SEO Audit – How to Conduct a Complete Site Check

Your website may look great, but that alone does not guarantee visibility in search results. Without proper optimisation, even a well-designed site can struggle to attract visitors.

An SEO audit helps you uncover what’s stopping your site from ranking higher on Google. It analyses every important element that affects visibility, traffic, and performance.

In this guide, you’ll learn what an SEO audit is, why it matters, and how to conduct one step by step. You’ll also discover practical tips and tools to make the process easier and more effective.

What Is an SEO Audit?

An SEO audit checks how well your website is optimised for search engines. It looks at the key factors that influence how your site ranks in search results. The goal is to find and fix issues that may be hurting your site’s visibility on search engines.

The process mainly covers five areas that impact how your site performs:

Type	What It Covers
Technical SEO	Checks crawlability, site speed, mobile-friendliness, and Core Web Vitals. Makes sure search engines can index your site properly.
On-Page SEO	Reviews keyword use, title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and internal links. Ensures your content is structured and optimised.
Off-Page SEO	Looks at your backlink profile. Identifies quality and spammy links that affect your site’s authority and reputation.
Content Quality	Evaluates how relevant, original, and helpful your content is. Flags duplicate or outdated content.
Local SEO (if applicable)	Checks Google Business Profile details and NAP (name, address, and phone number) consistency. Helps your business show up in local searches.

To perform an SEO audit, you need strong SEO knowledge and skills in using audit tools. You should understand how search engines crawl and rank pages. You also need to analyse technical and on-page factors, review backlinks, and interpret data to find useful insights.

---

Why You Should Do an SEO Audit

Short answer: An SEO audit finds and fixes problems that hold your website back, helping you boost rankings, visibility, and traffic.

Long answer: An SEO audit gives you a clear picture of how your website performs in search results. It helps you see what’s working well and what needs improvement. Once you complete the audit and fix the issues, your website can gain several benefits.

Such as:

• Better visibility: Helps your site appear more often in search results.
• Higher rankings: Improves how your pages perform on Google and Bing.
• More traffic: Brings in more visitors and potential customers.
• Better user experience: Makes your site faster, smoother, and easier to use.

A real-world example of the impact of an SEO audit comes from Inyova, a Swiss digital platform for sustainable impact investing. After a full technical SEO review, content update, and link-building strategy, Inyova achieved a 701% year-over-year increase in clicks from Google.

---

How to Do an SEO Audit (Step-by-Step)

As we discussed above, an SEO audit mainly looks at five key areas: technical SEO, on-page SEO, content quality, off-page SEO, and local SEO. Each focuses on a different part of your website’s performance and plays a vital role in improving your visibility and rankings.

In the sections below, we’ll discuss each of these areas in detail.

Step 1: Review Your Site’s Technical SEO Setup

A technical SEO audit focuses on the behind-the-scenes factors that affect how search engines crawl, index, and understand your website. It ensures your site is fast, secure, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate for both users and search engines.

Here’s how to perform a technical SEO audit:

1. Check crawlability and indexing

What to do: Make sure your key pages, such as your homepage, service pages, and important blog posts, are being crawled and indexed by Google.

Why: If these pages aren’t crawled or indexed, they won’t appear in search results, which directly affects your visibility and traffic.

How to do: Go to Google Search Console → Indexing → Pages. Check whether your key pages appear under the Indexed section. If they don’t, open the Not Indexed tab and review the Why pages aren’t indexed report.

Look for URLs listed under reasons like “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag”, “Blocked by robots.txt”, or “Crawled – currently not indexed.” These indicate that Google couldn’t index those pages. Note these URLs for further review to understand why they aren’t being indexed.

---

2. Review sitemap and robots.txt

What to do: Check your sitemap and robots.txt file to make sure search engines can crawl and index your key pages.

Why: A sitemap helps search engines discover your content faster, while the robots.txt file tells them which pages or folders to avoid. Any errors here can prevent important pages from being indexed.

How to do: Go to Google Search Console → Indexing → Sitemaps to confirm your sitemap is submitted and processed without errors. It should include only live, indexable URLs.

Then, check your robots.txt file by visiting yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Make sure it doesn’t block essential sections of your site, such as product or blog pages.

---

3. Test Core Web Vitals (CWV)

What to do: Check how your website performs for real users by testing its Core Web Vitals, which include loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.

Why: Core Web Vitals affect both your search rankings and user experience. Slow, unstable pages can lead to higher bounce rates and lower conversions.

How to do: Open Google Search Console and click Core Web Vitals under the Experience section. You’ll see separate reports for Mobile and Desktop, showing how many URLs are Good (green), Need Improvement (yellow), or Poor (red).

Select a report and click Open Report to view detailed insights. Review the pages listed under the yellow and red categories, as these need further performance evaluation. For detailed tips on improving CWV metrics, check out our Core Web Vitals guide.

---

4. Ensure HTTPS security

What to do: Make sure every page on your website loads securely using HTTPS instead of HTTP.

