How to Perform a Website Audit to Boost SEO and Maximize Conversions

Many businesses have impressive and visually appealing websites, but hidden issues—like slow load times or outdated content—can have multiple negative impacts, including quietly driving away potential customers and harming search engine rankings. 

Thankfully, these website issues can be identified through regular website audits.

A comprehensive website audit is not just good practice; it's a critical step in uncovering issues that may hinder your site's performance and success. An effective website audit helps enhance SEO, boost user experience, and maximize conversions by identifying areas for improvement, from technical errors to content gaps. 

In this detailed guide, we’ll walk through different types of audits and actionable steps you can take to improve both your search engine rankings and overall business results.

Big Ideas

• Uncover Hidden Issues: Identify technical, SEO, and content-related bottlenecks affecting your site’s performance.
• Enhance User Experience: Ensure smooth navigation, mobile optimization, and engaging design to retain visitors.
• Maximize Conversions: Address conversion barriers by refining user flow and creating persuasive calls to action (CTAs).

What Is a Website Audit?

A website audit is a structured evaluation of various aspects of your website, from technical infrastructure and SEO to user experience and content effectiveness. The goal of a website audit is to uncover performance issues, content gaps, and growth opportunities. Regular audits ensure your website stays relevant and competitive while aligning with search engine algorithms and industry best practices.

How Strong Is Your Website?

In today’s hyper-competitive digital environment, a high-performing website is more than a nice-to-have; it’s essential for business growth. A website audit provides the insight you need to assess where your site excels and where it falls short. It’s not just about traffic—it’s about converting visitors into loyal customers by improving usability, SEO, and technical performance.

A Website Audit in Action

Picture this: during your website audit, you discover that your site takes four seconds to load—double the recommended benchmark of two seconds. This seemingly slight delay creates a massive ripple effect, leading to higher bounce rates, frustrated visitors, and lost conversion opportunities. 

To address this, you compress oversized images, streamline JavaScript files, and implement caching strategies to reduce load times. The results are immediate and measurable. Your pages load swiftly, keeping users engaged, boosting SEO rankings, and driving more conversions as visitors stay longer and are more likely to complete actions like purchases or sign-ups.

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Types of Website Audits

Multiple types of website audits are essential to gaining a complete 360-degree view of your site’s performance.  Let’s explore six core website audits and the role each plays in optimizing your online presence.

1. Competitive Website Audit

A competitive website audit is a powerful way to benchmark your site against competitors, giving insight into where your competitors excel and where you can gain an edge. This type of  audit focuses on the following:

• SEO metrics 
• Content strategy 
• Backlink profiles
• User experience (UX) 
• Digital marketing efforts

A competitive website audit allows you to develop a strategic plan to stand out in your niche. By understanding competitor strengths and weaknesses, you can align your efforts to outperform rivals and capture market share.

Key Areas to Focus on During a Competitive Website Audit: 

1. Keyword Analysis and Ranking Insights
2. Backlink Profiles and Domain Authority
3. Content Strategy and Engagement Metrics
4. Website Design, UX, and Conversion Optimization
5. Social Media and Brand Presence Audit
6. Competitor Digital Advertising Strategies

2. SEO Backlink Audit

Backlinks remain a cornerstone of any successful SEO strategy, acting as trust signals that tell search engines your content is authoritative and relevant. However, not all backlinks are beneficial; some may harm your site’s performance if they come from low-quality or spammy sources. An SEO backlink audit ensures your backlink profile is extensive but also healthy, relevant, and optimized to improve your search engine rankings.

Key Areas to Focus on During an SEO Backlink Audit:

1. Backlink Profile Analysis
2. Quality of Backlinks Assessment
3. Toxic Links Identification and Removal
4. Anchor Text Optimization
5. Link Building Strategy: Acquiring High-Authority Backlinks

3. Lead Conversion Optimization Audit

A lead conversion optimization audit evaluates the critical elements on your website that impact whether visitors take desired actions, such as signing up for newsletters, filling out contact forms, or completing purchases. Even if your website attracts high traffic volumes, poor conversion rates mean you’re not maximizing your business potential. 

This audit helps uncover friction points in the customer journey, from confusing CTAs to inefficient forms and provides actionable insights to streamline the user experience. The goal is to improve conversion rates by making it easier and more compelling for users to engage with your brand and complete transactions.

