No website owner wants to experience a sudden drop in traffic. We received a frantic call from a client whose site lost nearly 50% of its visitors overnight.
A swift SEO audit uncovered several hidden technical problems, including a simple WordPress setting that was unintentionally preventing search engines from indexing the site. After addressing these issues, their traffic and rankings fully recovered within weeks.
We encounter scenarios like this frequently, which is why we consistently perform audits on our own sites at CanadaCreate. This practice helps us identify minor issues before they escalate into significant traffic losses.
This checklist outlines the precise steps we follow. Let’s explore how to conduct a thorough SEO health check for your WordPress site.
Understanding SEO Audits: Why They Are Essential for Your Website
Consider an SEO audit as a health check for your WordPress website. Just as you would see a doctor for routine checkups, your website requires regular evaluations to ensure optimal performance in search engines.
An SEO audit is a comprehensive process that enables you to determine whether your website is effectively optimized for search engines. During the audit, we identify technical issues, content-related problems, and other elements that could be hindering your rankings.
Understanding the importance of an SEO audit is crucial: Even if you implement all the recommended technical SEO strategies, your website may still have underlying issues that hinder its performance in search engine results.
Many WordPress websites experience significant ranking improvements after resolving issues identified during an SEO audit.
The great news is that once you uncover these issues through an audit, you can implement specific enhancements to your WordPress SEO strategy that lead to tangible results. This translates to improved rankings, increased organic traffic, and ultimately, more customers for your business.
Now, let’s explore how to conduct a thorough SEO audit on your WordPress site using our effective checklist.
Steps to Conduct an SEO Audit in WordPress
There are numerous SEO tools available that can assist you in auditing your WordPress website. However, not all of them allow you to perform an audit directly within WordPress, which means you can stay on your site.
For auditing your WordPress website, we recommend the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) WordPress plugin.
This plugin is the top choice for WordPress SEO, enabling you to optimize your site for search engines without requiring any technical expertise.
The plugin provides an SEO Analysis Tool that enables you to conduct a comprehensive SEO audit of your website directly from your WordPress dashboard. It continuously monitors your site, identifies critical issues, and offers actionable recommendations to enhance your organic traffic and improve keyword rankings.
You can access the SEO Analysis Tool in the free version of AIOSEO. Additionally, the premium version includes advanced features such as a redirection manager, schema markup, local SEO capabilities, social media integration, robust sitemap tools, a robots.txt file editor, and more.
To get started, install and activate the AIOSEO plugin. For detailed instructions, refer to our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
After activating the plugin, navigate to All in One SEO » SEO Analysis in your WordPress dashboard.
Under the SEO Audit Checklist tab, you’ll find an overall site score along with a comprehensive SEO checklist.
AIOSEO will provide your site with an overall score out of 100. Don’t be concerned if your score isn’t perfect; a score of 70 or higher is an excellent starting point, and this checklist will guide you in making further improvements.
AIOSEO will evaluate your website based on various parameters and ranking signals. It will identify critical issues that may negatively impact your SEO, such as missing alt attributes for images and the absence of an SEO title. Additionally, it provides suggestions for enhancing your rankings.
AIOSEO is an excellent tool for ongoing site monitoring, ensuring you stay informed about significant SEO issues that could affect your rankings and website traffic.
Furthermore, it’s advisable to perform your own SEO audit once or twice a year to ensure that all aspects of your site are functioning as intended.
The SEO audit checklist below can also assist you in diagnosing any unexpected drops in traffic, enabling you to address the issue and restore your rankings.
With that in mind, let’s explore the SEO audit checklist for your WordPress blog.
1. Ensure Your Website is Accessible to Search Engines
When performing a WordPress SEO audit, the first step is to confirm that your website is accessible to search engines like Google and Bing.
WordPress includes a built-in option that can prevent search engines from crawling your website. If this option is activated, Google or any other search engine will not include your site in their search results.
To check this setting, navigate to Settings » Readingfrom your WordPress dashboard. Next, confirm that the ‘Search Engine Visibility’ option is unchecked.
If it is checked, simply uncheck the ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ option and click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
You can verify if your site is indexed on Google by searching for site:example.comin Google. Just substitute ‘example.com’ with your actual domain name.
If you recently launched your site or modified the setting mentioned above, it may take a few days for your pages to be indexed. Additionally, you can refer to our guide on how to expedite the indexing of new content.
2. Confirm That Your Site is Using HTTPS
The next item on your SEO audit checklist is to determine whether your website has an SSL certificate. An SSL certificate secures the connection between your user’s browser and your website server.
Google and other search engines prioritize secure websites that use HTTPS over those that still operate on HTTP.
You can check if your site is secure by looking for a padlock icon in your browser’s address bar.
If you do not have an SSL certificate, refer to our guide on how to obtain a free SSL certificate for your WordPress site and how to transition your site from HTTP to HTTPS.
3. Ensure All Versions of Your URL Redirect to the Same Site
Next, verify that both the www and non-www versions, as well as the HTTP and HTTPS versions of your URL, redirect to the same website.
