How to Do an SEO Audit - Step-by-Step Guide for a Site Audit (Free SEO Audit Checklist 2025 Included!)

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A small business owner has many challenges to tackle, from expanding sales to improving operations and everything else in between. This often pushes digital marketing to the back burner. But in today’s world, most people start their buying journey online. This means focusing on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) too.

SEO is a digital marketing technique that helps improve your website's user experience. This ensures that your site appears higher in the search engine results page (SERP) and attracts potential customers.

To have a high-performing site, you need to start with an SEO audit. It helps find all of the issues that can negatively impact your website's performance. This may include slow pages, poorly-optimized web pages, or indexing problems, among many other things.

If you fail to audit your website regularly, you'll gradually lose visibility. According to Ahrefs, over 53% of all website traffic comes from organic search. This means that Google and other search engines are the largest source of visitors for most businesses, and if you're not showing up in search results, you're losing more than half of your potential customers to competitors.

At Sapphire SEO Solutions, we understand the importance of an SEO audit and always advise potential clients to get their websites audited before implementing any SEO strategy. The reality is that most small business owners don't know how to conduct an SEO audit. Fortunately, we're here to help.

In this comprehensive guide, we will go over everything you need to know about a site audit. We will help you learn how you can fix your site, build trust with search engines, and grow your business online.

Key Takeaways

  • Regular SEO audits boost site visibility, rankings, and traffic by uncovering hidden issues.

  • An SEO audit systematically reviews your site’s technical health, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and content quality to improve performance.

  • At Sapphire SEO Solutions, our expert-led audits use advanced tools and proven frameworks to reveal complex issues and drive measurable organic growth.

  • Start by setting goals, gathering benchmark data, and using an SEO audit checklist to quickly identify and fix critical issues.

a man doing an SEO audit

How to Prepare for an SEO Audit - 5 Steps to Execute Before Doing Your Site's SEO Audit

Preparing for an SEO audit is super important. Without the right tools and know-how, you won't get the results you need to create a robust SEO strategy.

Want to know how to prepare for an SEO audit? Here are the five crucial steps that you should follow:

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1. Define Your Audit Goals

An audit without a scope can be endless. You need to prioritize what you want from this exercise, which means focusing on the key goals. The following are some of the questions you should ask yourself:

  • Are you looking to improve your Google rankings?

  • Do you want to get more local customers?

  • Are you checking why your traffic has dropped?

  • Do you want to prepare your site for a redesign?

There are so many metrics to track, but with clear goals, you know what to focus on. If you're looking to get more local customers, you may want to divert your attention towards Google Business Profile, local keywords, and local citations. We will discuss all of this later on in this guide.

2. Get Acquainted with the Right Tools

Without your site's data, you can't measure or verify the results following an SEO audit. There are several tools you need to familiarize yourself with, some of which include the following:

  • Google Analytics (GA4): This shows how many people visit your site, how they find it, and how they behave on it.

  • Google Search Console (GSC): Previously referred to as Google Webmaster Tools, GSC shows how your site appears in Google search results, which keywords bring traffic, and if there are errors blocking your site from being indexed.

  • Your CMS login (like WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace): You need these details to review your content, structure, and settings, and make the right changes.

  • SEO tools (not mandatory but incredibly useful): Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Screaming Frog can help you find technical issues faster. However, some of the best SEO tools can cost a lot of money.

If you do not already use Google Analytics or Google Search Console, you need to set them up first. There are many online guides you can use to get started.

We highly recommend getting these up and running a week before you plan to do your SEO audit. This allows the tools enough time to gather data for analytical purposes.

3. Benchmark to Track Your Website's Performance

An SEO audit allows you to identify issues and take the necessary steps to fix them. After addressing the problems plaguing your site, you need to measure the improvements. To do that, it's important to benchmark your current performance.

You must record the performance of your site prior to the audit. There are several key metrics that you should consider during this benchmarking activity, and they include the following:

  • Organic traffic: This refers to how many visitors come from search engines (Get data from Google Analytics).

  • Top-performing pages: This refers to which pages bring the most traffic (You can determine how many pages are performing well through the Google Search Console).

