What exactly is a website audit?

Before I can identify and address potential issues on your site, I first need to carry out a comprehensive audit that covers more than 170 manual inspection checks.

These technical factors will help me benchmark your current organic performance and understand where there are areas that need improvement.

With access to Google Analytics and Search Console data (if you have them set up), as well as other high-quality site analysis tools, I can provide a full understanding of how your site is performing. My audit process is far different than any automated audits you normally get from SEO tools. 

It's more than just an SEO audit

My audits involve identifying key issues and discovering quick wins that will maximise your ROI.

Areas I look at during the audit process include:

Keyword visibility, including search terms, search impressions, clicks and click through rate

# of pages indexed vs # of crawlable pages, and whether they match up

Quality of pages, thin content and duplicate content issues

Site speed for all devices (i.e. mobile and desktop)

Review organic conversions

Do I really need an SEO audit?

The short answer is yes! There are many different reasons why your site needs an SEO audit.

Do I really need an SEO audit?

The short answer is yes! There are many different reasons why your site needs an SEO audit. Here they are:

New website

If you’ve just built a brand new site that has never been optimised for search before, then you’ll need an audit to make sure you’re using the right target keywords. You’ll also need to know whether your pages are being crawled and indexed. An audit will also identify key opportunities to improve your organic growth.

Algorithm update

Have you been impacted by a potential algorithm update? Google has introduced several different updates that can impact your site’s organic visibility and conversions if you’re not following SEO best practice. You can find the full list of updates to be aware of here and here.

Organic traffic dropping?

Have you noticed your organic traffic and rankings decreasing lately? Not sure if it’s a tracking issue, poor optimisation, seasonality or trends? Could your competitors be outperforming you in search results? Not only will an SEO audit identify the reason for your drop in traffic, it will also present opportunities to fix the problem.

New website

If you’ve just built a brand new site but it has never been optimised for search before then an audit is required to make sure your site is optimised with your target keywords, pages are being crawled and indexed, along with opportunities to improve organic growth.

Algorithm update

Have you been impacted by a potential algorithm update? Google has introduced several different updates that can impact your site’s organic visibility and conversions if you’re not following SEO best practice. You can find the full list of updates to be aware of here and here.

Recently Migrated

Have you recently migrated to a new website and noticed your rankings and organic traffic dropping? This is very common without a solid website migration plan in place, especially if your old URLs haven’t been 301 redirected to the new URLs. I can identify any URLs that need to be redirected during an SEO audit in addition to other key actions.

Organic traffic dropping?

Have you noticed your organic traffic and rankings decreasing lately? Not sure if it’s a tracking issue, poor optimisation, seasonality or trends? Could your competitors be outperforming you in search results? Not only will an SEO audit identify the reason for your drop in traffic, it will also present opportunities to fix the problem.

Recently Migrated

Have you recently migrated to a new website and noticed your rankings and organic traffic dropping? This is very common without a solid website migration plan in place, especially if your old URLs haven’t been 301 redirected to the new URLs. I can identify any URLs that need to be redirected during an SEO audit in addition to other key actions.

After the SEO audit is complete

After the SEO audit has been carried out, depending on the issues identified, I’ll provide a full breakdown of how your site is currently performing in search. I’ll also inform you of the quick wins I can address first to start improving your organic visibility and explain the potential impact this will have on your traffic and conversions. 

All recommendations can be implemented through your internal resource (i.e. your developer), but I’m more than happy to assist where necessary and carry out the onsite changes on your behalf. 

What happens next?

From a website development and optimisation perspective, you can be confident that all recommendations will follow SEO best practices and can be implemented either by me or by a developer. 

Once I’ve implemented the changes, I will carry out regular checks to review the impact made on your organic traffic, and report on any metric improvements.

Useful Resources

Distilled – Technical SEO Audit Checklist for Human Beings 

It can take years of experience to learn how to perform an SEO audit, but if you want to have a go yourself, here’s a helpful checklist to get you started.

Screaming Frog Crawling Tool 

Though I also use Deepcrawl for auditing sites, Screaming Frog is a more affordable option and has everything you need to identify and fix issues on your website.

FAQs About Website Audits

No. While most popular SEO tools provide built-in site audit reports, they don’t offer enough detail into what might be causing a decline in organic traffic.

Generally speaking, most automated SEO audit tools only report on the basics, not the more advanced issues that are actually causing organic performance problems. 

Don’t get me wrong, automated tools are very useful for internal purposes. But if your SEO agency is providing this type of report, they’re most likely not doing a thorough enough job. 

Carrying out audits takes a lot of experience that you won’t find in a tool.  

This depends on your website, and what changes have been made. For example, if your site has been impacted by an algorithm update, it may take much longer to recover and fix any issues that are holding the site back. 

Generally speaking, it can take anywhere from 1-6 months or longer to start seeing organic performance improvements. If there are quick wins to implement, results can be seen significantly quicker. 

Once I’ve identified the current issues and carried out a technical SEO audit, I can put a strategy in place and get to work. 

SEO is an investment, so gradually improving your site over time means you’ll continue to see greater returns in the long-run. 

Sound Good?

Understanding what is causing organic traffic and rankings to decline can take a lot of time and effort to do. Get in touch today and see how I can help.

Get In Contact

Sound Good?

Understanding what is causing organic traffic and rankings to decline can take a lot of time and effort to do. Get in touch today and see how I can help.

Get In Contact