Why: HTTPS protects your visitors’ data and builds trust. Google also considers it a ranking signal, so not having HTTPS can negatively affect your site’s visibility.

How to do: Go to Google Search Console → HTTPS under the Experience section. You’ll see a summary of your site’s secure and non-secure pages. If you notice any red bars or “Non-HTTPS URLs,” those pages aren’t secure and need to be fixed.

---

5. Fix broken links and redirects

What to do: Check your website for broken links and unnecessary redirect chains.

Why: Broken links lead to poor user experience and can prevent search engines from crawling your pages effectively. Redirect chains slow down page loading and waste crawl budget.

How to do: Go to Google Search Console → Indexing → Pages. In the Why pages aren’t indexed report, look for URLs listed under issues such as “Page with redirect” or “Not found (404)”. These indicate broken links or redirect problems that need to be reviewed and fixed.

---

Step 2: Evaluate Your On-Page SEO

An on-page SEO audit focuses on the elements within your web pages that influence search rankings. It ensures each page is well-structured, easy to read, and properly optimised with the right keywords and metadata.

Here’s how to audit your website’s on-page SEO:

1. Analyse URL structure

What to do: Check if your URLs are clean, descriptive, and keyword-friendly.

Why: A clear URL structure helps search engines and users understand what the page is about. Long or messy URLs can hurt readability and clickability.

How to do: Review your URLs through GSC. Make sure they’re short, descriptive, and use relevant keywords. Avoid random numbers, symbols, or unnecessary folders.

---

2. Review internal linking

What to do: Evaluate how pages on your website link to one another.

Why: Strong internal linking helps users navigate your site easily and allows search engines to understand the relationship between pages.

How to do: Use Ahrefs to map your internal links. Ensure that key pages (like service or product pages) are linked from relevant content using descriptive anchor text.

---

3. Add schema markup (if needed)

What to do: Check if your pages use structured data to help search engines better understand your content.

Why: Schema markup can enhance how your pages appear in search results, adding rich details like ratings, product info, or events. This can improve visibility and click-through rates.

How to do: Go to Google’s Rich Results Test and enter your page URL to check if structured data is implemented correctly. If missing or invalid, add schema markup using guidelines or generate it with Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.

---

Step 3: Analyse Your Off-Page SEO

An off-page SEO audit focuses on activities that happen outside your website but still affect its rankings. It mainly looks at backlinks, domain authority, and online reputation. These factors help search engines see your website as credible and trustworthy within your industry.

Here’s how to audit your website’s off-page SEO:

1. Identify toxic backlinks

What to do: Look for spammy or low-quality backlinks that may harm your site’s reputation.

Why: Toxic backlinks from unrelated, low-quality, or spam-heavy domains can negatively impact your website’s trustworthiness.

How to do: In Ahrefs, open the Backlinks. Ahrefs automatically flags suspicious or spammy links. Review these carefully and, if they appear harmful, you can disavow them using Google Search Console’s Disavow Tool.

---

2. Review anchor text distribution

What to do: Check the anchor texts used in backlinks pointing to your website.

Why: Anchor text provides context to linked content, helping search engines understand what the page is about and improving user experience. However, if too many backlinks use the same keyword-heavy anchors, it can look unnatural and reduce their value.

How to do: Open Ahrefs → Anchors report to view your most-used anchor texts. Look for a balanced mix of branded, generic, and keyword-rich anchors. If you notice overuse of exact-match keywords, mark those links for review in your next backlink cleanup.

---

Step 4: Check Your Content Quality

A content quality audit focuses on how helpful, relevant, and valuable your website content is for users. It helps you find weak or outdated pages, improve readability, and make sure your content matches what people search for.

Here’s how to audit your website’s content quality:

1. Find pages that dropped in rankings

What to do: Identify pages that have lost search visibility or dropped in keyword rankings.

Why: Tracking ranking drops helps you spot declining content before traffic loss becomes significant. These pages often need content updates or better keyword focus.

How to do: Open Google Search Console → Performance → Search Results. Compare the last three months with the previous period. Sort by Clicks Difference or Position Difference to find pages that dropped. Review those pages for outdated information or weaker keyword coverage.

---

2. Improve low CTR pages

What to do: Find pages that get high impressions but few clicks from search results.

Why: A low click-through rate (CTR) means your titles or descriptions aren’t compelling enough to attract users, even if your rankings are good.

How to do: In Google Search Console → Performance → Search Results, sort pages by Impressions and look for ones with a CTR below average. Refresh the title tag and meta description to make them more engaging and keyword-focused.

---

3. Optimise for secondary keywords

What to do: Find additional keywords your pages are already showing impressions for and include them naturally in your content.

Why: Adding relevant secondary keywords helps improve visibility for multiple search terms and strengthens topical authority.

How to do: In Google Search Console, open a page under Performance → Search Results, then check the Queries tab. Look for keywords with high impressions but low clicks. Add these secondary terms naturally into your headings, paragraphs, and image alt text.

