HTML5 has revolutionized the development process and changed the way we can serve user experience. A more capable and feature-rich HyperText Markup Language version allowed developers to create more interactive, dynamic, and multimedia-focused UX than ever, which became a game-changer for businesses, in particular. And it didn’t stop there.
HTML5 has also expanded businesses’ search engine optimization perspectives. Better multimedia support and the introduction of semantic elements of web pages have offered us an opportunity to adopt HTML5 SEO best practices more easily.
Now, to make the most out of it, we have to implement thorough SEO audit processes. With their help, we can:
- Ensure the site’s technical health;
- Provide greater device compatibility;
- Support seamless crawlability and indexing;
- Improve content quality;
- Define missed opportunities that can transform into traffic.
Let’s see how you can perform audits today to detect SEO issues with maximum effectiveness.
The Paramount Role of SEO Software in Site Audit
Website audit, albeit pivotal for rankings and UX, can be very tedious to perform manually. For this reason, the best SEO software undoubtedly makes the foundation of any effective website checkup.
SEO tools allow you to collect more profound data about the different areas of your site’s performance and analyze it with minimal human intervention. This way, you save time. And you can diagnose all types of issues from a single dashboard.
From the technical perspective, it lets you detect the following issues:
- Crawlability problems
- Broken links
- Missing metadata
- Slow-loading pages
- Structural inconsistencies
Additionally, the right software will let you assess mobile responsiveness, internal linking, Core Web Vitals, indexation, and more.
How do you get maximum functionality? You have to pick the best SEO tools for this purpose. Pay attention to unbiased SEO software reviews and comparisons on the web. They can inform your decision and help you pick a solution that you can actually count on. And when you’re equipped, you can carry on and perform your audit. Let’s see how to do it effectively.
Handle SEO Audit on the Page
First, focus on the key pages. Popular online SEO software options allow you to comprehensively assess your pages against dozens of essential parameters that define rankings.
Here’s what to pay attention to:
Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
These elements are the first touchpoints between you and your visitors. The metadata appears next to your link in SERPs. Often, it’s decisive in terms of whether a person will visit your site or not.
In the audit process, measure the current CTR. Then, check how clear and descriptive your metadata is. And evaluate their length to ensure that both a title and description show fully in SERPs. If you notice any issues, use metadata optimization techniques for improvement. Rewrite your titles and descriptions for better accuracy and engagement, improve their length, and naturally integrate target keywords.
Headings
Header tags play several roles in on-page SEO. Firstly, they create a content hierarchy. A logical hierarchy presents the information to visitors in the most logical and skimmable way. Respectively, it improves readability and overall user experience, leading to better engagement. Secondly, headings give you additional space for keyword integration. And lastly, your header tags are what search engine bots rely on when crawling your site. They improve bots’ understanding of the page, and hence can improve your rankings.
Advanced SEO audit solutions will let you evaluate the hierarchical structure of headings and the presence of relevant keywords in them. Such tools can also help you detect duplicate or missing tags. These insights can be used to enhance the content’s organization and clarity.
Alt Attributes
Page accessibility may not be a direct ranking factor. Yet, it greatly affects UX and lets you capture visitors who require accessibility features. This will lower bounce rates. At the same time, it can give you higher engagement and longer sessions. And it also simplifies the crawling process and helps bots understand your site better.
Alt attributes are among the most essential accessibility features. SEO tools can help you detect missing, duplicate, or too-long/too-short alt texts across your images to give you actionable insights for improving visibility.
Keyword Placement
We all know that keywords play by far one of the most crucial roles in SEO. They help you make your pages and content easily understandable for search engine algorithms and allow them to match your content to relevant user queries. So, when you are looking to improve your SEO and rankings, of course, you need to audit your keywords.
The best SEO software can give you a deep dive into this matter. It will analyze the essential metrics, such as rankings, impressions, clicks, density, competitor strategies, and others, to detect the following issues:
- Poor keyword targeting
- Keyword stuffing
- Keyword cannibalization
- Irrelevant placement
HTML5 Semantic Structure
Lastly, semantic structure is also pivotal for HTML5 SEO. Proper semantical attribution helps you create and maintain the proper content hierarchy. Respectively, it can improve UX and bots’ understanding of your pages.
Audit software can evaluate your current HTML5 SEO meta tags and signal about incorrect hierarchy, missing tags, improper use of tags, or their overuse.
User Experience and Site Performance Analysis
After performing an on-page SEO audit, you should move on and assess your site for UX and technical issues. In this block, we’ll guide you through the primary elements of each to help you focus on things that matter the most.
User Experience
User experience is a cumulative ranking factor. That is, it’s not a single element that creates a better visibility, but a number of things that contribute to it. In particular, Google uses page experience and engagement signals to determine your position in SERPs. And here’s what you should audit to improve these indicators:
- Navigation. Users stay longer and engage more with websites they can easily and freely move around. So, it’s one of the factors to focus for better rankings. SEO tools analyze both visible and hidden navigation issues. They can tell you about poor site structure, improper use of navigation labels, duplicate content, and lack of internal linking. And then there is a broken link check. This feature can help you detect which links trigger 404 errors and fix them.
- Readability. In the process of your audit, be sure to analyze readability within the HTML5 layout to gain insights for improvement.
- Accessibility. Accessibility is a major trend in design and UX. But it’s not just about alt text. Apart from it, you can also assess color contrast, keyboard accessibility, screen reader compatibility, and other accessibility features during your audit.
Site Performance
Continue your site performance analysis by looking into the major technical aspects that impact SEO:
- Page speed. This factor impacts your UX, engagement, and reputation. Today, it’s a direct ranking factor, which means that you absolutely can’t skip a website speed audit. You can get an accurate measurement of your current loading speed with audit tools. Additionally, they will hint at the specific issues that might be affecting it. With these insights, you can implement technical SEO best practices to improve site performance.
- Design responsiveness. Since we’re living in the mobile-first age, keeping your website accessible and convenient for mobile users is essential for success. Use HTML5 SEO audit to identify responsiveness issues and improve your site’s design.
- Page experience. Some of the primary components of Google’s page experience algorithm are Core Web Vitals. These factors stand for the speed of loading and interaction of your site, as well as its visual stability, which all matter for UX. Don’t forget to assess them in the audit process.
Conclusion
Due to the high competition and dynamics of the market, a consistent SEO audit policy is an essential part of optimization success. Use the steps and tips mentioned above to create effective audit practices and repeat them regularly to keep your website relevant and top-performing at all times.
Bonus tip: Merge the use of reliable SEO tools with manual effort. Although software is great for automation, human oversight can help ensure greater accuracy and detect opportunities that a machine could’ve missed out of sight.