SEO Audit Checklist: 15 On-Page Factors to Boost Your Rankings

Over the years, we’ve conducted hundreds of search engine optimization audits. And in the process, we’ve found that the vast majority of websites have several problems preventing them from ranking well in the search engines. So, I thought it would be helpful to provide a list of the major factors we review when auditing client websites. In today’s article, I’m going to address 15 factors for on-page SEO (e.g. optimizing your website for search engines).

1. Title Tags Your title tags tell Google what your pages are about, and they are one of the most important SEO factors. Here’s what we check for when reviewing title tags: Are your title tags unique on all pages? Do your title tags include well-researched keywords? Are your title tags well-written (e.g. not over-optimized)? Are your title tags the appropriate length? (We usually aim for 50-65 characters) 2. Meta Descriptions Your meta description is the text that shows up below your title tag in Google’s search results. Meta descriptions don’t directly influence your Google rankings, but a well-written meta description can help generate more clicks from your Google rankings. Here are some things we check for when reviewing meta descriptions: Do you have unique meta descriptions on all pages? Do your meta descriptions contain relevant, engaging copy? Are your meta descriptions the appropriate length? (We aim for 100-155 characters) 3. Header Tags (h1, h2, h3) Headers are the visible headlines on the page. It’s important to include relevant keywords, but most importantly, write headers for conversion since they are highly visible to website visitors. Here are some questions we ask when reviewing header tags: Do you have headers on your webpages? (Many websites we review are missing them) Do your headers include relevant keywords, without being over-optimized? 4. Website Copy It’s critical to make sure that your webpage content will satisfy the intent of the searcher. In many cases, this means having a sufficient amount of website copy on your pages. You want to incorporate your keywords, but you also don’t want to force too many keywords into your website copy. It’s important to write for humans, not search engines. Here are a few of the questions we ask when reviewing website copy: Do you have sufficient copy on pages you want to rank in Google? We recommend a minimum of 300-500 words of copy. Does your website copy satisfy the searcher’s intent? Is your website content unique? (We recommend avoiding duplicate content both across your own webpages, as well as between your website’s pages and other webpages on the Internet.) 5. Website Structure By “website structure,” I mean having dedicated pages for each core keyword/topic you want to rank for in Google. Google wants to show the most relevant webpage for any given keyword. So if you have a focused webpage for each of your core keywords, you’ll have an easier time ranking in Google. Here are some questions we ask when reviewing website structure: Do you have pages for each major product/service/topic you want to promote via SEO? Are your key SEO landing pages well-integrated into your website’s linking architecture? 6. Canonicalization Canonicalization is a big, fancy word. The concept here is that it’s important to make sure that each of your pages only loads with one URL format. You don’t want your website to load at both http://www.website.com and http://website.com. The reason you don’t want that to happen is because Google actually considers those 2 different websites – and it’s better to focus your efforts on establishing the authority and reputation of 1 website in Google’s eyes. In addition, it’s also important to make sure you tell Google which page you want to rank if there are multiple URL versions of the same page (this is especially important for e-commerce websites). Use the rel=”canonical” tag to specify the canonical URL you want to rank in Google. Here are some things we check for with canonicalization: Does your website load with both “www” and without “www” (bad), or does one version automatically forward to the other (good)? Does your homepage load at just 1 URL location (good) or does it also load at /index.html or /index.php, etc (bad)? If you run an e-commerce website, do you have rel=”canonical” tags in place? 7. URL Structure We recommend making URLs brief and descriptive and integrating keywords into the URL when possible. We recommend avoiding lots of parameters in URLs. Here are some questions we ask: Are your URLs short and simple? Do your URLs contain relevant keywords? 8. Image Optimization We also recommend optimizing images for search engines. Here are some things we check for: Do you have relevant, descriptive keywords in the alt tag? Do you have relevant, descriptive keywords in the image file name? 9. Website Load Speed Website speed is a major ranking factor with Google. Plus, people hate slow loading websites. Here’s a free tool provided by Google to check your site speed: http://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ Another tool we use and recommend is GTMetrix: https://gtmetrix.com/ 10. Schema Mark-up Schema mark-up refers to HTML tags used to help website content be more easily recognized by search engines. If you are targeting a local area, the most important schema we check for is LocalBusiness schema with your business category and Name, Address, and Phone number. Here’s a tool from Google to determine the structured data on your website: https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/u/0/ 11. Contact Information For local search engine optimization, in particular, it’s very important to have complete and accurate contact information on your website. We recommend putting the full business Name, Address, and Phone contact information in the footer of each page on your site. 12. Sitemap A sitemap helps Google identify all of the pages on your website. It’s important to have an XML sitemap in place and to submit the sitemap to Google Search Console. 13. Blog A blog is the easiest way to add new content to your website, and more pages of content will provide you with more opportunities to get found in Google. Also, for many topics, Google tends to favor websites with fresh content. In addition, prospects may want to read articles on your blog to gain confidence that you are a knowledgeable, expert provider. Here are some things we look for when reviewing blogs: Is your blog located in a directory of your website (e.g. website.com/blog) or on a subdomain (e.g. blog.website.com) or on another website (e.g. on blogspot)? We recommend locating your blog in a sub-directory of your own website. Have you been consistently publishing blog entries? Are your blog posts informative and engaging (not solely promotional)? 14. Mobile Optimization With the growth in mobile traffic, Google is now putting a greater and greater emphasis on the mobile versions of websites. We strongly recommend optimizing your website for mobile devices, if you haven’t already. Here’s a free tool from Google to assess how mobile-friendly your website is: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly 15. Social Media Integration Social media is having a growing impact on search engine optimization. We recommend getting set up on social media websites, making your company easy to follow, and making your website content easy to share across social media. Here are some things we look for: Have you integrated your social profiles on your website? Have you added social media “share” buttons on your webpages (especially your blog pages)? Need Help with SEO? If you’d like help ranking higher in Google, contact us today for a free SEO quote. Click here to request a quote for SEO services