What does site audit mean?
What exactly gets examined in a site audit?
A site audit typically covers several layers of your website simultaneously. The technical layer checks whether search engines can actually access and read your pages — including whether pages load fast enough, whether there are broken links, whether your URLs follow a sensible structure, and whether your HTTPS certificate is valid.
The on-page layer reviews each page's title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and content for quality and relevance. The off-page layer considers backlinks and external signals. Together, these three layers give a complete picture of where your site stands.
When should you run a site audit?
Site audits are most commonly run in three situations: before launching an SEO campaign (to establish a baseline and catch problems before you start building on shaky foundations), after a redesign or platform migration (to confirm nothing important broke in the transition), or on a regular schedule as part of ongoing maintenance. Running an audit after a major Google update can also help you understand whether your site was affected and what specifically changed.
What happens after an audit?
A site audit on its own changes nothing — its value is entirely in what you do with the findings. The output should be a prioritised list of issues, ranked by their likely impact on performance, not just a raw list of everything technically wrong. Critical issues (like important pages being blocked from search engines) should be addressed before minor improvements (like shortening a slightly-too-long meta description). Most site owners make the mistake of trying to fix everything at once rather than working through the highest-impact items first.
Key Takeaways
- A site audit examines technical health, on-page SEO, and overall structure.
- Run audits before campaigns, after redesigns, and periodically as maintenance.
- Prioritise fixes by impact — not every issue is equally urgent.
Related Questions
Frequently asked questions
What does a site audit check?
A site audit typically covers several layers of a website at once. The technical layer checks whether search engines can access and read your pages, including load speed, broken links, sensible URL structure and a valid HTTPS certificate. The on-page layer reviews each page's title tags, meta descriptions, headings and content for quality and relevance. The off-page layer considers backlinks and other external signals. Together, these layers give a complete, data-driven picture of how the site performs across technical health, user experience and search engine visibility, along with opportunities for improvement.
When should you run a site audit?
Site audits are most commonly run in three situations. The first is before launching an SEO campaign, to establish a baseline and catch problems before building on shaky foundations. The second is after a redesign or platform migration, to confirm nothing important broke during the transition. The third is on a regular schedule as part of ongoing maintenance. Running an audit after a major Google update can also help you understand whether your site was affected and what specifically changed. Regular audits make it easier to spot problems early, before they damage search visibility.
What should you do after a site audit?
A site audit changes nothing on its own; its value lies entirely in what you do with the findings. The output should be a prioritised list of issues ranked by their likely impact on performance, not just a raw list of everything technically wrong. Critical issues, such as important pages being blocked from search engines, should be fixed before minor improvements like shortening a slightly long meta description. A common mistake is trying to fix everything at once instead of working through the highest-impact items first, which spreads effort thinly and delays the improvements that matter most.