How To Audit A Site With Ahrefs Site Audit

Last updated connected June 5, 2022.

A to-the-point usher connected however to execute a basal method SEO audit with the assistance of Ahrefs Site Audit. 

Ahrefs – arsenic portion of its toolset – offers a precise bully SEO crawling instrumentality – Site Audit – that lets you easy place the astir communal technical, on-page, content, and indexability issues of your website. 

You don’t adjacent request to beryllium a paid Ahrefs subscriber to beryllium capable to usage that instrumentality arsenic Site Audit is portion of Ahrefs Webmaster Tools which is free.

In this guide, you volition larn however to behaviour a basal method SEO audit with the assistance of Ahrefs Site Audit. 

All you request to beryllium capable to travel this tutorial is to have Ahrefs Webmaster Tools verified for the tract you privation to audit and you are bully to go!

A Basic Technical SEO Audit With Ahrefs Site Audit Step By Step

The intent of this audit volition beryllium to cheque if your tract has immoderate communal method and on-page SEO issues. 

It tin beryllium a large starting constituent if your tract has ne'er been audited earlier oregon you privation to tally a speedy cheque of the astir important SEO elements. 

I divided this usher into 5 sections, each devoted to a antithetic country of SEO (indexability, presumption codes, interior linking, on-page SEO, bonus insights& reports) and a conception wherever I picture however I use Ahrefs Site Audit successful my ain SEO processes.  

Ready? Let’s get started. 

To access Ahrefs Site Audit, you request to:

1. Log successful to your Ahrefs Webmaster Tools account.
   If you haven’t created an Ahrefs Webmaster Tools relationship yet, delight bash it now. It volition instrumentality you a fewer minutes to acceptable everything up. 
2. Navigate to Site Audit successful the apical menu. 
3. Select your project. 

Check indexability

Indexability is the instauration of SEO. If your tract is not indexable, it does not adjacent basal a accidental of ranking.

Ahrefs Site Audit lets you rapidly cheque if your tract has indexability issues. 

Here is what you request to do: 

• In the near sidebar, click connected Indexability.
• Overview lets you spot the full fig of pages connected your tract and however galore of them are indexable. You volition besides cognize the reasons wherefore non-indexable pages cannot beryllium indexed. Click connected immoderate to spot the database of the affected pages.

• Tab Issues lists circumstantial issues related to indexability connected your website.
  Make definite to reappraisal them each and really analyse the affected pages.

❗TIP 1: Keep successful caput that – arsenic large arsenic Ahrefs Site Audit is – it is inactive lone a instrumentality that highlights circumstantial accusation based connected what its algorithm has found. The things you spot nether Issues are not needfully existent issues.

Your task arsenic an SEO is to reappraisal them and determine whether these are existent issues oregon not. This is simply Ahrefs informing you that circumstantial pages connected your tract cannot beryllium indexed and it’s your occupation to find whether oregon not it has been done connected purpose. 

❗TIP 2: If you privation to larn SEO, marque definite to spell to the tab All Issues and prime All Issues to reappraisal each imaginable indexability issues that Ahrefs Site Audit tin detect. Read their descriptions and comparison the existent issues your tract has with different imaginable indexability issues. This is truly an awesome learning exercise. 

Check presumption codes

Status codes – arsenic the sanction suggests – pass hunt motor robots astir the presumption of a circumstantial leafage oregon resource. Depending connected the benignant of presumption code, hunt motor robots whitethorn oregon whitethorn not beryllium capable to scale oregon crawl a circumstantial page.

Ahrefs Site Audit lets you rapidly instrumentality a look astatine the presumption codes of your pages.

To cheque the presumption codes of the pages of your website:

• Navigate to Reports > Internal pages. In the Overview, analyse the HTTP presumption codes distribution and HTTP presumption codes by extent level. 

Review the issues successful the tab Issues. 

• Navigate to Tools > Page explorer > All pages. Click connected the HTTP presumption codification to benignant the URLs of your tract by their presumption codes. This mode you tin rapidly reappraisal redirects oregon breached pages.

• You tin besides click connected Pages > Internal and prime 1 circumstantial benignant of presumption codification to use arsenic a filter. 

❗TIP 1: If you privation to get the database of 404 pages connected your site, simply navigate to Tools > Page explorer > Pages and prime Not found. Click connected Export to export the full database to Excel oregon a Google Sheet. Of course, you tin bash that with immoderate benignant of presumption code.

Check interior linking

Internal linking is truthful almighty and yet truthful underrated. 

I americium precise blessed to spot that Ahrefs Site Audit lets you analyse interior links easy and adjacent gives you utile insights connected however to optimize interior links connected your website.

Here is however you tin larn astir your interior links with the assistance of Ahrefs Site Audit: 

• Navigate to Tools > Link Explorer > Internal > All interior href links. This mounting volition show each interior links unneurotic with utile data, specified arsenic whether the nexus is nofollowed, root URL, people URL, anchor, etc. 

You tin benignant interior links successful galore antithetic ways similar by nofollowed links, by root URLs, etc. 

• To reappraisal circumstantial interior nexus issues that Ahrefs Site Audit has detected for your website, spell to All issues > All issues oregon Actual and reappraisal what’s nether Links. You volition spot circumstantial interior linking issues there. 

❗TIP 1: When in  Tools > Link Explorer > Internal > All interior href links, prime To redirect to reappraisal each interior links that are redirected. Unless you person nary different choice, you should ever debar having interior links redirected. Redirected links ever suffer immoderate “link juice”, truthful you should not marque Google spell done redirect hops.

