In this tutorial we explain what an SEO audit is and why it is so enormously important for your online business.
What is the goal of an SEO audit?
We at FirmCatalyst usually pursue two goals with an SEO audit:
- A evaluation of the current website
- Planning the SEO strategy for the further work on the website
With an SEO audit, online marketing agencies evaluate the crawlability, the current state (the „health”) and the technical status of your website.
Every new client of our SEO agency goes through this process. Only in this way we are able to analyse the errors and potential weaknesses of a website in order to work out tailor-made solutions.
In addition, annual SEO audits are performed for our existing customers to ensure that the website is always up-to-date. Thus, an SEO audit is the basis for the upcoming collaboration in the upcoming months.
Do an SEO audit by yourself
We, at FirmCatalyst, understand that not every company or website owner is able to hire an SEO agency. Nevertheless, we would like to make our years of knowledge of the industry publicly available and have therefore decided to write a free guide to conducting an SEO audit.
Such an SEO audit can take hours, depending on the size of your website. However, an SEO audit only takes place once. We therefore recommend to work conscientiously and concentrated during the SEO audit.
Tutorial: That’s how you perform the SEO audit
- Step 1: Check that WordPress is only accessible via https://
The first step of any SEO audit is to check that each version of a website is only accessible under one URL. Let’s clarify the problem: If two different versions of a website are indexed in Google, let’s say: http://your-website.com http://www.your-website.com …then both versions are independent websites from the point of view of a search […] - Step 2: Check the indexing status of your website
The second step of our SEO audit is to check if your website can be read and indexed by search engines. We at FirmCatalyst check this using three methods: Check your WordPress Settings First of all, we check whether our WordPress installation is accessible for crawlers at all. To do this, we log in to […] - Step 3: WordPress Speedtest
One of the most important ranking factors in the google search results is currently the loading speed of a website. Therefore, it is mandatory in every modern SEO-audit to subject your WordPress site to a speed test. Why is speed optimization so important? The Mobile-First Index was introduced for the first time in 2018. The […] - Step 4: Let Semrush perform an SEO auditNote: The monthly prices for professional All-In-One SEO tools usually start around 99€/ month. However, most tools, offer trial periods, such as Semrush (free 30-day trial) or ahrefs (7‑day trial for $7). During these trials period, the tools can be tested extensively. As Alternative Neil Patel’s Site Audit is free of charge through UberSuggest. Compared […]
- Step 5: Analyze your backlinks (backlink audit)
Over time, it is normal for your website to be linked by other websites. This process is quite natural and is what makes the Internet as we know it today. Search engines use these links (backlinks) as a ranking factor, in which you are ranked by: evaluate the quality of the linking website check if […] - Step 6: Check your rankings and organic traffic
In the last step of your SEO audit, you check the development of your visitor traffic and the current rankings of your website. To do this, call up the target group overview in Google Analytics (“Target group” -> “Overview”). Replace the selection “All users” with “Organic visitors”. This way you only record the visitors to […] - Step 7: Content audit and text quality
Search engines live from representing the most relevant search results. This is only possible if the information on a website is: (a) are relevant (b) correspond to the current facts. One of the most popular SEO strategies of many content agencies in recent years is therefore to conduct an extensive content audit at least once […]