  • Keyword rankings: This refers to what position your pages hold for target keywords (use GSC or an SEO tool).

  • Conversion rate: This refers to how many visitors take desired actions, like filling a contact form or making a purchase (Explore Google Analytics for this metric).

4. Understand Your Audience and Competitors

SEO helps you connect with people who may be searching for your products or services. But if you don't know who your target audience is, you'll never be able to craft a strong SEO strategy.

Before an SEO audit, take some time to learn more about your audience. To help with that, here are a few questions you should ask yourself:

  • What problems is your audience trying to solve?

  • What words or phrases (keywords) is your audience likely to search for?

  • Is your audience searching locally or nationally?

Besides understanding your audience, you also need to conduct an in-depth competitor analysis. To do that, use Google to search for the products or services you offer and list down all of the businesses that appear on the first page. These are your competitors.

Once you've identified the businesses you're competing with, go deeper with your analysis. Look into the following for each of your competitors:

  • Website structure

  • Content topics

  • Page loading speed

  • Mobile friendliness

  • Use of keywords in titles and headings

Knowing your audience and understanding more about your competitors gives you a reference point for where you stand. This will help you later on with fixing the issues your site faces.

5. Create a Tracking System

To record your audit findings, you need to set up a tracking system. A simple Excel spreadsheet with the following five columns is a great way to stay on top of the changes:

  1. Issue found

  2. Page affected

  3. Priority level (High, Medium, Low)

  4. Recommended fix

  5. Status (Not Started, In Progress, Fixed)

A spreadsheet can keep your work organized. Plus, you'll never miss a thing if you have everything on record.

How to Do an SEO Audit in Four Simple Steps

An SEO audit typically encompasses four different types of audits, which include the following:

  1. Technical SEO audit

  2. On-page SEO audit

  3. Off-page SEO audit

  4. Content audit

Let's explore these in detail.

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Step #1: Conduct a Technical SEO Audit to Identify Technical Errors

What is technical SEO? It is the process of optimizing your website for search engines. This makes it easy for Google and other search engines to assess, crawl, understand, and index your website.

If a redirect is broken, search engines may not be able to crawl and index your page. Even if the page has high-quality content, an improper redirect can prevent it from appearing or ranking properly in search results.

Want to know how to conduct a technical SEO audit? Here's what you should do:

A. Check If Google Has Indexed Your Site

To ensure that your site appears in search engines' databases, you need to index your site. This way, your site will show up in the SERPs.

Not sure if your site is indexed by search engines? Here's how you can check:

  • Go to Google and search for "site:yourdomain.com."

    • If results appear, those are the pages Google has indexed.

    • If no results appear, Google has not indexed your site.

  • You can also use Google Search Console to determine if your site is indexed. Go to the URL Inspection Tool, enter a page URL, and check its indexing status.

Is your site not showing up in the SERPs? Follow the steps below:

  • Submit your sitemap in GSC under "Sitemaps".

  • Use the "Request Indexing" option in GSC for individual pages.

  • Ensure your site is not blocked by robots.txt or meta noindex tags.

Your pages are invisible to searchers if they're not properly indexed. This can affect your site's visibility, negatively impacting rankings and organic traffic.

B. Test Website Crawlability

Google uses search engine crawlers to understand what your site and your site's pages are about. During a technical SEO audit, it's important to test website crawlability. This refers to whether search engines can access and read the different webpages.

Here's how you can check whether Google is crawling your site properly:

  1. In GSC, go to "Crawl Stats" to see if Googlebot is successfully crawling your pages.

  2. Use tools like Screaming Frog (free for up to 500 URLs) to crawl your site and detect blocked pages.

Some of the most common crawl issues that businesses often face include the following:

  • Broken links (404 errors)

  • Blocked pages in robots.txt

  • Server errors (5xx errors)

  • Redirect loops

When search engines cannot crawl your site, they cannot index it. This prevents your site from showing up in the SERPs. It's important to regularly identify crawlability issues and address them immediately to boost your site's visibility.

