
Set aside time each week—or every two weeks for less frequently updated sites—to conduct a full audit, monitoring links and fixing indexing issues. SEO improvements require constant attention.
Use High-Quality Tools
There’s no shortage of SEO tools online, both free and paid. Fortunately, some free tools are of good quality, but a cost-free solution rarely provides a complete analysis. As your project grows, you may need more advanced tools. Compare different paid audit tools and budget accordingly.
Establish Timelines
SEO improvements take time—not just to be implemented but also for Google and other search engines to recognize the changes. It’s easy to lose motivation due to the lack of immediate results or feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks.
Create a timeline for necessary activities, dividing them into recurring and non-recurring tasks, and set medium- and long-term goals. SEO is a step-by-step process—we know that all too well!
Stay Updated
Search engines constantly update their algorithms. Strategies that work well one year may be ineffective the next. Staying up to date with high-quality SEO content is crucial, and you should never become complacent with your current knowledge. This is a dynamic field.
The Importance of Professional Assistance
As you can see, SEO auditing is a demanding task, and results may not be immediately visible. A well-organized, experienced, and up-to-date professional is essential to ensure your site’s ranking remains strong and achieves the desired results.
The larger the site, the more evident this need becomes. If you have any doubts, feel free to contact us—we are ready to discuss your goals.
What We Consider for an Effective SEO Audit
When conducting an SEO audit for our clients’ websites, we evaluate:
- Organic traffic
- Identification and removal of low-quality pages
- Keyword analysis, listing ranked terms
- Website speed
- Spam Score analysis
- Overall link quality
- Internal content relevance and quality
- Mobile compatibility
- Indexed pages on Google
- Quality of incoming links (backlinks)
- Content duplication
- Site optimization for the most relevant keywords
- Website code optimization
- And much more
To accomplish this, we use some of the best marketing automation tools, such as Ahrefs, Google Search Console, MOZ, and SEMrush.
Spam Score Analysis
Above is an analysis we conducted for a client’s website. After our audit, the Spam Score percentage was reduced. Besides pointing out the issue, we also provided a step-by-step solution.
Typically, 90% of the websites we work with have a Spam Score below 2%, and it’s rare to find sites with high Spam Scores. However, after our mentorship, this particular site reached an optimal level.
A high Spam Score can affect your site’s credibility by exposing users to harmful pages. Additionally, it can impact your Google ranking, as search engines may downgrade—or even remove—pages receiving excessive spam links. Our goal is to provide users with higher-quality search results.
Google Indexing
We use Google Search Console to analyze client websites, including their indexing status. This allows us to identify unindexed pages, understand the reasons, and manually request indexing when necessary.
Backlink Quality
Monitoring backlinks is crucial. In our SEO analysis, we use top tools like Ahrefs. By entering a website’s URL, we can inspect and review all backlinks. We then create a disavow list for Google, indicating that the site has no association with harmful links, prompting the search engine to disregard them.
Above is an example of a page linking to our client’s site. Note that its Domain Rating (DR) is low, and it is an international site. Additionally, it is clearly spam. In such cases, these links must be removed from the site.
To identify spam, we conduct a full audit of all plugins and review partners who place banners and advertisements on the website.
In summary, we perform a comprehensive website analysis when conducting an SEO audit. If you want to evaluate your page and correct errors, contact our SEO specialists.
