Not seeing the search traffic or conversions you expected, despite optimizing pages and publishing content? You might need an SEO audit.
Think of it as a health check for your website. Just like a doctor looks for issues you can't see, an SEO audit uncovers hidden technical problems (like slow load times or broken links) and content gaps (like missing meta tags or weak keyword targeting) that could be holding your site back.
An audit doesn't just identify problems, it gives you a roadmap to fix them and improve your rankings.
In this guide, we'll cover the different types of SEO audits, their benefits, and the best tools for the job.
Let's dive in.
An SEO audit service thoroughly evaluates your website's technical aspects, content, and backlinks to identify issues that could potentially prevent it from ranking at the top of search engines.
Some of the areas an SEO auditing service can identify problems with include:
In addition to identifying issues with different SEO elements, an SEO auditing service can also make recommendations to help you improve your website. These recommendations are broken down into different SEO categories and listed in a detailed report.
The three SEO elements that we mentioned in the previous section (on and off-page SEO, technical SEO) refer to the content on your site, the perception of your site by search engines and users, and your site's performance in terms of speed and usability. A technical SEO audit service can provide information about all of these SEO perspectives or just the ones that you choose.
This initial phase focuses on how search engines access and interpret your website. A crawl and indexing analysis identifies issues that might prevent important pages from being discovered or indexed.
Key elements analyzed:
A strong technical foundation ensures search engines can access and understand your site efficiently. This review checks site performance, mobile usability, and technical best practices.
What's typically assessed:
This step evaluates individual page elements to ensure each page is properly optimized for search engines and users.
Focus areas include:
Off-page SEO is a major ranking factor. This audit segment analyzes your backlink profile to assess the authority and trustworthiness of your domain.
Common areas of analysis:
Content and UX go hand-in-hand. This step evaluates whether your content is high-quality, informative, and aligned with user intent—while also ensuring the site is intuitive and easy to navigate.
Items reviewed:
For businesses targeting local audiences, local SEO elements are critical. This part of the audit ensures your business is easily discoverable in local search results.
Key audit components:
The final step is documentation and planning. A detailed report compiles the audit findings and provides a roadmap of actionable steps to improve SEO performance.
Deliverables typically include:
Just like optimization has its benefits, so does an SEO audit. When you do an SEO audit, it pinpoints specific areas of concern and empowers you to take corrective measures to improve your SEO strategy.
The potential outcomes of getting an SEO audit (and implementing the recommendations) include:
An SEO audit service helps uncover any areas of your website that require optimization for increased visibility to your target audience. Improving your website's search engine rankings can drive more visitors and increase conversions.
By analyzing elements such as page speed, mobile-friendliness, and navigation paths for users, you can enhance the overall usability of your site quickly and efficiently.
SEO audits consider the entire user journey, evaluating how easy it is for users to find what they want. It also considers factors such as website design and layout and gives recommendations on adjustments to ensure users remain on your site for as long as possible.
A technical SEO audit identifies issues like broken links, duplicate content, and slow load speeds that can hinder your site's performance and visibility.
Such issues can block search engine crawlers from indexing your pages, leading to lower rankings. For instance, slow page speed not only frustrates users and increases bounce rates but also affects rankings, as it's a known Google ranking factor.
Other common problems include broken links and HTML errors, which can disrupt indexing. Addressing these technical flaws helps boost both user experience and search engine visibility.
SEO audits analyze the entire structure of your website, ensuring that all on-page SEO factors are optimized. H1 tags, title tags, meta descriptions, and keywords should be examined in detail to ensure they meet SEO best practices.
The audit will also check for content relevance and quality, including any duplicate or thin content that might hurt your SEO rankings. Optimizing these on-page factors can improve your website's relevance to search engines and drive more traffic to your site.
With detailed competitive analysis, you can easily compare your website's performance against competitors' websites.
This involves measuring your site's search engine rankings compared to other websites in the same industry or niche. It also helps determine which keywords and phrases perform better for you than others.
