What is an SEO audit?

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What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit is a process of evaluating a website's search engine friendliness in several areas. The main goal of an SEO audit is to help you optimize a website so that it can achieve higher rankings in search engine results.

While there are several tools you can use to perform an SEO audit of a website, the best approach is to perform the audit using one or hire an SEO Auditor to do the work for you.

The SEO auditor will manually review the website and provide recommendations on what needs to be fixed (because it is wrong) and what needs to be changed to improve the website's performance in search engines.

Types of SEO audits
There are no hard and fast rules about all the different types of SEO audits, but they generally cover different elements or serve different scenarios.

The lines between each type of audit are often blurred, and in some cases, crossover is inevitable – for example, it is often difficult to fully separate the content, how it is implemented on the page, and in turn the technical implications.

Below is a brief overview of some of the most common types of SEO audits. However, it is not unusual to see them grouped together or completely tailored to meet specific needs.

SEO audits of web pages

When people refer to an “SEO audit,” this is often what they are referring to. Sometimes, it is also called an “on-site” or “technical” audit.

A vague definition would be to say that it covers everything within the website. But this is not entirely true either, as some areas (such as page content) are not typically analysed in the same way as they would be in a more specific audit.

Some of the core areas that are typically included are:

URL and website structure
Page elements (page titles, meta descriptions, headings, etc.)
Internal links/redirects
Duplicate content / canonicalization
Schema / structured data
Crawling/indexing capability
Page speed
security
While some content analysis is typically performed, it typically does not involve as thorough a review as a content audit does. Similarly, while items that might be considered “technical” to many are covered, it typically does motorcycle owner email lists not delve into serious technical issues, such as server optimization, which would be included in a “technical audit.”

Technical SEO audits

As we mentioned above, there is often a crossover between what is considered a “technical SEO audit” and a “whole website SEO audit.” Some people may refer to a “website SEO audit” as a technical audit, while others would argue that it only covers a small portion of the “technical” elements. Needless to say, it’s a contentious topic, but the important thing is that when you conduct your own audits, the analysis is well documented and understood by all stakeholders.

Some of the core areas typically covered in technical audits include:

Hosting / Server Issues
security
Code Coverage and Page Resources
Crawling errors / indexing issues
Website Architecture / URL
Canonicalization and internationalization
XML Sitemaps and Robots.txt
Schema Implementation
Page/Website Speed
Mobile/Desktop Parity
Rendering/JavaScript issues
While the audit relies heavily on your own research, Google Search Console is a good place to start. If Google is flagging issues with your website, it's generally safe to say that they're worth prioritizing.

Content audit

Once you have a solid technical foundation, the next pillar of SEO to tackle is content. Content audits simply take things a step further by evaluating content from an SEO perspective.

The depth of audits varies, but they tend to take a multi-level approach:

At the highest level, the site's information architecture is reviewed; this looks at how the site's pages are structured and organized.
At the page level, performance is reviewed by looking at factors such as traffic, links, social metrics, conversions, and content engagement.
At its most granular level, a review is done of the content itself, looking at text, images, videos, etc.
Content audits are rarely a stand-alone job. Most will revolve around keyword research data and include (or be followed by) keyword mapping and gap analysis.

Some audits may seek to provide recommendations for content optimization, while higher-level audits may focus on feeding into a content strategy. Of course, some may include all of these elements, depending on the scope or goal of the project.

Keyword audit + Keyword research

Keywords are one of the fundamental elements of SEO. It is important to understand how users search for content and/or products or services on your website, and the intent behind those searches.

Whether you call it keyword research, search demand analysis, or keyword audit, most SEOs would include it as part of their initial work with a client if it hasn't already been done.

Experienced SEOs will often instinctively have a good idea of ​​search trends and the terms being used, but this is usually relatively easy to build on with solid research.

The best set of tools to use for keyword research is a hotly debated topic and seems to change as some tools improve and others fall behind.

Some of the newer tools like AnswerThePublic take a slightly different approach to keyword research – instead of looking at primary search volumes, they focus on pulling data from Google’s “Autocomplete” and “Other questions asked by users” suggestions.