If you find that your website is not receiving the traffic you think it deserves, then chances are your SEO needs to be evaluated. That is the process of SEO analysis: assessing your website’s efficiency with search engines (i.e., seeing what’s working and what’s not).
In this blog, we will break down SEO analysis in simple terms and show you how to conduct a standard SEO audit that will help raise your rankings and increase your website’s traffic.
What Is SEO Analysis?
An SEO audit is a comprehensive review of the SEO performance of your website on search engines (e.g., Google). It will consider a range of components including:
Technical problems (e.g., site speed, mobile usability)
On-page SEO (e.g., title tags, quality of content)
Off-page SEO (e.g., backlinks)
Keyword optimization
Content formatting.
Competitors.
The purpose is to find issues and threats to your visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs), and find opportunities to improve your performance.
Why SEO Analysis Is Important
Google’s algorithm includes over 200 ranking factors, so without an SEO analysis, you are working in the dark as far as what you need to improve upon. Here’s why you must do regular audits:
Improves ranking: You will diagnose what is restricting your ranking performance.
Increases traffic: You will also find that you have keyword opportunities that have been overlooked.
Fixes errors: You will identify broken links, crawl errors, or slow-loading pages.
Improves user experience: Websites that are clean, fast, and have good content will always perform better.
Stays competitive: You will know what your competitors are doing right.
How to Do an SEO Analysis (Step-by-Step)
Now let’s dive into a step-by-step guide to running an effective SEO audit on your website.
1. Crawl Your Website
Start with a full website crawl using tools like:
- Screaming Frog (desktop software)
- Ahrefs Site Audit
- SEMrush Site Audit
These tools give you a snapshot of your site’s structure, pages, errors, and redirects. Look for:
- Broken links (404 errors)
- Duplicate content
- Missing title tags or meta descriptions
- Redirect issues
- Slow-loading pages
Fixing these technical issues should be your first priority.
2. Analyze On-Page SEO Elements
On-page SEO relates to the content and HTML elements that are on each page that you control. As you conduct your SEO analysis, pay attention to the following items:
- Title tags: It is important to make sure your title tags are unique and relevant and under 60 characters in length.
- Meta descriptions: Create compelling meta descriptions, but keep them to 155 characters.
- Headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.): Headings are valuable for conveying a hierarchy to help your readers digest your content.
- Keyword usage: Be sure your target keyword (like “SEO Analysis”) appears naturally in your title tag, within the first paragraph, in some subheadings, and in the conclusion.
- URL structure: Keep URLs short, descriptive, and include keywords in it.
Check to make sure that you are using a thorough description with your images alt text and that images are compressed to reduce load times.
3. Evaluate Site Speed and Mobile Friendliness
Google takes both speed and mobile usability into account as ranking factors.
Test performance using Google PageSpeed Insights.
Try to get above a 90 for mobile and desktop.
Make sure to optimize images, enable browser caching, and use a CDN.
Then test mobile usability using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. If you aren’t using responsive design, you should get a redesign.
4. Check for Indexing and Crawl Issues
Your website will not rank in Google if it is not crawlable or indexed.
You should use Google Search Console (GSC) to see crawl errors and indexing errors.
Be sure to submit your sitemap.xml to GSC.
Look for “Excluded” pages in the Index Coverage report.
Is your robots.txt file blocking important pages?
Getting indexed is critically important for search engine optimization (SEO).
5. Analyze Your Keywords
Keywords generate organic traffic, and it is important to evaluate how well your content is optimized.
Use tools such as Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, and SEMrush to see what keywords you rank for.
Also, look for some low-hanging fruit – keywords you rank for on page 2 and 3.
Check for keyword intent – Have you matched the content to what they’re searching for?
Use long-tail keywords to attract more targeted traffic.
Make sure each page is targeting one main keyword and a few related secondaries.
6. Review Your Content Quality
High-quality content is key for SEO.
Think about the following questions:
Does this page answer the user’s question in full or close to full?
Is the information still relevant and up to date?
Are the internal links appropriately guiding the user through the site and to other parts of the site?
Do you have any thin or duplicate content pages?
You can also check Google Analytics for pages with a high bounce rate or low time on the site may need some improvement.
7. Analyze Backlinks
Backlinks are still one of the most impactful ranking factors. A strong backlink profile can really boost your SEO.
Use Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz Link Explorer to analyze your backlinks.
Look for:
Number of referring domains
Authority of linking domains
Toxic or spammy links
If you have harmful links, disavow them via Google Search Console. Then compare your backlinks to competitors and look for more opportunities to earn backlinks.
8. Conduct a Competitor SEO Analysis
Analyzing your best competitors can reveal approaches you’re not implementing.
Identify your SEO competitors (those who rank well for your keywords).
Analyze their:
Best performing pages
Keyword targets
Backlinks
Content Types
Use their strategies to inspire, but focus on developing more useful and comprehensive content.
9. Check Technical SEO Elements
Technical SEO makes sure your website is built well and easy for search engines to read.
Don’t forget these:
HTTPS: Is your site safe?
Structured data or Schema Markup: This helps to with rich snippets within search results.
Canonical tags: Help you avoid duplicate content problems.
XML sitemap: It should be clean, with no errors, and up to date.
Pagination and hreflang tags: Especially if you have a large or multilingual site.
Even basic technical fixes can result in significant improvements in SEO performance.
Final Thoughts
A comprehensive SEO analysis is not exclusively for large corporations or tech whizzes. Thanks to a few helpful tools and, most importantly, a simple checklist, anyone can find everything there is to know about their website through an audit.
Make SEO analysis part of your digital strategy on a regular basis, at least quarterly, as you can only gain from it potentially ranking your site higher, driving more traffic to your site, and improving all your metrics across the board.
