SEO Audit Checklist

Over the years of doing SEO audits for clients, I’ve developed a brief “SEO Checklist” of items that I like to make sure to at least consider with every site. The list is far from comprehensive. Instead it gives me a good jumping off point to assess a number of potential SEO problems and optimizations. If you have any additions, let me know!

Jeffrey Donenfeld’s SEO Checklist

SEO

  • Tagging Meta, Title, Semantic Hierarchy, Image
  • Content duplication/canonicalization
  • RSS, MRSS and syndication
  • Sitemap – XML and HTML
  • Robots.txt – Sitemap, Disallow
  • Footer – Sitemap, Nav
  • Breadcrumbing
  • SEOmoz crawl test
  • URL Structure – Accessibility, Keywords
  • Flash Usage – SWF_Object
  • Microformats

SEO Opportunities

  • Keyword content development
  • Analytics tracking/optimization
  • Landing page strategy
  • Linkbuilding
  • Content tagging
  • Registration/Checkout process funnel
  • Content visibility
  • Top Content Iteration
  • Load time optimization

Design

  • IA
  • CSS/Tables/HTML
  • 404 report
  • Image usage
  • Video usage
  • Navigation function
  • Search page utility
  • Topic page utility

Usability

  • Navigation analysis
  • Site layout and functionality
  • Conversion funnels and flows
  • Search functionality
  • House ad strategy
  • Footer (for visibility too)
  • Breadcrumbing
  • Registration/Checkout process funnel