When doing an SEO Audit I run through a set of pre-defined questions. Over the past months, I have curated an Excel template to conduct an SEO audit. I use it as a checklist to document my findings and it is the basis to cluster my optimization ideas.
The template has columns for observations, tasks, and an estimated ranking impact. Ready to fill out for your client. See below:
But it’s also a cheat sheet on where to find the specific information. Sneak preview below:
The template has the following sections:
- Tech SEO
- On-page SEO
- E-E-A-T
- Off-page SEO
Which questions are addressed in the technical SEO audit?
Below is an excerpt of the question I cover in the tech SEO part of audit.
- Do you have a sitemap in robots.txt linked?
- Does the sitemap reflect the valid URLs from your site?
- Are some odd sites indexed on Google?
- Are there crawl errors?
- Do you have an easy-to-understand URL structure?
Which questions are addressed in the on-page part of the SEO audit?
Below is an excerpt of the question I cover in the on-page SEO part of audit.
- Targeted keyword: What is the search volume? Do you have sufficient domain authority to be competitive for this keyword?
- Does the article meet the search intent? (Transactional, Informational, Navigational or Commercial)
- Is it easy to find information in your article? E.g., Is the content easily scannable? Do you structure the content in headings? Do you provide a table of contents?
E-E-A-T Audit: What do you tackle?
Below is an excerpt of the questions I address in the E-E-A-T part of the audit.
- Do you have an about us page?
- Do you have about schema implemented on the about us page?
- Does the about us page showcase expertise by mentioning the background of the employees?
- Do you show the location and phone number?
What Off-page factors do you look at in the SEO audit?
Below is an excerpt of the questions I tackle in the off-page SEO part of audit.
- Does your website have backlinks?
- Does your website have backlinks to 404s?
- What authority do those backlinks have?
- Does your website have toxic backlinks?
How to use this SEO Audit template
- Download the SEO Audit template for free.
- Change the logo and style to your liking.
- Follow the template, step-by-step. For more details on each line, make sure to check out the gray area where I give you instructions.
- Save and share with your client.
- If you can, buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/corinaburri
- Otherwise, please share some love on socials.
Are you more of the Google Spreadsheet type of person? Don’t worry, got you covered. On this page I link to the Google Spreadsheet version of the SEO audit.
Do you prefer to outsource the SEO Audit work? For CHF 5400.00 I will do the work for you. Contact me on the contact page or on Linkedin.
I stumbled upon this post and found it to be a great resource. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Corina Burri,
Thank you for your help. I looked for SEO Audit templates everywhere, and most people wanted me to pay for them. You gave me a free template and helpful notes. This helped me a lot.
Thanks again, Larusan