Is Your Website Underperforming?

If your website isn’t generating the traffic, leads, or conversions you expect, it can feel incredibly frustrating – especially when you’ve invested time and money into building it. But underwhelming performance isn’t necessarily a dead end. In fact, it presents a golden opportunity to uncover exactly what’s holding your site back and fix it.

A comprehensive SEO audit is the cornerstone of identifying weaknesses, capitalising on strengths, and unlocking your site’s full potential. Think of it as a full MOT for your website – a structured, in-depth process that leaves no stone unturned. In this detailed guide, we explore the process, benefits, and actionable insights from a thorough audit to help you turn your content into a powerhouse for organic growth.

We’ll also cover SEO audit costs, what’s included in a professional audit, and the benefits of working with a top UK digital agency like Delivered Social.

What Is an SEO Audit?

Before going into the how, let’s address the what. The term SEO audit can sometimes feel a little vague, so let’s fix that.

An SEO audit is the process of evaluating how well-optimised your website is for search engines such as Google and Bing. But it goes beyond simply ticking boxes – a quality audit provides an in-depth review of both your website’s technical SEO and its content, evaluating its overall effectiveness in achieving your business goals. Whether that’s driving organic traffic, improving user engagement, generating more leads, or boosting conversions, an SEO audit gives you a clear picture of where you stand and what you need to do next.

Put simply, what is a SEO audit? It’s a full diagnostic check for your website – one that uncovers opportunities to optimise performance while eliminating the obstacles that are holding you back.

The Objectives of an SEO Audit

Understanding what an SEO audit means in practice is important, but understanding why you need one is equally valuable. An audit does far more than highlight what’s wrong – it also clarifies what’s working well and maps out exactly where your site can improve.

Here’s what a well-executed SEO audit helps you achieve:

Improve Search Engine Visibility

By ensuring your content aligns with the latest SEO best practices, you increase its likelihood of ranking well in search engine results pages (SERPs). Better rankings mean more visibility, more clicks, and ultimately more business.

Enhance User Experience

A well-audited website is easier to navigate, more engaging, and far more likely to meet the needs of its visitors. Search engines reward sites that users love – so improving the experience for your audience directly benefits your rankings too.

Increase ROI

By identifying the content and pages that drive the most value, you can allocate your time, energy, and budget more effectively. An SEO audit stops you from throwing resources at the wrong areas and helps you focus on what genuinely moves the needle.

What’s on an SEO Audit Checklist?

Before we get into the step-by-step process, here’s a quick overview of everything a thorough SEO audit should cover:

• Site crawl
• Page speed
• Meta data (title tags and meta descriptions)
• Heading structure
• Broken links (internal and external)
• Redirect chains and loops
• XML sitemap
• Hreflang issues (for international sites)
• Canonical URL issues
• Faceted navigation and dynamic URLs
• Schema markup
• Keyword optimisation, cannibalisation, and duplicate content
• Page content quality and relevance
• User engagement metrics
• Backlink analysis
• Internal linking

Here’s our Step-by-Step Guide on How To Do an SEO Audit

Conducting a successful SEO audit involves strategic planning, thorough data collection, and actionable implementation. Follow this detailed process to ensure your audit covers all the bases.

Step 1: Run a Site Crawl

The first step is to compile a comprehensive list of all your website’s content. Use tools like Screaming Frog, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to generate a full inventory of your site’s pages.

For each piece of content, you’ll want to record:

• URL
• Content type (e.g., blog post, landing page, product description)
• Publication date and date last updated
• Word count
• Organic traffic (monthly average)
• Engagement metrics (e.g., social shares, comments)
• Conversion rates, where applicable

This inventory forms the foundation of your entire analysis, allowing you to spot patterns, identify problem areas, and prioritise where to focus your efforts.

Step 2: Evaluate Page Speed

Page speed forms the backbone of your website’s performance. Slow-loading pages frustrate users, increase bounce rates, and can significantly harm your search rankings. Google has made it abundantly clear that speed matters – both as a ranking factor and as a key component of user experience.

