What is an SEO audit
An SEO audit or a technical site audit is a process of evaluating a website’s strength, weaknesses and healthiness in terms of Search Engine Optimization and related, overlapping areas.
What can you expect from an SEO audit
An SEO audit should be the first step in the search engine optimization process. Performing an SEO audit is the best way to identify how to improve your search rankings.
The auditor has to check different areas of your website regarding search engine friendliness, accessibility, visibility and performance. Quality SEO audit doesn’t include any fixes, only recommendations on what needs fixing.
After an audit is over, the auditor will give you a report which includes the following:
- A list of analyzed items with results and explanation
- Recommendations for fixes and missing opportunities
- Guidelines on how to proceed with on-site and off-site SEO activities
Which areas an SEO audit covers
An SEO audit can be performed on a site level and on a campaign/keyword level.
Site-level audit
A site-level audit covers overall SEO activities and ranking factors which have an impact on your whole website.
- on-site SEO – technical analysis
- on-page SEO – content analysis
- a website’s speed and performance
- accessibility and indexation
- Google Analytics code and setup
- webmaster tools setup
- off-site SEO
- mobile experience
- social media mentions and visibility
Campaign-level audit
A campaign-level audit is more focused on a specific campaign and includes:
- on-page SEO – how well is your landing page optimized
- page speed and performance
- keyword analysis – what is the quality of your keyword
- competitor analysis – are you targeting the right keyword and what are possible link opportunities
- campaign-based technical analysis
When you should perform an SEO audit
You should perform a site-level audit after every major Google algorithm update, to check how the update influences your rankings, or at least once a year. A campaign level audit is best to perform in the beginning of a campaign and once in every quarter as long as a campaign lasts.