The Ultimate SEO Audit Checklist 2021

• SEO Audit
• Technical SEO

With the growing competition and the ever-changing Google algorithms, a business cannot sustain itself if it does not incorporate these changes in its site. If you don’t identify and work upon the SEO improvement areas and rectify the errors in your website, your website won’t give you the results you expect, and your competitors would take the lead. You certainly don’t want this to happen. Isn’t it? 

To ensure that your business does not fall behind, you need to rope in experts and devise a suitable and effective SEO plan.  A foolproof SEO plan is never possible without the groundwork. This is where an SEO audit service is required. The SEO audit reports guide the SEO experts to come up with the right strategies, which when executed well can push a website to the top search results.

Why is an SEO Audit Checklist important in SEO Audit? 

Gone are the days when you could boost your Google ranking by stuffing the keywords in your website. Today, search engines are very advanced with Google at the top with its dynamic Google algorithm policy. The auditing process incorporates several parameters related to technical, content, and linking, such as quality of links, keywords density, meta tags, content parameters, loading time, and several more, the list is very long. 

Google has added more than 200 ranking factors in 2021, and it is constantly adding more to the list, So, it becomes mandatory for SEO experts to follow the latest trends and use advanced SEO tools and checklists to make your site shine in the online world surging your web traffic and revenues. 

If the website audit is not done in an in-depth manner, the SEO plan would be sloppy and the SEO results would be disappointing. So, a detailed SEO audit is needed to chalk out an impactful SEO plan of action. An SEO Audit checklist plays a key role in this.

An SEO audit checklist is nothing but a list of all the parameters against which the SEO specialists analyze a website and comes up with comprehensive SEO Audit Reports. It helps to check off the SEO audit tasks as they get completed. This is like a quality check of SEO audit to ascertain that nothing has been side-lined or missed.

As a result of this analysis, one can know the errors and things to be fixed (like broken links, permanent redirects, etc.) in a website to make it SEO friendly. If the SEO audit checklists miss any important parameters there are chances that the SEO specialist might miss fixing or incorporating them. This can prove very expensive for the business in the long run. One single error on your website could cost you thousands of visitors and consequently dollars. So, to get the best result, it is best that SEO guys use a handy checklist that they can tick off as the task gets done. 

For example, let’s assume that the SEO guy missed checking if the Request for Quote form on the website is functional or not. As a result, whenever a potential client fills the form, it does not reach the sales department. Hence, the leads are lost despite all the other SEO parameters in place.

So, it plays a very important role as the whole SEO plan is dependent on the checklist. It provides the foundation for SEO activities. When the foundation is strong, results are effective. With an SEO audit checklist, SEO professionals know what changes need to be done on-page and off-page. This way, not even a single parameter is missed, and it helps to boost the ranking of the website and ensure higher traffic and better conversions which is the ultimate goal of SEO.

There are different types of SEO checklists:

• Technical SEO audit checklist: Here all the technical SEO parameters are listed for checking.

• Content SEO audit checklist: In this, all the content related SEO parameters are listed like keywords density, meta tags, bounce rate, heading tags, etc.

• Link SEO audit checklist: It contains parameters for checking both internal and external links.

SEO Audit Checklist 2021

An SEO audit helps to identify the potential problems of your website related to search engine visibility, ranking, usability issues, technical issues. It helps to improve the ranking of your website by getting to the top of search engine results. Here we have listed the key SEO parameters of an ultimate SEO audit checklist that includes an on-page SEO audit checklist as well as off-page ones. 

Technical audit checklist: Things to check off

Technical SEO issues are related to coding, functionality, and other technicalities. These help the website function well and enhance SEO. So, it is important to have a technical SEO audit checklist in place to know how a website scores on all these parameters.