C. Evaluate Site Speed and Core Web Vitals

Google uses certain metrics to measure the user experience of your site, such as page speed and stability. These are referred to as Core Web Vitals.

Why is this important? If your site is slow or is often crashing, it can lead to a negative user experience, causing visitors to abandon your website for your competitors. This can result in higher bounce rates, which can negatively impact your site's ranking.

To check Core Web Vitals, head over to Google Search Console, and under "Experience", you'll find "Core Web Vitals". Click on that to view data pertaining to the user experience of your site.

Here are some important key metrics that you should review when you're viewing the Core Web Vitals section:

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This refers to how long it takes for the largest visible element to load. LCP should be under 2.5 seconds.

  • First Input Delay (FID): This refers to how fast the page reacts to the first user click. FID should be under 100 milliseconds.

  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This refers to how much content moves while loading. CLS should be less than 0.1.

D. Check Mobile Friendliness

If your site is not mobile-friendly, it can cause visitors to leave. This results in a higher bounce rate, signaling to Google that your website offers a poor user experience. Poorly-optimized sites can hurt your rankings.

Why does your site have to be mobile-friendly? According to Exploding Topics, around 64.35% of Google searches happen on mobile devices. If your site is not optimized for smartphones, visitors are likely to leave.

E. Ensure HTTPS Security

Users need to know that a site is secure before they can take action (provide personal information or buy a product through a credit card). They often look for a padlock icon, which can be found next to the website's URL in the browser.

For business owners, it's crucial to focus on HTTPS encryption, a certification that helps encrypt data between your site and visitors. This adds that padlock icon next to your HTML URL and removes the "not secure" warning, which can scare off potential customers.

Plus, an HTML encryption is a ranking factor, as Google wants to encourage secure, encrypted connections across the web.

Not sure if your site has the right security certification? Here are two ways you can check that:

  1. Visit your site and confirm it loads with https:// in the URL.

  2. Use an SSL checker tool.

F. Review Site Architecture and URL Structure

Site architecture is how your pages are organized and linked. A clean structure helps search engines crawl your site easily. It improves crawability (something which we discussed earlier in this guide) and user navigation. This improves your chances of ranking higher.

Here's a checklist that you should follow to ensure proper site architecture and URL structure:

  • Every page should be reachable in 3 or fewer clicks from the homepage.

  • Use descriptive, short, and consistent URLs (example: yourdomain.com/services/seo-audit).

  • Avoid duplicate content or multiple URLs for the same page.

G. Submit and Verify XML Sitemap

To help search engines find your webpages, you need to submit and verify an XML sitemap. This is a file that lists all of the important pages on your site. To check if your site's XML sitemap exists, add "sitemap.xml" to your website's URL. It should look like this:

  • yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

An XML sitemap is important for your website, as it helps Google index and discover new content faster. This is especially crucial for larger sites.

There are many online sitemap generators that can help create a file filled with all of the important pages of your website. Once generated, save the file as "sitemap.xml" in the root directory of your site. For more information, check the Google Search Central resources on building and submitting a sitemap.

H. Check for Duplicate Content and Canonical Tags

When you have the same or similar content across multiple pages, it can lead to duplicate content issues. This confuses search engines and adversely impacts your site's ranking.

To avoid duplicate content issues, you must put a self-referencing canonical tag. This is an HTML tag that tells Google and other search engines to prioritize a particular page over others.

To check for duplicate content, there are many tools that business owners can use, including Siteliner and Screaming Frog. If there is duplicate content on your site, you can do one of the following:

  • Change the content

  • Merge duplicate pages

  • Put canonical tags to point to the main version

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Step #2: Conduct an On-Page SEO Audit to Identify On-Page Errors

What is on-page SEO? It is the process of optimizing webpages to tell search engines what they are about. It also influences how well your pages rank. If you're not focusing on the on-page elements, you're losing out on organic traffic.

Want to know how to conduct an on-page SEO audit? Here's what you need to do:

A. Audit Page Titles

Also referred to as a title tag, a page title is the headline of a page that appears in the search results. It guides users and search engines by serving as a brief description of your page.