For instance, if a user types in https://www.example.com, https://example.com, http://www.example.com, or http://example.com, they should all display the same website.
You can find your primary WordPress URL by navigating to Settings » General and checking the addresses in the ‘WordPress Address (URL)’ and ‘Site Address (URL)’ fields.
If different versions of your site’s URLs do not redirect to the same destination, Google may treat them as separate websites.
This can confuse Google about which URL to prioritize during indexing, potentially leading to duplicate content problems.
If you are using AIOSEO, it will automatically configure the correct canonical URL in your site header, informing Google of your preferred version and avoiding any complications.
4. Enhance Indexing with an XML Sitemap
The next step is to confirm the existence of an XML sitemap and ensure it has been submitted to search engines.
An XML sitemap assists search engine algorithms in locating and indexing your website’s pages with ease. It also enables website owners to highlight the most important pages for search engines.
While having a sitemap won’t immediately improve your search engine rankings, it significantly enhances how search engines crawl your website.
For instance, if you’re launching a new website, a sitemap will help Google or Bing quickly find new content, especially since you may not have many backlinks at the start.
You can create sitemaps using the AIOSEO WordPress plugin. Simply navigate to All in One SEO » Sitemaps in your WordPress dashboard and select the ‘General Sitemap’ tab.
Then, ensure that the ‘Enable Sitemap’ toggle is activated.
You can also preview the sitemap and utilize various options offered by the WordPress plugin to customize it. Additionally, the plugin allows you to generate video, news, and RSS sitemaps for your WordPress site.
Once your sitemap is ready, you can submit it to major search engines like Google and Bing. For further information, refer to our guide on creating a sitemap in WordPress.
5. Identify and Resolve Broken Links on Your Website
A broken link, also known as a dead link, occurs when a hyperlink directs to a page that no longer exists at its original URL. When you click on a broken link, you will encounter a 404 not found error.
Common reasons for encountering a 404 error include moving the WordPress site to a new domain, deleting the page, or relocating it. Typos can also lead to this issue.
Having numerous broken links can harm your site’s SEO. They negatively affect your keyword rankings and user experience, as both search engines and visitors will be unable to access the desired page.
This is why it is crucial to identify and fix dead links during your SEO audit.
To locate and manage broken links, you can utilize two excellent tools provided by the AIOSEO team.
First, we recommend the free Broken Link Checker plugin for identifying links that lead to non-existent pages. It scans your site for dead links and allows you to easily edit or remove them directly from your dashboard.
For links that are broken due to a change in a page’s URL, the best approach is to implement a 301 redirect. This informs search engines and browsers that the page has permanently moved.
The premium version of AIOSEO features an advanced Redirection Manager that automatically tracks 404 errors and allows you to seamlessly redirect them to the appropriate page. This is essential for preserving your SEO when you make content updates.
Explore our comprehensive guide on how to identify and repair broken links in WordPress.
6. Verify the Presence of Meta Tags
Meta tags are small snippets of HTML code that assist search engines like Google in understanding the content of a page, enabling it to rank for relevant search queries.
There are various types of meta tags, but the two most crucial ones are the title tag and the meta description. Search engines utilize this information to grasp the essence of the page’s content.
Typically, the title tag and meta description appear in search results, although Google may occasionally modify the text based on factors such as the user’s search intent.
During an SEO audit, it’s important to ensure that your blog posts and product pages include all necessary meta tags.
This is important because your title is the first element users see in search engine results, influencing their decision to click on your link.
Meta descriptions are brief texts that appear beneath your post title and URL in search engine results. They provide a summary of your article for both search engines and users.
You can easily add meta tags to any blog post or landing page using AIOSEO. Just scroll down to the ‘AIOSEO Settings’ meta box in your WordPress editor to input your title and description.
AIOSEO’s on-page SEO analysis tool, TruSEO, will notify you if any page or post lacks meta tags.
7. Verify the Presence of Internal and External Links
During your SEO audit, it’s essential to ensure that the pages you want to rank include both internal and external links.
Internal links connect to other pages within the same website, while external links direct users to other websites. Both types are vital for SEO success, yet many business owners tend to overlook their significance.
Search engines utilize various links to discover and index new pages in search results. By creating internal and external links, you enable search engine crawlers to find new content on your website, which can enhance your rankings.
Additionally, links assist your readers in navigating your website and accessing sources for statistics and other information.
Utilize the Link Assistant feature in AIOSEO Pro to identify pages that require additional internal links. It also highlights orphaned posts, which are pages lacking any internal links.
The Link Assistant offers linking recommendations, including suggested anchor text, which you can seamlessly incorporate into your content with just one click. This simplifies the link-building process significantly.
If you need assistance with adding links to your website, refer to our comprehensive guide on how to insert a link in WordPress.
8. Evaluate Your Website’s Loading Speed
Google considers your website’s loading speed as a crucial ranking factor. During your SEO audit, it’s essential to identify elements that may be hindering your website’s performance.
First, determine how quickly your website loads for visitors.
If you are using MonsterInsights, the top analytics tool for WordPress, you can access the Site Speed report directly from your WordPress admin dashboard.