---

4. Refresh and expand content

What to do: Update older content to keep it fresh, useful, and aligned with current search intent.

Why: Outdated content can cause ranking drops. Refreshing it improves relevance and helps you stay competitive.

How to do: Review your older blog posts or landing pages. Add recent examples, updated stats, expert quotes, or case studies to strengthen credibility. Tools like Google Analytics can help identify older pages with steady traffic that would benefit most from updates.

---

5. Review readability

What to do: Ensure your content is easy to read and visually engaging.

Why: Readable content keeps users on your page longer, reduces bounce rate, and improves user experience, all of which can support SEO performance.

How to do: Break up long paragraphs, add clear headings, bullet points, and visuals. Tools like Hemingway Editor or Grammarly can help you simplify complex sentences and improve tone clarity. Aim for a conversational, easy-to-skim writing style.

---

Step 5: Assess Your Local SEO Setup

A local SEO audit is for businesses that target customers in specific locations, such as restaurants, dental clinics, salons, law firms, or retail stores. It ensures your business information is accurate, consistent, and easy to find in local search results.

Here’s how to run a local SEO audit for your business:

---

1. See if a Google Business Profile exists

What to do: Check whether your business already has a Google Business Profile (GBP) created and verified.

Why: Your GBP is essential for appearing in local search results and on Google Maps. Without it, your business may not show up when potential customers search for you.

How to do it: Search your business name on Google or Google Maps. If a profile appears on the right-hand side of the search results or within Maps, your GBP exists. If not, you’ll need to create one at google.com/business and verify it.

---

2. Check NAP consistency

What to do: Review your business’s NAP details – Name, Address, and Phone Number – across all online platforms and directories.

Why: Consistent NAP information helps Google and customers trust your business. Inconsistent details can confuse search engines and hurt your local search rankings.

How to do: Go to your Google Business Profile and verify that your business name, address, and phone number are correct. Then, review your social media pages and booking platforms to ensure your NAP details are consistent and match exactly everywhere.

---

3. Audit local citations

What to do: Check your business information on third-party directories and data platforms that list your business automatically.

Why: Local citations on platforms like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and TripAdvisor strengthen your online presence and help search engines verify your business. However, incorrect or outdated citations can confuse both customers and Google, lowering your local visibility.

How to do: Use tools like Moz Local or BrightLocal to scan your business across online directories. These tools show where your business is listed and flag any missing, outdated, or duplicate citations that need correction.

---

How to Do a Quick 30-Minute SEO Audit

There may be situations where you need to perform a website SEO audit quickly, such as before a client meeting or campaign launch. In those moments, a quick audit with WebYes can help you identify key SEO issues in just 30 minutes.

To perform a quick 30-minute SEO audit with WebYes, follow these simple steps:

1. Sign up: Create a free WebYes account.
2. Enter your website: Add your site URL to start the scan.
3. Run the scan: WebYes will analyse your website and detect SEO problems.
4. View results: Open the SEO dashboard to see your score and detailed findings.
5. Download report: Generate a white-labeled report with your logo and colours.

What WebYes checks in a quick SEO audit

A WebYes quick audit focuses on 11 key areas that influence your site’s search performance. Most of these are technical SEO factors that directly affect visibility and ranking.

Area	What It Checks
Meta Descriptions	Checks if each page has a meta description.
HTTP Status Codes	Confirms correct codes (200, 301, 404) for crawling and indexing.
Link Text	Checks that link text is present and descriptive.
Crawlable Anchors	Ensures anchor text can be accessed by search engine bots.
Is Crawlable	Verifies that important pages are accessible to crawlers.
Robots.txt	Checks if the robots.txt file is properly configured.
Hreflang Tags	Checks if hreflang tags are present and set up correctly.
Canonical URLs	Verifies that canonical tags exist to prevent duplicate content.
Structured Data	Checks if structured data markup is present on the page.
Mobile-Friendliness	Checks if your site is optimised for mobile devices.
Core Web Vitals	Reviews key user experience metrics like loading, interactivity, and visual stability.

---

How Often to Run an SEO Audit

Short answer: Audit your website for SEO at least once every quarter.

Long answer: The right frequency depends on your website type and business goals. If you run a large e-commerce site or publish new content regularly, a monthly SEO audit helps keep your site optimised. For smaller or static websites, a biannual or annual audit may be enough.

In some cases, you may need to run an immediate SEO audit, such as when you notice:

• A sudden drop in website traffic
• A fall in keyword rankings
• A rise in bounce rate
• A decrease in conversions or sales

---

Wrapping Up

An SEO audit is not a one-time task. It is an ongoing process that keeps your website healthy and competitive. Regular audits help you find issues early, improve user experience, and stay aligned with search engine updates.

To get the best results, follow the step-by-step process in this guide. Start with technical fixes, then move through on-page, content, off-page, and local SEO audits. Each step builds on the previous one to create a stronger, faster, and more search-friendly website.