Your website could be haemorrhaging traffic right now, and you wouldn’t even know it.
Broken pages. Slow load times. Indexation issues. Toxic backlinks. These problems don’t announce themselves with flashing red lights. They quietly erode your search rankings, month after month, until you’re buried on page three wondering what happened.
The good news? A comprehensive SEO audit reveals exactly what’s holding your site back. And you don’t need to be a technical expert to conduct one.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the exact process our Brisbane SEO team uses to audit client websites. You’ll learn how to identify critical issues, prioritise fixes, and create an action plan that actually moves the needle.
By the end, you’ll have a clear picture of your website’s SEO health and a roadmap for improvement.
What Is a Website SEO Audit?
A website SEO audit is a systematic evaluation of your site’s ability to rank in search engines. Think of it as a comprehensive health check that examines everything from technical infrastructure to content quality.
Professional audits typically cover:
- Technical SEO (site speed, mobile responsiveness, crawlability)
- On-page SEO (content, keywords, internal linking)
- Off-page SEO (backlink profile, domain authority)
- User experience (Core Web Vitals, navigation, conversion paths)
- Security and accessibility issues
The goal isn’t just to find problems. It’s to uncover opportunities. A good audit reveals quick wins that can boost rankings immediately, alongside strategic improvements for long-term growth.
Why Regular SEO Audits Matter
Google’s algorithm changes constantly. What worked six months ago might be hurting you today.
Regular audits help you:
- Catch technical issues before they tank your rankings
- Identify content gaps your competitors are exploiting
- Spot toxic backlinks that could trigger penalties
- Optimise for new ranking factors like Core Web Vitals
- Align your site with current best practices
Most businesses audit their financials quarterly. Your website deserves the same attention. After all, for many Australian businesses, organic search is the primary lead generation channel.
Before You Start: Tools You’ll Need
You don’t need expensive enterprise software to run a solid audit. Here’s the toolkit we recommend:
Essential (Free):
- Google Search Console (critical, non-negotiable)
- Google Analytics 4
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- Chrome DevTools (built into Chrome browser)
Highly Recommended (Free tiers available):
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free up to 500 URLs)
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free with verification)
- SEMrush (limited free searches)
Optional (Paid):
- Ahrefs or SEMrush (full access for competitor analysis)
- GTmetrix (performance monitoring)
Most small to medium businesses can complete a thorough audit using just the free tools. Set up Google Search Console if you haven’t already. Everything else builds from there.
Phase 1: Technical SEO Foundation
Technical SEO is the foundation everything else sits on. If Google can’t crawl your site properly, your brilliant content won’t matter.
Check Indexation Status
Start by confirming Google can actually find and index your pages.
In Google Search Console, navigate to the Coverage report (or “Pages” in the newer interface). You’re looking for:
- How many pages are indexed
- Which pages are excluded and why
- Any crawl errors or warnings
Compare the number of indexed pages against your actual page count. A significant mismatch indicates a problem. Common culprits include incorrect robots.txt files, noindex tags on important pages, or orphaned content with no internal links.
Run this search in Google: site:yourdomain.com.au
The result count should roughly match your expected page total. If it’s drastically different, dig deeper.
Analyse robots.txt and XML Sitemap
Your robots.txt file tells search engines which parts of your site to crawl. Your XML sitemap tells them which pages matter most.
Check your robots.txt at: yourdomain.com.au/robots.txt
Make sure you’re not accidentally blocking important sections. We’ve seen businesses block their entire blog or product catalogue by mistake. It happens more often than you’d think.
Verify your XML sitemap is:
- Submitted in Google Search Console
- Updating automatically when you add content
- Free of errors or broken URLs
- Not overloaded (Google recommends under 50,000 URLs per sitemap)
Evaluate Site Speed and Core Web Vitals
Google uses page experience as a ranking factor. Core Web Vitals measure how fast and smooth your site feels to users.
Run your homepage and key landing pages through Google PageSpeed Insights. Focus on three metrics:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Should be under 2.5 seconds. This measures how quickly your main content loads.
