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Site Audit Guide

Learn how to run comprehensive site audits and interpret the results to improve your website's SEO performance.

What is a Site Audit?

A site audit is a comprehensive health check for your website that examines every aspect of your site's technical foundation, content quality, and user experience. Our automated audit tool simulates how search engines see and interact with your website, identifying issues that could prevent proper indexing, ranking, or user satisfaction.

Discovery

Crawls your entire website to discover pages, analyze structure, and map your content.

Analysis

Evaluates technical SEO, performance, security, and accessibility against best practices.

Insights

Provides prioritized recommendations with impact scores and implementation guidance.

What We Analyze:

  • Technical SEO elements
  • Page speed & Core Web Vitals
  • Mobile optimization
  • Security & HTTPS setup
  • Content quality & structure
  • Internal linking
  • User experience factors
  • Accessibility compliance

Business Impact:

  • Higher search rankings
  • Better user experience
  • Increased organic traffic
  • Higher conversion rates
  • Improved crawlability
  • Enhanced security
  • Better accessibility
  • Competitive advantage

How Site Audits Work

1

Website Crawling

Our audit tool starts by crawling your website, just like search engines do. It follows internal links to discover all pages, analyzes your site structure, and identifies potential crawlability issues.

What we check: Robots.txt, sitemap.xml, internal linking structure, URL structure, duplicate content, orphaned pages, and crawl depth.

2

Technical Analysis

Each discovered page undergoes comprehensive technical analysis. We examine HTML structure, meta tags, headers, schema markup, and technical SEO elements that affect search engine understanding.

Analysis includes: Title tags, meta descriptions, heading hierarchy, structured data, canonical tags, hreflang tags, and technical markup validation.

3

Performance Testing

We measure your website's loading speed, analyze Core Web Vitals, and identify performance bottlenecks that could affect user experience and search rankings.

Metrics tracked: First Contentful Paint (FCP), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and overall page speed scores.

4

Security & Accessibility Scan

Finally, we perform security checks and accessibility audits to ensure your site is safe for users and compliant with modern web standards.

Security checks: HTTPS implementation, SSL certificates, security headers, malware scanning. Accessibility: WCAG compliance, color contrast, keyboard navigation.

Types of Site Audits

Comprehensive Audit

  • • Full website crawl and analysis
  • • Deep technical SEO examination
  • • Performance benchmarking
  • • Security vulnerability scan
  • • Accessibility compliance check
  • • Content quality assessment
15-45 minutes • Most thorough

Quick Audit

  • • Critical issues scan
  • • Basic technical checks
  • • Performance overview
  • • Security basics
  • • High-impact problems only
  • • Fast results for urgent fixes
5-15 minutes • Focused on critical issues

When to Use Each Type:

Comprehensive Audit:
  • • New website launches
  • • Major redesigns
  • • Quarterly health checks
  • • Pre-SEO campaign audits
Quick Audit:
  • • Weekly monitoring
  • • Post-major changes
  • • Urgent issue identification
  • • Performance regression checks

How to Run a Site Audit

1

Select Your Project

Choose the project containing the website you want to audit. If you haven't created a project yet, you'll need to set one up first.

2

Start the Audit

Click "Run Site Audit" from your project dashboard. You can choose between a comprehensive audit (detailed analysis).

3

Wait for Completion

The audit typically takes 5-15 minutes depending on your website size and the audit type. You'll receive a notification when it's complete.

4

Review Results

Analyze the audit report, prioritize issues by severity, and implement the recommended fixes.

Detailed Audit Categories

Technical SEO

On-Page Elements

  • • Title tag optimization and length
  • • Meta description quality and uniqueness
  • • Header hierarchy (H1-H6 structure)
  • • Internal linking patterns
  • • URL structure and readability

Technical Infrastructure

  • • Robots.txt accessibility and directives
  • • XML sitemap presence and accuracy
  • • Canonical tag implementation
  • • Schema markup validation
  • • Hreflang for international sites

Performance & Speed

Core Web Vitals

  • • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
  • • First Input Delay (FID)
  • • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
  • • First Contentful Paint (FCP)
  • • Speed Index metrics

Optimization Checks

  • • Image compression and formats
  • • CSS and JavaScript minification
  • • Browser caching headers
  • • CDN usage and configuration
  • • Resource loading priorities

Security & HTTPS

SSL/TLS Configuration

  • • HTTPS implementation (all pages)
  • • SSL certificate validity and chain
  • • Mixed content warnings
  • • HSTS header presence
  • • Certificate transparency

Security Headers

  • • Content Security Policy (CSP)
  • • X-Frame-Options protection
  • • X-Content-Type-Options
  • • Referrer-Policy settings
  • • Feature-Policy controls

Mobile & Accessibility

Mobile Optimization

  • • Mobile-friendly design
  • • Touch target sizes
  • • Viewport configuration
  • • Mobile page speed
  • • AMP page validation

Accessibility (WCAG)

  • • Alt text for images
  • • Color contrast ratios
  • • Keyboard navigation
  • • Screen reader compatibility
  • • Form accessibility

WordPress Analysis

WordPress-Specific SEO

  • • WordPress version and security updates
  • • Theme SEO optimization and child themes
  • • Plugin conflicts and SEO plugin analysis
  • • Permalink structure optimization
  • • XML sitemap generation and submission

WordPress Performance

  • • Caching plugin detection and optimization
  • • Image optimization and compression
  • • Database cleanup and optimization
  • • WordPress-specific performance plugins
  • • WordPress hosting optimization

Common Site Audit Issues

Critical Issues

Missing HTTPS

Website not served over secure HTTPS protocol, affecting trust and rankings.

Broken Internal Links

Links pointing to non-existent pages, creating poor user experience.

