Perform An On-Page SEO Audit On A Page

1 year ago
Setare Afsharzadeh
9 minutes

This guide outlines a method for conducting a thorough SEO audit on any webpage. It will pinpoint what’s working well for your page, highlight areas for improvement, and provide actionable steps to prioritize.

Benefits:

  • Increased Organic Traffic: Identify optimization opportunities to attract more visitors from search engines.
  • Clear Action Plan: Gain a roadmap for improvement with specific, actionable steps.
  • Webpage Health Check: Understand your webpage’s strengths and weaknesses from an SEO perspective.

Who Can Do This:

  • Anyone responsible for SEO or client relations within your company.
  • Freelancers or virtual assistants specializing in SEO.

When to Do This:

  • Whenever you want to boost a webpage’s organic traffic.

Where to Do This:

  • The audit can be conducted entirely within your web browser, supplemented by tools like Google Docs, Sheets, and a few third-party SEO analysis tools.

The Process:

The core of the audit involves a deep dive into your webpage’s SEO health. This includes analyzing factors like technical SEO, on-page optimization, and backlink profile. The final deliverable will be a comprehensive report outlining:

  • Strengths: Aspects of your webpage that are performing well in search engine results.
  • Weaknesses: Areas where your webpage can be improved for better ranking and traffic.
  • Action Steps: A prioritized list of tasks to address the identified weaknesses and optimize your webpage for success.

Gather Your SEO Audit Toolkit

Before diving into the website analysis, let’s assemble the tools you’ll need:

Free Chrome Extensions:

  • Redirect Path: This extension helps uncover any redirects happening on the webpage, which can impact SEO performance.
  • Google Tag Assistant: This tool ensures your Google tags (like analytics or remarketing) are installed and functioning correctly.

SEO Analysis Tool (Choose One):

  • Ahrefs (Paid): A popular option offering in-depth analysis of backlinks, keywords, and overall SEO health.
  • SEMrush (Paid): Another comprehensive SEO toolset with features similar to Ahrefs.
  • Open Site Explorer (Freemium): Provides basic backlink and domain authority data for free, with paid plans for more features.
  • Majestic (Freemium): Similar to Open Site Explorer, offering free backlink analysis with paid tiers for advanced features.

Installation:

  1. Visit the Chrome Web Store and search for “Redirect Path” and “Google Tag Assistant” extensions.
  2. Install both extensions by clicking “Add to Chrome.”
  3. Choose your preferred SEO analysis tool (Ahrefs, SEMrush, etc.) and follow their instructions for signup or download (if applicable).

On-Page Optimization Audit: URL Analysis

Important Note: These checks primarily apply to individual webpages, not the main domain (homepage). If you’re auditing the homepage, mark these sections as “N/A” and move on.

Primary Keyword in URL:

  • Does the URL contain the primary keyword you’re targeting for the page (excluding keywords in the domain name itself)?

URL Length and Readability:

  • Is the URL relatively short (ideally under 6-7 words)?
  • Is it easy for users to understand what the page is about just by reading the URL?

Subfolder vs. Subdomain:

  • Does the URL reside within a subfolder of the main domain (e.g., /products/shoes), or is it on a subdomain (e.g., [invalid URL removed])? Aim for subfolders for SEO purposes.

Hyphens vs. Underscores:

  • Does the URL use hyphens (-) to separate words instead of underscores (_)? Search engines tend to interpret hyphens more naturally.

On-Page Optimization Audit: Using Screaming Frog (Free Version)

Leveraging Screaming Frog for On-Page Analysis:

We’ll utilize Screaming Frog, a free website crawler, to assess various on-page SEO elements. It can identify common issues and extract valuable data to streamline your audit process.

Note: The free tier has a limit of 500 URLs per crawl. Upgrading unlocks higher capacities.

Steps:

  1. Download and install Screaming Frog.
  2. Open the application and enter your website URL in the search bar.

Analyzing Page Title:

  1. Click the “Page Titles” tab. Identify the “Title 1” column, representing the title displayed in search results.
  2. Check for Title Length: Ensure the title falls under 70 characters for optimal search result display.
  3. Verify Keyword Inclusion: Confirm that your primary keyword is present within the title.

Optimizing Meta Description:

  1. Navigate to the “Meta Description” tab. This snippet accompanies your page title in search results. Analyze both length and keyword usage.
  2. Verify Description Length: Maintain the description within 160 characters for best presentation.
  3. Verify Keyword Inclusion: Make sure the primary keyword is incorporated into the meta description.

H1 Tag Optimization:

  1. Click the “H1” tab. Locate the “H1-1” column showcasing H1 tag details. Assess both the number of H1 tags and keyword presence.
  2. Ensure Single H1 Tag: Verify the presence of only one H1 tag per webpage.
  3. Verify Keyword Inclusion: Confirm the primary keyword is included within the H1 tag.

Image Optimization:

  1. Click the “Images” tab. Utilize the “Missing Alt Text” filter to identify images lacking alt text descriptions.
  2. Ensure Descriptive Alt Text: Verify that all images have informative and user-friendly alt text descriptions. Aim for descriptions that clearly explain the image content.
  3. Evaluate Filenames: Analyze image filenames. Ideally, filenames should be descriptive and user-friendly. Ask yourself if the image content can be understood solely by reading the filename.

Assessing Keyword Distribution:

Here, we’ll delve into the presence and usage of keywords within the webpage’s body content.