• Responsive website: Check if your website is mobile-friendly.
• Home page design and layout: before getting to SEO, it is important to check if the site design, the layout is acceptable from the users’ perspective.
• Website Architecture: This means the structuring and linking of the website. An ideal website architecture helps users and search engine crawlers easily find what they’re looking for on a website.
• Number of pages indexed: Maximum web pages must be indexed. The probable reason for the page not getting indexed is either Google has unable to crawl it or is not indexing for some quality reason.
• Search-Friendly URLs: These are URLs that have a relevant keyword and describe page content suitably. 
• Robots.txt: Google can crawl your web pages through Robots.txt and index your pages in their search results. An error in your Robots.txt can generate the wrong signal to Google, and your pages will not get indexed. 
• Structured data errors: You can use Google’s structured data testing tool and enter your URL to detect the data errors of your website. 
• Keywords check: Keywords as we all know are the heart and soul and SEO. However, they need to be used in moderation and must be relevant to your niche and location. This is an important parameter of the SEO checklist.
• Site load time: The site load time should be less than 3 seconds.
• Domain factors: These include factors like domain name, age, URL, authority, and history as they matter in SEO.
• Server Redirect/ Response Codes: Check 1xx informational response, 2xx successful, 3xx redirection, 4xx client error, 5xx server error, etc
• XML Sitemap: It helps Google to locate your site.
• Permanent Redirects: Google encourages the use of server-side, permanent 301 redirects to make the user go to another domain.
• Temporary Redirects: These should be used judiciously.
• Blocked from Crawling: This is a major Crawlability issue. If a page is blocked, it needs to be fixed.
• Text-HTML ratio: ages with low text-HTML ratio need to be fixed.
• Page frames: These define the content structure and help in SEO.

Content SEO Audit Checklist: Things to check off 

Content is the king; if your website doesn’t have engaging and impactful content, then it will not be able to hold up the visitor; you will not get the expected conversion. According to the Goole algorithm, Google does not judge your website based on the volume and frequency of posting content. So, you need to go for the content pruning and remove the unnecessary content from your website. Use Google webmaster tools and check the pages that will not attract more customers, and then you can remove such pages from your site. You can find some pages indexed in Google which are irrelevant, and you need to delete such pages to keep your website neat and clean. When doing a content review, you need to check every web page against the following parameters i.e. 

• Content quality: The content must be useful, well-written, grammatically correct and keyword-enhanced. Focus on the EAT principle i.e. Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness
• Duplicate content: No two pages on the site must have the same content.
• Content length: The ideal content length of a web page should be 1000-2000 words.
• Title & Meta Description: These must follow the required length, contain the main keyword, and must be well-written.
• Heading tags: Content must contain heading tags i.e. H1, H2, etc.
• Use of CTAs: Call to Actions help in conversions and SEO. Some examples are Learn more,
• Sign up, Join Us, Enrol today, Subscribe, Try for free, etc.
• Anchor text: Use relevant and keyword-rich anchor text.
• Snippets: Optimize the snippets/summary of your posts. 

Link Audit Checklist: Things to check off 

The link audit checklist reminds you about the key tasks to be accomplished concerning internal and external links. During a link audit, links need to be analyzed for quality and other technical issues. The backlink profile is also explored. The objective is to ensure if they are optimized and if they are helping to boost site ranking for relevant keywords. Everything from the source URL, domain, and anchor text needs to be checked. The key items of the links audit checklist are:

• Broken Links: Most of us know that broken links are not good for SEO. So, check for all broken links during an audit.
• No follow links: These help to drive traffic and build authority. 
• Links relevancy: Make sure links are relevant to the site theme.
• Link Spam: Remove such links that are of no use.

Why choose Indian Marketers for SEO Audit? 

Indian Marketers have the expertise to take your website to the top. Our agile methodology can help you establish your business with organic search traffic. We have SEO Algorithms & Automation Solutions for different businesses, including e-commerce, start-ups, enterprises, local businesses, and international organizations. 

Our effective link acquisition strategy and data-driven approach can improve the overall performance of your website. Also, since we work with clients in different locations, we have multi-language customer support. We can provide a wide range of SEO services, such as content marketing, link building, conversion rate optimization, app-store optimization, and SEO training for beginners. 

We have an SEO audit process in place that is a result of our deep domain expertise and years of experience. With our comprehensive SEO audit process and checklist, we ensure that no aspect related to Technical SEO, Content SEO, and Links is left out. We completely understand that sometimes one careless mistake at the SEO end can prove quite expensive. Hence, we are extra cautious and vigilant.

Therefore, we have devised an exhaustive SEO audit plan and SEO audit checklist that covers all the essential attributes of SEO. Using our customized off-page SEO audit checklist and on-page SEO audit checklist, we ensure that not even a single SEO parameter that is important for website ranking and conversions is missed. Thus, our SEO audit process is designed in a way that gives the team the right direction for SEO activities. We believe that this groundwork is very necessary to help clients by improving their website ranking and getting results. 

So, if you want to place your website on Google’s first page, you must contact the Indian Marketers for SEO Audit.  Whether you need Enterprise SEO, e-commerce SEO, SEO for start-ups, Local SEO, or International SEO solutions, just let us know and we can. Begin your SEO endeavor with us and we will help you stand ahead of your competitors, for sure!