Just like a car, your website needs regular inspections and maintenance to keep it performing at peak capacity. SEO audits help you evaluate your own website and those of your competitors, identifying opportunities for growth.
Some of the best free SEO audit tools include dedicated audit features, while others are part of comprehensive suites. In my opinion, Ahrefs has the most user-friendly and well-rounded tool set among premium options.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is an important part of SEO Audit because it’s how you discover keywords that search engines will find relevant for your website. It’s a process of finding the right mix of volume, competition and user intent to drive qualified traffic to your website.
Using free tools like SE Ranking and Ahrefs to conduct an SEO audit is a good way to get started. These apps provide a highly detailed breakdown of on-page SEO and backlinks that you can compare to competitors in a dedicated comparison dashboard.
These applications also provide a clear path forward for improving each page, including recommendations and their associated cost and estimated impact. That’s a crucial component of any SEO audit because it helps you prioritize and measure the results of your efforts. Ultimately, this ensures you’re investing time and resources wisely. And that’s the key to achieving success with your SEO strategy.
On-Page Optimization
In addition to discovering pages that require update, auditing the site can help you refocus your SEO efforts on users first. It will also safeguard your website from misguided optimization practices that might harm user experience and search engine rankings.
For example, keyword stuffing and exact match anchor text links can drive away real users while putting your site in danger of penalties from search engines like Google. A good SEO Audit should provide a clear roadmap for how to improve on-page SEO for the best results.
On-page optimization includes ensuring that relevant keywords are included in page titles, URLs and meta descriptions, as well as checking for other on-page factors that can impact SEO like loading times (search engines consider speed when ranking websites). It also includes a review of competitor sites to see if there are any keyword opportunities you’re missing out on. Taking the time to do a full on-page optimization can improve your search visibility and help you rank higher in SERPs.
Link Building
Link building is a big part of accruing website authority and no SEO audit is complete without a thorough review of your current link profile. During this process, the team looks at the URL source, domain, and anchor text of each link to see if it carries any value or equity. They also look at the Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics from Majestic to evaluate how trustworthy each page is.
If they discover spammy links, the team will disavow them. The team may also find resource pages that they can use to build quality links, or discover their competitor’s link profiles and explore opportunities there.
A good SEO audit will leave the team with a clear path forward that ladders up to the overarching business objectives. This is because the recommendations must translate into tangible ROI for the company. The audit should be comprehensive, yet easy to understand. Ideally, the report should contain an easily digestible breakdown of each recommendation, including a timeline for implementation and projected impact.
Competitor Analysis
SEO competitor analysis is a key component of any successful digital marketing strategy. This involves identifying brands and websites that rank higher than you for high-value search queries in your niche. Then, using their content as a template, you can improve your own website and increase rankings.
This can include both direct competitors (who sell similar goods/services as you) and indirect competitors (who rank higher than you for search terms that are related but not directly relevant to your business). Your competitor analysis should also cover technical SEO issues like site speed, mobile optimization, and URL structure.
While these are the core of any SEO audit, a thorough assessment should also consider other factors that impact search engine optimization, such as user experience, local SEO best practices, and link building. In addition, all audit recommendations should be clearly mapped to your business objectives and the potential impact on ranking keywords and traffic. This will help you prioritize and execute them effectively.
