The 18-Step SEO Audit Checklist

Today we’re going to show you exactly how to do an SEO audit in 2024.

In fact, this is the same process that’s helped us grow our organic traffic by 30% over the last year:

So if you want to get higher Google rankings, you’ll love the actionable steps in this guide.

Let’s get started.

Step #1: Check Your Organic Traffic

Given you’re optimizing for search engines, it’s key to understand how much organic traffic you’re driving through them.

To do that, head over to Google Analytics.

Go to “Reports” > “Acquisition” > “Traffic acquisition.”

Look for “Organic Search” as the primary channel group.

You can tweak the timeframe to see your organic traffic performance over a longer time period.

Before we move on to the next step, identify which pages on your site drive the most clicks from Google. Do this using the “Performance” report in Google Search Console.

And going to the “Pages” tab.

Understanding which pages perform best—and which pages need work—will help you prioritize your efforts during and after your SEO audit.

Now:

If your organic traffic is flat (or declining), don’t worry.

The goal in this step is just to establish benchmarks.

The entire point of this SEO audit is to improve your website’s performance.

Step #2: Run a Full Site Crawl

Running a website crawl is the most efficient way to gather lots of useful data about every page of your website.

You can gain insights about your website’s:

• Crawlability
• Loading speed
• Internal linking
• Structured data
• On-page SEO

And more.

We’ll discuss a few of these areas in more detail throughout this guide. But performing a site crawl is a quick way to assess lots of aspects at once.

How do you do it?

There are a few different tools out there to help you perform a site crawl. One is Screaming Frog.

It’ll give you insights on aspects of your site like title tags, meta descriptions, and images. And it’ll help you identify broken links, understand your website’s architecture at a deep level, and much more.

It is a paid tool, but you can run an audit of 500 URLs for free.

Semrush is a full SEO suite that offers a great site audit tool. Conveniently named Site Audit, it’s another option for crawling your site. As the name suggests, it is a comprehensive auditing tool, not just a crawler.

It’ll assess your site for more than 140 issues. Covering site performance issues, internal linking optimization, and even international SEO.

To run your site crawl, just enter your domain name and click “Start Audit.”

You’ll then need to configure your crawler settings. You can set crawl limits, choose different user agents, and schedule automatic site audits.

So you can stay on top of future issues before they hurt your organic search performance.

The “Overview” tab showcases your site’s overall health. Along with how many errors, warnings, and notices you have.

Click any of the linked numbers under these headers to learn more.

Go through and fix each of these issues to improve your website’s performance. You can also click “Why and how to fix it” or “Learn more” to get advice on solving the issue.

Step #3: Improve Your On-Page SEO

It’s no secret that on-page SEO is super important.

That said:

You probably don’t have time to optimize every page on your site. At least not immediately.

Fortunately, you don’t have to.

Here’s what to do instead:

First, identify your 5 most important pages.

These can be pages that:

• Target an important keyword
• Get less traffic than they did back in the day
• Already rank well, but have the potential to crack the top 5

For example:

We published a list of the best SEO tools.

Besides the basics (like including the keyword in the title tag), we didn’t do much to optimize this page.

And because it’s already on the first page for our target keyword…

…it has a good chance of cracking the top 3.

Now:

If you’re REALLY pressed for time, focus on these 5 strategies:

• Include your keyword in your title tag
• Include your keyword in first 100 words
• Add 5+ external links
• Add 5+ internal links (see the next step)
• Use helpful, SEO optimized images

Step #4: Maximize Your Internal Links

Internal linking is one of the most underrated SEO strategies on the planet.

The question is:

How do you internal link the right way?

It’s simple:

Make sure you link to high-priority pages as much as possible.

But:

Don’t just link to what you think are the most important pages. Ideally, every page should have at least one relevant internal link pointing to it.

This helps avoid “orphaned pages.” Making it easier for search engines (and users) to find your content.

While there’s no hard number of internal links to include, aiming for 5+ per page is a good start. As long as they’re all relevant.

Often, you’ll find yourself including way more than this. For example, here’s a snippet of one of our other posts where we have three useful internal links all close together:

As long as the links are relevant and add value for the reader, they’re worth adding.

Adding internal links also minimizes your website’s crawl or click depth.

Essentially:

How many clicks it takes for a reader to get from your homepage to any given post or page on your site.

Ideally, keep your crawl depth to 3 clicks at most. At least for your most important content.

You can quickly find out if you have pages that are deeper than 3 clicks using the Semrush Site Audit tool.

Step #5: Optimize for UX Signals

Whether or not Google uses user experience (UX) signals (like clicks) in its rankings algorithms has long been a topic of discussion in the world of SEO.

