If you and your team are looking into how to do an SEO Audit for your website, you’ve come to the right place. I’ll provide a detailed process for auditing your site in this guide. While SEO has its difficulties and specialisms, I believe that all website owners can learn the basic skills needed to analyse their website and enhance it with search engine optimisation in mind.
Read on to discover the tools to use, the steps to take and how to present your findings to a client, team or boss. Or if you’d rather get someone experienced with SEO audits to conduct one for you, learn about my SEO Audit services here.
What is an SEO Audit?
An SEO audit is a crucial first step in any SEO journey. While each audit is unique, depending on who produces it, the brand it’s for, and the industry you are in, some fundamentals never change. An SEO Audit helps you understand where your website stands in the bustling online marketplace, uncover any foundational issues that might be holding back your organic search success, and identify your core target audience. It also reveals who your main competitors are in search engines. Once we gather and analyse this valuable information, we can create a tailored plan of action to boost your site’s performance.
Just like a business audit, an SEO audit is all about gaining a clear picture of where things currently stand, explicitly focusing on Organic Search performance. This way, you’re equipped to make informed decisions and move forward with confidence. You can read even more about what an SEO Audit Is here.
How to do an SEO Audit?
Reviewing your site for a website audit may feel overwhelming at first, especially if you have a larger site. However, an audit does not have to be overly complex to uncover some key opportunities and potential issues. As with all pieces of work, preparation is key for a smooth process and to keep you on track.
First, we’ll examine the common tools used to access key data. I’ll then highlight the main areas and processes you need to consider. Finally, we’ll discuss creating a report that suits you and your requirements.
Choose your SEO Audit Tools
First things first, if you can’t access data for your site, you won’t get very far. It is absolutely vital that you have some decent analytics on the site. While the longer these are in place, the better, I look to have at least one month’s worth of data as the absolute bare minimum for auditing. But, if you don’t have much traffic to your site yet, I’d say this needs to be much longer too. Being able to review a site for at least two years provides insight into seasonal trends, business growth, and overall site trends in engagement and visitation.
Website Analytics (Google Analytics, Fathom, Matomo)
Having working analytics on your website is absolutely crucial to determine your successes and failures. There are many ways to integrate analytics on your site, and these platforms provide in-depth data on visitor behaviour, traffic sources, and conversion rates, allowing you to make informed decisions to improve your online presence.
The most popular by far is Google Analytics, which is free and has set the standard for website analytics for decades. It has robust tracking capabilities and easily integrates with lots of other tools, but there are many ethical concerns around data privacy, the selling of said data, and potentially opening your website up to legal action. There are currently 200,000 cases against websites using Google Analytics.
If you’re looking for a more privacy-focused approach, ethical analytics providers like Fathom and Matomo enable you to optimise your website for success without compromising your users’ data. Check out my website analytics offers for an ethical alternative to the usual analytics.
Search Results & Keywords Rankings (Google Search Console, SEO Software Tools
Utilising tools such as Google Search Console (previously known as Webmaster Tools) and SEO Software can help you track your search results and keyword rankings effectively. By monitoring your website’s performance, you can identify opportunities to improve your SEO strategy and drive more organic traffic to your site.
Google Search Console offers a free insight into how your site is performing on Google, the biggest search engine in the world and allows you to make informed decisions about where your site should focus. While GSC is excellent at revealing your existing data, it’s also essential to see what keywords and phrases you could be missing out on. SEO software like SE Ranking, Moz and Ahrefs can provide more detailed insights into your industry and niche. You can use these tools to look at keyword search volumes and difficulties and see what your competitors are ranking for and what target keywords they are focusing on.
Page Speeds & Website Performance (Core Web Vitals, EcoGrader, Website Carbon)
With the increasing emphasis on Core Web Vitals, it is crucial for businesses to focus on their page speeds and overall website performance. By prioritising factors such as loading times, responsiveness, and sustainability, you can enhance user experience and contribute to a more eco-friendly online environment. Stay ahead of the game by optimising your website for better performance and a greener digital footprint.
Some free tools you can use to review your page speeds and carbon usage include PageSpeed Insights, Gmetrix, Ecograder and the Website Carbon Calculator.
Data Collection and Note Taking
With all this data , you need somewhere to collate it so you can refer to it later, compare it and display it to the client. For raw analytics and numbers, Excel or Google Sheets is the simplest way to do this. You can easily download most of the above data in CSV format, which can be imported into this spreadsheet software.
You’ll also need something to make notes on and write the actual report. Word, Google Docs, PowerPoint, and Google Slides are all great tools for presenting your findings, but I also like to keep a sticky notes tab or a notebook open at the same time to jot down notes, ideas and other observations I might want to refer to later.
Key Actions & Processes
Now that you have the tools you’ll need, let’s look at what actions we need to take and how to do an SEO Audit.
Crawl the site (Technical SEO Audit)
Firstly, with your SEO software, you can run various SEO audit tools to provide an overarching view of your website and its pages. A technical SEO audit is the most common type of audit you will find in these tools, which reviews the site and identifies any errors. This can range from missing metadata and duplicate content to slow loading speeds and 404 errors.
Next, you’ll want to review your analytics data and search console data for your chosen date range. Online platforms for analytics usually provide reports that are sufficient for a simple site, but if you need to delve deeper into the data and specific comparisons, you might want to download that data as well. It could be helpful to combine pieces of data, such as analytics for a particular page matched with search console data like impressions and click-throughs. The more data you can review, the clearer your audit will be regarding what is working for your site and what needs improvement.