First Input Delay (FID) / Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Should be under 200ms. This measures responsiveness when users click buttons.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Should be under 0.1. This measures visual stability (nothing should jump around as the page loads).
If you’re failing Core Web Vitals, prioritise:
- Image optimisation (compress, use WebP format, implement lazy loading)
- Hosting quality (Australian businesses should use Australian servers)
- Minimising JavaScript and CSS
- Browser caching
For Australian audiences, hosting location matters significantly. A site hosted in Sydney will always load faster for Brisbane users than one hosted in California.
Check Mobile Responsiveness
Over 60% of searches now happen on mobile devices. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re losing rankings and conversions.
Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool, or simply check your site on your phone. Look for:
- Text that’s readable without zooming
- Buttons and links spaced appropriately for finger taps
- No horizontal scrolling required
- Fast load times on 4G connection
Google Search Console also provides a Mobile Usability report highlighting specific issues.
Review HTTPS and Security
Google confirmed HTTPS as a ranking signal years ago. If you’re still on HTTP, you’re handing rankings to competitors.
Check your URL bar. You should see a padlock icon and “https://” at the start of your domain. If not, you need an SSL certificate. Most Australian hosting providers include this free.
Also verify:
- All pages redirect from HTTP to HTTPS (not just the homepage)
- No mixed content warnings (loading HTTP resources on HTTPS pages)
- Certificate is valid and not expired
Phase 2: On-Page SEO Elements
Once your technical foundation is solid, examine how well your content is optimised for search.
Audit Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Every page needs a unique, keyword-optimised title tag and meta description. These appear in search results and directly impact click-through rates.
Using Screaming Frog, crawl your site and export all title tags and meta descriptions. Look for:
- Missing elements: Any page without a title or description
- Duplicate content: Multiple pages sharing the same tags
- Length issues: Titles over 60 characters or descriptions over 160 characters get truncated
- Keyword targeting: Does each tag include relevant keywords naturally?
Poor title tags are one of the easiest wins in any audit. Rewriting 20 underoptimised titles can deliver noticeable traffic improvements within weeks.
Evaluate Header Structure
Headers (H1, H2, H3 tags) help search engines understand content hierarchy. They also improve readability for users.
Every page should have:
- Exactly one H1 tag (usually your page title)
- Logical H2 and H3 subheadings that structure content
- Keywords included naturally in headers where relevant
Check that you’re not skipping levels (going from H1 directly to H3) and that headers accurately describe the content that follows.
Analyse Content Quality and Keyword Targeting
This is where most businesses discover significant gaps.
For each important page, ask:
- Length: Is there enough content to be comprehensive? Thin content (under 300 words) rarely ranks well.
- Relevance: Does the content match search intent for your target keywords?
- Freshness: Is information current and up to date?
- Uniqueness: Is this differentiated from competitor content, or just generic filler?
- Keyword usage: Are target keywords used naturally in the first paragraph, subheadings, and throughout?
Use Google Search Console’s Performance report to see which pages actually get impressions and clicks. Pages with high impressions but low clicks need better titles and meta descriptions. Pages with no impressions need better keyword targeting or more authority.
Check Internal Linking Structure
Internal links pass authority around your site and help search engines discover content.
Look for:
- Orphaned pages (no internal links pointing to them)
- Important pages buried deep in site architecture
- Broken internal links returning 404 errors
- Over-optimised anchor text (too many exact-match keyword links)
Your most important pages should be linked from your navigation, homepage, and related content. If a page is more than four clicks from the homepage, consider restructuring.
Identify Duplicate Content
Duplicate content confuses search engines about which version to rank. Common causes include:
- HTTP and HTTPS versions both accessible
- WWW and non-WWW versions both accessible
- Multiple URLs showing the same content (example.com.au/page and example.com.au/page/)
- Printer-friendly versions or session IDs creating URL parameters
Use canonical tags to specify the preferred version of duplicate pages. Implement 301 redirects to consolidate variations.