Create a spreadsheet and write all of the webpages you have on your site and the page titles for each of them. Go through each one of them to see if they're optimized for SEO. Here's what you should consider:

  • Each page must have a unique title. It should be concise, descriptive, and relevant.

  • Keep titles between 50 and 60 characters to avoid being cut off in search results.

  • Place target keywords near the start of the title, and also include your brand if possible.

Suppose you are running a web design agency. Instead of having a homepage with the title "Homepage,” you can go for “Affordable Web Design Services | Smith & Co.” Sounds better, right?

B. Audit Meta Descriptions

While a meta description is not a direct ranking factor, a well-optimized meta description improves click-through rates, which can impact a page's indirect ranking. But what is it?

Simply put, a meta description is a short summary that is shown under the page title in the SERPs. If you don't have an engaging SEO-optimized meta description, it can negatively impact user clicks.

Here are some best practices that you should follow when creating meta descriptions:

  • Every page should have a unique meta description. It should provide a short, engaging description of what the page is about. If it's boring, nobody is going to click on your page when it shows up in search results.

  • Keep it between 140 and 160 characters.

  • Include your primary keyword and a clear benefit or call to action.

Want a quick meta description example? The guide you're currently reading is targeting the keyword "how to do an SEO audit". With that in mind, we've created the following meta description that is not only engaging but also follows the best practices:

  • "Learn how to do an SEO audit from scratch. Follow this comprehensive guide to boost your site’s rankings, improve its SEO performance, and increase traffic."

C. Check Heading Structure

Heading structure is an important on-page SEO element that helps search engines understand the structure of your content. H1 is the main heading, while H2 and H3 are subheadings.

Clear headings are great for readability, and they signal content hierarchy to search engines, which can improve rankings. Whether you're writing a service page or creating a new blog for your site, make sure you include the following headers:

  • One H1 (your main topic)

  • H2s for main sections

  • H3s for subsections and so on

When crafting headers, always include a relevant keyword in a natural way. Pay close attention to the search intent before using a particular keyword.

D. Analyze Keyword Usage and Optimization

When people are searching for the products or services you offer, they use particular search terms in search engines. These search terms are referred to as keywords, and if you use them correctly, you can start ranking higher in the SERPs.

According to Backlinko's Google Keyword Study, 14.1% of searches are people asking questions (how, what, where, and who). In fact, 91.8% of all search queries are long-tail keywords.

Make sure to do your keyword research properly. There are many keyword research tools that you can use, including Google Keyword Planner (free), Ahrefs, Semrush, and Ubersuggest.

Once you've identified the main keyword for a particular page, make sure to include it naturally in the title, meta description, headings, and opening paragraph.

In addition to using the main keyword, you can also incorporate several secondary keywords or related keywords (synonyms and variations) throughout the content.

But don't go overboard, as keyword stuffing can adversely impact your site's ranking. Your focus should be on the search intent and creating high-quality content around it.

E. Assess Your Internal Links

Internal linking is a great way to connect your pages to each other. They help visitors navigate your site and help search engines understand which pages are important. Strong internal links can spread a page's authority, boosting its ranking in the SERPs.

You can check the top-linked pages under the "Links" section in Google Search Console. For a detailed analysis of your site's structure, Screaming Frog is highly recommended.

Broken links can harm your site's SEO and impact your rankings. You can use GSC and Screaming Frog to identify broken links and address the issues by updating the URL or creating 301 redirects.

When adding internal links to your pages or blogs, make sure to use descriptive anchor text. This tells search engines what the linked page is about.

F. Optimize Image SEO

Most business owners fail to work on image SEO, which is important in helping search engines understand what the images are about. Using properly optimized images across your site can improve your website's visibility and rankings.

When uploading images to your website, make sure to:

  • Use descriptive file names (example: blue-running-shoes.jpg).

  • Add alt text that explains the image. This helps both search engines and users with visual disabilities.

  • Compress images to reduce file size and improve loading speed.

  • Use modern image formats like WebP if possible.

The images you upload also appear in Google Image search. If they are well-optimized and load quickly, they can improve user experience and rankings. What we like to do at Sapphire SEO Solutions is to use a few branded images (created by our in-house designers). They are unique and stand out in the image SERPs.

