Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for driving traffic and growing an online business. However, with so many complex factors to consider, it can be tricky to know if your website is fully optimized.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll explore two easy ways to audit your website‘s SEO and find areas for improvement.
After 15 years as a webmaster and SEO expert, I‘ll also share key insights into prioritizing on-page optimizations for the best ROI based on extensive experience.
Contents
Why Continuously Checking Your Website‘s SEO Matters
Auditing and improving your website‘s SEO should be an ongoing process. Here‘s why it‘s so important for your organic growth:
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62% of marketers say improving SEO and growing organic presence is their top inbound marketing goal, according to HubSpot [1].
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Websites on the first Google search results page get 94% of all traffic from that query, per data from Moz [2].
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70% of small businesses say SEO helped them acquire new customers in 2021 [3].
It‘s clear that ranking higher in search engines can significantly boost your traffic, leads, and sales. That‘s why regularly checking your SEO is essential.
Here are 5 key reasons performing regular SEO audits is vital:
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Identifying issues hurting your rankings so you can fix them and improve your positioning.
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Tracking progress over time to see if your optimization efforts are effective.
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Comparing your site to competitors‘ to find their SEO advantages.
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Monitoring keyword rankings to optimize for more high-traffic terms.
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Guiding your team on next SEO steps to continuously enhance optimization.
Now let‘s explore two ways to audit your site‘s SEO…
Method 1: Use a Free SEO Tool Like SEMrush
As an SEO expert, SEMrush is one of my go-to free tools for analyzing overall website optimization.
While SEMrush‘s paid plans unlock more robust features, the free version still provides valuable insight.
Getting Started with SEMrush
To get started, go to SEMrush.com and enter your website URL.
SEMrush will crawl your site and generate an SEO snapshot.
Check Your Site Audit
Under the Site Audit section, you‘ll see a list of critical SEO issues impacting your site along with solutions.
Fixing these high-priority problems should be step one. They have the biggest impact on your rankings and organic traffic.
For example, you may see alerts for:
- 🚨 Pages with thin content under 300 words. Bulk up your copy.
- 🚨 Slow page speed hurting user experience. Optimize images.
- 🚨 Broken external links creating 404s. Remove or replace them.
- 🚨 No structured data markup implemented. Add schema.
Optimizing these major site-wide issues will vastly improve your SEO foundation.
Example of a SEMrush site audit showing critical issues to fix
Review Page-Level SEO Suggestions
Scrolling down in the audit, you can click into page-specific SEO suggestions:
These highlight optimization issues per URL to improve each piece of content.
For example, you may see alerts to:
- 🚨 Add meta descriptions to blog posts without them.
- 🚨 Include target keyword more times in articles.
- 🚨 Fix duplicate content on similar pages.
- 🚨 Improve page speed scores below 60.
Optimizing issues at the page-level is key for targeting relevant searches with each post or product page.
Prioritize optimizing pages that get more traffic – improving their SEO will have a bigger impact.
Check Your Backlinks Report
Further down in the SEMrush results, you can analyze backlinks pointing to your site.
Backlinks remain one of the most important ranking factors, so it‘s vital to monitor them.
You can check metrics like:
- ✅ Total number of backlinks
- ✅ Top linking domains
- ⚠️ Toxic backlinks from low-quality sites
Having authoritative sites linking to you improves rankings. But low-quality links can negatively impact SEO.
I recommend disavowing any toxic backlinks to protect your site.
View Keyword Rankings
Lastly, SEMrush shows keyword rankings so you can see terms driving traffic to your site and those you need to improve for.
You can view:
- ✅ Top keywords ranking well
- ⬆️ Keywords that have lost/gained positions
- 🔎 Search volume of keywords
Optimizing for these high-traffic terms can significantly boost your organic reach.
Target potential ranking keywords with over 1k monthly searches for the best ROI.
Method 2: Use a WordPress SEO Plugin Like Yoast
In addition to standalone tools, SEO plugins for WordPress make it easy to analyze on-page optimization.
One of the best options is Yoast SEO – their optimization checklist identifies areas to improve right in your WP backend.
Upon installing and activating Yoast, you‘ll get an SEO toolbar on posts and pages. This scans content and suggests improvements.
Check Your Readability Score
When editing a post or page in WordPress, you‘ll see a box with your content‘s readability score:
This rates how easy your text is to read – aim for a score of "Good" or higher.
Improving readability signals to Google your content is high-quality.
You can click into the score to get tips for enhancing readability like:
- ✍️ Shorten lengthy sentences.
- ✍️ Add transition words.
- ✍️ Include more paragraph breaks.
Crafting compelling, readable content is a top ranking factor today.
Review Your Snippet Preview
Below the readability score, Yoast shows a snippet preview displaying how your page would appear in search results:
Ensure your meta title and description are compelling and informative here.
The preview lets you verify your page summary entices searchers to click through.
I recommend A/B testing different meta titles and descriptions to maximize CTR.
Check Keyword Optimization
You can enter a "focus keyword" to have Yoast assess optimization for a specific term.
It will analyze things like:
- 📈 How often the keyword is used in content
- 🔍 If it‘s in prominent places like headings
- 🧠 Usage of related keywords/synonyms
Optimizing your page for a focus keyword helps it rank for that search term.
Choose a keyword that fits naturally in your content – forcing it will hurt readability.
Fix On-Page Issues
Throughout the process, Yoast surfaces alerts for any critical issues impacting SEO:
For example, you may see warnings about:
- ⚠️ Over-optimization of keywords
- ⚠️ Missing meta description
- ⚠️ Lengthy paragraphs
- ⚠️ Lack of internal links
- ⚠️ Poor keyword usage
Addressing these improves page-level SEO step-by-step as you write/edit.
Track Your Progress
As you fix optimization issues, your Yoast SEO score will improve:
Higher scores indicate your page is becoming more aligned with SEO best practices.
Watching this score increase over time lets you know your efforts are effective!
I recommend tracking your Yoast SEO scores in a table to quantify progress.
Expert Tips for Maximizing Your Website‘s SEO Potential
Beyond the basics, here are some key SEO optimization tips from my 15 years of experience:
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Invest in high-quality content written by experts – Well-researched, credible content ranks much higher.
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Optimize page speed – Faster load times improve rankings and UX. Compress images, minify CSS/JS, and more.
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Implement structured data markup – Include schema markup so search engines better understand your content.
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Build high-authority backlinks – Focus on getting links from reputable websites to boost rankings.
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Make a mobile-friendly site – With 60% of searches on mobile, mobile optimization is critical.
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Analyze competitors‘ SEO strategies – See what‘s working for others in your space and replicate it.
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Monitor rankings/traffic monthly – Continuously track progress to refine your optimization plan.
SEO is an iterative, ongoing process. Regularly audit your website and fix issues to maintain optimal performance.
Feel free to reach out if you need help crafting an effective SEO strategy!
Start Checking Your Site‘s SEO Today
I hope this post gives you a better understanding of how to audit your website‘s SEO.
No matter your current optimization level, regularly checking for issues using SEMrush, Yoast, and other tools allows you to spot areas for improvement.
Focus first on critical problems and "quick wins" before moving onto more advanced SEO.
Start inspecting your site‘s optimization with the tips above to identify weak spots and strengthen them. Consistent enhancements will lead to climbing up in search engine results.
