)
)
Just when you think you’ve got Google’s algorithm all figured out, bam: another update. It’s the song that never ends, and agencies that want their clients’ websites to perform well have to stay on top of it.
Site audits are one of the best ways to do exactly that.
Regular site audits can help you identify red flags and potential problems within your client’s site that could result in lower search engine rankings.
Luckily, there are software tools available to help with your auditing efforts. These handle things like measuring the site’s SEO performance, gauging mobile usability, reviewing content marketing pieces, offering page speed insights, and more.
Below, we’ll highlight 15 of our favorite site auditing tools, along with descriptions and the reasons they made our list. (If you’re interested in a deeper dive into SEO project management, check out our ultimate guide to SEO project management for digital agencies.)
Google tools
Google is an unmatched powerhouse of organic searches and paid ads. Some would even say they wrote the book on what is considered valuable and relevant to include on websites.
Well, we know for sure that they wrote the algorithm.
Because of the company's prolific reputation, Google tools top our list of must-have support for a successful website audit. The tools we chose are aligned with the freshest, most in-depth information needed to build a high-performing site.
Google gathers first-party data, which is information directly from their customers. The resulting database is reason enough to give the tech giant a place in your client's website auditing toolbox.
Here are three Google tools we advise you not to miss when you're building your suite of solutions to manage your client’s audit.
1) Google Search Console (GSC)
Submitting your XML sitemap to GSC enables it to crawl your client's site and properly index it, which helps its rankings.
From there, GSC provides essential intel for your client's site audit, such as:
AMP page information
Googlebot crawler statistics
An explanation of your keyword performance
You need to use GSC in a website audit, as it provides tons of data that affect website health. Since it’s free, budgetary concerns aren’t an issue.
2) Google Analytics
SEO audit tools should be part of any website audit, and Google Analytics is one of the best ones we’ve ever used. It measures (just for starters):
Page load times
Traffic filtered by device type
Campaign tracking
The metrics it provides give you plenty of insight into how your client's website is functioning, and what items need work.
)
3) Schema Markup Testing Validator
The term “schema markup” refers to a structured code or data that helps Google better examine and understand your client's site. Google’s Schema Markup Testing Validator finds code errors on your client's site.
Additionally, it generates detailed information on how they might be hindering Google’s ability to crawl your client's website pages and index content. These errors could be causing the site to not be ranked as high on search engine results pages (SERPs) as it could be.
By fixing these errors, you can improve the website’s search ranking and hopefully increase your organic traffic.
Technical SEO
Website optimization is another vital factor in establishing and maintaining website health. Technical SEO is a big part of it. Technical errors on your client's website could hinder its performance for humans and bots. Trying to eyeball this information is nearly impossible, making technical SEO tools mandatory.
Here are three of the most intuitive technical SEO tools that provide the greatest functionality and most robust information on the market.
4) Screaming Frog
This tool is installed and then proceeds to deep crawl your client's website. It pulls out in-depth data, including any SEO issues like:
Internal linking errors
Duplicate content
Broken links
Blocked URLs
Screaming Frog is a powerful tool that helps website auditors quickly uncover technical SEO issues that could be impacting site performance.
5) Sitebulb
This crawling software makes our list because it analyzes data from an SEO perspective. As it finds issues, it prioritizes them in order of importance so it’s easy to decide what to work on first.
Sitebulb generates detailed reports that show critical issues like missing HTML, medium-priority issues like images meeting ALT text, and low-level issues like missing meta descriptions.
Its succinct language and visually pleasing layout make learning how to use this tool simple, making it a perfect choice for agencies just starting out.
)
6) Lumar
Checking your client's website performance is much easier if you employ Lumar to dig into its metrics.
It performs multiple valuable functions, like testing your XML sitemap and reviewing canonical tags, meta headers, and page titles. It also provides a plethora of informative metrics, like information on eCommerce product pages, backlink metrics, and the site’s breadcrumbs.
Lumar can crawl up to 450 URLs per second and is touted as the fastest crawler on the market. Its built-in reports ensure you never overlook a critical issue that could damage the website’s rank or hinder its user experience.
On-page SEO
A significant aspect of a technical SEO audit is evaluating a site’s on-page SEO. Optimizing parts of web pages (like the content, title tags, and internal links) helps your client's site rank higher on search engines.
While there are numerous tools that can help companies audit on-site SEO, the two best ones for providing functionality and usability are:
7) Clearscope
Clearscope is a must-use tool for optimizing your web pages with targeted keywords. A great tool for creating content, Clearscope offers reporting features that provide priceless intel about current web pages and how they help or hurt your site’s ranking.
By using natural language processing, the software generates keywords that flow naturally into the content, helping crawlers and human readers alike.
Add URLs to the inventory and track them to see how well they perform. If you see low scores during your audit, you know it’s time to re-do the page and refresh the keywords.
8) Crazy Egg
Detailed data is this software’s game, with:
Exportable heatmaps
User experience audits
Customer analysis
A/B testing
You can even tag website usability issues so you can promptly address them and reinstate a positive user journey.
This tool, with its rich reporting features, makes it easy to share user behavior and form data-driven decisions. The pricing starts at just $29 per month, which is another plus in its favor.
)
Page speed
Websites should move fast and seamlessly. Otherwise, humans and crawlers will click away, dissatisfied with the experience.