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Step #3: Conduct an Off-Page SEO Audit to Identify Off-Page Errors

A thorough SEO audit involves auditing your off-page SEO performance. But what is off-page SEO?

Simply put, off-page SEO refers to all of the tactics you use outside of your site to influence how search engines view your credibility and authority.

From assessing backlink data to evaluating your Google Business Profile, here are the things you should consider during an off-page SEO audit:

A. Analyze Backlink Profile

Backlinking can help build your site's authority if done right. It is a strategy where you earn links from other sites to your website. Search engines use backlinks to judge your site’s trustworthiness and authority.

While many authoritative websites state that backlinks are one of the top three ranking factors on Google, that is no longer the case. In 2023, Gary Illyes, an analyst on the Google Search team, stated on Search Engine Land that Google has changed a lot since 2014, and other relevance signals have more importance in the search engine's algorithm.

That said, external links do matter, but it is also possible for websites without backlinks to rank higher. Here's what you should do when it comes to backlinks:

  • Always seek links from high-authority sites.

  • Never buy backlinks.

  • Use tools like Semrush to identify backlinks, categorizing them into high-quality and toxic backlinks.

B. Identify and Disavow Toxic Links

Toxic links can hurt your site's reputation and lead to a penalty. These are links from spammy or suspicious sites. When identifying backlinks, make sure to look for links from low-quality or unrelated sites. Contact the webmasters to remove those links.

Sometimes, you may not be able to reach the site's owner, or there may be too many toxic links to remove. In such situations, create a file with the list of spammy links and upload it to the Google Disavow Links tool to tell Google to ignore them.

C. Evaluate Domain Authority and Competitor Comparison

During an off-page SEO website audit, it's important to evaluate your site's domain authority (DA) and how it compares with your competitors'. DA or Domain Rating (DR) is an SEO metric that predicts how well your site can rank based on the quality and quantity of backlinks.

You can check your DA and DR using paid or free SEO tools. A Higher DR score indicates a strong backlink profile. If your score is lower than your competitors', focus on building more high-quality backlinks.

D. Audit Local Citations and Directory Listings

You may have mentions of your business across different directories and local listings. This is referred to as citations, and they include your business name, address, and phone number (NAP). Citations improve visibility and build credibility.

During an off-page SEO audit, find all of the existing citations and make sure that they are identical across all of the platforms. A single error in NAP, even an additional comma, can lead to inconsistencies, which sends a negative signal to search engines. This can harm your site's SEO.

E. Review Your Google Business Profile

According to BrightLocal, 98% of consumers read online reviews before buying a product or service. If your business is offering services in a particular area or selling products (online and offline), you need to have a Google Business Profile (GBP). This is the listing that appears on Google Maps and local search results.

If you don't already have a GBP, Google may have automatically created one for you. So search for your business name, and if it's already there, claim it. Sometimes, Google may not create a GBP automatically, which means that you would need to create one yourself.

For more information on optimizing your GBP, we've written a step-by-step guide, "Attract More Visitors to Google Business Profile in 2025," which goes over how you can claim or create your GBP and the best practices. Make sure to read it to help you set up and optimize your GBP for better visibility in the SERPs.

F. Monitor Brand Mentions and Online Reputation

When other pages or websites mention your brand, even if they don't link to your site, it can influence trust signals. Over time, brand mentions can boost authority and help build more backlinks.

With so many websites publishing tons of content each day, it can be challenging to identify and monitor brand mentions. Fortunately, business owners can create alerts using Google Alerts by simply entering their business name in the search box.

Another important thing to take notice of is online reputation in the form of reviews. Whether it's a positive or negative review, it's important for businesses to respond to them in a timely and professional manner.

Even if you have a negative review, a helpful message that apologizes for the experience and promises to make things right can send a reassuring message about your brand to potential customers.

G. Evaluate Social Presence

During an off-page SEO site audit, don't forget to evaluate your social presence. While it's not a direct ranking factor, it can drive traffic and increase brand awareness.

