What is an SEO Audit? (And Why Do I Need One?)

SEO isn’t a ‘set it and forget it’ marketing activity. It requires regular monitoring and updating to ensure the best results.

That’s where SEO audits come in. But what are they? And why are they important?

This guide will teach you everything you need to know about how an SEO audit is performed, how often they should be conducted, and why they are crucial to the success of your performance and search engine marketing.

What is an SEO audit?

An SEO audit is where an “investigation” or “health check” is conducted on your website, where an SEO professional will identify key opportunities for improvements which will help your website’s ability to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs).

There are four types of SEO that are integral to a successful SEO strategy, and these can be audited all at once or separately.

On-page SEO audit

As the name suggests, an on-page SEO audit looks to optimise anything that is visible on your web pages.

This includes:

• blogs
• case studies
• keywords
• descriptions
• product copy
• web copy
• meta titles
• images
• headers

Off-page SEO audit

This is the exact opposite of an on-page SEO audit, anything that is happening away from your website that helps with your SEO strategy.

This includes things like:

• backlinks
• digital PR
• guest blogging
• competitor research and analysis

Technical SEO audit

Technical SEO is all the technical activities that are undertaken to improve search rankings.

This includes:

• site indexing to help bot crawling
• site load time
• mobile friendliness
• crawl error identification
• duplicate content
• keyword cannibalisation

Local SEO audit

Local SEO is a technique used to allow your website to be more easily visible in local area search results on Google.

This means that Google takes your location into consideration when you search with keywords such as “near me”.

There are different types of SEO audit, however it’s recommended that you perform a full audit on your website regularly, to ensure your website is aligning with your business goals.

Download our eBook: A Complete Guide to SEO Audits

What is the role of an SEO audit?

The role of an SEO audit is to ensure that your website follows best practices in relation to web presence.

An SEO audit will cover areas, such as:

• On-page SEO
• User experience
• Site architecture
• Sitemaps
• Indexing and crawlability
• Competitor benchmarking
• Keyword research
• Keyword usage
• Mobile friendliness
• Backlink profile

How often should you conduct an SEO audit?

It’s important to regularly perform an SEO audit on your website.

This continual improvement will ensure your website is performing efficiently.

As you go through your audit, you’ll find places where you can improve or optimise your website performance to keep users, and Google, happy; as well as improving performance.

If you have a larger company, and a more advanced website, where you regularly upload content, such as blogs and case studies, then once a quarter should be sufficient.

This allows enough time for changes to be implemented onsite and for improvements to be measured.

If you have a smaller company and website, then twice a year should be enough to ensure a thorough and measurable SEO audit and plan.

Why SEO audits are important and how to perform an SEO audit

As part of your SEO strategy, it’s important to conduct regular SEO audits to ensure that your website is performing to optimal standards, ensuring maximum leads and sales.

It’s also important to ensure that your website is functioning correctly and that nothing is broken onsite, and that your content is optimised.

The first step in conducting an SEO audit is to ensure you have three things readily available:

• The Domain URL for the website that is being audited. It’s also worth considering if you need access credentials to access the site.
• Access to an SEO auditing tool, such as Semrush, Screaming Frog or Ahrefs.
• Access to Google Search Console and Google Analytics.

The next step is identifying which type of audit is being conducted, if not all of them.

There are four types of SEO audit that take place, as mentioned previously:

• A technical SEO audit
• An off-page SEO audit
• An on-page SEO audit
• A local SEO audit

The areas to focus on when conducting an audit are:

• Usability – for example, how well your website performs from a page speed and mobile usability point of view.
• Security – how safe your website appears to web crawlers. This can include checking for malware detectors, HTTPS implementation and ensuring that the site isn’t blacklisted.
• SEO improvements – including technical, on-page and off-page SEO.

Finally, it’s important to remember than an SEO audit should be a regular part of your overall SEO strategy.

It should complement and help guide but not replace your overall SEO strategy.

If you’re looking for help with your SEO, an SEO audit is a good place to start – and our expert team at at QueryClick can help. Get in touch below and we’ll be happy to help.