If your business has a website, you should be running regular SEO (search engine optimisation) audits. Without them, small issues can grow into significant problems that can negatively impact search rankings.
This beginner-friendly guide gives an overview of identifying common SEO concerns, helping you implement simple improvements that can positively impact your search visibility.
Technical health check
A technical health check is an assessment of the behind-the-scenes elements of your website that visitors don’t directly see but that affect how search engines crawl, index, and rank your site.
Crawlability and indexability
If pages on your site can’t be crawled by Google, they won’t be indexed and therefore won’t display in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Google Search Console’s (GSC) Page Indexing section displays all the reasons that pages aren’t indexed on your site. Some may be purposely no-indexed, but take the time to scroll through and investigate any pages that you feel should be crawlable. You can use GSC’s URL Inspection Tool to test individual pages for errors, blocks, or “noindex” tags.
Within GSC, you should also submit an up-to-date sitemap to help Google discover your pages faster.
Site speed
Not only does Google penalise slow-loading sites, but users expect speed and may abandon your site if pages or on-page elements take too long to load.
You can test the speed of your homepage and key landing pages for free using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. The tool will diagnose any elements causing a dip in performance, such as large images and browser caching issues, and provide links to support articles to help you rectify the issues.
Security
An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate enables HTTPS encryption, verifying a website’s identity and protecting sensitive data like passwords and credit card information. The certificate can be identified by “https” in the URL and a padlock icon in the browser’s address bar.
HTTPS is an important ranking factor for Google, and with users becoming increasingly security-conscious, a missing SSL certificate can severely impact both rankings and conversion rates. You can purchase an SSL certificate online and manually install it on your website. Just remember to redirect all your HTTP traffic over to HTTPS.
On-page SEO fundamentals
On-page SEO fundamentals refer to elements you have control over within your own website’s content and HTML code. The aim of on-page SEO is to ensure that each page clearly communicates its topic, purpose, and value to both search engines and visitors.
Page titles and meta descriptions
Both page titles and meta descriptions are pieces of HTML code that appear in the SERPs as a way to preview the content of a webpage. While they provide context to users and encourage clicks, they also act as important indicators to Google’s crawlers when determining the focus of a page.
Ensure that all page titles and meta descriptions stick to Google’s suggested pixel limits – there are free online tools to test the length of both. It’s also important that your titles and descriptions are unique, and properly optimised with relevant keywords.
Header tags
Header tags are HTML elements used to define titles and subheadings on a web page. The H1 tag (<h1>) is for the main heading, and should be present on every page of your website, with subsequent tags like H2 (<h2>) and H3 (<h3>) marking subheadings and smaller sections where the page’s structure and copy require.
Check for proper header tags across every page on your site, as this ensures that content is clearly structured for both users and search engines, offering a better user experience (UX) and allowing search engines to correctly understand the content of the page.
Internal linking
Internal linking is another on-page SEO technique that provides benefits to both the user and search engine crawlers, providing ease of navigation between contextually linked pages (better UX and easier crawling!).
It shouldn’t take long to assess whether the important pages on your site link to each other, and it’s an easy fix if you feel your internal links are lacking.
Content review
High quality content is written in a way that both serves your target audience’s needs and search intent, while meeting search engines’ standards for valuable, trustworthy information. It should be SEO-optimised to boost visibility, but also genuinely help the users that land on your pages.
Keyword targeting
Each page on your site should be targeting one or two keywords that are relevant to the content and have search volume. You can check what queries are currently bringing in traffic to your site via GSC, and there are various methods of conducting keyword research if you need to update any terms.
Content freshness
Google favours new, fresh content, especially in competitive industries. Check when you last posted on your site’s blog (and if you don’t have one, get one!). There’s no need for a regimented upload schedule, but if your last blog post was posted two years ago, there’s definitely room for improvement.
That being said, it’s still important to ensure that your content is valuable. Keep topics tailored to your audience and optimise with relevant keywords where possible.
Competitor analysis
Reviewing your direct competitors’ performance can help to identify opportunities and strategies to improve your own site.
If you don’t already have a list of competitors in mind, search for your target keywords and identify businesses that regularly rank highly for them. Stick with companies that are direct competitors (those that offer the same products/services and target a similar audience).
Here are some top-level questions to start off your competitor analysis.
Content gaps
- What topics are competitors covering that you’re not?
- How comprehensive is their content compared to yours?
- What unique angles or approaches are they taking with their content?
Technical insights
- How fast do their websites load compared to yours?
- What’s their site structure and navigation like?
- How mobile-friendly are their sites?
SERP analysis
- Do any competitors appear in featured snippets for relevant queries?
- Are they appearing in the People Also Ask boxes?
- What keywords are they ranking for that you’re missing/not targeting?
The path to successful SEO
The key to SEO success isn’t perfection; it’s consistent improvement. Start with the quick wins, as these changes often deliver noticeable results within weeks and build momentum for tackling bigger challenges.
However, this isn’t a one-time fix. Proper SEO involves regular audits, tweaks, and analysis to help you catch issues early before they impact your rankings.
If your audit has revealed technical issues beyond your comfort zone, you can’t dedicate suitable time to SEO, or you’re competing in a particularly challenging market, don’t hesitate to seek help from a friendly SEO agency.