Let's say you're in the pet industry and want to know which keywords generate more traffic. An SEO audit service will provide insights into the performance of your website versus others in the industry.
Some of the things you can uncover include the following:
This way, you can know exactly where your website stands compared to competitors.
Every digital marketer knows how essential SEO audit tools are, as they save time and speed up the process of performing an audit. Here is a list of essential tools that a typical SEO auditing service would use:
An all-in-one SEO tool is exactly what it sounds like—a single unit with two or more functions. With this kind of service, you don't have to source individual tools for different purposes; just one can handle everything!
Utilizing these services is essential if you want to save money and simplify your website audit process.
Some of these tools include:
|
Platform |
Core Features |
Best For |
Starting Price (Monthly) |
Free Trial |
|
- Site Audit (170+ issues, always-on audits) |
Advanced backlink analysis and technical SEO |
$129/month (Lite) |
No, offers access to free webmaster tools |
|
|
- Site Audit (140+ issues + AI Search checks) |
All-in-one marketing suite for SEO, PPC, content, and local SEO |
$139.95/month (Pro) |
Yes (7-day trial) |
|
|
- Site Crawl (w/ on-demand & issue alerts) |
Simpler UX for beginners and SMBs |
$49/month (Standard) |
Yes (30-day trial) |
Ahrefs is a comprehensive site analysis tool that helps you check your site and uncover issues with your on-page and technical SEO issues.
This comprehensive website auditing tool is easy to use and has been utilized by many renowned organizations, indicating its high quality and outstanding capabilities.
Some of the features and capabilities of using Ahrefs include:
|
Feature |
Description |
|
Site Audit |
Crawls your site automatically (using a JavaScript‑rendering engine) to detect 170+ technical and on‑page SEO issues—such as broken links, duplicate content, crawl depth, and missing meta tags—and provides a Health Score, internal linking suggestions, and ongoing monitoring via “Always‑on Audits” and IndexNow integration. |
|
Backlink / Site Explorer |
Offers deep backlink analysis powered by a massive index (14+ trillion links). You can track referring domains, anchor text, broken/backlinks, and internal links. It also reveals competitors' paid keywords, organic traffic, top pages, and outbound link patterns. |
|
Keywords Explorer |
Accesses a database of over 10 billion keywords across 171 countries. Provides search volume, clicks, keyword difficulty, traffic potential, SERP analysis, keyword clustering, trend tracking, and ad history. |
|
Content Explorer |
Enables content discovery across ~14.4 billion pages. Helps you find high‑performing content by metrics like backlinks, social shares, word count, author info. You can also use it for link prospecting and uncover gaps. |
|
Rank Tracker |
Tracks keyword rankings internationally (190+ countries), across devices, with metrics like position history, search visibility, share of voice. Identifies SERP features and allows competitor comparison, keyword grouping and auto‑scheduled reports . |
|
Competitor Analysis / Brand Radar |
Compare your site's metrics against competitors—domain/URL ratings, backlink and keyword overlaps, top pages, paid keyword insight. Brand Radar monitors brand mentions and new backlinks or ads in real‑time. |
|
Web Analytics |
A newer tool offering built‑in privacy‑focused traffic analytics (without cookies). Complements Search Console & GA by showing traffic sources, top pages, and visitor info. |
|
AI Content Tools |
Includes AI Content Helper and Grader to review and improve content quality within the platform. |
|
Reporting & Dashboard Tools |
Centralized dashboards, portfolio tracking, report builder, and Looker Studio connectors to visualize data across campaigns and projects. |
If you opt for monthly billing, the subscription for Ahrefs starts from $129/month to $449/month. But the annual billing option starts at $108/month and goes up to $374/month.
*Pricing as of Juy 2025
Semrush is a software solution designed to help businesses and marketers improve their online visibility through effective SEO. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools and features that enable users to research keywords, analyze competitors, track rankings, and identify areas for improvement.
