How To Perform An SEO Audit (in 15 Steps With Checklist)

Learn how to do an SEO audit of your website to identify problematic areas. Use our SEO audit checklist to fix issues and improve your SEO.

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70 Comments

  1. clotilde says

    Well done, thanks for this very USEFUL checklist!
    Now, i have a good base for SEO audit.
    Thanks!
    Clotilde

  2. Chris says

    I love it when someone takes the time to compile and organize information into a very useful resource like this. I am still in school for Internet marketing and just getting into this business. I will bookmark this for future reference.

  3. Kered Pople says

    I have read your article and think it is amazing. I just wanted to point out a grammar mistake I picked up on. If you look at the following sentence I have put in brackets the mistake.

    I (game) up with a list of 60 items that covers everything you need to check.

    I hope you do not mind me pointing this out.

    Kered Pople

  4. David says

    Thank you for the great checklist. It is really useful and gave us a couple of new hints on optimization process. We’ve been using WebSite Auditor and found it exremely helpful in site’s structure and content analysis, bringing all the statistical information on the validation errors, social mentions, duplicate stuff, etc. under one roof. Still there is so many different SEO information you sometimes cannot understand what to start with. Fortunately you answered this question. Thank you again!

  5. nino says

    Hi Alex, Glad to see someone actually ‘write specifics’ than make generic statements.
    well written. simplified. crisp compliation. awesome job. thanx.
    nino

  6. James says

    Hi Alex,

    Should an audit be done for every single page or can the checklist be used to sum up all of the client’s pages?

    What if you have a client with over 500 pages to audit?

    Many thanks.

    • Alex says

      James hi

      The audit is for all pages and not only one. What happens in the majority of the cases is that pages / posts have similarities so you can group them together. For example the pages of a website may be ok but the blog post pages may be missing titles. It’s a lot of work especially for a 500 pages website but you can start from the most important pages first and work your way to the rest

      Hope this helps,
      Alex

      • James says

        Thanks Alex, much appreciated. I found my groove once I started on it. The first section is the tricky part, thereafter it becomes easier. It helped to create a bullet list of all the pages and then just copy and paste them into each cell to use as a reference for section I needed to check.

  7. Guy Tomlinson says

    Great Alex, that’s a nice checklist and saved me some time. Now following you on Twitter and G+.

    Keep up the good work

    Guy

  8. Mahi hirani says

    Thanks for this great consolidation of tips on SEO. I know for beginners this topic might be a little vague and obscure, but once you get the hang of a couple of useful tips you’re set.

    Relevant keywords along the page and on the meta section is pivotal, though I would also extend emphasis to the code as well as the content.

    For example, using text as headers instead of images (though if it greatly compromises your design, you shouldn’t) would help spider through your blog/website and figure the important knacks to pay attention to.

    So make sure to wrap headings, titles and subtitles in their appropriate tags.

    Just one extra quick tip.

  9. Wayne Thomas says

    Thanks Alex, this is a clear and thorough post, very useful for designers like myself looking to promote client sites through means of SEO. I suppose not much has changed since you first wrote this post and principles are pretty much the same.

  10. noe gonzalez says

    Thank you for sharing your audit list. I had been using one that I created but, you had few items that I felt were important and were missing on my list.

    I have pitched the typical Facebook and Twitter social media accounts to provide additional traffic but, what is the best way to convince a client about using RSS? Is it a good idea for them to try manage it or even implement it?

    Any feedback is welcome.

    Thanks
    GOazweb

  11. dragos says

    Thank you for a great list. It helps a lot especially for a begginer like myself. I am trying to understand better the link building process. I would like to do a little bit of that but of good quality and I am not sure where to start. Any tip would be most welcomed. Regards

    • Alex Chris says

      Hi Cecilia

      Good luck with your website. Give it some time, any SEO changes you do now may take a few moths to see the real effect in Google rankings.

      Thanks
      Alex

  12. Vivek Saxena says

    Thank You Alex! This is absolutely a great article/ Haven’t come across such a crisp and nice description without holding back the vitals. Thank you very much! Quite informative and educational

  13. karen collins says

    Thanks Alex, great detailed for someone who had very little understanding of this area until very recently.

