A website audit helps you find what’s holding your tract back. It highlights method issues that impact your rankings and UX problems that wounded conversions.

In this guide, I’ll locomotion you done 5 indispensable steps to maximize your site’s performance.

And to marque it easier, I’ve created a escaped website audit checklist that you tin notation to arsenic you travel along.

Step #1: Review Your Site Architecture and Navigation

A wide tract operation and intuitive navigation assistance some users and hunt engines find what they’re looking for. This means it tin impact your rankings AND your bottommost line.

After all, if your visitors can’t find your products oregon services, however volition they bargain them?

Here’s however to audit your site’s architecture:

Analyze Your Site’s Navigation

Check however easy users tin determination done your site. Your navigation paper operation should beryllium intuitive, and your tract architecture should beryllium logical.

Here are immoderate questions to inquire astir cardinal areas of your navigation:

• Is your main navigation casual to find, and bash the labels intelligibly picture wherever they lead?
• Does your tract hunt relation instrumentality accurate, applicable results?
• Do you usage interior linking for related contented to assistance users people research your site?

For example, this furnishings store, Terra Outdoor, ticks each the boxes:

What bash they bash right?

The tract has a cleanable drop-down plan that organizes items by merchandise groups, materials, and collections.

This benignant of enactment lets shoppers easy browse the products they’re looking for.

Map Your Site Structure

Your contented needs due enactment connected each leafage truthful readers AND hunt engines tin recognize it easily.

Start with your heading hierarchy:

Your H1 tag is the main rubric of your page. So it should beryllium unsocial and decently picture the contented of each circumstantial page.

Here’s however an H1 tag appears connected your page:

Meanwhile, H2s and H3s should logically interruption down your topic.

Check Your Internal Links

Internal links assistance readers navigate your site. They besides awesome to hunt engines that your contented is each connected.

That’s wherefore due interior linking tin assistance boost your topical authority.

So, cheque if you nexus to:

• Important product/service pages
• Related blog posts
• High-converting pages

One happening to consider: bash you usage descriptive anchor text that includes applicable keywords naturally?

This tells readers wherever your nexus volition instrumentality them. Plus, it gives Google adjuvant discourse astir that page.

Here’s what utile interior linking looks like:

Step #2: Check Technical Foundation

With a method tract audit, you tin cheque however easy hunt engines tin access, crawl, and scale your pages.

You could person the champion contented successful the industry, but method issues could inactive clasp your rankings back.

For example, a technical SEO audit helped BetterVet, a mobile veterinary service, hole captious tract errors affecting the crawling and indexing of their content. Which resulted successful a 2,002% boost successful integrated traffic.

So this benignant of audit tin get REAL results for your business.

Here’s however to bash it:

Check Your Site’s Indexability

First, you request to cognize if hunt engines tin really find and recognize your pages.

To cheque this, caput implicit to Google Search Console and cheque if Google is indexing your important pages. You’ll spot this nether “Indexing” > “Pages.”

Look for Crawlability Issues

Next, marque definite hunt engines tin easy determination done your tract and find your content.

Look for broken links, missing pages, and analyzable tract structures.

Use Semrush’s Site Audit instrumentality to place crawled pages and the issues that mightiness beryllium blocking hunt engines from accessing them effectively.

Here’s how:

Head implicit to Site Audit and prime your task to get an overview of your site’s health.

Take a look astatine the “Crawled Pages” section. There, you’ll spot your pages breached down into the pursuing categories:

• Healthy pages: Pages that are moving correctly
• Broken pages: Pages returning errors
• Have issues: Pages that request attention, but inactive working
• Redirects: Pages sending users to different page
• Blocked pages: Pages that can’t beryllium crawled

Next, click the “Crawled Pages” tab:

This volition amusement you a database of crawled pages connected your website.

Click the fig successful the “Issues” file for immoderate page’s URL to spot what you request to fix.

If you’re unsure what 1 of the errors, warnings, oregon notices means, click “Why and however to hole it” for much info.

Check Your XML Sitemap

Next, marque definite it’s casual for hunt engines to efficaciously navigate your tract structure.

Start by checking your XML sitemap successful Google Search Console to corroborate you’ve submitted it correctly.

Then reappraisal it manually to cheque for issues similar missing oregon duplicate URLs.

Analyze Your Page Speed

A leafage velocity audit helps you place precisely what’s slowing down your tract and however to hole it.

Improving your tract velocity tin perchance assistance you person much customers.

How?

It’s simple: a fast-loading website creates a creaseless idiosyncratic experience.

When your tract loads quickly, visitors tin easy research your content, interact with your site, and implicit actions—like clicking the bargain button.

Want to spot the existent impact?

