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SEO Audit Template (PDF & Word) Free Download – Sample SEO Audit Report

by | Aug 11, 2019 | Blog, How to Tutorials on Digital Marketing, SEO | 0 comments

SEO Site Audit Free Template PDF Download

A Complete SEO Site Audit Report template  (includes Voice SEO) you can call it a Modern SEO Guide🔥 Share it with your team or your boss. They will thank you, want to customize it, and share it?

Updated Feb 2022. Added another SEO Audit Beginners Guide PDF Download

(Courtesy of Web Marketing Academy, Rated Best Digital Marketing Training Institute in Bangalore)

Download the Free SEO Audit Template PDF Download Complete SEO Audit Word Document Download

SEO AUDITING

What is SEO Auditing?

It refers to evaluating the Search Engine Friendliness of a Website. 

SEO Auditing looks at the following: 

  • Content related issues
  • Site Architecture
  • Keyword research 
  • Search visibility
  • Number of backlinks
  • Usability of the website
  • Conversion
  • Presence in social media 

Reasons why we do auditing

As you know, search engine algorithms change very frequently. What is working now, may not work after 6 months which is why it is important to perform regular SEO audits to ensure that your website is performing well in the Search engines.

Here are a few reasons why you should do audits: 

  1. To keep up with the algorithm changes.
  2. To monitor and follow the webmaster guidelines so that your website does not get penalized.
  3. To track the website errors and recover the lost traffic. 
  4. To remove the outdated content on the website and update the fresh one
  5. To ensure the title and other metadata is relevant to the website. 

Advantages of auditing

  • Improves website traffic
  • Increases conversions
  • Enhances SEO 
  • Manage insights
  • Improves the technical aspects of the website. 

How to Audit a Website? 

You can audit a website in two ways: 

  1. Manual Auditing: Manually going to each page of the website and analyzing the changes to be made. 
  2. Auditing through tools: In case of bigger websites, use tools such as Screaming Frog, to perform the audit. 

Things to do while auditing: 

  1. Explain the current state of the website (How is it performing? Number of backlinks, Traffic, etc)
  2. List down the actions to be taken based on the audit. 
  3. Prepare an idea/strategy stating how you will improve the website performance. Also, state other ways to improve traffic. 

Elements of Auditing and Things to focus on: 

  • On-site Auditing (Focus on On-page SEO)
  • Title and Description
  • URL Structure
  • Text Formatting (header tags)
  • Updated fresh content
  • Content length and relevance
  • Internal Links (focus on keeping 2-5 per page depending on content length)
  • Image Optimisation
  • Broken Links (convert them to active ones)
  • Keyword research
  • Page Speed 
  • User Friendliness
  • Off-site Auditing (Focus on Off-Page SEO)
  • How many backlinks does my website have?
  • Are they good-quality backlinks?
  • Analyze and take action to increase the DA and PA. 
  • Technical Auditing (Focus on GSC presence, traffic)

Understand this from two perspectives: 

  • Accessibility (Speed, Usability, XML sitemap, Robots.txt)
  • Indexability (Manual Actions or Indexing errors) 
  • Does the website have a mobile version? 
  • Does it have AMP and if the AMP pages are working?
  • Does it have an XML sitemap submitted to GSC?
  • Does it have structured data? 
  • Does it have an SSL certificate?
  • Social Media presence (Focus on Optimisation on popular SM platforms) 
  • Presence in the most important platforms and whether the content is optimized on: 
  • Linkedin
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest 
  • Youtube

SEO Auditing Tools

To do the auditing through tools Download and use the following tools: 

  • Screaming Frog: 

The Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a website crawler, that allows you to crawl websites’ URLs to analyze & audit onsite SEO. You can crawl 500 URLs for free. 

  1. Go to the Screaming Frog website here.
  2. Click on Download and choose the preferred device. 
  3. After downloading the setup, install this tool on your desktop by choosing the Default option.
  4. Once installed, the interface will look like this:

When using this interface, focus on the following:

  1. The URLs that are indexed and understood by Google. 
  2. HTTPS status codes showing Indexability Status
  3. The page titles, meta description, and URLs
  4. The number of H1 tags used in a page
  5. H2-H6 tags
  6. Internal Inbound links. 
  7. Whether the canonical tags are used appropriately.

Moz Link Explorer 

  1. To use this tool visit here
  2. Add the URL you want to analyze. You can add a Root Domain or an exact page. 
  3. Track how many Linking Domains are giving Inbound links and what is their Page Authority and Domain Authority.
  4. You can also track what is the Spam Score and the keyword ranking of the websites that give you the backlink. 

