How to Perform a Website SEO Audit in 2025

SEO audits are the backbone of keeping your website competitive. Today, with search engines smarter than ever and users pickier about what they click, an audit is your roadmap to staying relevant. Knowing how to conduct a SEO audit is about digging into what’s working, what’s broken, and what’s holding you back. 

A proper SEO audit includes several key areas: 

• technical performance (like how fast your site loads), 

• on-page elements (think keywords and meta tags), 

• content quality (is it engaging and useful?), 

• backlinks (who’s linking to you and why), 

• user experience (how easy is it to navigate?), 

• analytics (what’s the data telling you?). 

It also covers newer priorities like AI-driven search and voice query optimization. 

Done right, an audit shows you exactly where to focus to boost rankings, traffic, and conversions. Let’s break down how to do a website audit step by step.

Set Clear Audit Objectives

To guide how to perform a website audit, you first need to set clear objectives. Without a goal, an SEO audit is just a fishing expedition—lots of effort, no catch. Are you trying to climb higher in Google rankings? Drive more clicks to your product pages? Maybe you want to fix a drop in traffic or make your site friendlier for mobile users. Each goal shapes what you’ll prioritize. 

For example, if conversions are your focus, you’ll spend more time on user experience and call-to-action buttons. If rankings are the issue, you’ll dig into keywords and backlinks. Write down one or two specific aims before you start. This keeps you grounded and stops you from drowning in data. Tools like Semrush or Ahrefs can even suggest focus areas based on your site’s performance, but don’t let them dictate everything—your business needs come first.

Crawl the Website

The next step of how to conduct a technical SEO site audit is crawling the website. This is where you get a bird’s-eye view of your site’s health. A crawler is like a digital spider that scurries through every page, link, and file, spotting issues humans might miss. Today’s crawling tools are faster and smarter, with AI helping to flag things like broken links, duplicate pages, or weird redirects. 

Tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb are great for this—they map out your entire site and highlight structural problems. For instance, you might find a blog post buried five clicks deep that no one’s seeing, or a 404 error scaring off visitors. Crawling also shows you how search engines like Google see your site, which is critical since their bots decide your rankings. Spend time here to understand your site’s layout—it’s the foundation for everything else.

Analyze On-Page SEO Elements

Now, let’s talk about on-page SEO elements. These are the nuts and bolts of each page: title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and keywords. A title tag isn’t just about cramming keywords—it needs to be clear, clickable, and under 60 characters. Meta descriptions should sell the page in 160 characters or less, like a movie trailer. Headers (H1, H2, etc.) break up content so it’s easy to scan, and keywords need to feel natural, not stuffed in like a Thanksgiving turkey. AI tools like SurferSEO can analyze top-ranking pages and suggest tweaks, but don’t blindly follow them. Check every page manually if you can—look for outdated keywords, missing alt text on images, or titles that don’t match what the page is about. Small fixes here can make a big difference.

Evaluate Technical SEO

Technical SEO comes next, and it’s the engine room of your site. Understanding how to perform a technical SEO audit is key to getting this right. This includes:

• Site speed. It’s non-negotiable—users expect pages to load in under two seconds, and Google penalizes slowpokes. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can pinpoint what’s dragging you down, like bloated images or clunky code. 

• Mobile-friendliness. It’s just as critical, with most traffic coming from phones. Test how your site looks on different devices—buttons too tiny to tap or text that’s unreadable will tank your rankings.

• Secure connections. HTTPS is a must for security. 

• Structured data (like schema markup) helps search engines understand your content better, boosting your chances for rich snippets.

Technical SEO also means checking for Core Web Vitals, Google’s way of measuring user experience. If your site fails these, you’re starting the race a lap behind.

Assess Content Quality

Content quality is where many sites shine or stumble. Great content pulls people in and keeps them there. It’s not enough to churn out 500-word blog posts stuffed with keywords—search engines reward depth, originality, and relevance. Start by checking if your content answers what users are asking. Tools like AnswerThePublic can show you real questions people type into Google. 

Look at your top pages—are they thin or outdated? Do they match what your audience cares about? AI-generated content is everywhere now, but Google’s getting better at sniffing out low-effort stuff. Make sure your pages offer something unique, whether it’s a fresh angle, data no one else has, or a story that hooks readers. 

Also, check for duplicate content—two pages saying the same thing confuse search engines and dilute your rankings. If you spot weak spots, flag them for a rewrite or consolidation.

