1. Technical SEO Audit

Start by examining your website's technical health. This ensures that search engines can crawl and index your site efficiently, which is vital for good SEO performance.

• Check site speed: Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to analyse how fast your website loads on desktop and mobile devices. Slow websites can hurt both user experience and search engine rankings.
• Mobile-friendliness: Ensure your website is fully responsive. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to ensure it adapts well to different devices.
• Ensure HTTPS: Security is crucial for SEO. If your site isn’t using HTTPS, it’s time to switch. Google favours secure websites, which builds trust with users.
• Crawlability: Use tools like Google Search Console to ensure search engines can crawl your website effectively. Look for crawl errors or broken links.

2. On-Page SEO Audit

Next, dive into your on-page SEO to ensure each webpage is optimised for search engines.

• Meta tags and descriptions: Ensure each page has unique meta titles and descriptions optimised with relevant keywords. Keep your title under 60 characters and descriptions under 160 characters.
• Headings (H1, H2, h2): Use clear, structured headings to organise content. Ensure your primary keyword appears in the H1 tag and secondary keywords are in the H2 or h2 tags.
• Keyword optimisation: Conduct keyword research to ensure target keywords are in page titles, content, and image alt text. Use long-tail keywords to rank for more specific queries​.
• Internal linking: Check that you have an effective internal linking strategy to pass authority between pages and help users find related content on your site.

3. Content Audit

The quality of your content is key to user engagement and SEO. During your audit, review your content's relevance, quality, and keyword optimisation.

• Relevance and value: Ensure that your content answers your audience's questions. Outdated or irrelevant content should either be updated or removed.
• Content length: Longer, well-structured content performs better in search results. Make sure your pages have enough depth to cover topics comprehensively.
• Keyword usage: Revisit your primary and secondary keywords. Are they naturally integrated throughout the content? Keyword stuffing should be avoided at all costs.
• Image optimisation: Ensure images are compressed for quick loading and have descriptive alt text incorporating keywords​.

4. User Experience (UX) Audit

A seamless user experience is vital for reducing bounce rates and improving engagement.

• Navigation and layout: Is your website easy to navigate? Ensure users can easily find what they’re looking for and reduce the number of clicks it takes to reach important pages.
• Mobile usability: The majority of users browse from mobile devices, so make sure your website is mobile-friendly. This includes readable text, easy-to-click buttons, and fast loading times​.
• Calls to action (CTAs): Ensure your CTAs are clear and prominent. Every page should direct users toward a desired action, whether signing up for a newsletter or purchasing.

5. Performance Audit

Performance audits focus on how well your website runs, which is a major factor in user experience and SEO.

• Page load speed: Use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to evaluate your website's overall speed. Slow load times lead to higher bounce rates and negatively affect SEO rankings.
• Fix broken links: Regularly check for broken links that could frustrate users and harm your SEO. Tools like SemRush can help you identify any links that need fixing.

6. Security and Backup

Ensuring your website is secure and backed up regularly is crucial for maintaining user trust and preventing data loss.

• SSL certificate: Check that your SSL certificate is active—websites without SSL show as “Not Secure” in browsers, which can scare away potential customers.
• Backup system: Regular backups are essential in case of data breaches or technical issues. Ensure your backup system is up-to-date and easy to restore.

FAQs

1. How often should I conduct a website audit? Ideally, you should conduct a comprehensive website audit every six months. However, if you notice performance or ranking issues, you should audit more frequently.

2. What tools can help with a website audit? Popular tools include Google Search Console, Google Analytics, SEMRush and Google Page Insights. These help with everything from tracking website performance to identifying technical SEO issues​.

3. Can I do a website audit myself? Yes, especially if you're a small business with limited resources. Many user-friendly tools are available that make auditing your site manageable even without advanced technical skills.

4. What is the most important part of a website audit? All parts are important, but technical SEO and user experience are often critical to ensuring your site runs smoothly and ranks well.

Conclusion

A comprehensive website audit is essential to ensuring your website performs at its best. From technical SEO to user experience, each aspect of your website needs regular attention to boost visibility, improve performance, and enhance user engagement. With this checklist, you’ll be well on your way to a highly optimised-website.

This guide is written by Hedgehog, a Done With You digital marketing consultancy specialising in small and medium businesses in Australia. We offer digital marketing consulting, coaching, and training.