It also has the same number of pages with an empty or missing meta description and thousands with a missing or empty H1 tag. It’s important to ensure that the most important pages you want indexed are included in your sitemap. To check that everything works as it should, install Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar, type each URL version into your browser, then check the HTTP headers to ensure they all redirect to the same “master” version. To check for manual actions, go to the Manual actions report in Google Search Console. The fastest way to check whether you’ve been hit by an update is to plug your URL into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and see if any traffic drops align with an update. Here are the features that makes AIOSEO the most powerful and user-friendly WordPress SEO plugin in the market.
The basic plan limits how many keywords you can track, for example, so it might not be the best choice for larger websites. Morningscore also only integrates with Google, so you’ll miss out on data from users who prefer other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, or DuckDuckGo. Getting your website to rank in Google is harder and more competitive than ever. There are many factors such as on page content, performance, social factors and backlink profile that search engines like Google use to determine which sites should rank highest. There are several files on your server — like .htaccess, robots.txt and sitemap.xml to name a few — that dictate how search engines access and index your content. Optimizing these files, so they are configured appropriately, can have a huge impact on your rankings (which is why we prioritize them as a part of our technical SEO audit services).
Content Optimization
This is another audit that often tends to be merged with other work, but sometimes done as a standalone piece. If you’re looking for step-by-step guidance, then this guide from Jamie Pitman on ‘How to Conduct a Local SEO Audit‘ is a good place to start. Later on in this guide we’ll give an overview of some of the main types of SEO audit there are. But before that we’re going to take a look at some of the wider details around what SEO audits are and how you should use them. This guide gives overview of what SEO audits are, why they’re important for SEO, and the different types of SEO audit there are.
- Otherwise, the content management system (CMS) may show the URL if there is one.
- You’ll need to consider business type, historical performance, competitors and other specific circumstances.
- As with beefing up thin content, there are certain pages on your site where it’s not going to be feasible to fully optimize for target and ancillary keywords.
- Start your free trial for a full audit, including a website score, over 300 technical issues ranked by importance, and an affected URL list.
The 10-Step SEO Audit & Checklist
I’m a studying Marketing Management (AP) at University College Lillebælt i Odense. I’m currently building my marketing career as a junior SEO specialist SEO Anomaly at Morningscore to improve my SEO skills. It’s recommended to perform an SEO audit at least once every 3 to 6 months, but if your website undergoes significant changes or sees traffic drops, a more frequent audit is necessary.
Check Your Internal Links
Implementing audit recommendations typically leads to increased organic traffic, higher conversion rates, and a stronger return on digital marketing investments. Your backlink score is an analysis of your link profile and looks at the quality and quantity of your backlinks. Earning more high-quality backlinks indicates to Google that your site is authoritative and trustworthy, and results in a higher backlink score.
Set up a free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) account and crawl your website with Site Audit. (Make sure to tick the “Backlinks” option under “Crawl settings” as this is important for one of the checks in the template). The cost of an SEO audit service depends on several factors, including your website’s size.
For businesses new to SEO, search engine optimization audits can provide a baseline for what needs fixed now vs. later to improve organic traffic. Semrush has also committed hard to integrating AI into all of its tools where humanly (robotically?) possible. Keyword Overview, the Keyword Magic Tool, and the Keyword Strategy Builder all incorporate an AI element that automates data analysis. The AI actually recommends the most effective keywords to target based on historical performance data and current competitive metrics—making manual analysis and/or guesswork a thing of the past. Additionally, Semrush Copilot provides targeted SEO advice directly in users’ dashboards, so you can see all that great AI-powered analysis without traversing several clicks away.