SEO Audit, the Essential 130-Point Checklist (Only)

I'll admit something to you: being an SEO consultant is not always an easy job. Especially when you're faced with this kind of Google Analytics dashboard.

Your throat tightens at the sight of the disaster, and there's only one solution: elbow grease!

Here's how I managed to get out of this situation.

👣 What is an SEO audit?

What should you do when you suspect that a website is not functioning properly? How do you identify the problems? These are the questions you ask yourself when you want to conduct an SEO audit.

But what if you're on a tight budget? This article is for webmasters and SEO consultants who want to fix problems themselves without necessarily hiring an SEO agency.

There are many articles offering advice in this area, and we decided to get serious by creating an SEO checklist with over 130 checkpoints.

You can follow it or read it to understand how I conducted my SEO audits when I was working at an agency.

Thanks to this checklist, you'll be able to perform an audit yourself.

💰 How much does an SEO audit cost?

For a basic SEO audit, which would take about 5 to 10 hours, the recommended rate ranges from €700 to €2500, depending on the workload.

For a more detailed SEO audit, between €3,000 and €25,000, after reading this list, you'll understand why an SEO audit takes between 2 and 3 weeks (or even longer).

⚗️ How do you audit a website?

Not all SEO checklists are the same.

Most of the documents found on the web cover the basics of a technical SEO audit without taking into account how Google has evolved. It's possible that a UX issue or on-page SEO problems, especially semantics, are affecting your site's performance.

Technical fixes won't solve the problem permanently. To do that, you'll need to find the root cause.

This SEO checklist covers all the checkpoints and how they should be performed.

The complete SEO audit process:

• Step 1: Technical SEO audit
• Step 2: Site architecture audit
• Step 3: Google audit
• Step 4: Keyword audit
• Step 5: SEO content audit
• Step 6: On-page analysis
• Step 7: Link building and backlink audit
• Step 8: UX audit
• Step 9: Mobile audit
• Step 10: Beware of bad practices
• Step 11: Bonus: Competitor tracking

Remember that these are just checks. The results of these checks should be part of a long-term strategy.

Before starting an SEO audit...

First and foremost, it's essential to be prepared and ask the right questions. You'd be surprised how many SEO problems are related to outdated optimization techniques that may have led to penalties.

Why this SEO audit checklist?

SEO audits are one of those areas where it's all or nothing. By publishing the checkpoints, we want to make an extremely comprehensive list accessible to everyone.

This list helps identify problems, no matter their size, that impact the site's ranking.

🔨 Tools used during a website's SEO audit

I strongly advise against using only one tool when auditing your website. Indeed, you'll likely miss something, which is why I invite you to use many different tools to analyze various elements. Each tool, in my opinion, covers a specific feature. Some are paid, while others offer freemium plans (limited access to features).

SEO Tools for checking site indexing:

• Ahrefs
• Oncrawl
• Botify
• Deep Crawl
• Screaming FROG
• SiteBulb

SEO Keyword Research Tools:

If you want more details on this part, read our article Understanding and Creating the Perfect Keyword List

• Semrush
• Answerthepublic
• Ubersuggest
• Rankxplorer
• SEOQuantum
• YoodaInsight
• Ahrefs

SEO Tools for evaluating backlinks:

• SEObserver
• MajesticSEO
• Moz
• Ahrefs

SEO Tools for tracking your position in Google:

• Monitorank
• Allorank
• Ahrefs
• SEMRush

UX Tools, especially for SXO:

• Hotjar (this page uses it :) )

Mobile evaluation tools:

• Google Mobile Test
• Lighthouse (google chrome)
• Google AMP Validator

SEO Tools for site performance:

• GTMetrix
• Uptrends
• Google PageSpeed

Various SEO tools in my toolbox:

• Google Suite (Google Analytics, Google Search Console)
• Wayback Machine
• GA checker

The step-by-step SEO audit

Below is the list of audit steps by priority category.

Technical SEO audit

Many technical issues go undiagnosed because you don't necessarily see them.

Performing a high-quality technical SEO audit for a client is the cornerstone for the long-term success of your SEO optimization efforts.

The site's technical audit begins with various checks to determine how easy it is to crawl and whether there are any indexing or ranking issues.

Having a consistently available and fast-loading website has been a ranking factor for several years, but it has become increasingly important in the mobile-first era.

Site architecture audit

Architecture issues can ruin a site and all future campaigns. A site's architecture plays an important role in its SEO.

A site may have quality backlinks from high-authority sites, but if the site structure and internal links are not well optimized, it probably won't fully benefit from these links.

Google audit

Ensuring that the website is properly set up with Google is always the first priority. If the client has not successfully verified their Google Search Console, for example, this should be a priority fix before starting work.

Here's a list of checkpoints:

• Is Google Analytics installed correctly?
• Are goals set and funnels correct?
• Has e-commerce tracking been set up?
• Do conversion data display and are they correct?
• Is Google Tag Manager installed correctly?
• Do event data pass correctly to Google Analytics?
• Has Google Search Console been verified?
• Has there been a sudden drop in traffic, rankings, and/or CTR?
• Is Google My Business properly set up for all business locations?

Google Analytics:

Google Search Console:

From Google Search:

Keyword audit

Google expects to find certain keywords on a page. Make sure to use them.

SEO content audit

By better understanding your content, you can improve underperforming pages.

On-page analysis

Sometimes known as best practices, these elements are mostly on-page and easy to change.

Page titles (title)

This is one of the inevitable elements in SEO: the title tag. To go further, consult: 5 Tips on the "title" Tag

Meta Description

Link building and backlink audit

Google relies heavily on backlinks. So make sure you're on top of it.

UX audit (user experience)

User experience is an SEO criterion. You'd do well to check this factor as it is considered in the EAT evaluation in SEO.

A technically solid website with strong on-page optimization is no longer enough to maintain high visibility on Google. Sites must demonstrate expertise in their field, provide exceptional quality content, and an intuitive user experience.

Mobile SEO audit

Mobile compatibility is extremely important, with over 50% of internet users now using this mode of navigation.

Bad SEO practices

These practices still manage to infiltrate the site, sometimes without the owner's knowledge.

Bonus: Competitor tracking

Set up your competitive benchmarks before starting. That way, you know where growth has occurred. Understanding what your competitors are doing may be a great way to imitate and improve your SEO campaign.

Your analysis here may not appear at the beginning of the main audit itself, but it will help define your recommendations to the client. You may want to consider creating a separate Excel sheet containing key information on competitor analysis and details on how the client compares to these competitors.

In conclusion