Examine Backlink Profile

Your backlink profile is another big piece of the puzzle. Backlinks are like votes of confidence from other sites, but not all votes are equal. Quality trumps quantity—100 spammy links from shady directories hurt more than help. Use tools like Moz or Ahrefs to see who’s linking to you. Are they reputable sites in your industry? Do the links make sense, or are they random? 

You’ll also want to check anchor text—the clickable words in links. If they’re all exact-match keywords, it looks unnatural and could trigger a penalty. Internal links matter too—make sure your pages connect logically so users and search engines can navigate easily. 

If you find toxic links, disavow them through Google Search Console, but be careful—disavowing good links is like burning money. This step takes time, but a clean, strong backlink profile is worth it.

Check User Experience (UX)

User experience, or UX, is a bigger deal than ever in 2025. Search engines track how people interact with your site—do they bounce right away or stick around? UX covers everything from how intuitive your navigation is to how pretty your design looks. 

Start with the basics: Is your menu clear? Can users find what they need in two clicks or less? Test your site on different devices to catch glitches, like buttons that don’t work on mobile. 

Visuals matter too—cluttered layouts or eye-searing colors drive people away. Tools like Hotjar can show you heatmaps of where users click, helping you spot dead zones. 

Google’s also watching metrics like dwell time (how long someone stays) and scroll depth (how far they read). If your UX is clunky, even great content won’t save you. Fix the flow, and you’ll see better engagement.

Review Local SEO (if applicable)

If your business targets a local audience, local SEO needs attention. This means auditing your Google Business Profile, local citations, and geo-targeted content. Local search is hyper-competitive—people want results tailored to their city or even their neighborhood. So this is also a part of the story called “How to conduct an SEO audit”.

Check your Google Business Profile—is it complete with photos, hours, and reviews? Inconsistent info (like different phone numbers across directories) confuses Google and users. 

Tools like BrightLocal can scan citations to ensure your name, address, and phone number are consistent everywhere. If you’ve got location-specific pages, make sure they’re optimized with local keywords and relevant info, not just cookie-cutter text. A strong local presence can dominate nearby searches, so don’t skip this if it applies.

Monitor Analytics and Performance Metrics

Analytics and performance metrics are your reality check. Without data, you’re guessing what’s wrong. Tools like Google Analytics 4 and Search Console give you a firehose of info—traffic sources, bounce rates, conversion paths, and more. 

Start with the basics: Which pages get the most visits? Where are people dropping off? Look at search queries in Search Console to see what terms bring clicks and whether they match your goals. If you’re ranking for irrelevant keywords, that’s a red flag. 

Check goal completions too—are people signing up, buying, or just browsing? Newer platforms even integrate AI to spot trends, like a sudden spike in mobile traffic or a dip in clicks from a specific region. The key is to tie metrics back to your objectives from step one. Data’s only useful if it leads to action.

Identify AI and Voice Search Optimization

AI and voice search optimization are non-negotiable. With devices like smart speakers and AI assistants everywhere, people search differently—less typing, more talking. Voice queries are longer and more conversational, like “What’s the best coffee shop near me open now?” Optimize for these by including natural, question-based phrases in your content. 

Tools like Frase can help identify what people ask. AI search is also shifting things—Google’s algorithms lean on natural language processing to understand context, not just keywords. Check if your content answers questions directly and clearly, ideally in short paragraphs or bullet points. 

Schema markup helps here too, making it easier for AI to pull your info into featured snippets or voice results. Ignore this, and you’re invisible to a growing chunk of users.

Document Findings and Prioritize Actions

Finally, document your findings and prioritize actions. An audit’s only as good as the plan it sparks. Pull everything together into a clear report—list every issue, from broken links to weak content, and rank them by impact. A slow homepage might be urgent; a missing alt tag on a minor page can wait. 

Use spreadsheets or tools like Trello to organize tasks and assign deadlines. For each issue, note the fix and the expected outcome—like “Update meta descriptions to boost click-through rates by 10%.” AI-powered audit tools can even suggest priorities, but don’t outsource your brain. Think about your resources—time, budget, team—and focus on what moves the needle most. This roadmap turns your audit from a data dump into a game plan.

By following these steps, you’re not just checking boxes—you’re building a stronger, smarter website that’s ready for challenges. Each piece, from crawling to content to UX, fits together to make your site more visible, more engaging, and more effective. Stay thorough, stay focused, and you’ll see results.