Why Lead Conversion Optimization Matters

• Maximize ROI: Improving conversion rates ensures you get the most value from your marketing efforts and website traffic.
• Reduce Cart Abandonment: Identifying bottlenecks in the checkout process helps recover lost sales.
• Build Customer Trust: Small changes (like adding security badges or testimonials) can boost credibility and significantly impact conversion rates.
• Improve User Experience: A frictionless journey keeps users engaged and flowing through the sales funnel, increasing the likelihood of conversions.

Key Areas to Focus on During a Conversion Optimization Audit:

1. CTA (Calls to action) Evaluation and Optimization
2. Forms Simplification
3. Checkout Processes Optimization to Reduce Abandonment
4. User Behavior Analysis to Identify Friction Points
5. Page Load Speeds Testing and Improvement for Higher Conversions
6. Behavioral Triggers Analysis to Leverage and Drive Engagement

4. Social Media Audit

A social media audit assesses how effectively your brand’s social media channels contribute to your overall marketing strategy. This type of website audit focuses on engagement, audience behavior, and traffic generation. Social platforms are essential for building brand awareness and driving traffic and conversions on your website. This audit ensures your social efforts are aligned with your business objectives, uncovering opportunities to optimize your content, engagement strategies, and CTAs for better results.

Key Areas to Focus on During a Social Media Audit:

1. Branding and Consistency Across Platforms
2. Engagement Metrics and Audience Behavior Analysis
3. Traffic Generation and Conversions from Social Channels Evaluation
4. Social CTA Optimization to Increase Website Visits
5. Platform-Specific Performance Assessment and Strategy Adjustment
6. Competitor Benchmarking and Influencer Partnerships

5. SEO Website Audit

An SEO website audit is a deep dive into your site’s technical and on-page SEO elements, designed to identify obstacles that prevent your website from ranking higher in search engines. This type of audit ensures your site aligns with search engine algorithms and best practices, so you can increase your organic visibility, drive traffic, and improve overall performance. It addresses critical issues ranging from content relevance to page speed and mobile optimization, which all contribute to search rankings and user experience.

Key Areas to Cover in an SEO Website Audit:

1. Metadata and On-Page Elements Optimization
2. Duplicate Content and Thin Pages Identification and Resolution
3. Page Speed and Site Performance Improvement
4. Mobile-Friendliness and Responsive Design Verification
5. Site Structure and Internal Linking Optimization
6. Technical SEO Issues Monitoring and Resolving
7. Keyword Optimization and Content Alignment

6. Data Privacy Audit

A data privacy audit is a critical process for ensuring your organization complies with evolving privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and others like LGPD (Brazil) or PIPEDA (Canada). Beyond regulatory compliance, maintaining high standards for data privacy demonstrates respect for user rights, builds trust with customers, and mitigates the risks of fines, reputational damage, and data breaches. This audit ensures that your data practices align with legal requirements and industry best practices for responsible data handling.

Key Areas to Address in a Data Privacy Audit

1. Privacy Policies Assessment and Updates
2. Cookie Consent Management Implementation
3. Secure Data Handling and Encryption Practices Verification
4. Confirmation of User Data Collection Aligning with Legal Requirements
5. Data Subject Rights and Requests Management
6. Vendor and Third-Party Compliance Monitoring
7. Compliance Documentation and Demonstration

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The Benefits of a Comprehensive Website Audit

A comprehensive website audit offers many insights, allowing businesses to identify and resolve issues impacting short-term performance and long-term growth. Systematically evaluating your website's technical, SEO, UX, and content aspects can uncover hidden bottlenecks, enhance user satisfaction, and maximize revenue potential. 

Of course, as with many aspects of maintaining a business, a website audit is not just a one-time activity; it is an essential, ongoing process that keeps your site competitive and future-proof. Below are the key benefits your business will gain from conducting a thorough website audit.

1. Benchmark Against Competitors

A website audit allows you to turn your competitors into your own assets in two ways. First, a website audit helps you identify where competitors outperform you. You can take that information, discover how they’re outperforming you, and then make changes with inspiration from their already successful strategies. 

