Audit Report Template
Section 1: Company Overview
Brand Statement/Elevator Pitch
Mission Statement
Customer Persona(s)
Value Proposition(s)
Section 2: Industry Snapshot
Comments on Digital landscape trends (SERP results/patterns) within the client’s specific market sector.
ONLINE competitors
Industry keywords and phrases
Section 3: Technical SEO Checklist
Website efficiency impacts every other aspect of a marketing strategy. Future on-site and off-site SEO recommendations are based on the results of this assessment.
- Google Analytics / Google Search Console setup and configuration
- Domain/Website Hosting provider assessment
- HTTPS / SSL certificate validation
- XML sitemap for indexing and crawlability
- Robots.txt file in use
- Site structure organization
URL structure (Screaming Frog) - URL errors/redirects (Screaming Frog)
- Internal link structure
- Duplicate content
- Orphaned site pages
- Broken links
- Page/crawl depth
- Core Web Vitals (Website Loading Speed)
- Cross-browser testing
- Mobily-friendly testing
- Third-Party Platform Integrations
- Status check of all external software plugins (email marketing, shipping, subscription mgmt, reviews, etc.)
- Additional sales channels (if connected to the online inventory)
- Use of structured data
- Relevancy indicators present (including business address and phone number)
- Privacy policy and terms of service pages linked in the footer
Section 4: On-Page SEO Checklist
On-page SEO audit determines how easy it is for both customers and search engines to navigate your website. Google currently has over 200 known ranking factors and it is important to adhere to as many of these best practices as possible to increase search rankings.
SEO Keyword-optimized page title tags are present.
- Duplicates
- Truncated
- Missing
Optimized Meta Descriptions for each page. (Especially core site pages.)
- Duplicates
- Truncated
- Missing
- Matches search intent
Heading tags are appropriately defined and used throughout the site.
- Duplicates
- Missing
Optimized images include:
- Alt tags
- Use of keywords in alt tags and filenames
Section 5: Off-page SEO Checklist
What happens off-page, or off-site, matters too. Applying SEO best practices to your social channels and business profiles can help guide potential customers to your site if they discover your brand outside of your website. It’s also important to pay attention to the backlinks on your site to ensure that they are relevant to the quality of the content on your site.
Backlinks (quality/relevance)
Google My Business profile
Social media channel traffic and engagement
Consistent branding on social media channels (profile photos/taglines//links, etc.)
Relationships / partnerships with influencers or other brands.
Section 6: Content Checklist
High-quality content has evolved into the most important ranking factor online. In order to increase your online visibility while building trust with new prospects, you must prove your ability to provide valuable resources that offer solutions to your potential customer’s problems.
- Website has a blog
- Evidence of a consistent blog posting schedule
- Content is clearly written for intended customer persona(s)
- Helpful, useful, informative, relevant content driven by keywords
- Cornerstone content is identified
- Fully optimized landing pages for products, services, and offers
- Number of words on content pages
- Content is designed to move users one step in the buyer journey at a time
- Major content pages include relevant, engaging visual elements
- Well-placed social sharing buttons
- Website design aligns with target customer’s needs/expectations (aligns with search intent)
- Relevant design assets that align with brand goals