SEO
12
min de lecture

How to do a complete SEO audit for your website?

Search engine optimization (SEO) has become an essential requirement for all websites. It is no longer optional as before. The audit makes it possible to obtain visibility on its strategy and those of these competitors.
Jonathan Nabais
16
September 2018

When one is aware of the importance of natural referencing in a customer acquisition strategy, and that we know all the criteria that make it possible to compose a good website, working on your SEO is obvious. All marketing teams need to understand economic challenges organic for a website. With the experience we have, we are aware that regardless of the size of the company, SEO budgets often quite low. Because the creation of a website, and all the optimizations that may occur later are relatively high, there is usually not enough left for the SEO part.So if you don't have the budgets for working with an agency on your referencing or even entrust SEO optimization to a freelancer, here is a list of the points to watch out for on your website right now. There is an essential distinction to take into account in your analysis. Internal elements are those that directly concern the site itself, and external elements that are factors other than those that concern the site (incoming links, quality of links, etc.).

Technical SEO audit

Before focusing on the content and keywords you want to highlight in Google, you need to be sure that your site can be indexed and browsed by robots.

Free analytics platforms

Start by making sure you have Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager installed on your website. All of these tools provide data that will be very useful for making decisions throughout the process.

Site map in XML format

This is a table of contents for your entire website. The file named sitemap.xml is a modern way to submit your pages to the various search engines. Most platforms and CMS integrate it natively or offer extensions that generate a dynamic sitemap always linked to the pages of your site. If not, you can always generate one static sitemap free of charge thanks to online tools, you'll just need to update it every time you add or remove pages.

Robots.txt

This file gives instructions to search engines on which pages or parts of the site robots should not pass. Without any intervention on your part, by default, search engines will look at all the content they can find on all of your pages. If you just want to hide a few pages, check that your file:

  • be filled in with the right terms and be accurate;
  • be validated by Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools;
  • does not block certain parts of the site unintentionally.

This file is very useful when you want to work on a site under construction and you don't want it to appear in the search results (SERP). We use it every time we develop a site for a client for example.

Domain names

If you have multiple domain names, be sure to set a goal behind each one. If you don't do anything with it, that's fine too. If your domains are redirecting to your main website, you should be careful with cases of Duplicate content, it can cause harm to the referencing your main site.If your site includes duplicate content, Google will simply take into account the first version that appeared on the internet.

Architecture of the site

The prioritization of pages in a clear and understandable navigation is favorable for SEO.This will benefit users and search engines, and present organized topics and content. Defining the structure of your directories and the URLs that match allows you to track goals more effectively. structure of your site is an excellent basis for knowing how to channel the attention of your visitors, and simplify the work of indexing robots.

Charging time

In recent years, loading time has been a key element in positioning factors. The most important thing for this part is to take stock of all the elements that slow down the charging time of your site. Try to optimize your JavaScript requests as much as possible, reduce the weight of your code on all your pages and cache as many files as possible. Many online tools will allow you to build a SEO audit relevant. All you have to do is identify tools that can verify each point in this article. 🙂

Mobile friendly

There is no need to remind you of the benefits of having a functional site for mobiles considering the number of smartphones sold in the world. But it is not only a matter of experience, because the main reason that justifies the value of having a mobile-friendly site is the positive impact on the SEO of your pages.Check the compatibility of your website with tools like Google Mobile-friendly for example. Make sure that the experience remains pleasant, and that your users can use it on all devices.

404 errors

Don't forget to create a custom 404 page and to put useful information in it. You don't want to lose a visitor to your site by having a default browser error. You should create a 404 page that includes useful links, navigation, site search functionality, and contact options.

SSL

Just like load time requirements, it's important to have a secure site. If your website is not under SSL, you can lose users before they even access your site when they see a security warning in Chrome or other browsers.

Extensions

If you're using a content management system (CMS), chances are you're already using extensions you trust. Most platforms have tools that you can add to your site. Whether they are WordPress extensions or other plugins for Prestashop, Drupal, Magento, etc., you should monitor the impact these can have on your code, load time, and SEO.

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On-page SEO audit (internal)

Most people tend to think about internal factors (for example, keywords, content, title tags) whenever SEO is mentioned. However, the days of optimizing only a portion of pages are over. Search engines care much more about context than keywords, so don't be tempted to just update metatags or body text and move on.