Secondly, a website audit uncovers gaps in your industry among your competitors, revealing opportunities to stay ahead. You can refine your approach and differentiate your brand in the market by analyzing competitor keywords, content strategies, and UX elements.

2. Improve SEO and Drive Organic Traffic

Fixing technical SEO errors such as broken links, missing metadata, and duplicate content boosts search engine visibility. Optimizing content with targeted keywords further improves organic rankings, ultimately driving high-quality traffic to your site.

3. Boost Conversions

Conversions are what keep businesses operating, and anything getting in the way of them needs to be identified and fixed immediately. A website audit uncovers UX issues and allows you to optimize calls to action (CTAs)  for a smoother customer journey, which is critical for improving user engagement and conversion rates. A well-structured site with clear CTAs helps turn more visitors into customers, maximizing revenue opportunities.

4. Enhance Performance and Speed

Page speed is critical for both user experience and SEO rankings. A website audit identifies elements slowing down your site—such as unoptimized images or excess code—allowing you to take action to improve load times and reduce bounce rates. Optimizing your website’s performance and speed is essential for increasing visitor retention.

5. Align Short-Term Fixes with Long-Term Growth

A website audit uncovers immediate issues and strategic improvements that contribute to sustained growth. By proactively resolving problems, optimizing for future trends, and ensuring SEO best practices, your website stays competitive and ready to scale.

These are just a few benefits of running a comprehensive website audit! Now let’s get into how a website audit is actually conducted. 

How to Conduct a Website Audit

Conducting a comprehensive website audit requires a structured approach to identify technical, SEO, UX, and content issues. At Fratzke, we’ve created a six-step process for conducting a website audit and made this guide to ensure your audit delivers actionable insights and sets the foundation for improved performance.

1. Use a Website Audit Tool

Kick off your website audit by running your website through powerful tools like Semrush, Screaming Frog, or Google Search Console. These tools scan your site for SEO, structure, and performance issues.

• Semrush provides a detailed breakdown of SEO issues, toxic backlinks, and keyword opportunities.
• Screaming Frog crawls your site to detect broken links, duplicate content, and missing metadata.
• Google Search Console offers insights into indexing issues, keyword performance, and search visibility.

2. Identify and Fix Technical Errors

Next, you need to get eyes on your technical issues, which negatively impact both SEO rankings and user experience. Detect and resolve the errors outlined below to ensure your site runs smoothly.

• Fix Broken Links and 404 Errors: Identify and redirect dead links to relevant pages using 301 redirects.
• Resolve Server Response Issues: Monitor for downtime or server delays that could disrupt the user experience.
• Ensure HTTPS Implementation: Check for valid SSL certificates to improve security and SEO rankings.
• Optimize XML Sitemaps and Robots.txt Files: Ensure search engines can efficiently crawl and index your pages.

3. Analyze On-Page SEO and Optimize Key Elements

SEO rules the visibility of every website on the Internet, including yours! SEO is critical for driving organic traffic, so now is the time during the website audit  to ensure your site meets on-page SEO best practices. Take the actions below to optimize SEO on your website.

• Optimize Meta Tags and Descriptions: Ensure each page has unique, keyword-rich title tags and meta descriptions.
• Use Header Tags Strategically (H1, H2, H3): Structure content with appropriate headers for readability and SEO.
• Fix Duplicate Content Issues: Use canonical tags or consolidate pages to avoid search engine penalties.
• Add Alt Text to Images: Include relevant keywords in image alt text to improve accessibility and SEO.

4. Assess Design and User Experience (UX)

Now, you need to evaluate how well your site delivers a seamless, enjoyable user experience on desktop and mobile devices. This part of your website audit analyzes how your visitor feels and interacts with your website. You want to make sure that the visitor has a frictionless experience so they get where they need to be: changing from a visitor to an actual customer. Take a look at our recommendations of actions to take to assess your website’s design and usability. 

• Test for Mobile-Friendliness: Use Google Lighthouse to ensure a responsive design across devices.
• Evaluate Site Navigation and Structure: Ensure users can easily find what they need with clear menus and logical page hierarchies.
• Check Page Load Speeds: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify slow-loading pages and improve performance.
• Test Forms and CTAs: Ensure that forms, buttons, and calls to action function properly and are easy to interact with.

