A high value SEO audit is crucial.
👉 Uncover the 5% of activities that drive 95% of your results.
👉 Pinpoint critical issues and opportunities.
👉 Keep your SEO strategy focused and effective.
So, if you want to get higher Google rankings…
Here’s our 18-step SEO audit checklist (+3 extra nuggets 😎):
1. Check Your Organic Traffic
↳ Review your traffic trends: Is it rising, steady, or dropping?
2. Run a Full Site Crawl
↳ Gather data on every page of your site.
3. Boost Your On-Page SEO
↳ Focus on your top 5 pages.
↳ Implement strategies like keyword placement and internal linking.
4. Maximize Your Internal Links
↳ Link to your most important pages.
↳ Strategically use internal links to enhance key pages. Aim for 5+ internal links per page.
↳ Aim for a structure where pages are within 3 clicks from the homepage.
5. Optimize for UX Signals
↳ Ensure content meets user intent and provides value.
↳ Improve user experience to boost rankings.
6. Optimize for Featured Snippets
↳ Format content for better chances of appearing in Featured Snippets.
↳ Use headers, concise answers, and mobile optimization.
7. Check Page Rendering
↳ Assess how each page element renders.
8. Ensure Mobile-Friendliness
↳ Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool.
↳ Optimize your site for mobile as 60% of searches come from mobile devices.
9. Google Indexing Check
↳ Ensure only one version of your site is indexed (http, https, www, non-www).
↳ Use 301 redirects to consolidate all versions to a single URL.
10. Speed Up Your Site (Core Web Vitals)
↳ Use PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix issues.
↳ Compress images and consider premium hosting.
11. Remove “Zombie Pages”
↳ Use “site:” in Google to find indexed pages.
↳ Eliminate cannibalization and canonicalization issues.
Remove unnecessary pages to boost site quality.
12. Fix Indexing Problems
↳ Use Google Search Console’s “Index Coverage” report.
↳ Identify pages blocked by robots.txt or noindex tags.
13. Fix Broken Links
↳ Regain lost link equity and optimize your crawl budget.
↳ Use Google Search Console to find broken links.
14. Analyze Your Backlinks
↳ Use tools to check referring domains and authority.
↳ Identify potentially toxic links and analyze anchor text distribution.
15. Competitor Analysis
↳ Study competitors’ top keywords and backlinks.
↳ Gain insights from their content and backlink profiles.
16. Create 10x Better Content
↳ Focus on high-quality, engaging content.
↳ Use short intros, small paragraphs, subheaders, and multimedia elements.
17. Launch a Skyscraper Post
↳ Create content far better than top-ranking competitors.
↳ Promote it to help Google quickly index recent changes.
18. Set Up Keyword Rank Tracking
↳ Use Semrush t
o track keyword rankings.
↳ Monitor manually entered and naturally ranking keywords.