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Why an SEO audit is so important for your website

Your website is a valuable tool in the modern world, no matter what industry you are in or how big your business is. This is the digital shopfront that never closes, allowing you to reach a global audience, or focus on a targeted local audience if that is the kind of business that you are.

When your website is established, it is important to make sure you enhance it with SEO practices that are going to catch the attention of Google bots and allow you to be seen in more searches. This is not a set and forget process, though – you need to make sure you run a regular audit on your website to ensure your practices are functioning correctly.

To conduct a successful audit or SEO report, you need to have a comprehensive checklist to ensure you are analysing every important aspect of your site so that it is optimised for search results and also provides a positive experience for your customers.

On this page, we are going to outline every single step of the SEO analysis process and provide you with a comprehensive checklist that you will need to run a successful audit.

If you’d rather let our expert conduct an SEO audit for you, contact our digital marketing agency today. 

What is a free SEO audit?

When you boil it down, an SEO audit is about performing tests for each page on your site. You essentially check each URL to evaluate its ability to appear in search engine results pages (SERPS). The better your website tests during this audit, the higher you are likely to appear in these searches for target keywords, as every aspect you will be auditing is monitored by Google. In the end, these criteria – from meta tags to page speed – all play a big role.

These audits and types of website analysis should be performed annually at the very least because things can change very quickly in the digital world. Google will often update its algorithm and there will be new SEO features that are being focused on, with more potential for penalties to be issued if you are breaching their SEO guidelines.

A thorough audit is going to uncover all of the strengths and weakness of your website, which enables you to take action to improve your organic search and improve your chances of ranking highly in Google. results. As well as SEO, this is important for the overall health of your website because potential customers are going to turn away if they are having a negative user experience when they visit your website URL.

An audit is just as essential as servicing your business vehicles and, if you don’t, you risk watching your brand fall in Google rankings. From there, you miss out on potential leads and conversions, as customers grow frustrated and go somewhere else.

An SEO audit is crucial for your website's SEO health

The primary goal of a free SEO audit is to improve the performance of your website so that you get more traffic flowing in from search engine results. Every single step of an SEO report links with metrics that Google favour, so if you make sure you meet these benchmarks, you’re more likely to get results.

The reason that Google sets these metrics for their organic search is that it wants to ensure that it is delivering the best possible results to its users. It does this by having its bots go through each website URL to check technical SEO data even social media signals, to make sure you’re able to deliver the user experience they want to give their own audience. From meta tags to page speed, title tag profiles, backlink profile, duplicate content and everything in between – your chosen SEO audit tool needs to check all of this. It goes right down to things like HTTP status codes or meta description data – things you may not have even known were important.

By conducting a website analysis report and SEO audit, you are not only appeasing Google and reaching a much wider audience, but you are delivering a much better experience by removing errors. That means you are likely to improve your bounce rate and increase your leads, conversions, sales and other actions because the traffic coming your way is motivated and relevant, and you are delivering your audience the optimum experience.

This highlights the importance of regularly conducting an audit. They are effectively health checks for your website, carefully assessing SEO issues that could harm your brand. If you’re a small business, a free SEO audit report is even more important.

Over time there can be things that change or go wrong, and it is important to detect them using a free SEO tool so that you are delivering the best possible efforts you can. This also ensures you’re not wasting hard-earned time and money on efforts that are only hurting your website URL profile or organic traffic overall.

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SEO practices to increase your website's health

External and internal links in your SEO analysis

The hyperlinks you include on your website are SEO gold as they are a key indicator that bots will be looking for. These include internal links, which are hyperlinks that direct people to different pages on your own website, as well as external links, which takes people to other websites that are highly reputable where you have sourced information from. Whether you’re a large or small business, you need to make sure these URL aspects are maintained. Use your audit wisely here.

Over time, you should be building a large bank of SEO internal and external links for several key reasons. The internal links are going to make it simple for users to navigate your site and quickly access relevant pages (which can include calls to action, which can take them to landing pages for leads and conversions).

External links highlight that your information has been properly researched and sourced, which will help engender trust with your audience and with SEO bots. Having a strong collection of both internal and external links will also be viewed as extremely favourable, so it is going to help improve your SEO and standing in search engine results. However, low authority or content that’s not written well (like high-quality English) may not come out as being credible. It’s all relative.