AHREFS Backlink Checker

  1. To use this tool visit here.
  2. On this tool, you can track the following: 
  • URL rating: Measure the quantity and quality of links pointing to a given URL. 
  • Domain Rating: Measure the quantity and quality of links pointing to the entire domain. 
  • Ahrefs rank: Ranking of a domain, relative to all the other domains on the web. 
  • Backlinks: The total number of live backlinks pointing to a URL. 
  • Referring page: Number of pages with a hyperlink, pointing to a given URL. Please note that a page can multiple links. 
  • Referring Domains: The number of unique domains with a hyperlink pointing to a URL.

A few issues and how to solve them while auditing a website:

Page Speed of the website and How to Improve it.

The loading time of a website is not only a major ranking factor but also very important in terms of user experience. For example, assume a webpage takes more time to load, as a user will you be happy? You will surely look for another site. 

Google suggests that your page should not take more than 3 seconds to load. Fast sites make users happy and you should work on taking steps to improve your page speed. 

To check for the page speed of your website, use PageSpeed Insights and take steps to improve the page speed. 

Why does it matter? Because if your page takes more time to load, it increases the bounce rate, which means how fast the user will bounce back from your site to another site. 

How to Improve Page Speed? 

Use minimum animation effects on the important pages of your website. Compress high-resolution images and embed the videos. 

For more information about Page Speed refer to the following link: 

New Industry Benchmarks for Mobile Page Speed 

Broken Links and How to Fix Them? 

When you delete a webpage, place an invalid URL behind the anchor text, or don’t update the URL with the correct address, you create a Broken Link. These are links that don’t work. When users click on a broken link, they are redirected to a page that shows a 404: not found which gives a bad user experience. 

How to Fix 

  • First, find out the broken links that you have on your website using tools like Ahrefs broken link checker or Chrome extensions which you can find here. 
  • Then, follow a simple process of replacing these broken links with live links. 
  • Or you can even remove these links completely from the source. Use the Removals option on GSC to let Google know about these links so that they don’t appear on the SERP. 

Structured data and How to Test it Using Structured Data Testing Tool

Structured data is coded in a specific format, in this case, Schema.org, written in such a way that search engines understand it. Search engines read the code and use it to display search results in a specific and much richer way which is why it is also called Rich Snippet or Enhanced Search Result. You can easily put this piece of code on your website.

Here’s how to test it. 

  1. Go to the Structured data testing tool.
  2. Add the website that you want to check structured data for in the Fetch URL section:
  3. You can check the errors, warnings, and types of structured data that have been added to the website.
  4. This tool will help you understand whether structured data is being understood by google or not. So you can make the changes and update them on the Search Console. 

Conclusion: 

With the help of these tools and also manual auditing, prepare a report and use it for tracking, analyzing, and updating the changes. 

Always ensure that all the web pages of your website are crawled, indexed, and ranked by Google so that you increase the traffic, usability and also enhance the conversions.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————–

SEO Website Audit Template 
Use this worksheet to benchmark, analyze your current rankings in Google

 SECTION 1. Current Ranking Report

Benchmark your current rankings. This can be done either manually searching in Google for your keywords or using a tool like Ahref, SEM Rush, Moz combined with your Google Analytics, Google search console data

My web pages:                                            Keywords:                                                                  Currently ranking in position:

TIP: 👍

You have to do SEO for every page, search for relevant keywords for each page, and audit where your pages are ranking.

My objective is to:

Increase rankings for Keywords:                                                                   Position, Timeline:

SECTION 2. Google Search Console & Google Analytics

Search Console is free by Google. The tool and reports help you measure your site’s Search traffic and performance, fix issues, and make your site shine in Google Search results. https://search.google.com/search-console

TIP: 👍

  • If you haven’t signed up for Google Search Console or Google analytics, do it now. It’s a free tool and a must for any business
  • Check URL inspect – The HTTP response should be 200 OK

ACTION ITEM:  ✓

  1. Sign up with Google search console
  2. Sign up with Google analytics
  3. Look for manual action, security issues, Index coverage

SECTION 3. Page Speed

If you run a business online, your website speed is crucial. It gives a positive experience for a user, especially in mobile

Average load time: Less than 3 seconds

Here’s how to find your web page load time: Google page speed Insights: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ A score of 90-100 will be ideal

Think with Google has an awesome free tool called Test my site, which gives site speed, benchmark against your competitors, revenue impact calculator: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite

TIP: 👍

If you have a WordPress website, here are some of the plug-ins which can fix the slow speed. https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-smushit/        https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-fastest-cache

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Check your website in page speed insight, test my site
  2. Install a word press plugin. Download suggestions
  3. Check with the IT/Developer team. Hand over suggestions to the team

Resources: All about page speed:  https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

AMP is a web component framework and a website publishing technology developed by Google which has the mission to “provide a user-first format for web content.