Google recommends that web pages load in under three seconds, with 2.5 seconds being the ideal benchmark. Research shows that the likelihood of a visitor bouncing increases significantly as page load time moves from one second to three seconds. In fact, just a one-second delay in page load time can result in a 7% decrease in conversions – a striking statistic that underlines just how much speed matters.

To evaluate and improve your page speed:

• Test your site using Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom. On Google PageSpeed Insights, a score of 90 or above is good, 50-89 needs improvement, and 49 or below is poor.
• Optimise images by compressing file sizes without sacrificing quality.
• Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML code to reduce unnecessary bulk.
• Leverage browser caching to speed up load times for returning visitors.
• Consider upgrading your hosting if your server response times are consistently slow.

Step 3: Check Metadata

The finer details of on-page SEO – such as title tags, meta descriptions, and heading structures – play a pivotal role in improving search visibility and encouraging users to click through to your site. Optimising these elements ensures your content not only ranks higher but also resonates with your audience.

Title Tags
Your title tags should:

• Be unique for every page on your site
• Include your primary keywords naturally
• Stay under 60 characters to avoid truncation in search results

Meta Descriptions
Your meta descriptions should:

• Accurately summarise the page’s content
• Include relevant keywords
• Entice users to click through with a compelling call to action
• Be 160 characters or fewer to avoid being cut off

Heading Structure
Organise your content with a clear hierarchy of H1, H2, and H3 tags. Every page should contain exactly one H1 tag (typically the page title), with H2 and H3 tags used to break content into logical, easy-to-navigate sections.

For example, your title tag, meta description, and heading tags should all work together harmoniously – with consistent keywords and messaging running through each layer.

It’s worth noting that, much like title tags, you should never duplicate main headings across multiple pages, as this can cause keyword cannibalisation – where multiple pages compete against each other for the same search terms, ultimately weakening the performance of both.

Step 4: Identify and Fix Broken Links

Broken links are a double-edged problem. They frustrate users who end up on dead-end pages, and they send negative signals to search engines about the quality and maintenance of your site.

Use tools like Google Search Console to identify:

• Internal links pointing to non-existent or deleted pages
• External links to outdated or removed resources

Fix these issues by redirecting broken links to relevant, live pages, or by updating them to point directly to the correct content.

Step 5: Fix Redirect Chains and Loops

Redirect chains slow down page loads and can confuse search engines trying to crawl and index your site. They occur when one URL redirects to another, which then redirects to yet another – creating unnecessary delays.

Check for:

• Chains: Where URL A redirects to URL B, which then redirects to URL C (and so on)
• Loops: Where URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects back to URL A – creating an infinite loop

Streamline your redirects so there’s always a direct path between old and new URLs, with no unnecessary stops along the way.

Step 6: Check Your XML Sitemap

Your website should have an XML sitemap sitting at your top-level directory – for example, www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. This file acts as a roadmap for search engines, helping them discover and index all of your important pages.

To create and optimise your sitemap:

• Ensure it’s in XML format so Google can read it correctly
• Use a tool like Screaming Frog to generate it automatically, or rely on an SEO plugin like Yoast if you’re using WordPress
• Upload your sitemap to Google Search Console so Google can flag any issues and you can make amendments accordingly
• Avoid manually creating sitemaps for large sites – it’s labour-intensive and prone to errors

Step 7: Check for Hreflang Issues

This step applies primarily to websites with international versions – for example, sites where users can switch between languages, currencies, or regional subdomains and subfolders.

Hreflang tags tell search engines which version of a page to show to users based on their language or location. Errors here typically involve incorrect country codes, mismatched URLs, or tags being applied to pages that don’t actually exist in another language.

