SEO auditing – The step-by-step process

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May 28, 2021 / by
SEO auditing – The step-by-step process

SEO auditing is not exactly an enjoyable or glamorous job. But it is something that all marketers and brands need to undertake regularly if they are to ensure they’re not only following best practices, but also haven’t made any little mistakes that could add up to a major lapse in ranking.

Of course, the task of auditing something as inherently complex as SEO is not something that can be explored intimately in a 500-word think piece.

The basic methodology, however, is something that we can touch on in a handy step-by-step SEO auditing guide for those out there who might not know where to begin or how far their analysis should go.

Step 1 – Sort your links

Link building remains the most vital way to build website authority, even in 2021. So begin your audit by sorting out your internal and external links. As far as internal links are concerned, ensure they are relevant and that all newer pages find an organic way to link to older content.

External links, however, are a slightly more difficult and delicate matter. One way to build external links is to search for resource lists that might be open to linking back to you.

The easiest and quickest way is to search for mentions of your brand that are unlinked and rectify that.

Step 2 – Improve your architecture

Your information architecture (IA) represents how your content is ordered and structured. During an audit, this needs to be examined closely so that you can manage your internal links to pass potential clicks into the pages that need it.

This can be done by replacing duplicate links with links to sites you want to gain greater equity and increasing the number of posts and general content on the sites at the bottom of the table, so to speak.

Step 3 – Trim the thin

There is certainly no harm in keeping certain pages thin on content if you’re trying to make a statement. But if too many of your pages only hold a few hundred words then the Google algorithm is not going to be happy.

Of course, having thousands of words on every page isn’t practical but when it comes to pages with little or no content on them, sometimes it might be better to get rid of them entirely.

Step 4 – Erase the duplicates

Duplicate content is a menace and it might not even be your fault. Maybe your CMS dynamically generates pages for you or maybe you have too many pages (usually product pages) that are so similar Google reads them as duplicates even when they‘re not. Either way. Sort it.

Step 5 – Scan for keyword optimisation and optimise meta tags

Ensure all of your pages are optimised for the keywords that will help them show up organically. That’s SEO 101 and we don’t need to go into any further detail here. One thing that really shouldn’t be overlooked, however, is meta tags.

These are the little lines that will make all the difference. Always ensure the meta title is between 50 and 60 characters and the meta description is between 155 and 160.

Step 6 – Run analysis and scan for errors

Finally, run every analytical SEO tool at your disposal and go through your site with a fine-tooth comb to check for broken links and other errors.

One more thing – If you haven’t already done so, make sure your site is running on HTTPS rather than HTTP. It’s a small fix that will garner incredible results.