Keywords and topics

Before you can really focus on the content, you need to know how you want to write it. If you have not done a search by keywords or research your audience more broadly, you should take a break and take the time to learn what topics your audience will use to find your website.You need to use tools to discover the terms, phrases, and topics that match what your business does. From there, you can further research individual words in order to apply them toarchitecture of the site.Basically, you need to know the keywords that matter, match them to your content, and then start working on the rest of the other on-page factors.

The content

Content is necessary to show the relevance of your business in its market. If you have few keywords, it is difficult to compete with sites that are full of content. More content is not always better, because high quality is certainly better than lots of it. But if you can do both, you'll be even better. Rich content that's written for users and provides the right answers is appreciated by search engines. Don't be tempted to use outdated tactics that will hurt the user experience and put you at risk with search engines.

URL

It is the first element on a page that is sometimes overlooked. Search engines can index ugly URLs, they accept what they are given. However, the URL is an opportunity to present a clean structure that includes keywords and context as to the purpose of the page. Don't miss this opportunity to customize URL paths.

Page title

Again, the title tag alone won't do much for you. However, you should have a tag that is relevant and unique for each page. Consider length best practices and use your keywords that are most relevant to the topic of the page.

Meta description

Like the title tag, we need a custom and relevant meta description for each page. Whether static or dynamic, make sure that it is useful for the user, that it contains relevant keywords and that it helps create context with the title tag.

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Categories

The title or the “H” tags are debated in importance for SEO. Again, you shouldn't focus on just one element, but on how all the elements work together to promote referencing.If you can use header tags, do so in an organized manner and make sure they use relevant keywords. Try to use only one H1 tag and make sure it's the first one.

Body text

While much of the old school focuses on latent semantic indexing, keyword density, and formulas for how many times words should appear on a page are outdated, you can't ignore the fact that body text often represents the most important block of indexable content. Remember to include your keywords in the body of the text. However, don't obsess over using a keyword 37 times. Do what's natural and focus on content quality.

Image Alt Attributes

One of the biggest red flags I get in the results of accessibility tools and on-page verification reports is the lack of alternative text. The Alternative text is useful for search engines to understand what an image is. It's another opportunity to work on keywords on a page.

Structured data

While not necessarily a direct ranking factor, Schema.org markup goes right to the heart of the construction context. structured data markup allows you to give search engines new information about your content such as the category, author and publication date. If you do not have the possibility to simply configure them with your CMS, you can do it manually at the bottom of each article for example.

Off-page SEO audit (external)

Les external factors are elements that you cannot control on your website. factors on the page influence the relevance and trust of your content for search engines. Les external factors influence your authority status and validate your site as experts in the field.

Backlinks

Les inbound links to your website from credible and authoritative websites play a huge role in SEO. There is a lot to be said about creating content that people naturally want to link to. To complete your content strategy, there's no harm in looking for great sources of quality links through natural relationships, accreditation, and possible traffic sources in your industry. You should focus your efforts on quality sources that are relevant to your audience - and never pay for a link that violates the respective search engine guidelines.

Social networks

Social networks can also improve your SEO (and your other marketing efforts), although it will not have a direct impact on your positioning. Ensuring that your website is linked to your own social media accounts and vice versa is an important first step.Beyond that, you must ensure that your level of engagement is comparable to that of your peers. It's a relative scale, but by understanding what your competitors are doing, you can be sure that you're using social media in the right way for your SEO.

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Conclusion of the SEO audit

Optimizing your website is not fast, easy, or punctual. But you have to start somewhere. If you can control your referencing on the technical part and on-page optimization, but also on influencing the right ones external factors, you will win more places than any competitor.

Pour aller plus loin

Découvrez le score de performance de votre site
Nous communiquerons le score technique de votre site afin de vous situer par rapport aux standards du SEO.
Obtenir
Un template meta title et description
Obtenez un modèle réalisé sur Airtable permet de rédiger la balise meta title et meta description d’un site.
Obtenir
Découvrez le score de performance de votre site
Nous communiquerons le score technique de votre site afin de vous situer par rapport aux standards du SEO.
Obtenir
Un template meta title et description
Obtenez un modèle réalisé sur Airtable permet de rédiger la balise meta title et meta description d’un site.
Obtenir

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