Search optimization strategies rely on accurate insights derived from comprehensive on-page SEO audits. Auditing becomes an invaluable asset for any brand as these insights inform everything from content development for SEO to linking and outreach strategies.
A survey by Ahrefs found that 75% of website owners believe that on-page SEO is crucial for their online success. Despite that, however, too few brands know how to practice it and can optimize their websites effectively.
As SEO experts with years-long experience in the field, we’ve refined our practices for conducting audits and share this knowledge with you in this guide. So, if you’ve been meaning to get started on the basics of on-page audits, read on.
Why Conducting On-page SEO Audits Matters
On-page SEO audits are a cornerstone of a successful optimization strategy. They provide deep insights into your website’s performance and reveal growth opportunities through SEO.
At any given time, experts conduct audits to develop insights, goals, and strategies. These include:
- Improving your search engine rankings through targeted analyses of on-page elements (e.g., meta tags and content quality) that serve as low-hanging fruits for SEO gains;
- Enhancing user experiences as it ensures your websites provide helpful content and seamless navigation of your websites;
- Increasing click-through rates (CTR) as you optimize for pin-point accuracy in relevance and sonance in title tags, meta descriptions, and URL structures, and;
- Boosting engagements and conversion rates as helpful content and websites earn the engagement and trust of old and new visitors.
That said, neglecting to do your SEO audits as frequently as possible would be remiss. But before you worry about the matter of frequency, let’s first tackle the “how” of it.
Conducting the On-page SEO Audit
To achieve the best results in on-page SEO and optimization efforts, you must follow a systematic auditing process that covers all on-page elements. This section helps provide you with a checklist that can guide you every step of the way.
1. Set your goals and objectives.
Setting clear goals and objectives is crucial before starting the work because audits can become quite complex and tedious depending on the depth of content on your site. By defining your goals at the start, you can focus your efforts and work more efficiently toward achieving them.
Whether your goal is to reduce bounce rate, improve conversion rates, or improve organic traffic, it’s best to start with clear and specific objectives and provide a clear action plan. Hence, you can create a roadmap that guarantees alignment with your goals.
A helpful framework you can use here is Avinash Kaushik’s digital marketing measurement model, as seen below.
As you can see, at the top of this model, Occam’s Razor outlines its specific goals and objectives. Listed under each of these are the key performance indicators (KPIs) they will use to measure the performance of their efforts and, finally, a rough action plan to achieve them.
2. Gather your tools and resources.
The next thing you’ll need for your audit is tools. A simple search for SEO auditing tools on the internet will bring up a wealth of these, ranging from the most basic to sophisticated ones.
To guide your selection, remember to ground it on a balanced assessment of your needs and capabilities for investing in a particular tool. While helpful, more sophisticated tools can often come at a steep price. Meanwhile, essential tools would, of course, be more accessible but may have limited features.
Below, we’ve listed some options for basic and advanced tools you can begin exploring on your own, along with some notes on what we’ve found helpful.
Basic SEO Auditing Tools
- Google Analytics: This free tool offers comprehensive data on website traffic, user behavior, and conversion metrics. It helps you understand how users interact with your site and identify areas for improvement.
- Google Search Console: Another free tool from Google, it provides insights into your site’s search performance, indexing issues, and security concerns. It also helps you track keyword performance and discover opportunities for optimization, and, like Analytics, it is invaluable for understanding user behavior.
- Ubersuggest: A free tool that offers keyword suggestions, competitive analysis, and site audit features. It’s a great starting point for small to medium-sized websites. Its user-friendly interface and free access make it ideal for beginners and small businesses looking to improve their SEO without a significant investment.
Advanced SEO Auditing Tools
- SEMrush: This comprehensive tool offers in-depth keyword research, competitor analysis, and site audit features. It helps identify on-page SEO issues and provides actionable recommendations. It is suitable for larger websites with detailed insights, offering competitor analysis tools, content ideas, and more.
- Ahrefs: Known for its robust backlink analysis, Ahrefs also offers a powerful site audit tool that helps you uncover technical SEO issues, track keyword rankings, and analyze competitor strategies.
- Moz Pro: Moz provides tools for keyword research, link building, and site audits. Its On-Page Grader feature offers insights into how well your pages are optimized for specific keywords and suggests improvements.
3. Analyzing URL Structure
Clean, descriptive URLs play a significant role in search engine optimization. They provide search engines and users with clear, concise information about a page’s content, improving click-through rates and user experience. Conversely, cluttered or disorganized URLs can confuse users, reduce trust, and negatively impact your site’s SEO performance.
