Introduction
One great way to practice and learn more about SEO is by evaluating another website or doing an SEO site audit. A true site audit takes a long time, but for practice, I suggest auditing only about 7-10 pages on a website. Below is a basic outline for conducting an SEO site audit with some sample questions to ask.
How to SEO Audit
- Pick a website. The website could be a competitor’s or a random website.
- Note: Evaluating another website that you aren’t familiar with may make the audit easier because you are approaching it with fresh eyes.
- Audit a website manually before using SEO checkers. Then, explore the website and note its characteristics.
- Structure: Do they have alt-text? Where do they link to? Are there any broken links or images?
- Usability: How would a user interact with the website? What are the interactive elements? What is the site architecture?
- Legibility: Is the text dense and crowded? Are there clear headers and subheadings? Are the words up to industry standards?
- Indexability: How does the website appear in SERPs? What is the title, blurb, link structure?
- Content: What are the keywords they use? Are the ads or other mentions relevant to the content? What is the quality of the content?
- Appearance: Is the brand consistent across the website? How aesthetic is it? Are there any standout features?
- Check website data. For example, page loading speed, click-through rate (CTR), site maps, crawlability all require data measurements.
- Use Google analytics and Google Search Console
- Use an SEO Site auditor such as YOAST and Semrush.
Conclusion
This is just a brief overview of an SEO audit with a few questions as an example. For more helpful questions, I suggest using AI to generate more questions. Although AI is extremely helpful, I recommend manually auditing websites because ultimately, the goal of an SEO audit is to answer: how helpful is the website for humans?
After observing how others optimize their website, check out my other articles to learn how to implement and improve your website.
One Response
Your point about auditing a website manually before using AI checkers is so important. AI can miss so much, especially when it comes to what a human would focus on versus a bot.