Some of the key features of Semrush are listed in the table below:
|
Feature |
Description |
|
Site Audit |
Automatically crawls desktop and mobile versions (up to 20K pages; 100K for Business tier), checks 140+ technical and on-page SEO issues—including new AI Search (GEO) checks—provides Health Score, thematic reports (crawlability, HTTPS, internal linking, etc.), and recommendations via Copilot AI assistant. |
|
Keyword Research |
Includes Keyword Magic Tool, Keyword Overview, Keyword Gap; enhanced by AI-driven insights (personalized keyword difficulty, topical authority, trend insights), access to large international datasets . |
|
Position (Rank) Tracker |
Tracks rankings daily in 190+ countries and across devices, includes SearchGPT and ChatGPT tracking, monitors SERP features, share of voice, with auto-scheduled reports . |
|
Backlink Analytics & Audit |
Full backlink profile tracking via Backlink Analytics and Audit, including toxic link detection, Referring Domains, Anchor Text, Broken Links, plus Link Building Tool and Backlink Gap for comparing competitor profiles . |
|
Competitor / Market Analysis |
Tools like Domain Overview, Organic Research, Keyword Gap, Traffic Analytics, Market Explorer for comparing traffic, trends, paid vs. organic keywords, and competitor strategies . |
|
Content Marketing Toolkit |
A suite covering content planning (Topic Research), content optimization (On‑Page SEO Checker, SEO Writing Assistant), distribution insights, and performance tracking. |
|
Social Media Management |
Native tools for scheduling posts, tracking engagement, and analyzing cross-platform campaign performance. |
|
Local SEO & Listings |
Handles Google Business Profile optimization, listing management, citation tracking, review management, and local map rankings via Map Rank Tracker. |
|
PPC & Advertising Toolkit |
Supports paid keyword research, ad strategy analysis, PPC campaign optimization, and AUD visibility. |
|
AI Tools & Copilot Assistant |
Semrush Copilot offers cross-tool AI recommendations; new AI Traffic Tool provides visibility into AI-driven traffic; AI Overview Analysis (Enterprise) monitors rankings in AI Overviews; AI Optimization tracks brand mentions in AI platforms. |
|
Toolkits & Integrations |
Packs tools into themed toolkits (SEO, Content, Marketing, etc.), with connectors to Google Looker Studio for dashboard reporting. |
Semrush offers a variety of “toolkits” which each have their own pricing structure. For SEO, if you pay monthly, prices start at $139.95/month and go up to $499.95/month. lternatively, if you decide to commit to a yearly subscription, they decrease this to $117.33/month for the base plan to $416.66/month for the highest tier.
*Pricing as of July 2025
Like the first two options, Moz is an SEO tool that provides a suite of features designed to help businesses and individuals improve their online presence. It provides comprehensive SEO audit tools, including keyword research, backlink analysis, and on-page optimization insights.
Let's look at five features of Moz related to SEO auditing services:
|
Feature |
Description |
|
Site Crawl (Site Auditor) |
Crawl campaigns (Starter–Large) analyze technical SEO issues—like broken links, duplicate content, missing metadata, redirect chains, and crawlability—with grouping by severity, alerts for new issues, basic historical tracking, and on-demand crawl outside campaigns. |
|
On‑Page Optimization (On‑Page Grader) |
Evaluates individual pages for keyword usage, title/header tags, internal links, content length, and metadata; provides beginner‑friendly scores and improvement tips, usable via Grader outside campaign slots. |
|
Link Explorer & Backlink Analysis |
Access to a backlink index of ~44.8 trillion links with metrics like Domain Authority, Page Authority, and Spam Score; includes link intersect tool (compare up to 5 domains), and broken inbound link detection via export. |
|
Keyword Explorer & Keyword Gap |
Keyword Explorer offers search volume, difficulty, CTR, intent, SERP features, and ~1,000 suggestion limits; Keyword Gap allows competitor comparison (up to 3 domains) and identifies keyword/opportunity overlaps with traffic lift metrics. |
|
Moz Local & Local Listing Management |
Moz Local manages business listings, directory distribution, review monitoring, and consistency across platforms via per‑location subscriptions (Lite $16/mo to Elite $33/mo). |
You can get Moz Pro from $49/month to $299/month when you pay monthly, and discounts are available for annual or longer-term payments.