AMP are web pages designed to load faster in Mobile. It loads any AMP instantly in any browser.

TIP: 👍

If you have a WordPress website, here is a plug-in for AMP https://wordpress.org/plugins/accelerated-mobile-pages/  A free complete course on AMP: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXTOW_XMsIDS45GB-eBV5s_M9EGIXMjI_

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Validate your AMP page in the Google search console
  2. Install a word press plugin. Resources: All about AMP:  https://amp.dev/

SECTION 4. HTTPS

Every website should be HTTPS secured. If you haven’t secured it yet, now is the time. You have to purchase an SSL certificate and connect it to your website. Hosting companies can help.

When you switch your HTTP to HTTPS, Google considers the new version HTTPS as a new website. Before switching you have to do a redirect. A 301 redirect keeping both the version of your website, HTTP and HTTPS

TIP: 👍

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Talk to your technical team/developer
  2. Install a word press plugin.
  3. Get an SSL certificate from the hosting provider
  4. Submit & verify https in Google search console & Google analytics

Resources: HTTPS – A Beginners guide:  https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-add-ssl-and-https-in-wordpress/

SECTION 5. Indexed pages

Google Index:  The number of pages indexed by Google:

e.g. 1,36,00,000 out of 10,00,00,000 pages have been indexed by Google

This indicates how many web pages Google has discovered and stored in their database. If you have 10,00,00,000 pages and Google shows 1,36,00,000 pages, then there is a problem.

Here is how to find out the number of pages indexed by Google: site:https://www.flipkart.com do a Google search with site:www.yourwebsite.com (replace yourwebsite.com with your website)

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Check with your designer/developer the total number of pages on your website
  2. Check for robot.txt files or no index tags (you need a technical expert to look into it)
  3. Learn more about robot.txt an opportunity for me to add some technical skills

Resources: All about robot.txt:  A Google developers guide

SECTION 6. Keyword research

Keywords, key phrases is one of the most important steps in SEO

This is the first step in on-page SEO. Keyword research is done on every page. A page can have 2-3 main keywords depending upon the topic of the page. It should be relevant, long tail, and specific  (3 or more keywords. Example:  “Buy iPhone X  256 GB Black”

Watch this video on How to do keyword research in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpPPzYl_ap0

TIP: 👍

  • Each page can be optimized only for 2-3 keywords/phrases
  • Do a voice search on your mobile in Google assistant
  • Google keyword planner: Look for high search volume keywords. https://ads.google.com/intl/en_in/home/tools/keyword-planner/
  • If you are a local business, use location in your keywords. Example: Dentist near Indira Nagar, Bangalore

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Do keyword research for all pages
  2. Finalize 2-3 main keywords for each page
  3. Validate using Google keyword planner

 

SECTION 7. Use of keywords in Page title

Add keywords in the title of the page. Each page should have a unique title of around 65 characters, start the title with your top keyword after the research. Example: “Buy iPhone 6s rose gold online at Flipkart”

TIP: 👍

  • Utilize all the characters
  • Avoid page titles like Welcome to my Home Page
  • Avoid keyword stuffing
  • The page title should be readable
  • Add keywords for all pages. By doing a site:flipkart.com you can find all the titles of your website

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Double-check all the titles. Does it include the keywords?
  2. Blogs: Is the title of my blog posts relevant?
  3. Send the updated version for approval/developers
  4. Install Yoast or All in One SEO WordPress plugin

Here is a sample Title for each page: (Your developer will understand where to add the title) If you are using WordPress, Go to each page and change the title in Yoast or All in One SEO page title section

SECTION 8. Meta Description

The meta description is the snippet that you see below the page title when you do a Google search. Make sure you give a good meta description

TIP: 👍

  • You have 120-250 characters to include in your meta description
  • Think of your USP and include the USP’s in your meta description
  • Offers, discounts with a specific number can help users click and go to the website

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Check all the meta descriptions including blogs
  2. Avoid short meta descriptions
  3. If necessary include numbers, price, discounts

SECTION 9. URL structure

The URL structure is the link, which contains the domain name followed by folder and subfolders

TIP: 👍

  • Keep your URL structure simple and easy to understand
  • Use hyphens to separate words
  • Avoid characters
  • All lower case