That’s why looking at page speed is essential during every technical website audit. Even if your client's site has tons of relevant information, nobody will read it if it’s sluggish or fails to load.
Here are the best tools to employ for testing and refining the website’s speediness.
9) GTmetrix
This tool is a testing analyzer generating quantifiable data on page speed information across multiple device types.
Its robust reporting features shed light on why loading speeds may be slow, complete with:
Lighthouse metrics
Web vitals
Waterfall, video, and report history
GTmetrix’s support is ongoing with a monitoring feature, including available notifications that alert you if your client's website slows down.
10) Pingdom tools
Finding website slowdowns and bottlenecks so they can be rectified quickly is what this tool is all about. Simply enter a URL to test load times with 70 polling locations.
Real user monitoring reports on activities like geographic hot spots with live mapping, advanced filtering, and insights into user behaviors and platforms. In addition, this tool monitors websites’ uptime and performance.
)
All-in-one SEO tools
We’ve heard the terms “single source” and “one-stop-shop” many times and with good reason.
Why employ three, four, or five avenues when one avenue will serve the purpose?
This rationale is why some website auditing tools are broad pieces of software that check many of the required boxes at once. Small businesses especially benefit from the ease of use and economic advantage of a single, all-encompassing tool.
While several all-in-one tools are available on the market, there are three that stand above their counterparts in terms of functionality, performance, and simplicity.
11) Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an overarching tool with at least five sub-tools in its arsenal.
Its Site Audit tool is the main one helpful in website audits, able to quickly identify technical issues related to the site’s external pages, JavaScript, redirects, nofollow links, and more.
Another benefit is that it crawls both the desktop and mobile versions of your client's site, helping you address issues on either one. Along with the other tools under the Ahrefs name, the Site Audit tool is a lifesaver.
12) Moz
Moz is the buffet of website management, including site audits.
It can crawl even the biggest websites quickly, saving time and making audits less painful. And for a non-human piece of software, Moz is pretty friendly with its to-the-point explanations and helpful prioritizations of issues.
Use this powerful tool to catch broken redirects, missing title pages, and other common technical SEO issues that cause problems with rankings and building organic site traffic.
)
13) Semrush
Semrush is a well-known tool in the SEO realm and has been around since the other ones were mere ideas. This seniority has given it time to hone its offerings, currently boasting 40+ tools to help digital marketing professionals manage their websites successfully.
From an auditing perspective, Semrush provides helpful keyword research, rank tracking, and monitoring of social media.
The software’s auditing tool employs a website crawler to uncover all types of technical issues quickly. It throws up flags on everything from meta tags to the website crawlability to load speeds and more. Visual learners will love the tool’s graphs that richly display the audit results.
14) AgencyAnalytics
AgencyAnalytics is the trusted all-in-one SEO tool, streamlining client reporting and enhancing marketing strategies. It saves time by eliminating the need for multiple tools and improves reporting efficiency with its comprehensive features and customizable dashboards.
Its robust tools enable daily rank tracking, backlink monitoring, technical SEO audits, and optimized strategies for maximum impact, keeping you ahead of the competition and achieving better results.
AgencyAnalytics seamlessly tracks SEO data alongside other crucial KPIs like, social media, email marketing, and e-commerce, showcasing the impact of your campaigns to clients effortlessly.
SEO project management
While SEO is an animal like no other, an agency’s SEO strategy for a client is a project just like other projects you’ll tackle. Its success or failure is decided by the team’s ability to manage the project, complete tasks, problem-solve obstacles, and see it through to completion.
The value of project management tools is just as relevant for SEO project management as for every other type of project.
Just like the other tools we've discussed today, it can be difficult to choose the right project management software. The challenge of choosing is why we added two of our favorites to this list.
Learn why more agencies choose Teamwork as their trusted project management tool.
14) Teamwork
Managing every aspect of the SEO site audit is within this tool’s wheelhouse, allowing users to transparently see the plans and their roles in them.
)
Break large projects down into subtasks.
Plan team member workloads (and adjust if needed).
Schedule resources.
Collaborate with team members and clients in real time or asynchronously.
Plan budgets, including one-off expenses.
Get project profitability insights.
…all without ever leaving Teamwork.
If obstacles come up (as they do in almost every project) the software’s highly-visual dashboard helps identify and address them earlier in the process.
Finally, review the finished project and see where you can improve the next time.
)
15) Freedcamp
This software tool can energize your SEO audit project management efforts by placing your favorite business tools at your fingertips.
From the first steps of planning the project, building out the calendar, and assigning roles to the final steps of reaching milestones and figuring out how to overcome bottlenecks and other obstacles, this tool keeps you focused on the project and informed of the progress.
Freedcamp’s intuitive design offers the ability to always stay on top of communication and in control of tasks.
Organize your client's website audit tasks properly with Teamwork
Executing website audits effectively helps maintain website health, protect your search engine ranking, and keep the organic traffic flowing. By putting a few or several of the tools listed above to use, you can feel confident that every one of these web pages is error-free and properly indexed by search engines.
If your team needs a way to manage your client's website audits, trust Teamwork to provide a comprehensive, intuitive solution. Our robust platform helps you manage the project from beginning to end, without losing track or getting bogged down in details.
With its many helpful features like open collaboration, resource allocation, and pre-built templates, the software will provide you with a way to make quick progress and reach your goals.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)