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What is an SEO Audit?

A complete guide to understanding SEO audits, what they check, and how to use them to improve your website's search rankings

What is an SEO Audit?

An SEO audit is a comprehensive analysis of your website to identify issues that might be preventing you from ranking higher in search results. Think of it like a health checkup for your website—it tells you what's working well and what needs to be fixed.

Why Run an SEO Audit?

  • Find technical problems that hurt your rankings (slow speed, broken links, etc.)
  • Discover optimization opportunities for better titles, headings, and content
  • Identify content gaps where competitors are outranking you
  • Prioritize what to fix first based on impact
  • Track progress over time as you make improvements

What an SEO Audit Checks

1. Technical SEO

The behind-the-scenes factors that affect how search engines crawl and index your site.

  • Page Speed: How fast your pages load (Google uses this as a ranking factor)
  • Core Web Vitals: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
  • Mobile-Friendliness: Does your site work well on phones and tablets?
  • HTTPS/SSL: Is your site secure with an SSL certificate?
  • XML Sitemap: Is it present and submitted to Google?
  • Robots.txt: Configured properly to allow search engines
  • Crawl Errors: Are search engines able to access all your pages?
  • 404 Errors: Broken links that need fixing
  • Redirect Chains: Multiple redirects that slow things down

2. On-Page SEO

The content and HTML elements on each page that signal to Google what your page is about.

  • Title Tags: Are they optimized with keywords and under 60 characters?
  • Meta Descriptions: Compelling and under 160 characters?
  • H1 Tags: One per page, includes primary keyword?
  • Heading Structure: Proper use of H2, H3, H4 tags
  • Content Quality: Enough words? Helpful and relevant?
  • Keyword Usage: Used naturally throughout content?
  • Image Alt Text: All images have descriptive alt text?
  • Internal Linking: Pages link to each other logically?
  • URL Structure: Clean and descriptive URLs?

3. Local SEO (for local businesses)

  • Google Business Profile: Claimed, verified, and fully optimized?
  • NAP Consistency: Name, Address, Phone identical everywhere?
  • Local Citations: Listed on relevant directories?
  • Reviews: Enough reviews with good ratings?
  • Schema Markup: LocalBusiness structured data present?

4. Content Analysis

  • Content Depth: Do pages cover topics thoroughly?
  • Content Gaps: What topics are competitors covering that you're not?
  • Duplicate Content: Same content appearing multiple places?
  • Thin Content: Pages with too little content?
  • Freshness: Is content up-to-date?

How to Run an SEO Audit

Option 1: Manual Audit (Free but Time-Consuming)

  • Use Google Search Console for crawl errors and index status
  • Use Google PageSpeed Insights for page speed and Core Web Vitals
  • Manually check each page for titles, descriptions, headings
  • Test mobile-friendliness with Google's Mobile-Friendly Test
  • Use Chrome DevTools Lighthouse for technical audits

Time required: 4-8 hours for a small site
Skill level: Requires technical SEO knowledge

Option 2: Automated SEO Tools

SEO tools automate most of the audit process and provide actionable recommendations.

  • Enterprise tools (Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz): $99-$299/month, hundreds of features
  • SEODEX: $29/month, focused on essentials for local businesses

SEODEX Makes Audits Simple

Instead of spending hours running manual checks or paying $100+/month for enterprise tools:

  • Google Lighthouse-powered audits run automatically
  • Core Web Vitals tracking with clear scores
  • Page-by-page optimization scoring (0-100) for up to 15 pages
  • AI recommendations for what to fix on each page
  • Technical issues highlighted with specific fixes
  • Only $29/month (vs $99+ for alternatives)

Common Issues Found in SEO Audits

Slow Page Speed

Impact: High
Fix: Compress images, enable caching, minify CSS/JS, use a CDN

Missing or Poor Title Tags

Impact: High
Fix: Write unique titles under 60 characters with keywords + location

Not Mobile-Friendly

Impact: High (Google uses mobile-first indexing)
Fix: Use responsive design, test on real devices

Missing Alt Text on Images

Impact: Medium
Fix: Add descriptive alt text to all images

Broken Links (404 Errors)

Impact: Medium
Fix: Find and fix or redirect all 404 errors

Thin Content

Impact: Medium
Fix: Expand pages to 300+ words with helpful, relevant content

How Often Should You Run an SEO Audit?

  • Monthly: Quick check of key metrics (page speed, Core Web Vitals, rankings)
  • Quarterly: Full comprehensive audit
  • After major changes: New pages, redesign, platform migration
  • When rankings drop: Diagnose what might be causing the decline

With SEODEX: Audits happen automatically. Your site gets regular technical audits, page optimization scoring, and AI recommendations—no need to remember to run them manually.

Get Automated SEO Audits with SEODEX

Stop running manual audits or paying $100+/month for enterprise tools. SEODEX gives you Lighthouse-powered audits, Core Web Vitals tracking, and AI recommendations for just $29/month.

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7-day free trial • $29/month • No contracts