How to Do an SEO Audit as a Beginner And the Tools to Use

For example, a page providing instructions for how to tie a friendship bracelet that’s missing instructional images and essential keywords will rank poorly. Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool includes a page experience factor that considers both page load speeds and UX. If your site has long loading times, visitors may become frustrated and navigate away from your page to seek a better experience from competitors. SEO and online presence are deeply interconnected, so improving site performance is a bit of a circular challenge. More engagement leads to better SEO and a higher search engine results page (SERP) placement, but higher SEO leads to more visibility and higher user interaction. Website audits are necessary to ensure your site is getting traffic.

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See Bruce’s author page for links to connect on social media. This approach keeps your strategy sharp and ensures you’re always spending where you need it most. Set aside a portion of your SEO budget for unexpected challenges. This financial cushion ensures you can pivot without putting the rest of your strategy at risk. Every site is different, but one example of a quick win could be resolving crawl errors.

seo audit

A healthy profile should have mostly branded and generic anchors, which shows that the links have been acquired naturally. If you see an excessive number of keyword-rich anchors, that’s a red flag that could trigger Google penalties. First, check the referring domains graph to see your link growth over time. The easiest way to check if your site is mobile-friendly is to use this Mobile Friendliness Test Tool. Enter your website URL, and the tool will analyze the page to see if it meets mobile usability standards. Google primarily uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking.

seo audit

This approach led to a complete recovery of the site’s performance. This not only improved time-on-page and bounce rates but also sent stronger engagement signals to Google. We kept an eye on newly found spammy backlinks for a few months, while focusing on building high-quality backlinks by reaching out to reputable sites within the client’s niche.

seo audit

Who performs SEO audits?

seo audit

So this kind of audit can get REAL results for your business. Your navigation menu structure should be intuitive, and your site architecture should be logical. And then you can build an effective, data-backed plan to get your website at the top of SERPs. Optimization never ends because the landscape is always changing.

seo audit

First, type in a URL to check how your live page SEO Anomaly appears in the SERPs. The second way is by typing in a page meta title and description. To entice searchers to click on your page in the SERPs, you must optimize your page title and description. With WebFX’s Google Preview Tool, you can see what your page title and description will look like SERPs. You can then rewrite your tags to ensure they’re displayed correctly. It’s a handy free SEO tool for marketers looking for related keyword suggestions.

Watch out for any sudden spikes in new, low-quality backlinks. This could signal that you’ve been attacked by spam, which could harm your SEO. If you’re not sure where to start, follow the list of issues and fixes PageSpeed Insights suggests.

Pull data from Google Analytics and Search Console

High organic traffic indicates you’re bringing in and engaging users with targeted interests, which grows your site’s credibility. Google often modifies its search algorithm through routine updates, which usually focus on limiting spam, vetting content quality, and addressing other SEO concerns. Google PageSpeed Insights is a tool that works in tandem with the Chrome User Experience Report.

  • This will give you a top-level view of what the tool has found, including the number of indexable vs. non-indexable pages, top issues, and an overall website health score out of 100.
  • Eventually, I discovered that a word revealed a link at the bottom of the browser tab and the rest is history.
  • That’s why WebFX’s SEO audit services provide a recommended SEO strategy, offering guidance on what to do after fixing your SEO issues.
  • While not directly influencing rankings, meta descriptions remain an important part of SEO.

A high bounce rate or a generally poor experience causes your site to lose relevance for Google. It is very important that user experience complies with standards and aligns with search intent. Before joining Yoast, he worked for a top-tier web design magazine, where he developed a keen understanding of how to create great content.

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