Quick SEO Audit for Prospective Clients

[Rich_Coffman]

What online service provides the best SEO website audits? I can do an in depth one on my own but don't have the time to compose reports for prospective clients. I have been using Woorank, but was wondering if there was something better.

[NateStewart]

I recommend the SEOquake plugin for firefox or chrome. once installed just visit the site you want to audit and click the button in the tool bar, select page info for link info and keywords, then go back to the site and click the diagnosis button. for on-page analysis.

hope you find what you are looking for.

[mihaiaperghis]

Hey Rich,

WebGnomes have a pretty nice list of website analysis tools: http://www.webgnomes.org/blog/10-seo-analysis-tools/

I test ran most of them, but I still find myself going back to Woorank.

Hope this helps.

[matbennett]

One that isn't on that webgnomes list that I think is quite good is sitebeam.net .  Worth a look for a general overview that isn't just focused on "pure" seo metrics.

I would say though, that I wouldn't trust any automated tool as an audit - even as a basic one.  They all focus on issues that are easy to spot programmatically. Some of those issues can be important, but I tend to find that the approach puts undue emphasis on minor issues and can detract from bigger ones.

My usual approach for a "15 minute feel for the site" is to spend a few minutes clicking around to understand the site, take a look at their link profile, do a few test searches and see where they rank then go back over the landing pages that appeared for those searches, do a site: search etc.  That is in no way thorough, but in a few minutes I think it can give you a better feel than many of those tools can.

[KeriMorgret]

I second what Mat has to say. A Woorank audit isn't going to pick up the About Us page that says "stop emailing us with SEO offers", and you run the risk of having the person you email (who has such a page on her website) emailing you back showing that their model boat site has a higher Woorank score than their SEO website and adding some commentary that isn't fit for me to publish on this forum as someone who wears the staff sash.

[Rich_Coffman]

Thanks for the great responses. I have decided to do audits by hand and compile results into a Google Doc. I do around 1 a week, it's worth the time.

I tried sitebeam.net. it is good for a quick overview but like woorank it doesnt really scratch the surface when it comes to content analysis like What are the title tags and what are the headers.