An SEO audit is the single most valuable thing you can do for your website's search performance. It reveals exactly what's working, what's broken, and where the biggest opportunities lie. Yet most Australian businesses have never done one - or did one three years ago and never followed up.
This guide walks you through a complete SEO audit, step by step, using the same framework our technical SEO team uses for client audits. No fluff, no theory - just actionable checks you can run today.
Phase 1: Technical SEO Audit
Start with the foundation. If Google can't crawl and index your site properly, nothing else matters.
Crawlability Checks
- ✅ Google Search Console access - if you don't have it set up, do it now. It's free and essential.
- ✅ XML sitemap - is it submitted? Does it include all important pages? Are there errors?
- ✅ Robots.txt - are you accidentally blocking important pages?
- ✅ Crawl errors - check Search Console's "Pages" report for 404s, server errors, and redirect issues
- ✅ Crawl budget - for large sites (500+ pages), check the "Crawl Stats" report for anomalies
Indexation Checks
- ✅ Indexed page count - search
site:yourdomain.com.auin Google. Does the count match your expectations? - ✅ Noindex tags - are any important pages accidentally set to noindex?
- ✅ Canonical tags - does every page have a self-referencing canonical? Are there conflicts?
- ✅ Duplicate content - are multiple URLs serving the same content?
Site Speed & Core Web Vitals
- ✅ PageSpeed Insights score - test your homepage, top service pages, and blog posts on both mobile and desktop
- ✅ LCP under 2.5s - is the largest content element loading quickly?
- ✅ INP under 200ms - is the page responsive to user interactions?
- ✅ CLS under 0.1 - are elements shifting during page load?
- ✅ Image optimisation - are images in WebP format with proper dimensions?
Phase 2: On-Page SEO Audit
Now check whether your pages are properly optimised for their target keywords.
Meta Data
- ✅ Title tags - unique, under 60 characters, include primary keyword
- ✅ Meta descriptions - unique, 150-160 characters, include CTA and keyword
- ✅ H1 tags - one per page, includes primary keyword, matches search intent
- ✅ Header hierarchy - logical H2→H3→H4 structure, no skipped levels
Content Quality
- ✅ Word count - service pages: 1,500-2,500 words; blog posts: 2,000-3,500 words
- ✅ Keyword density - primary keyword appears 3-5 times per 1,000 words naturally
- ✅ LSI keywords - related terms and synonyms used throughout
- ✅ E-E-A-T signals - author bios, credentials, citations, first-hand experience
- ✅ Freshness - is content dated and recently updated?
Internal Linking
- ✅ Contextual links - 3-5 internal links per page to related content
- ✅ Anchor text - descriptive, keyword-rich (not "click here")
- ✅ Link equity distribution - are your most important pages receiving the most internal links?
- ✅ Orphan pages - are any pages unreachable via internal links?
Phase 3: Off-Page & Backlink Audit
Your backlink profile is one of Google's strongest ranking signals.
- ✅ Total backlinks - how many referring domains link to your site?
- ✅ Link quality - are links from relevant, authoritative Australian sites?
- ✅ Toxic links - are there spammy or irrelevant links that need disavowing?
- ✅ Anchor text distribution - is it natural or over-optimised?
- ✅ Competitor gap - which sites link to competitors but not you?
Phase 4: Local SEO Audit (for Australian Businesses)
If you serve local customers, local SEO is critical.
- ✅ Google Business Profile - claimed, verified, fully completed with photos, hours, and services
- ✅ NAP consistency - Name, Address, Phone identical across all directories
- ✅ Local citations - listed on Yellow Pages, True Local, Yelp Australia, and industry directories
- ✅ Reviews - actively generating Google reviews with responses to all reviews
- ✅ Local schema - LocalBusiness structured data with correct address and service area
Phase 5: Competitive Analysis
- ✅ Keyword gaps - which keywords do competitors rank for that you don't?
- ✅ Content gaps - what topics have competitors covered that you haven't?
- ✅ Backlink gaps - which sites link to competitors but not you?
- ✅ SERP features - are competitors winning featured snippets, FAQs, or other rich results?
Prioritising Your Audit Findings
After completing the audit, categorise findings by impact and effort:
- Quick wins - high impact, low effort (fix broken links, update meta tags, submit sitemap)
- Strategic projects - high impact, high effort (site speed overhaul, content creation, link building)
- Maintenance tasks - low impact, low effort (update copyright year, fix minor schema errors)
- Deprioritise - low impact, high effort (redesigning low-traffic pages)
How Often Should You Audit?
Full audits: quarterly. Quick technical checks: monthly. Search Console monitoring: weekly. After any major site change (redesign, migration, new CMS): immediately.
Want a professional SEO audit without the guesswork? Our SEO agency provides comprehensive audits with prioritised action plans. Book your free SEO audit - we'll show you exactly what's holding your rankings back.