For example, a page intended for French-speaking users should include an hreflang tag like this:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="http://fr.example.com" />

The most common mistakes include the URL not being updated to match the language version, or the country code not matching the URL. Only include hreflang tags for pages that genuinely exist and are relevant to that audience.

You can check for hreflang issues via Google Search Console under ‘International Targeting’, or by using Screaming Frog’s built-in hreflang auditing tools.

Step 8: Check for Canonical URL Issues

Canonical tags tell search engines which version of a page you consider to be the definitive, preferred URL for indexing. When these are missing or incorrect, search engines can end up indexing duplicate or near-duplicate pages – diluting your ranking signals.

Common canonical URL issues include:

• The canonical tag pointing to the wrong URL
• Dynamic URL parameters appearing where they shouldn’t
• Pages with no canonical tags at all

Audit your canonical tags carefully and ensure every page clearly signals its preferred URL to search engines.

Step 9: Faceted Navigation and Dynamic URLs

This is a common challenge for e-commerce sites and larger websites with filtering functionality. When users apply filters – such as size, colour, or price – dynamic URLs are generated that can create thousands of near-duplicate pages.

If the filtered content is completely unique and valuable, those pages should return their own HTTP response headers and unique page titles. However, if the dynamic parameters are simply filtering existing content rather than creating something truly new, use canonical tags to point back to the original, unfiltered page. This allows users to enjoy flexible filtering options while ensuring Google indexes only the most logical, valuable landing pages.

Step 10: Optimise for Schema Markup

Schema markup is code added to your website that helps search engines better understand your content – and it can significantly enhance how your pages appear in search results. Rich results such as star ratings, FAQs, product information, and how-to guides are all powered by schema.

Use Google’s Rich Results Test to:

• Identify errors in your existing schema implementation
• Add missing schema types such as FAQ, Product, Article, or How-To
• Ensure your structured data is valid and eligible for rich result features

Step 11: Address Keyword Optimisation and Cannibalisation

Effective keyword usage is the backbone of a strong SEO strategy, but improper implementation can work against you. Keyword cannibalisation – where multiple pages on your site compete for the same search terms – confuses search engines and dilutes the ranking potential of every page involved.

Keyword Implementation

• Ensure your primary keywords appear naturally in titles, headings, and body text
• Avoid keyword stuffing – placing keywords in a way that feels unnatural or forced
• Use conversational, natural language wherever possible – incorporate keywords in the way you’d naturally mention them in conversation

Addressing Cannibalisation
Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to identify pages that are competing for the same keywords. Once identified, you can either consolidate the pages into a single, authoritative resource or differentiate them clearly so each serves a distinct purpose and audience.

Step 12: Assess Content Quality and Relevance

High-quality, relevant content is the cornerstone of any successful SEO strategy. Search engines are increasingly sophisticated at recognising whether content genuinely serves its audience – and they reward those that do.

Evaluate each piece of content for:

• Accuracy: Is the information up to date and factually correct?
• Relevance: Does it align with your target audience’s current needs and interests?
• Value: Does it provide actionable insights, answer questions comprehensively, or solve real problems?

For content that falls short, you have a few options:

• Update outdated information with fresh, accurate data
• Rewrite sections to add clarity, depth, or better structure
• Consolidate overlapping articles into a single, authoritative resource that covers the topic thoroughly

Step 13: Analyse User Engagement Metrics

Understanding how users actually interact with your content is key to identifying what’s working and what’s driving people away. Your analytics data tells a story – you just need to know how to read it.

Bounce Rate
A high bounce rate suggests that users aren’t finding what they need when they land on your page. Consider whether your content matches the intent behind the search query, and improve readability with clear headings, concise paragraphs, and compelling introductions.

Time on Page
If users spend very little time on a page, they’re likely not consuming your content. Adding engaging elements – such as videos, infographics, or interactive tools – can help hold their attention and encourage deeper engagement.

Pages Per Session
A high number of pages per session suggests strong internal linking and genuine user interest. Identify the content paths that perform well and replicate those strategies across other areas of your site.

