There’s no need to convince you that a SEO Audit is important for your online business. This guide will make the task easier and clear up your doubts.
A SEO Audit will quickly reveal any issues on your site that can affect search engine indexing, rankings, and user experience.
This article guides you to look for “crawlability” issues such as broken links and images, duplicate content, crawling errors, poor mobile usability.
It will analyze site speed, redirect chains, internal linking issues, heavy pages and scripts, W3C validation errors, short content, and more.
Here is a list of all the SEO things and analysesAudit you should check on a site you manage. You can also download aPDF cheat sheet for quick reference whenever you need it.
1. Domain
Aspects affected: Indexing, User Experience, Brand Reputation, Security, Rankings
Let’s start with a check of the domain name as it determines your entire online presence. You need to ensure that your audience can easily remember your website address to find it easily later.
Domain History
When choosing a domain name, you may need to buy an existing one. Before purchasing, make sure to track the history of your future domain. It is possible that this domain was involved in spam activities, was previously penalized, or had a bad reputation among users. This could affect your site’s future ranking.
To know how this site looked like before and what content it offered, useInternet Archive: Wayback Machine. With it, you can check if the site was full of spam or, conversely, quality content.
Also, you can use theWhoIs service to check who the previous owner of the domain was.
This step requiresWebSite Auditor.
WebSite Auditor will perform a SEO Audit and quickly report any issues on your site that can affect indexing, rankings, and user experience.
If multiple versions of your site coexist at the same time, make sure that users can only access one of them.
- https://yourdomain.com
- https://www.yourdomain.com
- http://yourdomain.com
- https://yourdomain.com
Only one version should be considered primary, otherwise duplicate content issues will arise.
Note:
- Add all versions on Google Search Console
- Manage www/non-www via .htaccess
- Manage HTTP/HTTPS with redirects or canonical
Possibility of typosquatting
Typosquatting is a technique that exploits typing errors to redirect users to fraudulent sites.
Typosquatting (or URL hijacking) is a form of cybersquatting based on typos in URLs.
To avoid problems, you can monitor with tools likeUpGuard e dnstwist.
2. Site Structure
Aspects involved: crawlability, UX, rankings
As your site grows, the structure needs to be reviewed regularly.
Taxonomy and hierarchy
- Main pages
- Secondary pageswith specific keywords
Click Depth
Important pages should be close to the homepage (ideally less than 4 clicks).
3. Internal Linking
Aspects: indexing, PageRank
Number of links
More internal links help, but don’t overdo it.
- Links to a page
- Links from a page
Anchor text
- Variety
- Descriptive length
Broken links
- URL Errors
- Deleted Pages
Orphaned Pages
Pages without internal links risk not being indexed.
4. URL Structure
- Short and readable URLs
- Avoid complex parameters
Dynamic URLs
Avoid symbols like ?, &, _ when possible.
5. Content
Quantity
Avoid overly short content.
Performance
Optimize pages that do not reach the first SERP.
Outdated Content
Update old articles.
E-A-T
Include author, contacts, and credibility.
Pop-ups
They must not be intrusive.
6. Images
- Correct format (WebP, JPEG, PNG)
- Compression
- ALT text
7. Backlinks
Number
Monitor backlink growth.
Quality
Avoid toxic links.
Anchor
Avoid anchor spam.
8. Localization
Hreflang
- Reciprocal links
- Correct codes
9. Redirects
- 301 = permanent
- 302 = temporary
Redirect chains
Avoid them.
10. HTTPS
- SSL certificate active
- No mixed content
11. Core Web Vitals
- LCP < 2.5s
- FID < 100ms
- Low CLS
12. Mobile
- Responsive design
- Readable elements
13. Code
- Clean JS/CSS
- Correct meta tags
- Canonical
14. Sitemap
- XML sitemap present
- No 404 pages or redirects
15. Robots.txt
- No incorrect blocks
- Indexation control
Conclusion
Regularly perform an SEO audit to avoid problems and improve site performance. Download the PDF to keep it handy.
Pubblicato in Digital Marketing, Guides & Tutorials, SEO
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