The 2023 U.S. vs. Google antitrust trial revealed slides that suggest Google does indeed use clicks for ranking. At least for training their algorithms, if not specifically for ranking individual pages.

Many in the SEO industry have thought this was the case for a while, based on RankBrain. Which is part of Google’s overall ranking systems, and was introduced in 2015.

RankBrain measures how users interact with your site. To help the algorithms understand which pages meet search intent.

Which means:

To rank well in Google, you should optimize for UX signals.

In other words, your content needs to make users happy.

When you do, you can improve your rankings in search results.

For example:

A while back we noticed that this SEO campaign post on the site wasn’t ranking that well (note the date: it needed an update!).

It was hovering between the 10th and 15th spots for our target keyword: “SEO Campaign”.

And when we looked at the content, we realized why…

The content didn’t give people searching for “SEO campaign” what they wanted.

Instead of steps, they got a case study of ONE specific strategy:

Our post also had lots of outdated screenshots:

In short:

Because our content wasn’t optimized for UX signals (read: clicks and user satisfaction), Google buried it.

So we decided to overhaul the entire post.

Specifically, we:

• Replaced the case study with a step-by-step guide
• Included more actionable tips for beginner and intermediate SEOs
• Added examples from several different industries
• Lots more

In the end, we had a piece of up-to-date content that was a PERFECT fit for someone searching for “SEO campaign”:

Sure enough, because our content is designed to make Google searchers happy, the page quickly went from #15 to the #4 spot in Google.

In a while, it hit the #1 spot and it’s currently ranking as a featured snippet:

Step #6: Optimize for Featured Snippets

Featured snippets can DRAMATICALLY increase your organic traffic.

For example, a while back we got this YouTube channel description guide to show up in the featured snippet spot:

And organic traffic to that page shot up like a rocketship:

How do you get your content in the featured snippet spot?

To show up in the featured snippet, you need to:

• Use lots of relevant headers (H2 and H3 tags)
• Include short answer to questions (around 40 words or less is often best)
• Optimize your content for mobile

While there are no definitive ways to optimize your content for AI overviews yet, there are some best practices to bear in mind.

Luckily, it’s pretty much just like following general SEO best practices. And doing things like:

• Ensuring Google can crawl and index your content
• Targeting the right keywords
• Creating helpful, optimized content

Step #7: Check Page Rendering

Rendering is one of the stages of the overall process Google uses to analyze your content. To determine whether it should be indexed and, if so, where it should rank.

Rendering occurs after the crawling stage:

This involves Google rendering the page as a user would see it. By executing your JavaScript.

This is a programming language used to enhance webpages and add functionality. Beyond the HTML.

If there are issues with your JavaScript, Google (and potentially your users) won’t be able to see your pages properly. This could be a broken reviews section. Or interactive buttons that don’t work.

Check how Google renders your pages using Google Search Console. Specifically, using the “URL Inspection Tool.”

Just test a page and then click the “View Tested Page” button. You’ll see a screenshot on the right-hand side that shows how Google “sees” your rendered page.

Look for differences between that and how your page should appear.

Step #8: Ensure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly

Mobile SEO is a vital component of any SEO audit.

Why?

Firstly, just under 55% of all global traffic is on mobile devices.

Second, Google started using their mobile-first indexing process a while ago. And completed the roll-out process in 2023.

This means that Google now uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking in mobile AND desktop search results.

The question is:

How do you know if your site is mobile-friendly?

Google used to offer a quick mobile-friendliness test. But discontinued it in 2023.

An alternative is to use a tool like PageSpeed Insights:

But we’ll talk more about that in Step #10.

For now, here are some tips to improve your site’s mobile friendliness:

• Use a responsive design: Essentially, make sure your site functions properly on mobile devices. If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, many themes are built to be responsive out of the box.
• Create mobile-friendly content: Use short sentences and paragraphs for better readability on smaller screens. And ensure all your CTAs are clear and buttons or menus are easy to tap and navigate.
• Use high-quality images: Ensure all graphics and photos look crisp and clear on mobile. Avoid using lots of text-heavy images, as they may be hard to read on smaller screens.

Step #9: Check Google Is Indexing Your Site Correctly

Did you know it’s possible to have different versions of your site indexed in Google?

It’s true.

For example, here are 4 different versions of the same site:

• http://yoursite.com
• https://yoursite.com
• http://www.yoursite.com
• https://www.yoursite.com

To many people, those URLs are pretty much the same.

But not to Google.

And unless you redirect these versions properly, Google will consider them completely separate websites.

(Not good.)

Fortunately, this is easy to check—and fix.