Primary Keyword Density:

  1. Open the webpage in your browser.
  2. Employ the “find” function:
    • Mac: Press command + F
    • Windows: Press control + F
  3. Type in your primary keyword and observe its frequency.
  4. Aim for the primary keyword to appear naturally 2-3 times throughout the content. Overstuffing can negatively impact SEO.

Avoiding Keyword Over-Optimization:

  1. Utilize the same “find” function as described above.
  2. While it’s crucial for the primary keyword to be present, avoid excessive inclusion. Maintain a balance, aiming for no more than 8-9 occurrences.

Incorporating Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords:

  1. Access an LSI keyword generator tool online.
  2. Input your primary keyword.
  3. Identify 2-3 keywords most relevant to the page’s topic, often referred to as LSI keywords.
  4. Return to your webpage and use the browser’s “find” function to check if these LSI keywords are naturally integrated within the content.

Technical SEO Audit: Examining Technical Aspects

This section focuses on the technical aspects of your webpage that influence search engine visibility and performance.

Checking Page Indexation:

  1. Open Google.com
  2. In the search bar, type site:your_page_url (replace your_page_url with the actual URL).
  3. Press Enter and examine the search results.
    • Indexed Page: If the page appears in the results, it’s indexed.
    • Non-Indexed Page: If it’s missing, the page might not be indexed.

Content Crawlability and Accessibility:

  1. Visit Browseo (https://www.browseo.net/) and enter your page URL.
  2. Under “Text Information,” verify there are at least 100 words of content.
  3. Compare the content displayed on the page with Browseo’s results. Ideally, all visible content on the page should be reflected in Browseo’s findings, even if formatting or order differs. (Browseo doesn’t render page styles.)

Page Speed Analysis:

  1. Access Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool (https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about).
  2. Input your page URL and run the test.
  3. Aim for a mobile score of 70 or above. Disregard Google’s classifications (“Good,” “Needs Work,” “Poor”) and focus on the numerical score.

Mobile-Friendliness Assessment:

  1. Utilize Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test (https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2016/05/a-new-mobile-friendly-testing-tool).
  2. Enter your page URL and run the test.
  3. Verify if the results confirm a mobile-friendly webpage.

Identifying Redirect Issues:

  1. Open Chrome and enter the exact page URL.
  2. Click on the Redirect Path Chrome extension icon.
  3. Ensure the page loads without encountering 302 redirects or redirect chains (multiple redirects in sequence).
    • Example (Not Optimal): 302 Found: [invalid URL removed]
    • Example (Not Optimal): 301 Moved Permanently: [invalid URL removed] -> 301 Moved Permanently: [invalid URL removed] -> [Your Final Page]

Google Analytics Verification:

  1. Open the webpage using Google Chrome.
  2. Click on the Google Tag Assistant Chrome extension icon.
  3. Click “Enable.”
  4. Refresh the page and click the extension icon again.
  5. Confirm that Google Analytics is installed (green or blue icon) on the page.

User-Friendly Ads:

  1. Analyze ad placement on the webpage.
  2. Ideally, ads should not be positioned “above the fold” (the initial screen view without scrolling) or hinder content visibility.

Off-Page Optimization Audit: Analyzing Backlinks (Using Ahrefs)

Disclaimer: While this guide utilizes Ahrefs for demonstration purposes, similar functionalities can be found in SEMrush, Open Site Explorer, or Majestic.

Initiating the Audit:

  1. Open Ahrefs and enter the target webpage URL in the search bar.
  2. Ensure the selector next to the search box is set to “Exact URL.”

Important Note:

If the audit reveals no backlinks to the webpage, proceed as follows:

  • Mark all subsequent questions in your spreadsheet as “Needs Work.”
  • Include a note mentioning “No Backlinks.”

Backlink Quality Assessment:

  1. Click the “Backlinks” option from the left sidebar.
  2. Trustworthy Backlink Sources: Verify that at least half of the backlinks originate from websites with a Domain Rating (DR) exceeding 30. DR serves as an Ahrefs metric indicating a website’s overall strength and authority.

Contextual Relevance of Backlinks:

  1. Remain in the “Backlinks” section.
  2. Click on the top 10 listed links to open the corresponding URLs in separate tabs.
  3. Topical Relevance: Analyze the content and niche of each linking website. Ideally, at least 50% of these top 10 links should stem from websites with topics somewhat similar or relevant to the webpage you’re auditing.

Minimizing Redirect Chains:

  1. Stay within the “Backlinks” tab.
  2. Limiting Redirects: Ensure no more than 20% of all backlinks pointing to the page go through more than one redirect. For instance, if there are 10 backlinks, only a maximum of 2 links can have more than one redirect. Ahrefs displays redirect chains within the “Anchor and backlink” column.

Natural Anchor Text Distribution:

  1. Click the “Anchors” link in the left sidebar.
  2. Focus Columns: We’ll primarily analyze the “Anchor Text” and “Referring Domains” columns.
  3. Finding Exact Match Keywords: Utilize the “find” function (cmd+F on Mac, control+F on Windows) to open the search box within the tool.
  4. Type your primary target keyword in the search box.
  5. Anchor Text Breakdown: Calculate the total percentage of “Referring Domains” for anchor texts containing the exact primary target keyword (highlighted by the find function).
  6. Natural Balance: The total percentage of referring domains linking with the exact primary target keyword should ideally be below 50%. An unnatural distribution with an overwhelming majority of exact-match keywords can raise red flags for search engines.
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