There is more to good Search Engine Optimization than simply adding helpful keywords to your web pages. On page SEO is important, but backlinks, efficiency, and a series of other elements all play a part in whether your site will be seen or if it will be lost in the internet abyss. One extremely useful exercise to help improve your visibility is an SEO audit. For best results, take a preliminary look at your website for these eight main factors, then enlist the support of a professional SEO for a comprehensive SEO Audit. Here are the questions you should ask to begin putting your website through its paces.
- Evaluate the overall User Experience (UX) and check the key functionalities that all business websites should have in order.
- Is there a phone number in the header and footer?
- Is there an address and contact info in footer?
- Is the navigation understandable?
- Are key calls to action clear?
- Are the business purpose and services clear?
- Is there a contact form on the website?
- Is the site mobile friendly?
- Is the Content Management System (CMS) set up and working properly?
Take a look behind the scenes at the design and setup of the website content management system. Is it ready to accommodate changes you’ll be making as you move along the optimization process?
- Is an SEO plugin installed and setup properly?
- Has Google Analytics been installed?
- Is the metadata accessible for pages and posts?
- Is your metadata in order?
Is your site using default metadata, or has it been crafted for best results? Take notice of the presence and quality of the title tags, description tags, H1, and ALT tags.
- Have metatags been entered for all pages and posts?
- Is there only one H1 on each page?
- Are the title tags and meta descriptions unique for each page or post?
- Are your metatags and content optimized?
Simply having metadata and keywords on your site is important, but without these being optimized, they won’t be doing their full duty. Basic SEO questions to ask are
- Have you chosen one focus keyword per page?
- Have you used the keyword in the H1 (main article heading) and toward the beginning of the title tag and meta description?
- Did you use the focus keyword at least two to three times in the page content?
- If you’re working with a WordPress blog, did you select 2-4 “tags” and a “category” choice that are consistent with your keyword?
- Have you included ALT tags on all your images?
- Once your optimization has been completed, have you resubmitted the XML sitemap?
- How is the load time efficiency?
Measure the website’s mobile friendliness and page speed. Is the loading time ok? Try these tools to find out:
- Have you completed the website architecture?
This is a technical portion of the assessment during which you should review website elements including canonicalization, blocking factors such as flash and frames, and more. Other important factors to consider include
- checking page URL construction
- confirming or performing Authentication with Google Search Console
- assessing the presence and completeness of an XML sitemap and robots.txt file
- What is the state of your Domain Authority, Traffic Rank, Trust Flow, and Citation Flow?
These measurements gauge and help determine a site’s ranking potential and overall authority as a trusted site on the web. We use Majestic to answer questions such as
- What is the current Trust Flow?
- What is the current Citation Flow?
- Are the Trust and Citation Flow scores balanced?
- Are backlinks to the site healthy or spammy?
- What is your backlink profile? Do you have broken links? Is there anywhere you have been blacklisted?
It is important to determine if there are any inbound links that could be causing harm to your Google rankings and if your site is being penalized by any Internet Service Providers.
- One useful tool is Online Broken Link Checker.
- You can check MXToolbox to see if you’ve been blacklisted.
Inevitably, questions will arise as you move through your website to discover what has been done, which elements need work, and where you need to start from the very beginning. During our comprehensive Web SEO Assessment Audit, we take a deep dive with these questions and beyond to determine the areas where your site can improve. We will provide you with recommendations and can even give you pointers on content strategy to help you make your overall presentation shine. Find out more about our SEO services, get found by the most important search engines, and increase your visibility on the web.