Phase 3: Off-Page SEO and Backlink Profile
Your backlink profile is one of Google’s strongest ranking signals. But quality matters far more than quantity.
Use Ahrefs, SEMrush, or the free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools to analyse your backlinks.
Key metrics to check:
Domain Rating (DR) or Domain Authority (DA): Overall authority score for your site. Higher is better, but growth is what matters.
Total referring domains: The number of unique websites linking to you. A link from 100 different sites beats 100 links from one site.
Link velocity: How quickly you’re gaining (or losing) backlinks.
Look at your top referring domains. Are they:
- Relevant to your industry?
- High quality and authoritative?
- Using natural, diverse anchor text?
Identify Toxic Backlinks
Not all backlinks help. Some can actively hurt your rankings.
Red flags include links from:
- Obvious spam sites
- Foreign language sites unrelated to your business
- Known link farms or networks
- Sites with over-optimised anchor text
- Websites that have been hacked
If you find toxic backlinks, create a disavow file and submit it through Google Search Console. This tells Google to ignore those links when evaluating your site.
Be conservative. Only disavow links you’re confident are harmful. Disavowing good links by mistake can damage rankings.
Compare Against Competitors
Understanding your competitive landscape reveals opportunities.
Identify your top three ranking competitors for important keywords. Use a backlink tool to analyse:
- How many referring domains they have
- What types of sites link to them
- Content that attracts the most links
- Link building strategies they’re using
This shows you the authority gap you need to close and highlights link building opportunities you might have missed.
Phase 4: User Experience and Conversion Optimisation
SEO isn’t just about rankings. It’s about converting that traffic into leads and customers.
Review Site Navigation and Architecture
Good architecture helps both users and search engines navigate your site efficiently.
Test your navigation by:
- Checking if important pages are reachable in three clicks or less
- Verifying breadcrumb navigation works correctly
- Ensuring search functionality works well
- Confirming mobile menu is easy to use
Complex, confusing navigation increases bounce rates. Google notices when users immediately return to search results. That signals your site didn’t meet their needs.
Analyse User Behaviour Metrics
Google Analytics reveals how users actually interact with your site.
Key metrics to examine:
Bounce rate: Percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page. High bounce rates (over 70%) often indicate:
- Misleading title or meta description
- Slow page speed
- Poor content quality
- Wrong audience targeting
Average session duration: How long visitors stay on your site. Longer generally indicates more engagement.
Pages per session: How many pages visitors view. More pages suggest strong internal linking and relevant content.
Look for pages with unusually high bounce rates or low engagement. These need content improvements or better keyword targeting.
Check for Broken Links and 404 Errors
Broken links frustrate users and waste the link equity pointing to those pages.
Google Search Console’s Coverage report shows pages returning 404 errors. Screaming Frog also identifies broken links efficiently.
For important broken pages, implement 301 redirects to the most relevant current page. If the content was removed intentionally and there’s no good redirect target, ensure the 404 page itself is helpful (include a search box and links to popular pages).
Assess Call to Action Placement
Every page should guide users toward a logical next step.
Review your key landing pages:
- Is the primary CTA visible without scrolling?
- Are there multiple pathways to conversion?
- Do CTAs use clear, action-oriented language?
- Are forms simple and quick to complete?
Pages that rank well but don’t convert need UX improvements, not more SEO work.
Phase 5: Local SEO (For Australian Businesses)
If you serve customers in specific locations, local SEO is critical.
Verify Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is often the first thing potential customers see.
Check that:
- All business information is accurate and complete
- Your category selection is precise
- Photos are professional and recent
- You’re responding to all reviews (positive and negative)
- Your profile is verified
Optimise your business description with relevant keywords and local terms, but keep it natural and customer-focused.
Audit Local Citations
Citations are online mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP). Consistent citations across the web strengthen local rankings.
Check your NAP consistency across:
- Google Business Profile
- Facebook business page
- Industry directories (True Local, Yellow Pages, etc.)
- Local business associations
- Review sites (ProductReview, Google Reviews)
Inconsistencies (using “Street” in one place and “St” in another, or old phone numbers) confuse search engines and hurt local rankings.
