Are you tired of mediocre website traffic and low search engine rankings? It might be time to conduct a technical SEO audit. The technical aspects of your website play a crucial role in determining your search engine visibility. Without proper optimisation, your website could be missing out on valuable organic traffic. Don’t worry, conducting a technical SEO audit is easier than you think! In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps to conduct a thorough technical SEO audit for your website.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a complex and constantly evolving field. It’s not enough to simply create great content and publish it online. You need to make sure your website is technically optimised to improve its chances of ranking well in search results. A technical SEO audit is a comprehensive analysis of your website’s technical aspects to identify any potential issues that may be hindering its search engine visibility.
Steps to conduct a technical SEO audit for your website
Verify your website’s indexing status.
It’s important to know if all your pages are being indexed so that they can show up in search results and drive traffic to your site. With this information, you can take action to improve your website’s indexing if needed.
Here’s how:
- Check if your website is being indexed by search engines
- Go to Google and search for “site:yourdomain.com”
- Look at the number of pages from your website that are being indexed by Google
Check for crawl errors.
By identifying and fixing crawl errors, you can ensure that search engines are able to index your website correctly and improve your website’s search engine visibility.
Here’s how you can check for crawl errors on your website during a technical SEO audit:
- Go to Google Search Console
- Look for any crawl errors listed in the “Crawl Errors” section
- Identify the pages on your website that are generating crawl errors
- Resolve the crawl errors by fixing the issue on the affected pages
Analyze your website’s URL structure.
When analyzing your website’s URL structure, you want to make sure it’s clean and easy to understand.
Here’s what you need to check:
- Avoid using dynamic URLs
- Ensure each page has a unique and descriptive URL
- Make sure your URLs are easy for both users and search engines to understand
So, why is this important? A well-structured URL helps search engines better understand the content of each page on your website, which in turn can improve your search engine rankings. Plus, it makes it easier for users to navigate your website and find what they’re looking for. So, take the time to analyze your URL structure and make any necessary improvements.
Evaluate your website’s mobile responsiveness.
To evaluate your website’s mobile responsiveness, you can:
- Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool
- Check for elements such as:
- Proper scaling of text and images
- Use of touch-friendly buttons
- Proper functioning of navigation on a smaller screen
- And more!
Related Article: Optimize Your Website for Mobile: A Must-Do for Your Business’s SEO
Assess your website’s page speed.
Page speed is a crucial factor in determining your website’s search engine visibility.
Here’s a simple list to follow:
- Use tools like GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights
- Check how fast your website loads for visitors
- Get recommendations for improvement to make your website load faster
- Faster loading times can improve your website’s search engine visibility
Investigate your website’s content duplicacy.
When conducting a technical SEO audit for your website, it’s important to make sure you don’t have any duplicate content. Duplicate content can confuse search engines and harm your website’s visibility.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Use tools like Copyscape
- Identify any duplicate content on your website
- Take steps to resolve any duplicate content issues
Review your website’s use of header tags.
Header tags, also known as H1, H2, H3, and so on, are an important aspect of on-page SEO.
Here’s what you need to know to check them during your technical SEO audit:
- Make sure each page has a unique H1 tag: This tag should provide a brief, clear description of the content on the page.
- Use subheadings (H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content: This makes it easier for both users and search engines to understand the structure and main points of your content.
- Use header tags to make it easier for search engines to understand your content: Header tags help search engines categorize and understand the relevance of your content to specific search queries.
Analyze your website’s internal linking structure.
When conducting a technical SEO audit, it’s important to assess your website’s internal linking structure. Internal links connect your pages and help search engines understand the structure of your website.
Here’s what you need to do to analyze your internal linking structure:
- Make sure internal links are used to connect your pages
- Ensure the internal linking structure is organized and logical
- Use descriptive anchor text for internal links
- Make sure the internal links don’t lead to broken pages
- Limit the number of links on each page to maintain a good user experience
Verify your website’s XML sitemap and robots.txt file.
When conducting a technical SEO audit, it’s important to check the status of your website’s XML sitemap and robots.txt file.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Make sure your XML sitemap is up-to-date
- Ensure your robots.txt file accurately reflects the structure of your website
- Use these files help search engines understand your website, controlling which pages can be crawled.
Assess your website’s use of schema markup.
Schema markup is a type of code that helps search engines understand what your website is about. By adding schema markup to your website, you can give search engines more information about your content, making it easier for them to rank your website in search results.
Here’s how you can assess your website’s use of schema markup:
- Use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool
- Enter your website’s URL and test it
- Check if there are any errors or warnings in your schema markup
- Make sure that all the important information about your content is included
- Identify any areas for improvement to ensure that search engines are accurately understanding your content
In conclusion, conducting a technical SEO audit for your website is a crucial step in improving your search engine visibility and driving more traffic to your site. By verifying your indexing status, checking for crawl errors, analyzing your URL structure, evaluating your mobile responsiveness, and assessing your page speed, you’ll be able to identify any areas for improvement and take the necessary steps to optimise your website for search engines. By following these tips and using the tools mentioned, you’ll be well on your way to boosting your website’s technical SEO and attracting more visitors to your site.