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How to Perform an SEO Audit
SEO audit checklist
On-site SEO – Technical analysis
- robots.txt is placed in the root folder
- robots.txt is not blocking important resources
- XML sitemap is placed in the root folder
- SSL encryption is implemented
- URLs are SEO-friendly; hyphens are used for dividing words, URLs are under 115 characters long
- there are no duplicate URLs
- 301 redirects are properly used
- number of 404 errors is not excessive
- error pages return error status codes
- there are no server errors 5xx
- titles are H1
- there are no missing or duplicate titles
- titles are between 30 and 65 characters
- there are no missing or duplicate meta descriptions
- meta descriptions are between 70 and 155 characters
- there is no keyword cannibalization
- images are under 100 kb
- images have alt tags
- canonical URLs are properly used
- number of Nofollow links is not excessive
- the footer is used for proper navigation and information
- there is no a block of links in the footer
Homepage
- the homepage contains at least one paragraph of text
- content is unique, 200+ characters
- all elements are functional
On-page SEO – important pages
- title tags are optimized: unique and keyword-based
- custom meta descriptions optimized for clicks are used
- focus keyword is used in the title, URL, meta description, images’ file names, alt tags,
- focus keyword is found multiple times in the content
- content is unique
- URLs are static
- URLs are descriptive and short, under 115 characters
- there are no excessive number of internal links – fewer than 200
Load speed and performance
- pages load under 5 seconds
- images are optimized
- compression is enabled
- caching is enabled
- CSS and JS files are minified
- the number of HTTP requests is not excessive
Accessibility and indexation
- number of indexed URLs in search engines (site:search) is roughly equivalent
- homepage appears on top close to top for the site:search
- the site ranks well for brand searches
- goal pages are no-index
- there are no blocked important pages or resources
- XML sitemaps accurately reflect existing valid URLs
- sitemaps contain only URLs that return 200 status codes
- internal navigation is functional
- the same content is served to all user agents
Google Analytics audit
- the website tracks visits with analytics.js (ga.js is a deprecated method)
- the tracking code is inside <head> tag
- the tracking code is on every page
- different views, including test and raw view, are set up
- timezone settings are correct
- currency in view settings is correct
- internal search tracking is set up
- other Google products are linked; Google Search Console, AdWords, AdSense, etc.
- filters are set up; internal traffic (developers, agencies), referral spam
- bot filtering option is checked
- demographic reports are enabled
- interest reports are enabled
- UTM-tags are used correctly for custom campaigns
- important goals are configured
- useful events are configured
Google Search Console audit
- total number of indexed pages corresponds to reality
- crawl stats show normal Googlebot activity
- XML sitemaps are submitted
- there are no blocked resources
- number of crawl errors is not excessive
- there are no security issues
- search analytics shows branded and important keyword queries
- hreflang tags are set
- there are no mobile usability errors
Off-site SEO
- is the website gaining traffic
- is the website receiving backlinks from related sites
- how many unique root domains are pointing to the site
- is the backlink profile healthy
Mobile experience
- mobile design matches the desktop design
- all content is responsive and looks good on mobiles and tablets
- buttons are not too close
- site speed checks on mobile
- there are no pop-ups to slow down the site
Social media mentions and visibility
- is the website receiving traffic from social media pages
- are there any brand mentions on social media
- search “brand name + social media” gives accurate results
- are the account information complete and accurate
- is the relevant content posted regularly
- do people interact on social media pages