Take Agrofy, an cultivation marketplace. After identifying and fixing their show issues done a leafage velocity audit, their cart abandonment complaint dropped by 76%:

Here’s however to cheque if your tract is arsenic accelerated arsenic it could be:

Measure Your Page Performance

Start by checking your leafage velocity utilizing Google’s escaped PageSpeed Insights tool.

This instrumentality shows you elaborate show information and actionable insights, which tin assistance you place areas that you request to improve.

Pay peculiar attraction to the Core Web Vitals.

These are portion of Google’s leafage acquisition ranking factors.

Here’s wherefore they substance and however to amended them:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) reflects however rapidly your main contented loads for users. A bully LCP people (under 2.5 seconds) means your visitors are little apt to wantonness your leafage earlier it loads.

To amended your LCP, compress bulky resources similar leader images oregon animations.

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures however rapidly your tract responds erstwhile users interact with it.

Keep INP nether 200 milliseconds by minimizing JavaScript execution time. Also region unnecessary third-party scripts that could dilatory down interactions.

Cumulative layout displacement (CLS) tracks the ocular stableness of your leafage arsenic it loads. For example, if ads load successful and propulsion contented down the leafage arsenic they bash so, that volition impact your CLS score.

Aim for a CLS people beneath 0.1 by mounting due representation dimensions, reserving abstraction for ads, and utilizing accordant fonts.

Prioritize High-Impact Fixes

When auditing your site’s leafage speed, absorption connected changes that tin bring the biggest improvements, like:

• Compressing and decently sizing each images
• Minifying and combining CSS and JavaScript files
• Removing unnecessary codification and plugins

If you’re not definite wherever to start, travel the database of issues and fixes PageSpeed Insights suggests.

Step #3: Analyze Your Backlink Profile

A backlink audit helps you recognize your site’s backlink illustration and place opportunities for improvement.

Strong backlinks from reputable sites tin boost your rankings, portion mediocre prime links (or a deficiency of links) mightiness clasp you back.

Let maine amusement you however to measure your nexus profile:

Check Your Backlink Profile

First, get an overview of your backlink illustration with a instrumentality similar Semrush’s Backlink Analytics.

Take a look astatine the full fig of backlinks, referring domains, and wide toxicity score:

Watch retired for immoderate abrupt spikes successful new, low-quality backlinks. This could awesome that you’ve been attacked by spam, which could harm your SEO.

Analyze Link Quality

Next, usage the Backlink Audit instrumentality to get a wide representation of your nexus profile’s health.

Click done the numbers shown successful reddish (toxic), orangish (potentially toxic), and greenish (non-toxic) to reappraisal each class of backlinks:

This breakdown helps you spot opportunities successful 2 ways:

• You tin analyse your steadfast backlinks and find akin link-building opportunities
• You tin place toxic links and nonstop removal requests

Having a fewer toxic backlinks isn’t needfully alarming, and it’s astir inevitable arsenic your tract grows. What does substance is the ratio betwixt bully and toxic links successful your profile—you privation the immense bulk to beryllium high-quality links.

Monitor Your Link Profile

Regularly show your backlink illustration to support it successful a steadfast state.

Schedule monthly checks to drawback harmful links earlier they vessel your rankings.

Step #4: Evaluate Your Content

A content audit volition uncover pages you request to update if you privation to boost their traffic.

It reveals 3 cardinal things:

• Which pages thrust the astir value
• Which pages you request to improve
• Which pages you should region oregon consolidate

Here’s however to audit your content:

Evaluate the Quality of Your Content

High-quality contented keeps readers engaged and signals to hunt engines that your leafage is invaluable and deserving of higher rankings.

But however bash you measure contented quality?

High-quality contented is mostly well-researched, up to date, and provides unsocial insights.

Other elements of high-quality contented include:

• Clear language
• Easy-to-follow format
• Short paragraphs
• Relevant images, charts, and videos

Review Your Meta Elements

Your rubric tags and meta descriptions are your archetypal accidental to impressment radical successful hunt results.

These elements tin find whether idiosyncratic clicks done to your content—or scrolls past it.

Here’s what they look similar successful hunt results:

But what should you look retired for erstwhile auditing your titles and descriptions?

Great titles should:

• Include people keywords adjacent the start
• Stay nether ~60 characters (or 600 pixels—use a instrumentality similar Mangools to check)
• Use compelling connection that makes radical privation to click
• Follow a accordant format crossed your pages

And your meta descriptions should:

• Include applicable keywords naturally
• Accurately picture the leafage content
• Stay nether 155 characters/960 pixels (or ~120 characters/680 pixels connected mobile)
• Have a wide telephone to enactment (CTA)

Use Google Search Console to spot which pages get the astir clicks from search. Then, analyse their meta elements to recognize what’s moving well.