For one, cluttered URLs can offer a poor user experience and turn away visitors who may struggle to understand a page’s content, resulting in higher bounce rates. Additionally, vague or complicated URLs are less likely to attract clicks in search engine results, reducing click-through rates.
From an SEO perspective, search engines rely on URLs to grasp the context and relevance of a page; disorganized URLs can impede this understanding and negatively impact your rankings. Analyzing and optimizing your URL structure can enhance user experience and search engine visibility, ensuring your website performs at its best.
4. Reviewing Meta Tags
Meta tags, including titles and meta descriptions, are critical on-page SEO elements. They provide search engines with essential information about your pages’ content and play a crucial role in influencing click-through rates. Crafting compelling and relevant meta tags can significantly enhance your website’s visibility and user engagement.
Why Title Tags and Meta Descriptions Matter
Title tags and meta descriptions play a crucial role in on-page SEO by forming the first impression users get in search engine results. A well-crafted title tag can improve your search engine ranking and attract more clicks by being concise, including primary keywords, and accurately reflecting the page’s content.
Similarly, meta descriptions summarize the page content and appear beneath the title tag in search results. A compelling meta description can entice users to click through to your site by being persuasive, including relevant keywords, and featuring a clear call-to-action.
Tips for Crafting Effective Meta Tags
- Keep it concise. Title tags should be under 60 characters, and meta descriptions should be around 150-160. This ensures they are fully displayed in search results.
- Use keywords strategically. Incorporate primary keywords within your title tags and meta descriptions to improve relevance and ranking potential.
- Be descriptive and accurate. Ensure your meta tags accurately describe the page’s content to set proper user expectations and avoid high bounce rates.
- Always have a call to action. Encourage users to take action by including phrases like “Learn more,” “Discover,” or “Find out” in your meta descriptions.
- Avoid duplication. Each page should have unique title tags and meta descriptions to avoid confusion and ensure each page is distinct in search results.
5. Content Quality and Optimization
Beyond resonant and compelling title tags and meta descriptions, the content within the page must also match them in terms of quality and relevance. Hence, checking for search intent alignment, logic, structure, and others is essential when conducting a content quality audit. Below are some specifics concerning this.
- Depth of content. To provide value to the reader, content must offer in-depth information and unique insights to help them meet their needs. Regarding depth, it’s good practice to aim for 1,000 to 1,500 words for your content. You can also go shorter than that, but only if user behavior on your website shows that audiences prefer it to longer pieces.
- Search intent matching. Ensure your content answers the questions users are searching for and meets their expectations. This alignment improves user satisfaction and increases the likelihood of higher rankings.
- Keyword density. While there is no exact ideal keyword density, a standard recommendation is to keep it between 1-2%. Avoid keyword stuffing, and ensure that keywords are naturally integrated into the content. Focus on including keywords in critical areas such as the title, headers, and first paragraph. Use variations and synonyms to maintain readability and relevance.
- LSI keywords. These are terms and phrases related to your primary keyword and help search engines understand the context and relevance of your content. Identify LSI keywords using tools like LSI Graph or Google’s related searches. Then, integrate these naturally into your content to enhance its depth and comprehensiveness.
6. Check heading tags and information hierarchy.
Heading tags and information hierarchy are crucial to helping search engines understand the structure and main topics of your content while also enhancing readability for users. Hence, proper use of headings is vital to ensuring your content is serving its purpose.
Specifically, search engines use heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to determine the relevance and structure of your content. Properly optimized headings can improve your chances of ranking higher in search results. From the user’s perspective, on the other hand, clear and logical headings make scanning for information more accessible, encouraging engagements and reducing bounce rates.
Tips for Proper Use of Heading Tags:
- Use one H1 tag per page. This tag should represent the page’s main topic and include your primary keyword. Having only one H1 tag per page helps avoid confusion.
- Utilize H2 tags for main sections. Use H2 tags to denote the primary sections of your content. These should be descriptive and include relevant keywords to help search engines and readers understand the key points.
- Incorporate H3 tags for subsections. H3 tags should be used for subsections within H2 sections. They help break down the content further, providing additional structure and detail.
Tips for Ensuring Logical Content Structure:
- Create an outline before writing. Plan your content by creating an outline that organizes your main points and subpoints. This helps ensure a logical flow and hierarchy.
- Follow a hierarchical order. Ensure that your headings follow a clear, logical order. Start with an H1 for the main topic, an H2 tag for significant sections, and an H3 tag for subsections within those sections.