Just type each of the 4 different versions into your browser.

They should all end up on the same URL:

In our case, the “WWW” version of the site redirects to backlinko.com.

And when someone tries to visit the HTTP version of the site, they get redirected to the HTTPS version.

All good.

If a version of your site isn’t redirecting properly, no worries.

Just 301 redirect it to the version you want to use.

Step #10: Speed Up Your Site (Core Web Vitals)

Google confirmed that your site’s loading speed is a ranking factor all the way back in 2010.

And in 2018 they rolled out a new update that made speed even MORE important. As now mobile page speed would be used too.

So this is nothing new. And it’s something you need to prioritize as part of your SEO audit checklist.

But Google is also continuously adapting how they assess your site’s speed. Like the introduction of the INP Core Web Vital in 2024. Which measures how fast your website responds to user interactions.

Here’s how to get your site to load REALLY fast:

First, clean up your site’s HTML code.

You can easily find problems with your code with PageSpeed Insights.

This test will also show you how you’re performing in terms of your Core Web Vitals.

These are three metrics that cover how fast your site loads, how responsive it is to user interactions, and whether there are any unexpected layout shifts as your page loads.

Check out our guide to Core Web Vitals for more tips to optimize for them.

Next, crunch your images.

Huge images can bring your site speed to a screeching halt.

That’s why we recommend compressing your images with a tool like Kraken.

Squoosh is another option. And it’s free.

Finally, consider upgrading your hosting. If you spend $10 per month on hosting, don’t expect fast loading times.

A few years back we switched from a budget host to $200/month premium hosting. And the speed difference was insane.

But clearly this isn’t a free method, and it’s not always the best option for every website. Implement other page speed best practices first.

Step #11: Remove “Zombie Pages”

Type site:yourwebsite.com into Google.

This will show you how many pages Google has indexed. You might need to toggle the “Tools” button to see this number.

If this number is higher than you thought, you’re not alone.

In fact:

Many sites have 50-75% MORE indexed pages than they’d expect.

(We call these extra pages “Zombie Pages”.)

These are pages that might have had value at one point in time. But now they don’t.

They don’t drive traffic. They don’t help users. But they DO use up your crawl budget.

Here are the most common types of Zombie Pages:

• Irrelevant archive pages
• Empty category and tag pages (especially on WordPress)
• Search result pages
• Old press releases
• Thin content

Step #12: Find and Fix Indexing Problems

Next, it’s time to find webpages that Google isn’t indexing.

To do that, head back to Google Search Console. And click the “Pages” report under “Indexing.”

This report provides information about pages Google hasn’t indexed.

Clicking into any of these reasons will show you a list of the pages with that issue.

For example, it’s not uncommon to accidentally block a page with your robots.txt file. Or with a noindex tag.

But to avoid sending your readers to these pages, follow the next step.

Step #13: Fix Broken Links

A few years back Google stated that they don’t “lose sleep” over broken links.

That said:

Broken links are bad for user experience… which CAN hurt your SEO.

With that in mind, here’s how to fix broken links on your site:

One option is to use a free tool like Broken Link Check.

But you can also use crawling software. Here’s how it looks in Screaming Frog:

You can also find broken links using Semrush Site Audit:

Step #14: Perform a Backlink Audit

There’s no doubt about it:

Backlinks are still REALLY important.

In fact, our study of 11.8 million search results found that the top result in Google has 3.8x more backlinks than pages in positions 2-10.

And now it’s time to analyze your own backlink profile.

Here’s how:

First, enter your domain into a backlink analysis tool.

We’re using Semrush for this step (the Backlink Analytics tool in particular). But there are other tools that can do this as well.

And you’ll get a report on your links:

Pay particular attention to how many referring domains you have pointing to your site.

Referring domains = the number of different websites that link to you.

You also want to take a look at your domain’s Authority Score.

This tells you how much authority your site has. Based on factors like the quantity AND quality of your backlinks.

Don’t sweat the exact numbers too much. You’re just benchmarking where you’re at.

Finally, look for toxic links.

You want backlinks from REAL (and relevant) websites.

For example, you can see that many of our links come from blogs and news sites that write about digital marketing and SEO.

(Which is good.)

But if you notice that most of your links are from shady sites, you might want to disavow those links. (But be careful: you usually won’t need to use this tool, unless you have received a manual action.)

Semrush’s Backlink Audit tool has a built-in feature to help you identify potentially harmful backlinks:

Step #15: Analyze Your Competitors

Now it’s time to spy on your competitors.

Here’s how to do it:

First, find your competitors’ best keywords.

You can easily find this info using a tool like Semrush.