Social signals can indirectly support your site's SEO. When you post content on social media, it can attract backlinks while ensuring long-term SEO growth.

At Sapphire SEO Solutions, we always share our blog posts and research findings across all of our social media channels. Not only that, but our experts engage with readers through comments, which is great for our website.

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Step #4: Conduct a Content Audit to Identify and Address Content-Related Issues

One of the strongest ranking factors for search engines is the quality of content. Gone are the days when you could simply rewrite an existing blog post and start ranking for relevant keywords.

Today, you need to match the content with the right search intent. In fact, 96.55% of the pages get zero organic traffic, as the search intent doesn't align with what users are actually looking for. This makes the content invisible to search engines and irrelevant to searchers.

Another thing to note is that search engine algorithms have evolved. According to Google, it's super important to demonstrate E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). This is a set of guidelines Google's quality raters use to evaluate the quality and credibility of content.

For business owners, they must ensure that every page provides value to readers. This could be in the form of unique content or a free checklist.

If you're looking to learn more about E-E-A-T, make sure to read our blog on "What is E-E-A-T?", where we discuss everything you need to know about Google's guidelines and how your business can comply.

Now that you understand the importance of original content, here's how to conduct a content quality and relevance audit:

A. Evaluate Content Relevance to Target Audience

Your content needs to address the questions your target audience may have. Otherwise, it won't rank. Follow the steps below to start evaluating content relevance:

  1. Identify who your ideal customers are (age, location, problems they want solved).

  2. Map each page to a specific stage in the customer journey: awareness (learning), consideration (comparing), or decision (ready to buy).

  3. Check if your content solves real customer problems or just repeats generic information.

  4. Use tools like Google Search Console to see which keywords are already driving visitors to each page. Also, check whether they match your target audience’s interests.

  5. Tools like Google Trends help you explore trending topics so that you can build content around them. Discussing topics with declining interest won't do your site any good.

B. Check for Content Freshness and Accuracy

Google loves up-to-date information, and it will always put websites with the latest information over other sites. Outdated content is bad for your site's SEO.

Operating in an industry that changes quickly? Refresh your content regularly!

Have you used statistics in your old blogs? Consider updating them with new figures!

When it comes to updating content freshness, there are several steps you can take. They include the following:

  • Review publishing and last updated dates. Update content that is more than 12 months old, especially if it contains statistics, pricing, or trends.

  • Fix or remove broken links to maintain trust.

  • Replace outdated images, screenshots, or brand visuals.

  • Verify all statistics and facts against their original sources.

Check out our page on content refresh services. Here, we discuss in more detail the importance of fresh content and updating it for AI Overviews as well.

C. Assess Content Depth and Completeness

We mentioned at the start of this section about how Google loves unique content that provides value. If you're publishing blogs without any substance, hoping to rank for some keywords, it won't work.

Thin content doesn't rank, and search engines prioritize comprehensive pages that fully answer a query.

Here's how you go about auditing your content's depth and completeness:

  • Compare your content to the top-ranking pages for the same topic. Identify gaps in coverage.

  • Add missing sections, examples, or data to make the content more thorough.

  • Ensure each page has at least 500 to 800 words if it targets a meaningful keyword (some pages may require much more).

  • Remove filler text. Focus on providing real value to the reader.

D. Evaluate Content Originality and Uniqueness

Search engines want unique perspectives and insights. Avoid duplicate or thin content. Always include original research, testimonials, or case studies to stand out from competitors. You can even share relevant real-life experiences or stories to make the content more authentic.

E. Check Readability and Engagement

Boring or difficult-to-understand content can cause visitors to leave. This results in higher bounce rates, negatively impacting your search engine rankings.

During a content audit, assess your content against the following best practices:

  • Use clear language and short sentences. Avoid industry jargon unless you define it.

  • Structure content with subheadings, bullet points, and white space.

  • Use readability tools like Hemingway App to aim for a reading level of about grade 8 or lower for general audiences.

  • Add visuals like charts, photos, or short videos to keep readers engaged.