After connecting Google Analytics to your WordPress site, navigate to Insights » Reports in your WordPress dashboard and select the ‘Site Speed’ tab.
You can view your site’s page load time score for both desktop and mobile devices. Additionally, the report provides various metrics that are crucial for assessing your website’s speed.
Quick Tip:If you are using a caching plugin, be sure to clear the cache before conducting a speed test to accurately measure the most recent version of your site.
As you scroll down, you’ll find that MonsterInsights provides recommendations and benchmark goals that you should strive for on your website.
With the report, you can evaluate your site and discover ways to enhance your web page loading speed. For instance, implementing a caching plugin can improve server response time, or utilizing a content delivery network (CDN) can significantly increase website speed.
For additional tips, check out our guide on how to perform a site speed test, and explore our comprehensive guide to enhancing WordPress speed and performance.
9. Ensure Your Site is Mobile-Responsive
The next aspect to examine in a WordPress SEO audit is whether your website is mobile-responsive.
Google prioritizes your site’s mobile version for indexing rather than the desktop version. To improve your rankings, it’s essential that your website is optimized for mobile devices.
To determine how mobile-friendly your website is, utilize Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Just enter your site’s URL and click the ‘Test URL’ button.
The tool will analyze your website and provide results indicating whether your site is optimized for mobile devices.
If your website is not mobile-optimized, consider changing your template to a responsive WordPress theme. Refer to our guide on how to safely change your WordPress theme without losing any data or traffic.
10. Check for Malware and Security Vulnerabilities
An important aspect of your SEO audit is to check for security vulnerabilities. If Google Safe Browsing identifies malware or unwanted software on your site, it will issue a warning to your visitors.
This can negatively impact your SEO, as users may avoid your site. Additionally, Google may lower your rankings due to the presence of malware and harmful programs.
To eliminate malware and other suspicious files from your website, you’ll need a reliable WordPress security scanner.
At CanadaCreate, we recommend Sucuri as it is the leading WordPress firewall and security service. It scans your website for malicious code, malware, spam injections, and other vulnerabilities, helping to keep your site secure.
Sucuri provides 24/7 monitoring of your website for potential threats, blocking suspicious activities, hacking attempts, DDoS attacks, and more. It also offers server-side protection.
If Google Safe Browsing marks your site as unsafe, refer to our guide on resolving the ‘this site ahead contains harmful programs’ error in WordPress.
11. Monitor Your Keyword Rankings to Identify Traffic Drops
It’s essential to monitor your keyword rankings during an SEO audit to check for any drops in traffic.
Tracking your keyword rankings allows you to understand which search terms lead visitors to your website and discover opportunities for increased traffic.
To monitor your keyword rankings, you can utilize a free tool like Google Search Console. Start by adding your WordPress site to Google Search Console.
After adding your site, log in to your Google Search Console account and navigate to the ‘Performance’ report. Scroll down to view the search queries your site ranks for.
In addition to Google Search Console, you can use an intuitive SEO tool like LowFruits. This tool is great for generating new keyword ideas and easily tracking your keyword ranking progress over time.
To monitor your keywords, simply go to the Tracker tab and click on the ‘Add new keywords to track’ dropdown. Enter your keywords along with your website’s URL, and then click the ‘Track’ button to finish.
LowFruits will retrieve your keyword rankings, showing you the current position, search volume, associated URLs, and additional details.
Over time, you will be able to observe changes in your keyword rankings, allowing you to track both your initial and top rankings.
If you notice a decline in your rankings, refer to our guide on optimizing blog posts for SEO to help restore your traffic and improve your rankings.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Here are answers to some of the most common questions regarding conducting an SEO audit in WordPress, which may help clarify any lingering uncertainties.
1. What is the primary objective of a WordPress SEO audit?
The primary objective of an SEO audit is to assess the overall health of your website. It identifies hidden technical issues, content-related problems, and other elements that may negatively impact your search engine rankings and hinder your traffic growth.
2. How frequently should you conduct an SEO audit on your website?
Conducting a thorough SEO audit at least once or twice a year is essential to ensure your website is functioning optimally. Additionally, if you experience a sudden or unexpected decline in traffic, it’s important to perform an audit to identify and resolve the issue.
What is considered a good SEO score for a WordPress site?
When using tools like All in One SEO (AIOSEO), a score of 70 or higher is typically regarded as good. This suggests that your website is effectively optimized for search engines, although there may still be opportunities for enhancement.
Is it possible to conduct an SEO audit for free?
Absolutely, you can carry out a basic SEO audit at no cost. Tools such as Google Search Console offer valuable insights into your site’s performance. Furthermore, you can utilize the free version of a plugin like AIOSEO to execute an SEO audit checklist directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Additional Resources for Enhancing WordPress SEO
Now that you understand how to audit your site, you can further enhance your search engine rankings with these informative guides:
- The Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Approach
- How to Conduct Keyword Research for Your WordPress Blog
- How to Analyze Website Traffic for Any Site
- How to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO Like a Professional
- Essential Guide to Image SEO: Enhance Your Images for Better Search Engine Visibility
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