*Pricing as of July 2025
Unlike the initial three choices, Google offers its users a comprehensive selection of refined tools to determine why pages or sites are not achieving their goals.
The most commonly used Google tools that offer SEO auditing capabilities include the following:
|
Tool |
Primary Function |
Key Benefits |
|
Monitors site performance and technical SEO issues |
Tracks indexing status, keyword rankings, crawl errors, and sends alerts for spam or technical problems |
|
|
Tests mobile usability of a website |
Ensures your site is accessible and optimized for users on smartphones and tablets |
|
|
Analyzes website traffic and user behavior |
Provides insights on user engagement, bounce rate, session duration, device usage, and geography |
|
|
Measures page loading speed and offers optimization suggestions |
Improves technical SEO and user experience by identifying performance bottlenecks |
|
|
Displays trending search terms and keyword popularity |
Helps identify high-performing and relevant keywords based on real-time user interest |
|
|
Checks if your page is eligible for enhanced SERP features (rich snippets, AMP, etc.) |
Optimizes structured data and increases visibility in search results through special display formats |
Provided as a free tool, Google Search Console is a site audit tool used to monitor your site's online presence. GSC is the ideal tool for monitoring technical SEO issues with your site and confirming that all of your pages—especially new ones—are indexed.
You can also use the tool to receive alerts when spam or indexing issues are detected and to do backlink analysis and your keyword ranking position.
As its name implies, Google Mobile Friendly Test is an auditing tool designed to test whether your website is compatible with mobile devices. In the age of online connectivity, it is essential that your website be optimized for mobile devices.
With more people browsing from their phones, you don't want to miss out on potential customers or viewers because they can't access your site easily when using a phone or tablet.
With this tool, you can easily measure website traffic and related stats like visitors' time on the page, bounce rate, and more. Such information can be useful when diagnosing any website performance issues.
That's not all. Google Analytics also gives you insights into your website visitors' location and device type, so you can make informed decisions about improving user experience.
Google PageSpeed Insights is a free technical SEO audit tool enabling you to gauge and optimize a site's speed. Moreover, the tool provides recommendations to make the website load faster.
Nowadays, page speed is a major component of your SEO strategy that can considerably impact your rankings. Therefore, using such a feature can take you one step closer to improved visibility and success!
Google Trends is an SEO audit tool that provides marketers with a large pool of commonly searched terms on Google. Using it means you get insights on whether your keywords are popular and what keywords you should target based on your niche.
The best part is Google Trends' interface is easy to use and highly customizable to the geographical region of interest.
The last tool on our Google Tools list is the Google Rich Results Test. This useful tool helps web admins and SEO consultants to check whether their pages are eligible for some of the most attractive SERP features, such as snippets or AMP stories.
With such intel, you can assess how well your page is optimized for SEO and make the necessary adjustments to ensure you get the best results.
Getting started with SEO auditing can feel overwhelming, especially for those new to digital marketing, but with clear goals and the right support, the process can be smooth and impactful.
Start by defining your objectives. Are you aiming to boost visibility, grow organic traffic, or improve conversions? Clarify your priorities by asking:
Next, choose a reputable SEO audit provider that offers comprehensive reviews, detailed reports, and stays current with evolving SEO trends.
Once partnered with an agency:
In short, an SEO audit is essential for diagnosing performance issues and uncovering opportunities to improve your search rankings and drive growth.
Keeping your SEO in check is necessary for successful business marketing, and Roketto's comprehensive auditing service can help you do just that! When you team up with us, your business will have the advantage of a group of experts devoted to finding and addressing possible dilemmas sabotaging SEO performance on your website.
We personalize our SEO auditing service to every client and their individual requirements and industry. Following the audit process, we provide you with a precise report indicating any areas needing attention, along with pertinent advice and strategies to improve them.
Don't let your website's SEO performance hold your company back. Contact us today to learn more about our SEO auditing service and how it can help you reach your business goals!