Step 14: Audit Your Backlinks

Backlinks remain one of the most important ranking factors in SEO. They act as endorsements of your website’s authority and credibility – but not all backlinks are created equal.

Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to evaluate your backlink profile:

• Identify toxic or low-quality links that could be harming your rankings
• Disavow harmful links through Google Search Console
• Identify opportunities to build relationships with authoritative, relevant websites that could provide high-quality backlinks
• Look for patterns in your best-performing links and replicate those outreach strategies

Step 15: Review Conversion Paths

Every piece of content on your website should serve a purpose – and ultimately, that purpose should support your business goals. During your audit, review the conversion paths users take from first landing on your site to completing a desired action.

Evaluate:

• Calls to Action (CTAs): Are they clear, compelling, and easy to find?
• Sales Funnels: Are users navigating smoothly from awareness through to conversion, or are there drop-off points that need addressing?

Use behaviour data from tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar to pinpoint exactly where users are abandoning the journey, and make targeted improvements to reduce friction and increase conversions.

Step 16: Improve Internal Linking

Internal links serve a dual purpose – they guide users through your site and help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your content. Poor internal linking can leave important pages under-discovered and undervalued.

Review:

• Link placement: Are your internal links relevant, contextual, and genuinely helpful to the reader?
• Anchor text: Does it include descriptive, keyword-rich phrases rather than vague terms like “click here”?
• Orphan pages: Ensure every page on your site has at least one internal link pointing to it – orphan pages are essentially invisible to both users and search engines

Turning Insights Into Actionable Strategies

Once you’ve completed your audit, the real work begins. Compile your findings into a prioritised action plan that addresses the most impactful issues first.

Quick Wins
Fixes like updating metadata, removing broken links, or compressing images can deliver immediate improvements without requiring significant time or resource investment.

Long-Term Improvements
Use the content gaps and keyword opportunities identified during the audit to develop a forward-looking content calendar. This keeps your SEO strategy proactive rather than reactive.

Ongoing Monitoring
SEO is not a one-time activity. Implement regular audits – whether quarterly or bi-annually – to track your progress, adapt to algorithm changes, and stay ahead of your competitors.

Why Regular SEO Audits Are Essential

Search engines evolve constantly, competitors adapt their strategies, and user preferences shift over time. A website that performed brilliantly two years ago may be struggling today simply because the landscape has changed around it.

Regular SEO audits ensure that:

• Your strategy remains aligned with current best practices
• You consistently uncover new opportunities for growth
• Your website stays competitive in an ever-changing digital landscape

Think of regular audits not as a chore, but as an ongoing investment in your website’s long-term health and performance.

How Much Does an SEO Audit Cost?

Now for the question that’s on most business owners’ minds – how much does it actually cost?

The answer depends on several factors, including the size of your website, the depth of analysis required, and whether you opt for a professional agency or attempt a DIY approach. Here’s a breakdown of typical SEO audit pricing in the UK:

Small Websites (Fewer Than 10 Pages)

SEO audit costs: £1,500 – £2,500

At this level, basic audits cover fundamental checks such as metadata, keyword use, and technical issues. However, it’s worth noting that these audits are often fairly superficial – they may flag some issues, but they rarely provide the strategic solutions or detailed roadmap that a growing business truly needs.

Medium-Sized Websites (11-50 Pages)

SEO audit price: £2,500 – £7,500

More extensive analysis is required at this level, diving deeper into performance metrics, content quality, and technical SEO. While these audits are more thorough, they can still be somewhat limited without taking critical website data into account – and they don’t always measure the real impact of issues on your SEO performance.

Large Websites and E-Commerce Platforms (50+ Pages)

SEO audit prices: £7,500 – £25,000+

Comprehensive evaluations at this scale include backlink analysis, advanced keyword strategies, competitor benchmarking, and in-depth technical reviews. Given the complexity involved, this level of audit typically requires the expertise of an experienced SEO agency.