5. Evaluate Content Quality and Alignment with User Intent

For this step in your website audit, you need to take a look at the content on your website. Quality content plays a crucial role in driving traffic and conversions. Your audit should ensure that all content aligns with user intent, provides value, and is up-to-date.

• Review for Relevance and Freshness: Identify outdated or underperforming content and update it with new information and insights.
• Align Content with Search Intent: Ensure pages match what users seek (informational, transactional, or navigational).
• Check Readability: Use tools like Hemingway or Grammarly to ensure clear, concise, and error-free content.
• Identify Content Gaps: Look for opportunities to create new content based on keyword research or competitor analysis.

6. Compile a Comprehensive Audit Report with Actionable Recommendations

Once you’ve gathered your findings, the final step is to organize them into a comprehensive audit report. This report should provide:

• A Summary of Key Findings: Highlight the most critical issues affecting your site’s performance.
• Prioritized Recommendations: List action items in order of importance, focusing first on the issues with the highest impact.
• Short-Term and Long-Term Solutions: Provide immediate fixes and strategic improvements that align with business goals.
• Visuals and Metrics: Include charts, screenshots, and metrics to illustrate key points and make the report more actionable.
• Next Steps: Outline the next steps for implementing recommendations and setting up a follow-up audit schedule.

Using your website audit report, you now need to conduct an assessment of your findings. We’re going to walk you through key questions to ask so you can transform your findings into action items and take steps to optimize your website. 

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Assessments to Make When Auditing Your Website

A comprehensive website audit involves a detailed evaluation of performance, SEO, conversion rates, and technical health. These assessments reveal quick fixes and strategic improvements to optimize your website for user experience, search engines, and business goals. Below are the key areas to focus on during your audit and guiding questions to ensure your site performs at its best.

1. Website Performance Assessment

Website performance directly impacts user experience and search engine rankings. A fast, intuitive, well-structured website ensures visitors stay engaged and complete desired actions. Using the findings from your website audit, ask yourself the following questions for a deeper assessment.

Is your website optimized for maximum usability?

• Intuitive Navigation: Is the site structure logical and easy to explore, allowing users to find critical information within a few clicks?
• Effective Use of CTAs: Are calls to action strategically placed in visible areas to encourage engagement (e.g., at the top of the homepage or the end of blog posts)?
• Clear Visual Hierarchy: Are essential elements (such as CTAs or headlines) emphasized through color, size, or positioning, making them easy to notice?
• Consistent Design: Does the site design align with your brand identity, ensuring a cohesive look and feel across all pages?
• Accessibility Compliance: Does the website follow WCAG guidelines to accommodate users with disabilities (e.g., alt text for images, contrast ratios, keyboard navigation)?

How is your website’s overall speed?

• Load Time Across Devices: Does your site load within 2-3 seconds on both desktop and mobile?
• Optimize Media Files: Are large images and videos compressed to reduce load time without sacrificing quality?
• Efficient Code Management: Are CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files optimized and minified?
• Use of Caching and CDNs: Is browser caching enabled to store frequently accessed data? Are content delivery networks (CDNs) used to serve content faster to global users?

2. SEO Assessment

A strong SEO strategy ensures your site ranks well on search engines, attracting relevant visitors who are more likely to engage with your content and convert. Here are some questions you can ask to assess your SEO strategy.

Is your website content high quality?

• Value-Driven Content: Does the content address user needs, answer critical questions, or solve specific problems?
• Fresh and Updated Content: Is outdated content regularly refreshed to maintain relevance and ensure accuracy?
• Engagement Metrics: Are users spending time on your pages, or are they quickly bouncing? What content formats (blogs, videos, infographics, etc.) generate the most engagement?
• Content Diversity: Are different types of content used to engage audiences at various customer journey stages?

Is your website search engine optimized?

• Natural Keyword Placement: Are keywords integrated seamlessly into headings, body text, and image alt attributes without keyword stuffing?
• Metadata Optimization: Do meta titles and descriptions include primary keywords and encourage clicks by matching search intent?
• Internal Linking Strategy: Are internal links used to connect related content, improve navigation, and distribute SEO value across pages?
• Backlink Profile: Are high-quality backlinks from authoritative sources driving traffic and improving your domain authority?