  14. krishna says

    Thanks Alex, For someone new to SEO this is very useful. You have taken the initiative to explain things out so clearly.

  15. Vishwajeet Kumar says

    Hello Alex,

    Thanks for elaborating the things so briefly. It is so easy to understand. I really like the way you evaluate the checklist of on page SEO. Great Work.

  16. Lexi Pivovarova says

    For a newbie like me this post is so valuable. Thanks for the easy to read information and the meaningful additional links. I’ll be using this as a reference for a long time to come.

  17. Narinder kumar says

    Thanks for sharing great article SEO audits really interesting part of the SEO there is helpful to know the website errors and performance.

  18. Joseph Clarke says

    SEO audit is a necessity today, when there is cut-throat competition in the online world. You never know when your opponent outranks you – which is the main reason why audit must be performed every few months. The checklist you’ve written covers all the major sections of audit. Thanks!

  19. Daljeet Singh says

    Hi Alex,

    Very useful content for the beginners and layman’s. The part of content and the checklist are very easy Understandable.

    Thanks

  20. Avya says

    Great checklist Alex, thanks for sharing this great information here. Before this, I had some doubts and now my doubts are clear. Thanks

    Warm Regards

    • Alex Chris says

      Hi Avya

      Thanks for your comment. Glad I could help you clear your doubts.

      All the best with your SEO audit.

      Alex

  21. Jaspreet Singh says

    I really need this article because I have knowledge ( little-bit ) about SEO but not step by step, like SEO audit report.
    Thanks for sharing this article.

  22. Leslie says

    Great checklist Alex – I keep looking for a simple and to the point reference I can give to people, but what I most often find is either too complicated for a beginner, or not actionable enough even for a pro.

    • Alex Chris says

      Hi Leslie

      I tried to cover topics suitable for both beginners and more experienced users. Thank you for your comment.

      Alex

  23. Divyanshu Jangid says

    Hi Alex,
    First of all amazing post! I did a chrome/lighthouse audit on my website and it shows problems in performance and progressive web app. Do you have any suggestion on how deal with these. Or any post which shows on how to get rid of chrome audit issues.

  24. Al Gomez says

    Hi Alex,

    This is a good resource for performing an SEO audit to a website. It’s great that you have added this checklist. This process is a must especially when starting a campaign, in this way we can see the opportunities for the site.

    • Alex Chris says

      Hi Al

      Yes, performing an SEO audit is a must for correctly evaluating the performance of an SEO campaign. It’s actually the first check to make before starting any campaigns.

      All the best
      Alex

  25. Amar singh says

    If all the incoming links are keyword based (and Google did not penalize you yet) you need to urgently change them by making them more natural by using your domain name only, your full post title and things like ‘click here’,’ link’ etc ?

    what does that mean sir because till now I have created all the backlinks using keywords anchor text

  26. Pankaj Sharma says

    Hi Alex,

    You have defined the topic clearly and most of the things are covered and I would like to add one more thing here, Pagination It should be in your technical seo audit checklist and this issue shouldn’t be ignored in any way. Because right pagination is a must for every website technical seo.

  27. shyam says

    This is a great SEO checklist, This checklist was saved my life. I audited my website to follow your points. Thanks for sharing 🙏

  28. Halina Biernacki says

    I did the Audit, and reworked everything… very time consuming, but the results paid off. As of today Feb. 3, 2022, my Google SERP moved up to 8.8 position.
    The CTR is nothing to brag about, but I’m optimistic that will improve in time.

  29. Reima Petramaa says

    Thanks for this outstanding post about SEO audit with a checklist. I have noticed that the number of backlinks can increase, although I don’t do anything. After checking, there seem to be irrelevant links from low-ranking websites. This is link spam. Is the only way to disavow these toxic links on Google Search Console?

    • Alex Chris says

      Hi Reima

      You don’t have to take any action about spammy links. Google can recognize and devalue them automatically.

      Thanks
      Alex

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