F. Align Content with Search Intent

If you've read this guide up until this point, you know how important it is to align the content with the right search intent. In fact, this guide targets a keyword with an informational intent, as we wanted to help small business owners learn more about SEO audits.

When writing a blog post, publishing a case study, or creating a product page, always do a quick search on Google for the keyword you want to target. Review the top 5 results and align your format accordingly.

G. Analyze Performance Metrics

You need to know which content is working and which needs improvement. An SEO audit tool can help you with that. However, we advise business owners to learn how to use Google Analytics and GSC, as these free tools capture the most data and help you track key metrics like:

  • Bounce rate (people leaving quickly)

  • Average time on page

  • Engagements

  • Impressions

  • Number of clicks

  • Click-through rates

Have pages with high impressions but low clicks? Improve their meta tags, titles, and meta descriptions to boost clicks.

Have pages with high traffic but low conversions? Adjust calls to action and internal links to guide users toward taking action.

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Here's a Free SEO Audit Checklist for Our Site Visitors!

Our SEO experts have created a comprehensive SEO audit checklist so that you can conduct a thorough audit of your website.

To download a free SEO audit checklist (2025), click the link below:

Sapphire SEO Solutions SEO Audit Checklist (2025)

Contact Sapphire SEO Solutions Today for a Complete SEO Audit (Free)!

While you can use a site audit tool to review your site's content, on-page elements, off-page factors, and technical setup, such tools don't tell you what to do to improve your site's performance. Plus, most of them don't do a good job at properly auditing your website and explaining what all of the metrics mean.

Search engine optimization requires skills, expertise, and knowledge. At Sapphire SEO Solutions, we have been helping small businesses rank higher and drive more search traffic since 2007.

Can't seem to attract more website visitors? Request a free SEO site audit today. Whether it is identifying broken internal links or evaluating page content, our SEO audit report provides detailed information on the key issues your site is facing, how they're impacting SEO performance, and the steps you need to take to address them.

Need SEO-optimized content for your site? Order SEO-optimized content using our online dashboard!

Frequently Asked Questions - SEO Site Audit

What Are the Steps Involved in an SEO Audit?

SEO audit involves the following four steps:

  1. Conduct a technical SEO audit

  2. Conduct an on-page SEO audit

  3. Conduct an off-page SEO audit

  4. Conduct a content SEO audit

Which Tool Is Best for SEO Audit?

There are many tools that you can use for an SEO audit, but some of the most popular ones include Semrush, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog. Keep in mind that each of these tools has specific uses. For example, Semrush is great at conducting a comprehensive site audit, while Screaming Frog excels at technical SEO.

What Is an SEO Audit Tool?

An SEO audit tool is an online software that helps analyze a website’s technical, on-page, and off-page SEO health. This is crucial for finding issues, such as broken links, missing metadata, slow page speed, and others.

How Long Does an SEO Audit Take?

Depending on your site's size and complexity, an SEO audit tool can audit your site within a few minutes. However, a full manual site audit by an experienced professional can take anywhere from a few hours to several days.

How Much Does an SEO Audit Cost?

An SEO audit can cost anywhere between $500 and $5,000. It can cost even more depending on the depth of the analysis and the size of the site.

At Sapphire SEO Solutions, we provide a free SEO site audit to all of our website visitors. However, for a complete manual SEO audit, which can take time, we charge based on the complexity of the site.

But don't worry, as our rates are much lower than what other SEO agencies charge. Plus, we also provide actionable insights and SEO recommendations!

Can I Do a Website Audit Myself?

Business owners can do a website audit using free or paid SEO audit tools. However, it's important to get a professional SEO audit done every now and then to explore deeper technical issues and competitive opportunities.

Are SEO Audits Worth It?

SEO audits are worth it because they help identify hidden issues that can negatively impact your site's SEO performance.

A thorough manual audit by a professional is a great way to:

  • Improve site performance

  • Increase organic traffic

  • Boost online visibility

  • Grow your ROI

How Often Should I Do an SEO Audit?

Business owners must conduct a full site audit at least twice a year. Mini website SEO audits should be done on a quarterly basis to detect issues earlier.

Author Bio - Yahya Khan Bio
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