3. Conversion Rate Assessment

A website must effectively convert visitors into leads or customers. Even with solid SEO and high traffic, conversions could still be low due to visitor confusion or other issues on your website. Take the findings from your website audit and assess how well your site guides users through the sales funnel and addresses potential drop-offs. To find areas for improvement, ask the following questions.

• CTA Effectiveness: Are your calls to action clear, compelling, and positioned where users are most likely to engage (e.g., product pages or landing pages)?
• Conversion Funnel Drop-Offs: Are there specific points where users leave without completing the desired action (e.g., form abandonment, checkout exit)?
• A/B Testing: Have you tested variations of CTAs, landing pages, or forms to determine which versions perform better?
• Trust Signals: Are security badges, testimonials, product reviews, and guarantees displayed to reassure users?
• Streamlined Forms: Are your forms short and easy to complete, only asking for essential information to reduce friction?

4. Technical Assessment

This last assessment is substantial and takes a look at all of the technical elements on your website working behind the scenes, which have significant impacts on the user experience and SEO. The technical health of your website ensures it loads efficiently, works across devices, and is optimized for search engines. We’ve compiled a list of questions you can ask during a technical assessment of your website. 

Is your website design responsive?

• Mobile-Friendly Design: Does the site render correctly on smartphones, tablets, and desktops?
• Tap-Friendly CTAs: Are buttons large enough and well-spaced for effortless tapping on mobile devices?
• Consistent Performance Across Browsers: Has the site been tested for compatibility across all major browsers (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Safari)?

Is your website error message-free?

• 404 Errors and Broken Links: Are there any dead links that frustrate users or harm SEO?
• Server Errors (5XX): Are server-side errors promptly identified and resolved to prevent downtime?
• Error Handling: Do custom 404 pages offer helpful suggestions and navigation options to retain users?

Are your website URLs optimized?

• Clean, Descriptive URLs: Do URLs accurately reflect the content (e.g., /about-us instead of /page123)?
• Keyword Use in URLs: Are relevant keywords included in the URL paths where appropriate?
• Lowercase URLs: Are all URLs in lowercase to avoid duplication or confusion?

Does your website have too much Flash or JavaScript?

• Flash-Free Design: Have outdated technologies (like Flash) been removed, given they harm SEO and are not supported on many platforms?
• JavaScript Optimization: Are JavaScript files minimized and loaded efficiently to improve performance?
• Script Placement: Are non-essential scripts loaded asynchronously to avoid blocking page rendering?

Is your site structure optimized for search engines?

• Logical Hierarchy: Does the site follow a clear structure, with parent and child pages organized logically?
• Breadcrumb Navigation: Are breadcrumbs enabled to enhance user navigation and help search engines understand site hierarchy?
• Categories and Tags: Are blog posts and products categorized effectively to improve discoverability and SEO?

Are you defining how search engines crawled and indexed your web pages?

Robots Files or Tags

• Robots.txt Configuration: Does the robots.txt file correctly guide search engines on which pages to crawl and index?
• Meta Robot Tags: Are meta robot tags used appropriately to prevent indexing of irrelevant or duplicate pages?

Public and XML Sitemaps

• XML Sitemap Submission: Has your XML sitemap been submitted to Google Search Console to assist with crawling?
• Sitemap Completeness: Does the sitemap include all essential pages that should be indexed?
• Public HTML Sitemap: Is a public HTML sitemap available to enhance user navigation and provide additional SEO value?

Are you defining the canonicalization of content?

• Canonical Tags: Are canonical tags adequately implemented to prevent duplicate content from harming SEO?
• Consistent Canonicalization: Do all page versions (e.g., with and without "www") point to the preferred version?
• Cross-Domain Canonicals: Are cross-domain canonical tags configured to pass SEO value between domains if needed?

Wrapping Up Your Website Audit

A website audit is not a one-time task but an ongoing commitment to excellence. The digital landscape evolves rapidly, with search engine algorithms, user expectations, and technologies constantly shifting. Regular website audits allow you to stay ahead by identifying and resolving technical issues, fine-tuning your SEO strategy, and refining user experience. You build a strong foundation for long-term growth by continuously optimizing your site, ensuring your website remains competitive, efficient, and ready to convert visitors into loyal customers.