If your website is old and planning to restructure your URL, don’t just change, Google will consider it as a new page. Before changing the structure, make sure you do a 301 redirect, keeping both the old and new page

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Check all the URL structure
  2. Inform the IT team/developers to do a 301 redirect
  3. Include keywords in the URL

SECTION 10. Header tags (Headings and subheadings)

Use of header tags. H1 is the main heading. H2, h3 subheadings

TIP: 👍

  • Use one H1 and you can use multiple h2, h3 to organize
  • It should help a user understand the topic/theme

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Check for h1,h2 in all pages

SECTION 11. Content

Content is one of the main factors when it comes to on-page SEO. Make sure your content is unique, relevant, useful and meaningful. Include images, videos, Q&A, Reviews. Include keywords, synonyms, FAQ’s in your content

TIP: 👍

  • While coming up with content, think about what users would like to see, read, watch
  • Important words can be bolded, italic and have a flow with Call to Actions

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Include CTA’s

SECTION 12. Anchor text

Anchor links or anchor text are links to other pages within your website.

TIP: 👍

  • Use anchor links, linking to relevant pages within the website
  • Avoid too many links on a given page. You can link your keywords to relevant pages

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Double-check all the page for anchor link opportunities
  2. Instead of knowing more, have anchor links like knowing about iPhone 6

SECTION 13. Optimize Images, PDF’s, PPT’s

Apart from optimizing your text, make sure you optimize your images, videos, PDFs, PPT’s and other rich media. Use alt text (alternative text)  All the steps above are applicable for optimizing your media.

TIP: 👍

  • Optimize the files and folders with relevant names
  • Add alt tags to all images. Describe the image instead of just one or 2 words

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Check for alt tags for all images
  2. Use relevant keywords with descriptive text

SECTION 14. Site Maps

Site maps are like a directory to all the pages of your website. Create HTML sitemap for users and XML sitemap for search engines Sample HTML & XML Sitemap:

TIP: 👍

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Create an XML sitemap and submit it to the Google search console
  2. Check for broken links and update the site map

SECTION 15. Optimize for Voice Search

Most of the answers from Google assistant/voice search come from featured snippets or position 0 or Answer box. Understanding schema with authoritative content can help.

TIP: 👍

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Include schema markup for all content including articles, blogs
  2. Update the web pages with relevant structured data

SECTION 16. Structured Data/Schema.org

Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about your page and classifying the page content; for example, on a recipe page, what are the ingredients, the cooking time and temperature, the calories.

Google uses structured data that finds from your website. Structured data can be used for

  • Business details
  • Reviews
  • Local business listings
  • Videos
  • Podcast
  • Blogs/articles
  • How to’s
  • FAQ’s

Example of FAQ structured data

TIP: 👍

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Mark up all your pages with structured data
  2. Validate your pages with Google structured data testing tool. https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/u/0/

Resource: A step by step guide on how to structure your data: http://bit.ly/2YtSeEJ

SECTION 17. Claim your Google my business listings

Google my business if another free tool by Google for any business. If you are a local business get your business listed in Google. You have to update the listings and get verified.

TIP: 👍

  • Update your Google my business listing with products, services, events, offers
  • Upload images, videos
  • Ask for customer reviews and testimonials
  • Google posts have got new features like adding products, events, etc

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Create new posts with videos, update offers, showcase product
  2. Add multiple categories

SECTION 18. Universal SEO

Universal search or blended search. When you do a Google search you get a combination of web pages, images, videos, social media. Optimizing all of your properties including YouTube, Slide share, social media can help Google show rich results in SERP for your brand

TIP: 👍

  • Optimize your videos on YouTube (same SEO techniques applies for YouTube. Keywords, Title, Description, Category and Tags)
  • All other multimedia platforms including LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest allows you to optimize your content

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Create accounts/optimize all social media channels and get the basics right
  2. Give links from social media channels to your website

 

SECTION 19. Off-page SEO

Off-page, SEO is about getting links from other websites to your website. Backlinks. If your content is valuable, others will give a link to your website. Off-page is a longer process unlike on-page SEO

TIP: 👍

  • Learn all about off-page SEO here: https://ahrefs.com/blog/off-page-seo/
  • Create valuable content where others can share
  • Write useful answers on Quora, if you have the resources on your website for further reference, give a link to your website

ACTION ITEM: ✓

  1. Come up with a list of blog post topics, useful articles to write, distribute
  2. Come up with an infographic or image for interesting, useful articles to upload in Pinterest and give a link from Pinterest to this specific article 

More (PDF) Guides & Useful Resources 

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