How to Perform a Quick SEO Audit for Your Website

SEO remains the #1 growth strategy for many small businesses due to its effectiveness. It’s an excellent, cost-effective approach to promote your brand and boost sales. But where do you start? With a quick SEO audit. 

It takes a lot of trial and error for SEO to work, especially when you’re just getting started.

That’s why running a quick SEO audit on a regular basis is the backbone of a successful SEO plan. It allows you to identify issues with your current SEO strategy and implement unique solutions.

In today’s post, you’ll learn when you should conduct an SEO audit for your website and how you can do that quickly. 

What Is an SEO Audit?

An SEO audit is the analysis of a website to identify any issues preventing it from ranking high on Google. That includes technical website audits, on-page SEO audits, local SEO audits, site design audits, and more.

For instance:

A single crawling error could prevent new pages from being indexed. Which slows the ranking process for your site and lowers its organic traffic. 

Other examples include issues with:

• On-page SEO
• Mobile-friendliness
• Page speed
• URL structure
• Duplicate content

With the help of an expert, all of these issues can be identified and fixed with a quick SEO audit.

How Long Does an SEO Audit Take?

There are lots of factors to consider when running an SEO audit. Which makes it hard for you to know how long the process is going to take.

To answer the question:

A small website with a few dozen pages could be analyzed within a few minutes. That includes a basic technical audit with a quick examination of your on-page and off-page SEO.

Comprehensive audits, however, are specific to larger sites with thousands of published pages and ranking keywords. They require more tools and reports, which is why they can take weeks to months to finish.

Note:

Shorter audits may not always be the best option if you’re serious about SEO. So be sure to run a comprehensive audit every once in a while. 

When Should You Perform an SEO Audit?

1- If You’ve Never Conducted an SEO Audit Before

A single issue in your SEO plan can hurt your overall progress. And there’s no way for you to know that unless you perform an SEO audit immediately.

So, if this is your first time learning about SEO audits, you need to conduct one as soon as possible.

2- In Case of a Sudden Drop in Organic Traffic

Sudden drops in organic traffic aren’t always your fault, especially if most of your visitors come from a few keywords only. Most of the time, that traffic loss is a result of regular algorithm updates by Google.

However:

Performing an SEO audit for your site after a significant traffic drop is a must. It helps you uncover issues and fix them quickly so you can maintain your SEO results. 

You’ll also make sure your website hasn’t received any manual penalties. 

3- Regular Audits to Identify Unexpected Errors

Regular audits on your website need to be a key part of your SEO plan in the future. That’s why we recommend that you perform an audit each three to six months while you monitor your SEO progress.

How to Conduct a Quick SEO Audit

An effective SEO audit identifies the biggest issues in your strategy and details out a plan to fix them.

So, in this part, you’ll learn how to perform an SEO audit on your website for free. 

It won’t cover everything in the process but instead will focus on the most common issues we’ve seen in the past. 

Ready?

Let’s get started.

1- Crawling and Indexing

A website could have hundreds of published high-quality pages and still receive little to no traffic because of crawling errors. They’re one of the most common causes of failure in SEO, especially for new webmasters. 

To check if your website is getting indexed, go to Google and enter the following query:

Site:”yourwebsite.com” 

From here, you can see the total number of indexed pages and how they appear on Google.

Another easy way to do this is by using Google Search Console (GSC). Click on Coverage under Index to see how many pages have been published and if there are any problems with that.

For more advanced details, you can check the Crawl Stats Report for your website on GSC.

2- On-Page SEO

On-page SEO isn’t something you have to worry about if you’re using a popular content management system such as WordPress. 

Most of these platforms have been developed to be SEO-friendly. They get regular updates to ensure compliance with the latest Webmasters Guidelines.

However, it’s always possible for errors to occur once you’ve published a few hundred pages or more.

So…

Check your custom-made pages for on-page SEO elements such as headings, subheadings, internal links, etc. Make sure each page has one H1, a few H2s, as well as some images and internal links to keep crawling spiders longer on your site.

3- Mobile Usability

Mobile-friendliness is becoming increasingly important for SEO as Google considers it a key ranking factor. That’s due to the major shift in user behavior from using desktops to mobile devices.

Therefore…

If your website isn’t mobile responsive, you’re missing out on huge opportunities to convert qualified prospects.

To check your site’s mobile usability, go to the Mobile-Friendly Test tool and enter your site’s link. You’ll then get a basic report on how your site is performing on mobile and the changes you need to make.

4- Site Speed

Page speed is another essential factor to keep in mind when running an SEO audit for your website.

A slow website won’t only make you lose potential prospects, but it will also negatively affect your SEO results.

To test your website speed, go to PageSpeed Insights and enter the link to your website. The tool will then show your score within seconds and give you instructions on how you can improve it. 

Check out our beginner’s guide to learn more about how to improve site speed.

5- Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is one of the surest ways to lose rankings on search engines. Identical pages on your site will compete for the same keywords. Which makes it impossible for Google to define which page should rank first. 

Because of that, you’ll end up giving up high-volume keywords to your competitors.

To avoid all of this, you can use any free duplicate content checker online such as Copyscape or Duplichecker. These tools will help you make sure you don’t have any duplicate pages or posts on your site. 

7- Broken Links

You can find any broken links on your website using Google Search Console. All you have to do is go to Index > Coverage to see the list of broken links on your site.

If there are any errors there, fix them by redirecting those links towards alive pages or removing them entirely.

8- Manual Actions

A manual action is a Google penalty that’s applied specifically to your website when you violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. It prevents your pages from reaching the top of the SERPs until you fix the problem that has caused it in the first place.

To check manual penalties, go to Manual Actions in Google Search Console and look for any detected issues.

Usually, you’ll see a green tick indicating that there are no actions against your site. If there is an issue, check out this short guide by Google explaining how you can manual penalties.

Your Basic SEO Audit Is Complete… Now What?

We shared with you in this guide the core elements of an SEO audit and how to perform them. They’ll help you uncover fundamental issues in your strategy, which you must then fix quickly to maximize results.

It’s important to note that SEO issues can arise at any time, and it would be impossible for you to identify them without an SEO audit. That’s why we always recommend running a few audits a year to stay on top of things.

Need help growing your business with content marketing and SEO?

Don’t hesitate to contact us or give us a call today at (949) 354-2574. We’re happy to answer all of your questions and provide tailored solutions to your project needs.