If you’re looking to improve your website’s visibility on search engines and drive more organic traffic, conducting a basic SEO audit is a crucial first step. Whether you’re a small business owner, a marketing professional, or working with a digital marketing agency in Melbourne, understanding how to assess your website’s SEO performance can help uncover hidden opportunities and highlight areas for improvement.
This guide covers the essential steps to perform a basic SEO audit – no advanced tools or deep technical knowledge required. Just a methodical approach and a keen eye for detail.
Why SEO Audits Matter
Search engines like Google are constantly updating their algorithms, and what worked a year ago might not be effective today. A regular SEO audit helps you stay ahead of the curve by:
- Ensuring your website is indexable and crawlable
- Identifying on-page SEO issues
- Evaluating content performance
- Improving user experience
- Boosting search engine rankings
Now let’s dive into the key steps of conducting your own SEO audit.
Step 1 – Check Your Website’s Visibility in Search Engines
Begin by searching for your business name and key offerings on Google. If your site doesn’t appear on the first few pages, or at all, there may be fundamental issues at play such as indexing problems or penalties. Use the site: operator in Google to see which pages are currently indexed: site:yourdomain.com. If this search returns no results, your site might be blocked from indexing – possibly due to a noindex tag or a misconfigured robots.txt file.
Step 2 – Analyse Technical SEO Elements
- Mobile-Friendliness: More than half of all searches now come from mobile devices. Run your website through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to ensure it displays properly on smaller screens. If users have to pinch and zoom, bounce rates will soar – and your rankings could suffer.
- Page Speed: Google considers site speed a ranking factor. Use tools like PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to evaluate your load times. Compress images, enable browser caching, and consider a content delivery network (CDN) to improve performance.
- HTTPS Security: Ensure your website uses HTTPS encryption. Not only does this protect users’ data, but Google also gives a slight ranking boost to secure sites. If your URL still starts with http://, it’s time for an upgrade.
Step 3 – Review On-Page SEO
- Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Each page on your site should have a unique title tag (under 60 characters) and meta description (under 160 characters) that clearly describe the page’s content. These appear in search results and can influence click-through rates.
- Headers and Subheadings: Make sure each page uses clear and structured heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.). The H1 tag should include your target keyword and reflect the main topic of the page.
- Keyword Optimisation: Check if your target keywords are naturally integrated into:
- Page titles
- Headings
- Paragraphs
- Image alt text
- URLs
Avoid keyword stuffing – instead, aim for a natural, reader-friendly flow.
Step 4 – Audit Your Content
Content is still king in the SEO world. Start by asking:
- Is the content original, informative, and up to date?
- Does it answer your audience’s questions?
- Is it structured for readability (short paragraphs, bullet points, visuals)?
Use tools like Google Search Console to identify pages with low impressions or high bounce rates – these may need rewriting, expanding, or even merging with other content for better performance. Also, check for duplicate content across your site, which can harm your SEO (tools like Siteliner can help spot these issues).
Step 5 – Inspect Internal Linking and Site Structure
A clear site structure makes it easier for both users and search engines to navigate your content. Ensure your main pages are easily accessible within a few clicks from the homepage. Here are some tips for better internal linking:
- Use descriptive anchor text
- Link to relevant pages within your content
- Maintain a logical hierarchy with category and subcategory pages
Avoid broken links, as these not only frustrate users but also impact crawlability. A tool like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs can quickly identify dead ends.
Step 6 – Assess Your Backlink Profile
Backlinks (these are links from other websites to yours) remain a strong ranking factor. Use tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to check:
- The number of referring domains
- The quality of those domains
- Any toxic or spammy links
Disavow harmful backlinks through Google Search Console if necessary, and consider launching a link-building strategy to earn high-authority links through guest blogging, partnerships, or PR efforts.
Step 7 – Evaluate User Experience (UX)
Search engines increasingly value how users interact with your site. Metrics like bounce rate, time on site, and pages per session all contribute to how Google perceives your site’s value. Make sure your site:
- Loads quickly
- Has intuitive navigation
- Is free from intrusive pop-ups
- Features clear calls to action (CTAs)
You can use tools like Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity to observe how users are engaging with your content and identify areas for improvement.
Step 8 – Monitor Analytics and Set Benchmarks
Finally, ensure that Google Analytics and Google Search Console are properly installed and tracking your traffic. Key metrics to watch include:
- Organic traffic trends
- Bounce rate
- Top-performing pages
- Click-through rate (CTR) from search results
Establish benchmarks now so you can measure the impact of your SEO improvements over time.
As you can see, a basic SEO audit doesn’t require an entire IT team or an advanced degree in digital marketing
With the right tools and a methodical approach, you can uncover quick wins and long-term opportunities to boost your website’s performance in search. SEO is a marathon, not a sprint – but every great race starts with the first step. Start your audit today, and lay the groundwork for a website that delivers results.
Partner Content
The above article is paid content, and any information presented should be independently verified before making any decisions as a result of the content. This article does not constitute advice of any kind, nor does it represent the opinions of the website publisher.