Review the Data
After completing the website crawl, the next step is to thoroughly analyse the results. It is crucial to pinpoint the most critical issues that need to be addressed promptly, such as broken hyperlinks, redundant content, absent meta descriptions, or sluggishly loading web pages. It is advisable to categorise these findings according to their urgency and how simple they are to rectify. This systematic approach will help streamline the process of improving the website’s overall performance and user experience. Plus, it provides a clear way for you to organise your audit.
Analyse the Web Pages (On-page SEO Audit)
When analysing the effectiveness of a website’s SEO strategy, it’s important to go beyond just the technical aspects. Take a closer look at how each page is structured in terms of content and user experience (UX). Ensure that the keyword intent is clear and that headings are used effectively to improve readability and navigation. Evaluate whether internal links are logically placed and add value to the overall user experience.
Ultimately, the focus should be on creating content that serves the user and addresses their needs. This qualitative analysis, when combined with technical data, can pinpoint areas for improvement that will enhance user engagement and ultimately drive better organic search results.
Analysing your web pages from a human perspective, rather than a robot’s (as with a crawl), is crucial to understand your site’s appeal. While this can be the most intensive part of an audit, it allows you to truly evaluate your site as your audience does. If you lack a background in design, copy, or UX, or have no staff with those skills, make sure to have many people review it. Alternatively, hiring an expert to review can also be a wise choice, providing an unbiased assessment of your site.
Creating the SEO Audit Report
With a well-executed SEO audit report, you can identify opportunities for growth and develop a strategic plan to enhance your online presence. Creating the final SEO audit report will provide you, your colleagues or your client with clear insights into their site.
Collating the Information
Collate all your research material in a single location. Whether it’s in a spreadsheet, a presentation deck, or a visual dashboard, make sure your data is well-organised and categorised into different segments, such as technical, content, performance, and off-page analysis. Having all your findings in one place will make it easier to identify key insights and trends to inform your strategic decisions and planning moving forward.
Providing the Data
When presenting data to stakeholders, it is essential to provide them with the opportunity to review the raw data in depth. This can be achieved by attaching or linking full spreadsheets, screenshots, charts, and crawl reports in an appendix or separate document. By including these detailed sources, stakeholders can delve into the information further, ensuring transparency and clarity in the decision-making process. This allows for a comprehensive review and understanding of the data presented, aiding in making well-informed decisions based on thorough analysis.
Creating a Summary
Once you’ve gathered all your data and observations, it’s essential to distil your findings into a clear, concise summary that highlights the most important insights. This section of your SEO audit report acts as an executive overview — perfect for clients, managers, or stakeholders who may not want to dive into the detailed data but still need to understand the key takeaways and recommended actions.
Focus on outlining the main issues affecting the site’s performance, such as broken links, poor page speed, missing metadata, or low-ranking content. Prioritise these findings using a traffic light system or a bullet-point format to make the information easily scannable:
- 🔴 Urgent fixes: Critical technical issues or content problems that are actively harming SEO performance.
- 🟠 Medium priority: Opportunities for improvement that will support growth but aren’t immediately damaging.
- 🟢 All good: Areas of the site are performing well and requiring no immediate action.
You should also flag any quick wins, such as small, easily implemented fixes that can lead to noticeable improvements (like updating title tags or fixing broken internal links), as well as long-term strategies, including improving content quality across the site, building backlinks, or enhancing mobile performance.
This summary should empower your reader to understand:
- What’s working
- What’s not
- Where to focus their energy next
If appropriate, include a short table or checklist of the top 5–10 action points as a visual aid.
Presenting the Report
When delivering a presentation, it is essential to tailor your style to suit your audience. For example, when presenting to clients or senior management who may not be familiar with SEO, it is important to use simple language to ensure understanding.
On the other hand, when presenting to an in-house SEO team, you can delve into more technical details. It is crucial to keep your presentation focused, action-driven, and visually clear to maintain the audience’s interest and engagement. By adapting your style to suit your audience, you can effectively communicate your message and increase the likelihood of achieving your desired outcomes.
An SEO Audit Checklist for Beginners
If the above seems quite overwhelming, but you’d still like to learn how to do an SEO audit the easy way. Why not check out our Free 10 Minute SEO Site Health Check Guide, which you can download for free or pay what you feel. If you are trying to make sense of your website’s SEO, this 10-minute SEO Site health check is a great place to start.
This guide is here to support you in quickly spotting common SEO issues, from technical glitches to content gaps, and to help you start improving your site’s visibility, accessibility, and performance. Whether you’re handling it on your own or just want to get a clear sense of what needs fixing before reaching out for help, it’s designed to empower you without feeling overwhelming.
Once you’ve completed this you can get the Full DIY SEO Audit (COMING SOON). Perfect for those with some tech knowledge or a dev/comms team already in place. This downloadable guide takes you through a more detailed SEO review with step-by-step instructions and tools to help you make improvements confidently and ethically.
An SEO Site Audit with Middleton Marketing
The SEO audits I provide are detailed and customised to your specific needs, covering website analysis, target market identification, competitor review, and keyword research. Each audit, as standard, includes a 3-month optimisation plan to enhance your site’s performance. Whether it’s a one-time review or part of a larger SEO strategy, I support you throughout the process.
After the audit, there’s no obligation- you can implement the plan yourself, have me do it, or work with another contractor. I also offer helpful consultancy packages if you’re ready to take charge on your own. Whatever path you choose, I’m eager to help grow your business and reach your goals!
Next Steps?
Need more detailed guidance on how to do an SEO audit or lack the time or skills to handle it yourself? Request a Comprehensive SEO Site Audit. I will examine your website and deliver a straightforward, jargon-free report with practical, tailored recommendations for your goals and audience. Contact me via email at [email protected] or complete this form.
Unsure about what you need? Let’s talk. I can help clarify your options and recommend the best next step for your organisation. Reach out by email at [email protected] or fill out this form.