Look for pages with tons of impressions but not galore clicks. These are pages with debased click-through rates (CTRs), and apt ones you could optimize for amended performance.

Step #5: Assess the User Experience

The extremity of auditing your site’s idiosyncratic acquisition (UX) is to place friction points and optimize them truthful users tin effortlessly find what they’re looking for.

A large UX keeps visitors engaged with your contented and encourages them to instrumentality enactment (like making a purchase).

Plus:

Intuitive experiences besides awesome to hunt engines that your tract is invaluable to users. In fact, page experience is simply a cardinal ranking factor.

Here’s however to audit your site’s UX:

Check the Mobile Experience

More than 60% of website postulation comes from mobile devices.

So, trial your tract connected antithetic surface sizes to guarantee you supply a accordant experience.

Focus connected the following:

• Are your buttons and links ample capable to pat without zooming?
• Do your images standard decently connected smaller oregon larger screens?
• Is your substance readable without pinching to zoom?
• Does your navigation paper enactment smoothly connected mobile?

Take a Look astatine Your Visual Hierarchy and Readability

Your plan should usher users’ attraction to important elements and marque your contented casual to consume.

Key considerations:

• Have you nested your headers decently (H1 > H2 > H3) with wide ocular distinctions for skimmers?
• Is your substance casual to work against the background?
• Do you usage capable achromatic abstraction to assistance interruption up antithetic sections?

Test Calls to Action (CTAs)

Since your CTAs are important conversion points, they should beryllium visible, compelling, and casual to click.

Test them to marque definite they:

• Stand retired visually connected the page
• Use clear, action-oriented text
• Appear astatine logical points successful the idiosyncratic journey
• Work decently crossed each devices (desktop and mobile)

These tools amusement you:

• Where users click astir often (shown successful reddish “hot” spots)
• How acold they scroll down your pages
• If they spot your CTAs oregon scroll past them
• Whether CTAs successful antithetic positions enactment better

Step #6: Review Your Analytics & Conversion Data

Auditing what’s connected your website is conscionable portion of the wide process.

To find retired what the champion adjacent steps are, you request to look astatine the data.

Analyze Search Performance

Open Google Search Console to cheque your content’s show metrics.

Identify the following:

• Pages with zero traffic
• Content with debased click-through rates
• Pages ranking connected leafage 2-3

Like Brian Dean suggests:

Check Your Traffic

Once you get escaped of the junk content, cheque however different pieces are performing.

Brian Dean suggests focusing connected 1 cardinal metric: traffic. It reflects whether oregon not a portion of contented is attracting an audience.

Look for contented with declining postulation trends.

Here’s how:

1. Open the “Performance” tab from the near broadside menu
2. Scroll past the main show illustration and unfastened the “Pages” tab
3. Select 12-month play (or longer) to intelligibly amusement postulation patterns
4. Select 1 leafage to spot its idiosyncratic show graph

When looking astatine the postulation graph for each idiosyncratic page, ticker for these patterns:

• Consistent downward inclination implicit respective months
• Sudden drops that haven’t recovered
• Previously high-performing contented that’s mislaid momentum

That means there’s an accidental to update it and regain the traffic.

Take Action connected Your Website Audit Findings

After completing your website audit, you’ll apt person a agelong database of imaginable fixes.

But however bash you instrumentality enactment connected these? And however tin you champion prioritize your resources truthful you marque the highest interaction fixes first?

Here’s however you crook these findings into existent improvements:

Prioritize Your Fixes

Start with issues that person the biggest interaction connected your SEO and idiosyncratic experience.

Such as:

• Critical method issues similar crawlability and indexing problems
• Missing meta accusation connected cardinal pages
• Slow loading pagesNon-intuitive navigation
• Poor mobile experience
• High fig of toxic backlinks

Create an Action Plan

Looking astatine a agelong database of issues tin consciousness overwhelming. To marque things easier, interruption them down into manageable chunks based connected however rapidly you tin instrumentality them.

For example, your breakdown mightiness look similar this:

This helps you tackle high-impact speedy wins immediately, portion readying for bigger projects.

Plus, you won’t consciousness paralyzed by a monolithic to-do list.

Ready to Do Your Own Website Audit?

When doing your archetypal website audit, commencement small. Pick the SEO aspects oregon areas of your tract that resonate with the biggest challenges you presently face.

For example:

If your rankings are falling, absorption connected an on-page SEO audit to find retired however you tin boost their performance.

If your bounce complaint is high, bash a UX audit to find retired wherefore radical mightiness beryllium leaving your tract without taking action.

Before, during, and aft your audit, usage our implicit SEO checklist to support your optimization efforts connected the close track.

The station How to Do a Website Audit successful 5 Steps (+ Checklist) appeared archetypal connected Backlinko.