Investing in professional SEO audit services ensures your website is genuinely optimised for performance – delivering a strong return on investment through increased traffic, improved user experience, and higher conversion rates.

What Is Included in an SEO Audit?

SEO audit processes can vary between specialists, so it’s important to understand what you’re getting before you commit. A comprehensive audit from a reputable agency should include the following:

Keyword Analysis and Competitive Audit

This examines search demand within your niche – what keywords your target audience is typing into Google and how competitive those terms are. This market research focuses on the external landscape, evaluating your website against your competitors and identifying strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.

Technical SEO Audit

This evaluates your website from a technical standpoint, checking for broken links, duplicate content, page speed issues, crawl errors, and more. Many of the fixes identified in this phase will require developer input.

On-Site SEO Audit

This covers keyword implementation across SEO-relevant page elements such as titles and headings, image optimisation opportunities, structured data implementation, and an assessment of your overall website structure.

Content and Link Building Analysis

This longer-term component reviews your existing content against competitor offerings, identifies opportunities for growth, and evaluates your link acquisition strategy – looking at how your content can attract valuable backlinks and support sustained SEO growth.

Tools for an SEO Audit

A wide range of tools can support your SEO audit process. Some of the most useful include:

• Google Search Console – For dashboards and reports relating to your website’s performance in Google Search
• SEMrush or Ahrefs – To check for on-page and technical SEO issues, keyword opportunities, and backlink analysis
• Screaming Frog – To crawl your website and generate a comprehensive inventory of pages and technical issues
• Google PageSpeed Insights / GTmetrix / Pingdom – For evaluating and improving page load times

SEO Audit FAQs

What is an SEO audit, and why is it important?

A professional SEO audit is a comprehensive analysis of your website’s performance in search engines like Google and Bing. It identifies technical issues, content gaps, and optimisation opportunities that may be impacting your rankings and user experience. Regular audits ensure your site remains competitive and aligned with the latest search engine algorithms.

How often should I conduct an SEO audit?

The right frequency depends on the size and complexity of your website. Small sites benefit from bi-annual audits, while medium to large sites should be audited quarterly. High-traffic websites may benefit from monthly light-touch audits alongside more in-depth quarterly reviews.

What does an SEO audit include?

A professional audit covers technical SEO (site speed, mobile-friendliness, and crawlability), content quality and relevance, keyword optimisation, backlink analysis, and on-page elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and schema markup.

Can I perform an SEO audit myself?

DIY tools like Google Search Console and SEMrush can surface some issues, but they often lack the depth and strategic insight of a professional audit. Partnering with an experienced agency like Delivered Social ensures you receive a comprehensive, high-value audit with expert analysis and actionable recommendations tailored to your website’s specific needs.

How long does an SEO audit take?

This depends on the size and complexity of your site. A basic audit may take a few days, while a comprehensive, in-depth audit for a larger website can take several weeks.

What’s the cost of a professional SEO audit?

Costs vary based on the scope of the audit and the size of your website. For smaller audits, the typical SEO audit cost is £1,500 – £2,500. Medium-sized audits typically fall in the £2,500 – £7,500 range, while larger, more complex audits cost £7,500 – £25,000+.

Let Delivered Social Help You Master SEO

A comprehensive SEO audit is both an art and a science. While some elements can be managed in-house with the right tools, a professional agency brings the expertise to identify deeper issues, interpret the data meaningfully, and craft targeted solutions that genuinely move the needle.

At Delivered Social, our end-to-end SEO services include:

• In-depth audits tailored to your business and industry
• Actionable insights designed to optimise every corner of your site
• Continuous support to keep your strategy on track as the digital landscape evolves

Don’t let underperformance hold your business back. Whether you’re looking to better understand your SEO audit costs, explore your SEO audit pricing options, or simply get a clear picture of where your website stands, our team is here to help. Get in touch with Delivered Social today for a quote on your site’s SEO audit.