Getting an SEO audit, and then what?

An SEO audit is a check of your website on everything that decides whether Google can find, read and show your pages. You get a list of what is wrong and what could be better.

A good audit looks at six areas:

• Can Google find and index your pages?
• Technical
• Speed
• Content and headings
• Structure and links
• Getting found locally

What an audit costs differs per provider and per size of site. So a price alone tells you little. Ask up front what you get.

1. Is it a list or a plan?Ask whether you only get the errors, or also what to fix first.
2. Is every point explained?Ask whether each point says why it matters and how to fix it.
3. What happens after the report?Ask who fixes the points and whether you pay again for that.
4. What if your site changes?Ask whether you can run the audit again later.

With RankLantern you get the points with an explanation, you can run the audit again and it is part of every subscription. We do not sell a separate paid report.

A one-off report is a snapshot. It shows how your site is doing today. After that comes a new page, a plugin update or a move, and something can break again.

With an ongoing check you run the audit again and see what is new. With Pro, the weekly Autopilot also writes new articles every week as drafts.

What you get every month is on the SEO subscription page.

The free SEO check goes through over 60 checks on up to 30 pages of your site. You need no account and nothing is changed. After about a minute you see a score from 0 to 100, with the most important problems at the top.

Each point says what it is and what the fix does. See it as a first look at your site, not as a full report: the report per page is in a subscription. Start with the free SEO check.

Only want to check one page? Use the free Chrome extension.

Every plan starts with a site audit with over 60 checks per page and an explanation for each improvement point.

• The full report per page, with for each point why it matters and how to fix it.
• Mobile loading speed, measured with Google PageSpeed on your most important pages.
• From Pro: Search Console insights and the weekly Autopilot.

Every feature per plan is on the pricing page.

1. Look at the score. It runs from 0 to 100 and counts errors the most and warnings less.
2. Start with the errors at the top. For each point, read why it matters and what the fix does.
3. Fix the points yourself, or have someone watch along. With Managed we make the plan and check everything.
4. Run the audit again and see what has been fixed.

Read more about outsourcing SEO if you would rather have it done for you.

A specialist does something RankLantern does not: backlink research and research into your competitors.

Do you run a large web shop, are you moving your site or do you want link building? Then a manual audit fits better.

Also read SEO subscription and WordPress SEO.