SEO audits

An SEO Audit is the First Step to Being Successful in Organic Search

An SEO audit is an essential starting point for any successful SEO strategy. It uncovers the underlying issues holding your website back and provides a clear roadmap for improvement. Without an audit, SEO efforts risk being misguided, potentially wasting time and resources. By identifying gaps and opportunities, an SEO audit can ensure that your strategy is data-driven and tailored to your website’s specific needs. A well-conducted audit can transform guesswork into actionable insight and set the foundation for long-term search success.

What is an SEO Audit?

An SEO audit is a comprehensive review of a website’s performance in relation to search engine optimisation best practices. It involves analysing various factors that impact a site’s visibility in search engine results, such as technical setup, content quality, backlink profile, and on-page optimisation.

The purpose of an SEO audit is to identify any issues that may be hindering the website’s ability to rank well on search engines like Google. These issues could include slow loading speeds, broken links, poorly optimised content, or harmful backlinks. An audit provides a detailed overview of the website’s current state and outlines actionable steps to improve performance.

An SEO audit acts as a diagnostic tool, ensuring your SEO strategy is built on a strong foundation. It eliminates guesswork, allowing you to focus on fixing key issues and enhancing the site’s potential to attract organic traffic.

Types of SEO Audit

SEO audits come in various forms, each targeting specific aspects of your website to ensure it performs at its best in search results. Here’s a breakdown of the key types of SEO audits and what they involve:

Technical SEO Audit

A technical audit focuses on the backend structure of your website. It examines factors such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, crawlability, indexation, and security (such as HTTPS). This audit ensures search engines can easily access, crawl, and understand your site. Common issues identified include broken links, duplicate content, and slow loading speeds.

• Site architecture
• XML sitemaps
• Robots.txt
• Core Web Vitals

Content Audit

With Google’s ‘Helpful Content’ update, a content audit is an essential requirement for any website that wants to gain organic visibility. A content audit assesses the quality, relevance, and performance of the content on your website. It helps identify outdated, thin, or underperforming content that may need refreshing or removal. This audit ensures your content aligns with user intent and provides value to your audience.

• Content relevance and accuracy
• Keyword usage and optimisation
• User engagement metrics (bounce rate, time on page)
• Duplicate content issues

Backlink Audit

Backlinks are a key Google rank metric, especially for competitive search terms. A backlink audit analyses the links pointing to your website from external sources. It identifies both the quality and quantity of your backlinks, flagging toxic or spammy links that could harm your SEO efforts. A strong backlink profile is critical for building domain authority and improving rankings.

• Link quality and relevance
• Toxic links and disavow recommendations
• Anchor text distribution
• Competitor backlink analysis

On-Page SEO Audit

Sometimes good on-page SEO can be the difference between ranking on page 1 or page ten. An on-page SEO audit looks at the optimisation of individual pages on your site. It ensures that key elements like title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and internal links are properly optimised for search engines and users.

• Title tags and meta descriptions
• Header structure (H1, H2, etc.)
• Keyword usage
• Image optimisation and alt text

Local SEO Audit

A local SEO audit focuses on improving visibility in local search results, particularly for businesses that serve specific geographic areas. It checks how well your business appears on Google Maps, in local pack results, and across directories.

• Google Business Profile optimisation
• NAP consistency (Name, Address, Phone) across listings
• Local citations and directory accuracy
• Reviews and reputation management
• Location-specific keyword usage

This audit is essential for brick-and-mortar businesses or service-based companies that rely on local traffic.

Mobile SEO Audit

With mobile-first indexing a key factor in search rankings, a mobile SEO audit ensures your website provides an optimal experience for mobile users. This audit checks your site’s responsiveness, speed, and usability on mobile devices.

• Mobile-friendliness and responsive design
• Core Web Vitals for mobile
• Page load speed on mobile
• Mobile navigation and user experience (UX)

Given that a large portion of traffic now comes from mobile devices, this audit is crucial to stay competitive.

E-Commerce SEO Audit

E-commerce is all about conversions and conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is essential. For online stores, an e-commerce SEO audit is essential to ensure product pages are optimised for both users and search engines. It focuses on product descriptions, site structure, and the user journey.

• Product page optimisation (titles, descriptions, images)
• Category and filter pages
• Schema markup for products (rich snippets)
• Checkout process UX
• Duplicate content issues across product variations

This audit helps improve the visibility of products, reduce cart abandonment rates, and boost conversions.

UX and Core Web Vitals Audit

User experience is not only a Google ranking metric, but also essential if you want to engage users and convert them into customers. Google’s Core Web Vitals are key performance metrics that impact rankings. A UX audit ensures your website delivers a smooth, fast, and user-friendly experience.

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – loading performance
• First Input Delay (FID) – interactivity
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – visual stability
• Navigation and usability

A UX audit ensures your site isn’t just optimised for search engines but also provides a positive experience for users.

SEO Auditing Tools

We use a wide range of tools for conducting SEO audits and are always looking for more. Some of the most essential tools include:

Google Search Console

A free tool from Google that provides insights into how your website performs in search results. It helps identify indexing issues, crawl errors, mobile usability problems, and keyword performance. You can view GSC here.

• Indexing and crawl status
• Search performance reports
• Mobile usability insights
• Core Web Vitals

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

A powerful website crawler that scans your site and provides detailed data on technical SEO issues. It helps with identifying broken links, duplicate content, missing meta tags, and more. You can view Screaming Frog here.

• Site structure analysis
• Broken links and redirects
• Meta data and header checks
• Crawlability and indexability

SEMrush

A versatile SEO tool that provides in-depth audits covering technical issues, content performance, and backlink analysis. It also offers competitor insights and keyword tracking. You can view SEMrush here.

• Technical SEO audits
• On-page SEO checks
• Backlink analysis
• Keyword and competitor tracking

PageSpeed Insights (by Google)

This tool provides a detailed report on your website’s speed and Core Web Vitals, highlighting areas to improve performance on both desktop and mobile devices. You can view PageSpeed Insights here.

• Page load speed analysis
• Core Web Vitals metrics
• Mobile performance optimisation

GTmetrix

A tool that focuses on website speed and performance, providing actionable insights on improving load times and overall user experience. You can view GTmetrix here.

• Page load time analysis
• Core Web Vitals tracking
• Performance recommendations