How to do an SEO audit

Do you know how well your website is performing? Sure, website analytics will tell you how many visitors you are getting, and how long they stay on your pages for. But what are the reasons behind these statistics? More importantly, how do you find out what elements of your website aren’t pulling in visitors or driving conversions? 

Never fear as an SEO audit is one of the best ways to find out what’s working and most importantly, what’s not working for your website. 

Without such an insightful rundown of your website’s highlights along with its errors, it’s impossible to make meaningful changes to your website, and even your wider marketing strategy. Therefore, it’s highly recommended to conduct SEO audits regularly. 

New to all things SEO audits? Here at Eye10, we bring SEO down to a level that everyone can understand, and SEO audits are no exception. Let’s get to grips with what an SEO audit is and how to get the most out of your next one. 

H2: SEO audits: An overview 

Taking the time to do regular SEO audits helps your website to remain competitive. The ability to do SEO audits is just one of the many tools we provide here at Eye10. 

So why bother, you might ask? Well, if you own a business with employees, at some stage you’d give them a performance review. The point of which is to pat them on the back for anything they are doing well, whilst highlighting any areas for improvement. 

An SEO audit works much the same, in that it looks to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your SEO strategy. Only, the focus is on your website. Specifically, any elements that are preventing pages from ranking highly on search engines, or giving a poor overall user experience. 

SEO audits require SEO software such as Eye10. Using our On-Page SEO tool, you’ll receive a full breakdown of how your website is performing. 

If you want to find out more about your off-page SEO or your technical SEO, Eye10’s Backlink Monitor, Backlink Checker, and Pagespeed Tool have got you covered. 

H3: How often do SEO audits need to be performed?

SEO audits should be performed every few weeks or at the very least every few months. Leaving it any longer than this in between audits runs the risk of minor problems turning into major ones. For instance, if your page rankings have slipped a couple of places, this is much easier to recover versus a drop of 50 places, especially if lots of issues are to blame. 

In general, there are some key indicators an SEO audit needs to be performed: 

You’ve made changes to your website – Any change to your website is not without risk. Rewriting your content may make your rankings slip for key terms. Likewise, redesigning your website may not always be for the best. Who is to say what changes have worked well for your website? Well, an SEO audit is the best place to start, seen as you can track the data from the day the changes were implemented, to see whether they had a positive or negative impact. From there, you can take any necessary action based on the results of your SEO audit to get back on track. 

Traffic has suddenly dropped – If you haven’t made any changes to your website, then a technical glitch could be to blame for your website losing traffic suddenly. You won’t know until you investigate with an SEO audit. It could also be the case that you’ve neglected your SEO strategy, and your competitors have come along and stolen your traffic. You can use the information your SEO audit will provide to fix this. 

H2: SEO audit step #1 – Enter your URL 

Your URL is incredibly powerful. That’s because it holds many secrets about the performance of your entire website, especially when used to complete an SEO audit. 

Ensure you enter your URL in full and correctly. Remember, you just need the main URL and not a specific page on your website. 

It typically takes a few minutes for SEO software to crawl all of the data to produce your audit. But it can take a few hours for extremely large websites. 

Once complete, you’ll be given a report which you can browse and download for future reference. Take the time to read through everything properly before panicking or making rash changes. 

H2: SEO audit step #2 – Identify areas of concern

Every SEO software is different, but when conducting an SEO audit, you should receive a full list of good and bad points. 

Obviously, the things that are working well for you don’t need to change, though if you are making edits to your website (i.e. a redesign), it’s always good not to get rid of these. 

The things you most need to watch out for are any bad points that will be shown as errors. These may include:  

• Content errors 
• Security errors
• Technical errors 

For instance, low keyword density or a lack of keywords in the heading tags would be a content error. Broken links would be a technical error and so on. Some errors are easy to fix by rewriting content and page metadata, but for more complex issues, you may need to consult a web developer or designer, depending on how your website was built. 

H2: SEO audit step #3 – Create a plan of action 

It can be quite alarming for your SEO audit to tell your website is riddled with errors. However, be assured that at least by conducting an SEO audit you now know about these errors, and you’re going to create a plan to fix them. This is far better than sticking your head in the sand! 

The plan to fix your SEO starts with identifying the most serious errors. These are anything preventing your pages from being accessed at all. Likewise, anything preventing any key functions from taking place. 

Also make a list of what you feel confident to fix yourself, and what you may need help from an SEO specialist, content writer, web designer, or web developer to remedy for you. As an example, few people feel confident writing or editing code on their website, so play to your strengths here. 

H2: SEO audit step #4 – Implement the changes

Knowledge is power, and now that you have the former it’s time to harness the latter. 

The changes you need to make will depend on what your SEO audit flagged up. Some of these changes may involve refining your website’s content, and others improving how your website actually runs. 

A super handy benefit of using SEO software to conduct an SEO audit is that most SEO software also comes with a wide range of tools to help you fix any issues, especially with your content. As an example, Eye10’s Competitor Research, Keyword Planner, Rank Checker, Industry Checker, and more are all on hand to guide you. 

So when rewriting any existing content for your website, you can create an informed strategy from the start. Taking the guesswork out of SEO is one of the best ways to get ahead! 

Don’t delay in getting to work, since the longer your website has any major issues, the less likely it is to receive clicks, impressions, visits, and conversions. 

H2: SEO audit step #5 – Repeat your SEO audit in a few months and compare the findings

Don’t leave your SEO strategy to develop cobwebs. Instead, you need to keep a regular eye on how it’s doing. As noted above, we recommend repeating your SEO audit every few weeks or months. Or, whenever you make any major changes to your website. 

With Eye10, you can perform anywhere from 30 to 100 lookups per day using our On-Page SEO tool. As well as being handy for SEO professionals or agencies, everyday business owners can also check in with their SEO progress any time it suits them. 

Ideally, you should see past issues have been resolved, especially if it’s been a few weeks since the changes were made. Look out for any new issues and continue to take action where necessary. 

You can also use our additional tools such as Rank Checker to keep an eye on individual page rankings over time. If you’re not able to make changes that improve any slipped rankings, our On-Page SEO tool will always be on hand to point you in the right direction. 

H2: Start your SEO audit today with Eye10

When it comes to performing an SEO audit. There are lots of choices on the market. Unfortunately, most SEO tools are expensive and complicated. Here at Eye10, we strive to be different in all the right ways, offering you our SEO software from just $39 per month! 

SEO audits are only the start of what your Eye10 subscription will provide, and we’re really excited for you to try it. Available in 12 different languages, it’s never been easier to make meaningful changes to your SEO strategy. 

Start your Eye10 journey with us today and see where our amazing range of SEO tools can take your website. Or want to learn more about us? Visit our Help page to see our most common questions answered.