Review Location Pages (If Applicable)
If you serve multiple locations, each should have a dedicated page with:
- Unique content (not just a template with the city name changed)
- Embedded Google Map
- Local area information
- Location-specific testimonials or case studies
- Locally relevant keywords
Thin location pages with duplicate content can trigger penalties. Better to have fewer, high-quality location pages than dozens of template pages.
Creating Your Action Plan
You’ve now identified dozens (possibly hundreds) of issues. Don’t panic. Prioritisation is everything.
Quick Wins (Do This Week)
These fixes are simple and deliver immediate impact:
- Fix missing or duplicate title tags and meta descriptions
- Repair broken internal links
- Submit or update your XML sitemap
- Verify Google Business Profile information
- Redirect important 404 pages
High-Impact Projects (Do This Month)
These require more effort but significantly improve rankings:
- Improve Core Web Vitals scores
- Optimise underperforming pages with high impressions but low clicks
- Expand thin content pages to be more comprehensive
- Disavow toxic backlinks
- Fix mobile responsiveness issues
Strategic Improvements (Do This Quarter)
Long-term projects that build sustainable growth:
- Content gap analysis and creation plan
- Link building strategy and outreach
- Site architecture restructuring
- Competitor analysis and differentiation
- Conversion rate optimisation
Common SEO Audit Mistakes to Avoid
Even experienced marketers make these errors:
Focusing only on technical issues. Technical SEO matters, but content quality and backlinks often have bigger impact.
Ignoring search intent. A page can be technically perfect but still fail if the content doesn’t match what searchers actually want.
Trying to fix everything at once. Prioritise based on impact and effort required. Small wins build momentum.
Auditing once and forgetting. SEO audits should be quarterly at minimum. Google’s algorithm and your competitors don’t stay static.
Not tracking results. Document your starting metrics and measure improvement. This proves ROI and guides future decisions.
The SEO Audit Checklist
Here’s your printable checklist summarising everything we’ve covered:
Technical SEO:
☐ Verify pages are indexed correctly in Google Search Console
☐ Check robots.txt and XML sitemap configuration
☐ Test Core Web Vitals on key pages
☐ Confirm mobile responsiveness
☐ Ensure HTTPS is implemented site-wide
☐ Check for crawl errors
On-Page SEO:
☐ Audit all title tags (unique, under 60 characters, keyword-optimised)
☐ Review meta descriptions (compelling, 155-160 characters)
☐ Verify header structure (one H1, logical H2/H3 hierarchy)
☐ Assess content quality and length
☐ Check keyword targeting and usage
☐ Map internal linking structure
☐ Identify and fix duplicate content
Off-Page SEO:
☐ Analyse backlink profile quality
☐ Identify and disavow toxic links
☐ Compare backlinks against competitors
☐ Assess link building opportunities
User Experience:
☐ Review site navigation and architecture
☐ Analyse bounce rate and engagement metrics
☐ Find and fix broken links
☐ Evaluate CTA placement and clarity
Local SEO:
☐ Verify Google Business Profile accuracy
☐ Check NAP consistency across citations
☐ Optimise location pages (if applicable)
Action Planning:
☐ Prioritise fixes by impact and effort
☐ Document baseline metrics
☐ Assign responsibilities and deadlines
☐ Schedule next audit
What Professional SEO Agencies Do Differently
You now have the framework to audit your website effectively. But there’s a difference between identifying issues and fixing them strategically.
Professional agencies bring:
- Experience knowing which fixes deliver the biggest ROI for your industry
- Technical expertise to implement complex improvements correctly
- Tools and data access that reveal deeper insights
- Ongoing monitoring to catch issues before they impact rankings
- Competitive intelligence and market research
A good audit is just the beginning. Execution is where most businesses struggle.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by what you’ve discovered, that’s normal. SEO is complex, and it’s constantly evolving. Our Brisbane team conducts comprehensive audits and implements strategic fixes that actually move rankings. We don’t just hand you a list of problems. We solve them.
