NEW: Now you can order the audit template in Spanish! You can buy it here.
TL;DR: I created a self-guided site audit checklist and template that walks you through how to do a site audit. You can steal buy it for $195. It contains boilerplate text that explains each of the 18 categories (and many of the individual issues), step-by-step instructions on how to perform a site audit, and tons of explainer graphics.
Are you a site owner who can’t afford a site audit? (Most start around $5,000, but I worked for one agency that charged between $20,000 and $40,000.) Or maybe a marketer who wants to grow in his/her technical marketing skills? Or a consultant looking for an audit template you can use as a jumping-off point? Or an agency seeking to scale out its site audit processes and train new marketers in how to do a [really comprehensive] site audit?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, this site audit checklist, template, and training doc is your ticket.
If you’re familiar with my work and want to say, “Shut up and take my money!” here’s a big, marketese buy now button. Go for it! 🙂
If you’re like me and want to make sure you’re not throwing away a cent of your money, continue reading …
Breakdown of Audit Checklist
Here are some features you can expect from the audit checklist and template:
Visual
The template is 140 pages, but it isn’t a solid wall of text. It includes 99 images, some of which are animated gifs to demonstrate processes with more steps than can be effectively communicated with static images. And many of the static images follow an explainer format, with the steps spelled out in the image, as you can see in the screenshots below.
And here’s an example of one of the animated gifs:
Thorough
The audit covers 18 categories of marketing issues:
- Content
- Crawl
- Sitemap
- Robots.txt
- Canonicalization
- Architecture
- Internal Links
- Inbound Links
- Semantic Markup
- Images
- Video
- Titles
- Meta Descriptions
- Site Speed
- Mobile
- International
- Business
- Social
Each category is broken down into a number of issues you should check for, along with corresponding recommendations. These checks come with specific instructions for how to do the research the check requires, including step-by-step instructions for each tool you’ll need to use.
Organized
Before you even get to the audit categories and checklists, there is a section in the beginning of the audit with all of the tools I recommend using for the audit — both required and optional — and preliminary tasks I recommend running, such as running a crawl of the site with Screaming Frog. And, as I used to tell junior marketers I worked with, if you didn’t crawl the site, you didn’t do an audit.
I also give you examples of snippets to use in Screaming Frog to drop into its amazing custom filters. I break them down into snippets for tracking, semantic markup, and miscellaneous.
Finessed
I used a number of custom styles to align it with my branding. (Expect to see lots of lime green and orange!) But I include instructions for how to customize the audit to your own branding. I even include explainer graphics for how to find your branded colors using a combination of tools.
Okay, fine. There is also a sprinkling a silly images as well, but those serve more to break up the monotony of text.
Templated
Each section includes an intro with boilerplate text that explains basic principles and best practices. But then many of the individual “issues” also include boilerplate text that you can just keep and use. I accrued these over the past seven years by adding to them with each audit I did. You benefit from that.
Proactive
Who hasn’t done an audit just to wonder later how many of your recommendations were actually implemented? To reduce that risk I also include a link to a Google Spreadsheet I use to list all of the issues in the audit. (They are already pre-listed for you following the numbering conventions in the audit checklist.)
Self-Guided
This audit template and checklist doesn’t assume any prior knowledge of the skills required to do the audit. I meticulously combed through the audit checklist to make sure the steps were explained clearly so that even a junior-level marketer could understand them. I strove to be empathetic to marketers working at SMBs who usually can’t afford to hire an agency or consultant to run an audit on their site(s).
That said, before an audit is delivered it should be run by a more experienced marketer, if nothing else to help assess the priority index of each category.
But this document could also easily double as a training doc for new hires to introduce them to the principles of SEO and online marketing.
Price
This audit template is $195. I purposely priced it low to make it accessible to businesses of all budget sizes.
But this won’t just be a one-and-you’re-done deal. New issues pertinent to SEO, social media, and online marketing in general emerge all the time, and this document will seek to keep pace with those changes. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I stay on top of industry news. I will vigilant to add the more impactful updatesto the audit template in checklist form. And you will be emailed with a list of the changes for that month.
Your membership will qualify to download all modified versions for up to one year from the time of purchase.
Spanish Version
If you’re Spanish speaking, I offer the audit template in Spanish for the same price of $195. Even the Google Doc is in Spanish!
My Appeal
I purposely priced this document very low to make it widely accessible. If you work for an agency, you only need to purchase one copy. Distribution in the agency is permitted. Same with companies. But any other distribution is prohibited, including but not limited to email, message boards, and social media. Derivative works are also prohibited and protected under intellectual property laws.
Need Help?
If you purchase the audit checklist and get stuck you’re not without a safety net. I offer one- and two-hour hangouts, which can be purchased at $200/hr.