If your competitors rank for these keywords, you have a good chance to rank for them too.

Which makes them GREAT keywords to target.

Second, check out the pages that are ranking for those terms.

Then, figure out what those pages have in common. That way, you know what type of content works best in your niche.

For example, if you look at some of our highest-ranking pages…

…you’ll notice that our content:

• Is long-form (3k+ words)
• Contains custom visuals and illustrations
• Cites research studies, data and statements from Google
• Isn’t super technical

Then, analyze those competitors’ backlink profiles.

You can do this by jumping back into Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool for each page.

This doesn’t just tell you what content gets links. It also tells you what kinds of websites already link to the kind of content you might want to create.

Just repeat this for your main competitors and their top performing pages.

Then it’s time to create that content…

Step #16: Find Opportunities to Create 10x Better Content

To rank in 2024, your content needs to provide mega value for your readers.

With that, here are some easy ways to make your pages 10x better than anyone else in the search results:

1. Write VERY short intros

No one wants to read long-winded introductions like these:

Instead, keep your intros short and sweet:

2. Use Short Paragraphs

People don’t read online. They skim.

And small paragraphs help skimmers consume your content with ease.

3. Add Lots of Subheaders

Relevant subheaders help break up your content into digestible chunks.

They also help Google and users understand what the surrounding content is about.

4. Use Visuals, Images and Video

Multimedia makes your content MUCH more compelling.

(Plus, visuals help people learn and understand.)

For example, in this SEO strategy guide, we use lots of images:

Visuals:

And videos:

And because our content is easy to read and understand, the average user spends 04:43 on that page:

Step #17: Audit Your Structured Data

Structured data (also called schema markup) helps search engines understand your content.

Schema markup can help you land rich snippets in search results.

Like this:

These rich snippets can boost your visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Structured data can also tell Google about the author of your post, information about your business, and more.

How do you check that you’ve implemented your structured data correctly?

By using a tool like the Schema Validator:

You can also use the Detailed SEO extension:

Or check your Site Audit report in Semrush:

Step #18: Set Up Keyword Rank Tracking

Performing an SEO audit gives you lots of data to understand where your website is positioned within your industry.

But to see if your efforts to take action on that data are effective, you need a way to track your progress.

Enter: keyword rank tracking.

There are plenty of rank tracking tools out there.

We’ll use Semrush’s Position Tracking tool.

Why?

Because it doesn’t just track the keywords you give it.

(Although it does that too.)

What’s cool about the tool is that it automatically finds keywords that you rank for.

By tracking your keywords rankings, you can monitor whether the changes you make based on this SEO audit are working.

Bonus Step #1: Analyze Your Site’s Topical Authority

Topical authority has become a bit of a buzzword in the SEO space.

No matter how you define it: there’s no doubt that making it clear to users and Google that you’re a trustworthy authority on a given topic is essential if you want to rank well.

How can you check your website’s topical authority?

With our handy Topical Authority Analysis spreadsheet, created in collaboration with Graphite.

It automatically pulls information from your Google Search Console property. And provides you with a breakdown of keywords and phrases your website ranks for and gets clicks for.

Helping you understand where your topical authority lies. And in which areas you can expand or exploit your authority.

Bonus Step #2: Think About Information Gain

In broad terms, information gain refers to the additional value you add to the overall search results with your content.

Do you just rehash the top 10 results and call it a day?

Or do you take the time to meet the search intent, while going beyond what is already on the SERP?

Lily Ray made the important point that information gain requires effort.

To use the concept of information gain to your advantage, consider where you can:

• Cater to the search intent better than your competitors: Perhaps other posts follow a format that isn’t optimal for the target keyword. Or they’re not fully answering users’ questions.
• Add useful visuals: Don’t just add stock images for the sake of it. Think about how you could enhance your explanations or stories with helpful visuals.
• Discuss and link to relevant entities: Ensure your content clearly identifies and links to key entities (people, places, and things) relevant to your topic. Use structured data to help search engines understand these relationships.
• Add unique insights: This could be through your own (or your team’s own) expertise and first-hand experience. Or through original research, surveys, case studies, or interviews.

Take Your Site’s SEO to the Next Level

That’s it for the SEO audit process. But it’s just the first step in improving your site’s SEO.

Here are three resources to help you implement the guidance in this checklist:

SEO Marketing Hub: Check out this selection of guides to help you form a winning SEO strategy. No matter your level of expertise.

SEO Strategy: Learn how to craft the perfect SEO strategy for your website. With a step-by-step guide to boost your organic visibility.

SEO Trends: Stay on top of everything happening in the world of SEO. So you can understand which strategies you should be using right now.