Technical SEO audits are essential for any website that wants to rank high in search engines. However, they can also be quite daunting, especially if you’re not familiar with all the jargon and technical terms. Never fear! In this blog post, we will break down everything you need to know about performing a technical SEO audit. From what tools to use to how to interpret your results, by the end of this post you will be an expert on the topic.
SEO Basics: What is SEO and How Does it Work?
SEO is an acronym for “search engine optimization” or “search engine optimizer.” Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:
Review of your site content or structure
XML sitemap creation
Meta tag creation
Robots.txt file analysis
Keyword research
Competition analysis
Link building
These are just a few of the many types of SEO services that exist. Even if you decide not to hire an outside consultant, it’s still a good idea to familiarize yourself with these concepts and have a general understanding of how they work in order to be able to spot potential problems on your own site.
The Technical SEO Audit Process
The technical SEO audit process is a comprehensive analysis of your website’s technical SEO health. It is designed to identify any potential issues that could be holding back your site’s organic search performance.
The audit begins with a crawl of your website. This allows us to see how search engines are viewing your site and identify any potential issues. We then review your site’s architecture, code, and content to identify any areas that could be improved.
Once the initial analysis is complete, we provide you with a detailed report of our findings and recommendations. We will also work with you to develop a plan to address any issues that we find.
Tools for Technical SEO Audits
When it comes to technical SEO audits, there are a few key tools that can make your life a whole lot easier. Here are our top picks:
- Screaming Frog: This handy little tool crawls websites and collects data on things like sitemaps, broken links, and redirects. It’s an essential tool for any technical SEO audit.
- Google Search Console: This free tool from Google gives you insights into how your website is performing in search results. It’s a valuable resource for identifying potential issues that could be affecting your organic traffic.
- DeepCrawl: Another great website crawling tool, DeepCrawl offers similar features to Screaming Frog but with some added extras like the ability to track historical data and monitor changes over time.
- SEMrush: A must-have for any serious SEO analyst, SEMrush provides tons of useful data on things like keyword rankings, backlink profiles, and competitors.
How to Interpret the Results of a Technical SEO Audit
To properly interpret the results of a technical SEO audit, you must first understand what goes into one. A technical SEO audit is comprised of several different tests and checks, all of which are designed to give you an accurate picture of your website’s technical health.
The first step in any technical SEO audit is to check for server errors. These can be things like 404 errors (page not found), 500 errors (internal server error), or DNS errors (domain name not resolving). Any of these errors will prevent search engines from being able to access your website, which will in turn hurt your ranking.
Next, the audit will check your website’s robots.txt file. This file tells search engines what they can and cannot crawl on your website. If there are any errors in this file, it could again prevent search engines from being able to properly crawl your site, which would negatively impact your ranking.
The next step is to check your website’s sitemap. This is a file that lists all of the pages on your website so that search engines can easily find them. If there are any pages missing from your sitemap, or if the sitemap itself has any errors, it could again hurt your ranking.
After that, the audit will move on to checking for broken links. Both internal and external links can break, and both can hurt your ranking if not fixed. Internal links are links that go from one page on your website to another page on
Conclusion
If you want to improve your website’s search engine ranking, it’s important to perform regular technical SEO audits. By regularly auditing your site, you can identify and fix any potential issues that could be holding back your SEO efforts. While a technical SEO audit can be a bit daunting, following these tips should help make the process easier and more effective.