- Keep formatting consistent. To make your content visually appealing and easy to read, maintain consistent formatting for your headings. This includes using the same font size, style, and spacing for each heading level.
7. Audit images for optimization.
Image optimization is vital to on-page SEO. It contributes to improved user experience, faster page load times, and better search engine rankings. Properly optimized images can enhance your website’s visual appeal while ensuring efficiency.
Image optimization is crucial for enhancing website performance and SEO. Optimized images reduce the amount of data that needs to be loaded, leading to quicker page load times, which improves user experience and is favored by search engines, potentially boosting your rankings.
High-quality, optimized images make your website more visually appealing and engaging, keeping users on your site longer. Additionally, optimized file names and alt text help search engines better understand the content of your images, improving your site’s visibility in search results.
Tips for Optimizing Alt Texts
- Be descriptive. Clearly describe the content of the image. For example, instead of “image1.jpg,” use “woman-smiling-with-coffee.jpg.”
- Include keywords naturally. Integrate relevant keywords into the alt text without keyword stuffing. Ensure it reads naturally and makes sense in context.
- Keep alt texts concise. Alt text should be brief yet descriptive, typically no more than 125 characters.
- Avoid repetition in alt texts. Ensure each image has unique alt text that accurately describes its content.
Optimizing File Names and Sizes
- File names should be descriptive and relevant. Use descriptive file names that accurately reflect the image content. For example, “blue-sky-over-mountains.jpg” is more effective than “IMG12345.jpg.”
- Include your keywords. Incorporate relevant keywords in the file name to improve SEO. Ensure the keywords apply to the image content.
- Use hyphens in the file name. Separate words with hyphens rather than underscores to make them more readable for search engines.
- Use appropriate dimensions. Resize images to the appropriate dimensions for their placement on the webpage. Avoid using overly large images that the browser will scale down.
- Compress large images. Compress images to reduce file size without compromising quality. Tools like TinyPNG, JPEGmini, or ImageOptim can help reduce file sizes efficiently.
- Program them for responsiveness. Use responsive image techniques (such as the srcset attribute) to serve the appropriate image size for different devices, enhancing performance across all screen sizes.
8. Assess your internal linking structure.
Internal linking is vital to distributing link equity across your site, improving navigation, and enhancing the user experience. These links allow users to easily navigate your site and find relevant content, extending their engagement time.
From an SEO perspective, search engines use internal links to understand your site’s hierarchical structure. Meanwhile, links guide users to additional relevant content, increasing the number of pages viewed per session and reducing bounce rates. Finally, internal links ensure that all critical pages on your site are easily discoverable by users and search engines, preventing orphaned pages and enhancing content discoverability.
Strategies for Effective Internal Linking:
- Use descriptive anchor texts that are relevant to the linked content. This helps search engines understand the context of the linked page and improves the user experience.
- Create a logical hierarchy by prioritizing important pages for interlinking. Ideally, links from the homepage and top-level pages should be put first, while supporting pages can be linked from relevant content within the site.
- Balance out link distribution and avoid linking to a single page too many times. Distribute your internal links evenly across your site to ensure that all critical pages receive adequate link equity.
- Update your content regularly to include internal links to newer, relevant pages. This keeps your internal linking structure current and maximizes the value of your content.
- Avoid overloading pages with links, as too many can overwhelm users and dilute the effectiveness of each link.
Final Thoughts
Conducting thorough on-page SEO audits is essential for enhancing your website’s performance and optimizing your SEO strategy. Here are three key takeaways to keep in mind:
- Set clear goals and gather the right tools. Before starting your audit, defining specific objectives to guide your efforts and focus on what matters most is crucial. Utilizing basic and advanced SEO tools can provide valuable insights and streamline the auditing process, making it more efficient and effective.
- Optimize key on-page features. Pay close attention to your URL structure, meta tags, content quality, heading tags, and images. Clean, descriptive URLs, well-crafted title tags and meta descriptions, high-quality content, logical heading structures, and optimized images contribute to better search engine visibility and user experience.
- Leverage internal linking. Effective internal linking helps distribute link equity, enhances site navigation, and ensures content discoverability. Use descriptive anchor texts, maintain a logical link hierarchy, and regularly update your content to keep your internal links relevant and valuable.
Don’t hesitate to contact The Ad Firm for expert guidance and support in conducting your on-page SEO audits. Our experienced team is ready to help you optimize your website and achieve your SEO goals.
