How to conduct an SEO audit of a website: checklist

Technical audit

Robots.txt and sitemap files

Check your robots.txt file by going to site.com/robots.txt (where site.com is your site's domain) and make sure it includes a link to your sitemap (sitemap.xml or similar file).

Both files (robots.txt and sitemap.xml) need to be checked for errors through the services in Yandex.Webmaster and Google Search Console. In Yandex.Webmaster, these tools can be found in the “Tools” section.

Redirects

Redirects are important to eliminate duplicate pages. Check for redirects to the main mirror from pages such as:

• www.site.com
• site.com/index.php (subject to variations with www)
• site.com/index. (including variations with www)

Server response and site speed

To test your site's loading speed, use the appropriate tools to ensure that the loading time is less than 0.3 seconds. You can also check the server response through Google Search Console.

Meta tags

Meta tags must meet the following requirements:

• Don't be too short.
• Don't be too long.
• Do not be the same (duplicated) on different pages.
• Don't be empty.

Link profile

To check your link profile, you need to make sure of the following:

• Are there any internal links to non-existent pages (404 errors).
• Are there any circular links on the site?
• Check external links to make sure they don't point to non-existent pages.

Structure and linking

The site should be organized in such a way that users can quickly find any page, as well as navigate between pages of the site using logical internal links.

Content audit

Lyrics

The key is to use unique texts. Uniqueness checking can be done using special tools. Batch checking is available through various services that allow you to detect plagiarism.

Other content

Check for broken images using tools like Screaming Frog. Make sure that the status of all images (image/jpeg, image/png formats) is 200. A status of 404 will mean that the image does not exist.

What else is checked during an SEO audit?

• Cross-browser compatibility - the site should be displayed correctly in all major browsers.
• Availability of a mobile version - check that the site is mobile-friendly using Google Search Console.
• Viruses - use specialized tools to check the site for viruses.
• Micro-markup - check whether micro-markup elements are configured correctly for better display in search results.

If you have questions about an SEO audit or any other aspect of SEO, do not hesitate to contact SEO COMPUTER SEO Studio. Write to us by email info@seo.computer.

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