Over time, your own website and external websites can undergo changes including re-naming URLs or moving content to another page. So, when you are conducting your SEO site audit, you need to inspect all of the links to see if they are broken or still active. Broken links in your SEO report are not only frustrating for your users, and likely to make them go to another site, but it also reflects badly in the eyes of bots and can hurt your SEO. It is important to thoroughly check internal and external links during your audit to ensure they are functioning correctly.

Using your SEO site audit to assess backlinks

There is another form of link that you need to inspect during your SEO audit. These are the instances where other websites are linking people to your site. These are called backlinks and they are SEO gold, as long as they are working correctly and their site is credible. The more reputable the website, the better impression you will get – so having backlinks from major brands with lots of daily traffic is a goal you should always be seeking. But don’t try to seek links from every small business or anyone volunteering – try to pick and choose the best ones.

You can use Google Analytics or your SEO audit tool to inspect which sites are backlinking to your site. You should do this regularly, not just in SEO audits. It should be a goal to constantly grow this list of backlinks as it is vital SEO fuel for your website.

During your SEO audit, you need to check these backlinks thoroughly for two reasons. Firstly, you may have changed or re-arranged your content, which means the links these sites are using may no longer be current. This effectively renders these backlinks useless, so you will need to reach out to these sites if there have been any changes so they can update their link and you can get the SEO juice from it. Another reason to audit these backlinks is that human error is always a factor, and sometimes they may have put in the wrong hyperlink. Once discovered, these can be easily fixed and both sites can get the benefit from the link.

Technical SEO

Common SEO mistakes that can lead to penalties

As we have mentioned previously, search engines change changing their algorithms and it is vital you keep on top of these updates through an audit, so you know what they are favouring.

It is also important to follow these algorithms because they include certain practices that they are cracking down on. Favourable SEO strategies are often called White Hat SEO practices, while the dodgy methods hat are likely to penalise you are called Black Hat SEO strategies. Here are the Black Hat strategies you need to avoid in 2021 so that you don’t risk pushing your site down the rankings in search results.

Broken pages

We mentioned backlinks and how powerful they can be for your SEO. They can be equally dangerous if they are pointing to broken links. If you have changed or abolished a URL and there is a backlink pointing to it, ensure you set up a redirect to the new page so that the visitor is finding the correct information, not a broken link.

Multiple, poor quality pages

Quality over quantity is the name of the game when it comes to SEO. Search bots favour a site with 20 high-quality pages over a site with 100 sparsely populated pages. Do you really need that many pages? Do you have the time and resources to ensure they are all populated properly? Always focus on having quality pages that you can maintain over time, rather than too many pages that you don’t have time to update.

Duplicated content

This goes back to the previous point. It can be simple to use content from one page on another page that is relevant. This is a huge no-no, and is likely to attract a penalty.

Unattainable keywords

This is not going to get you penalised, but it is bad practice. There are certain keywords that you are just not going to hit because the competition is too high. Many keyword analysis tools will outline the keyword difficulty and if these are too high, don’t focus on them.

Keyword spamming

This is a big one that search bots hate. Back in the pioneering days of the internet, people were able to trick search engines by stuffing keywords into headings, content and anywhere else they could fit them. ‘Plumbing services for people looking for plumbing at the best plumbing rates’ is content stuffing and will land you in hot water.

Buying links

Ignore those ads, ignore those sites, ignore those mates who say you can just buy backlinks instead of earning them. Google knows and they will punish you for it. There are no shortcuts to link building.

Having thin content

The artificial intelligence powering the last algorithm update means it can read content on par with highly intelligent humans. If you have thin content that offers little except the inclusion of your keywords, this is not going to work for you anymore. Your content needs to be fresh, relevant, in-depth and thought-provoking.

Hidden content

Another trick used by people in the past. This could be paragraphs of keywords stuffed into a website but invisible to visitors. Bots are smarter than that in 2021. Use your audit to check this.

There are many other high-level types of Black Hat SEO, but the message is clear – focus on what Google and its users want and you will be in the clear. Try and play trick in any way and you will be penalised. Ensure you are on the lookout for anything that could be flagged by using your audit or SEO report as gospel.

Don’t have an SEO audit tool? As a small business owner, we know your are busy so let us take care of the SEO hard yards for you.

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