Missing Title Tags

Pages without title tags, severely impacting search visibility.

Warning Issues

Slow Page Speed

Pages loading slower than 3 seconds, affecting user experience and rankings.

Missing Alt Text

Images without descriptive alt text, hurting accessibility and SEO.

Duplicate Content

Similar content across multiple pages, potentially diluting ranking power.

Impact Assessment

Each audit issue is assigned an impact score based on its potential effect on search rankings and user experience:

High Impact: Critical ranking factors
Medium Impact: Important UX factors
Low Impact: Minor optimization opportunities

Mobile SEO Auditing

Mobile-First Indexing

Google primarily uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking. Mobile audits ensure your site performs well on mobile devices.

Responsive design implementation
Mobile page speed optimization
Touch-friendly navigation
Mobile Core Web Vitals

Mobile-Specific Issues

Common problems that affect mobile users and search rankings specifically on mobile devices.

Unplayable content above the fold
Small touch targets
Horizontal scrolling issues
Slow mobile loading speeds

International & Multilingual SEO

Hreflang Implementation

For websites targeting multiple countries or languages, proper hreflang tags help search engines serve the correct language version to users.

Hreflang tags on all language variants
Self-referencing hreflang tags
Missing reciprocal hreflang links

Language & Locale Setup

Proper language declarations and locale-specific optimizations ensure international users get relevant, localized content.

HTML lang attributes
Open Graph locale tags
Missing language alternates

Content Quality & Structure

Content Depth

  • • Word count analysis
  • • Topic coverage
  • • Content uniqueness
  • • Reading level assessment

User Experience

  • • Content formatting
  • • Readability scores
  • • Internal linking
  • • Multimedia integration

SEO Optimization

  • • Keyword optimization
  • • Semantic HTML
  • • Content structure
  • • Topic clustering

Understanding Audit Results

Passed Checks (Green)

These elements meet current SEO best practices and industry standards. Continue maintaining these high standards.

Action: Monitor regularly to ensure continued compliance.

Warnings (Yellow)

Issues that should be addressed but won't severely impact rankings immediately. These are optimization opportunities.

Action: Prioritize based on impact and implementation difficulty.

Critical Issues (Red)

Problems that can significantly hurt search rankings, user experience, or site functionality. These require immediate attention.

Action: Address immediately to prevent ranking drops and user experience issues.

Audit Scoring System

Overall Score Calculation
  • • Technical SEO: 40% weight
  • • Performance: 30% weight
  • • Content Quality: 20% weight
  • • Security/Accessibility: 10% weight
Score Ranges
  • • 90-100: Excellent (maintain)
  • • 70-89: Good (optimize)
  • • 50-69: Needs improvement
  • • 0-49: Critical issues present

Advanced Audit Features

Crawl Configuration

Custom Crawl Depth

Control how deep the crawler goes into your site structure.

Scheduled Audits

Set up automatic audits to run regularly and monitor changes.

Multi-domain Support

Audit multiple domains or subdomains in a single report.

Integration Features

Google Analytics Integration

Connect GA4 data for deeper insights into user behavior.

Search Console Data

Import GSC data for enhanced indexing and ranking analysis.

Custom Reporting

Generate branded reports for clients or stakeholders.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Audit Fails to Start

  • Check URL: Ensure the website URL is accessible and returns HTTP 200
  • Robots.txt: Verify robots.txt doesn't block crawling
  • Server Response: Check for server errors or timeouts
  • SSL Issues: Ensure SSL certificates are valid if using HTTPS

Incomplete Audit Results

  • Crawl Limits: Large sites may hit crawl depth limits
  • Dynamic Content: JavaScript-heavy sites may need longer crawl times
  • Rate Limiting: Server rate limits can interrupt crawling
  • Broken Links: Too many 404 errors can halt the audit process

Inaccurate Performance Scores

  • Caching: Browser caching can skew speed test results
  • CDN Issues: CDN configuration problems affect global performance
  • Server Location: Test location affects perceived speed
  • Dynamic Content: Real-time content loading affects metrics

Best Practices for Site Audits

Audit Frequency Strategy

Different types of websites require different audit frequencies based on their content update patterns and business importance.

E-commerce:
Weekly quick audits, monthly comprehensive
Content/Blogs:
Bi-weekly quick audits, monthly comprehensive
Corporate:
Monthly comprehensive audits

Issue Prioritization Framework

Use this framework to prioritize fixes based on impact and effort:

High Impact
Low Effort
🔥 Quick Wins
High Impact
High Effort
📈 Major Projects
Low Impact
Low Effort
⚡ Minor Wins
Low Impact
High Effort
⏰ Low Priority

Post-Audit Implementation

Follow this systematic approach to implement audit recommendations:

  1. Document Changes: Create a detailed implementation plan with timelines
  2. Backup First: Always backup before making technical changes
  3. Test Locally: Verify changes work in a staging environment
  4. Implement Gradually: Roll out changes in phases to monitor impact
  5. Monitor Results: Track rankings, traffic, and Core Web Vitals
  6. Re-audit: Run follow-up audits to verify improvements

Continuous Monitoring

SEO is not a one-time activity. Regular monitoring helps maintain and improve your search performance over time.

Weekly Checks:

  • • Index coverage reports
  • • Core Web Vitals
  • • Manual penalty alerts
  • • Competitor ranking changes

Monthly Reviews:

  • • Comprehensive site audits
  • • Backlink profile analysis
  • • Keyword ranking reports
  • • Technical SEO health checks

Next Steps

Domain Analysis

Learn how to analyze your domain's authority and backlink profile.

Keyword Research

Discover how to research and optimize for the right keywords.

Performance Analytics

Track your website's performance metrics and improvements.