In the lawsuit of my site, these are mostly affiliate links that are redirected, truthful that is not truly an issue. This has been done connected intent to marque affiliate links look much affable and to support them successful my ain domain. Your task – again – is to justice whether this is an contented successful the lawsuit of your site.

❗TIP 2: Navigate to Link opportunities to cheque if Ahrefs has detected immoderate interior nexus opportunities for your website. This study tin beryllium highly utile due to the fact that the nexus suggestions are made based connected the keywords for which your pages already rank. Adding interior links with anchor substance containing circumstantial keywords for which you fertile oregon privation to fertile tin really assistance you fertile for these presumption large time!  

Check on-page SEO 

Keeping on-page SEO successful cheque whitethorn beryllium overwhelming and complicated. Fortunately, you tin get a speedy glimpse astatine your site’s on-page utilizing galore disposable reports in Ahrefs Site Audit. 

Here is what you request to do:

• Navigate to Reports > Content and analyse the Overview.

You volition find a batch of utile accusation determination similar URLs by connection count, Title tag setup, Title magnitude distribution, meta statement information, and info astir H1 tags.

I truly similar the study that shows maine the connection number of the pages. It lets maine rapidly find if the tract creates in-depth longer contented oregon mostly has abbreviated and bladed pages of content.

• Go to tab Issues to reappraisal circumstantial issues that Ahrefs Site Audit has identified. Make definite to cheque whether these so are issues that request fixing.

• Go to Images to cheque the SEO optimization of the images connected your website. 

This study volition springiness you penetration into, among others, elements similar HTTP presumption codes distribution, ALT property distribution, interior pages by the fig of representation resources, and more.

I particularly similar the study that groups the pages by the fig of images they have. In astir cases, these volition beryllium the slowest pages that necessitate immoderate representation compression and optimization. 

• Go to tab Issues to reappraisal the issues detected by Ahrefs. Check All Issues to presumption each imaginable representation issues. 

REMINDER: Make definite to usage your communal SEO consciousness erstwhile analyzing these issues. Ahrefs is surfacing assorted elements and you request to determine whether they are really important and impactful for your website. 

Check performance

Page Speed Insights is simply a large instrumentality but you tin lone cheque 1 leafage astatine a time. Ahrefs Site Audit checks the show of your pages successful bulk and lets you easy spot the slowest pages. You tin besides link it to the PSI API and cheque Core Web Vitals scores successful bulk!

• Go to Reports > Performance > Overview to spot the overview of the show of your website. 
• Check the 2 Ahrefs metrics, specified arsenic Time to archetypal byte distribution and Load clip distribution. Check the pages affected and their clip for these 2 metrics. 

• Go to tab Issues, to presumption the show issues reported by Ahrefs. 

❗TIP 1: Do not get obsessed with velocity & performance. They are a tiny ranking factor. Remember that regarding speed, you conscionable request to beryllium a spot amended than your competitors. 

❗TIP 2: If you are unsure however to construe the information successful this report, spell to Google Search Console and cheque the Core Web Vitals report. If your tract passes Core Web Vitals successful GSC (in the field), past successful astir cases you don’t request to interest astir improving performance.

Check these bonus SEO insights & reports from Ahrefs Site Audit

Site Audit provides you with a fewer ace chill features and reports I powerfully urge you besides check: 

• Crawl log. This is simply a simplified mentation of a log record analysis. View this to spot what files Ahrefs crawler has crawled and whether it encountered immoderate problems.

❗TIP: You tin besides presumption the Crawl Stats study successful GSC to spot however Google has been crawling your website. 

• All issues. Use this study to get a speedy look astatine the issues Ahfres has detected. 

Go to All issues to larn astir each imaginable issues Ahrefs Site Audit can detect. Read the descriptions of circumstantial issues to larn much astir these issues. I urge this particularly if you are learning SEO and SEO auditing. 

• Bulk Export. This lets you rapidly export pages that incorporate circumstantial issues. This is ace utile if you privation to, for example, rapidly supply your lawsuit with immoderate utile information similar the database of each interior URLs, orphan pages, anchor text, pages with circumstantial effect codes, oregon mixed content. 

How I usage Ahrefs Site Audit successful my SEO processes

I person the Ahrefs Webmaster Tools relationship acceptable up for each my websites and for the websites of each my clients. 

I usage this instrumentality successful the pursuing ways:

1. To show my websites connected a regular ground and spot whether my sites got caller backlinks, mislaid backlinks, got caller keywords, etc. 
2. To crawl my sites connected a play ground to beryllium capable to spot immoderate method issues and hole them successful a timely manner. 
3. When doing a method SEO audit, I ever crawl the tract with aggregate crawlers. My favourite setup is Ahrefs Site Audit, Screaming Frog, and Sitebulb. Each instrumentality has its ain algorithms and shows somewhat antithetic results. Comparing the results from these 3 tools for the needs of 1 SEO audit tin truly springiness you a TON of penetration into the website. 
4. Link opportunities. I perfectly emotion this study and I ever find immoderate large interior linking opportunities with its help. I usually benignant the keywords by presumption and cheque the keywords for which my tract ranks connected positions 10-15. If I find immoderate large keywords there, I insert interior links, and often these keywords really determination up successful rankings. Of course, this is different task that requires your SEO contented to determine whether you really should and tin fertile for a circumstantial keyword and if it makes consciousness to adhd an interior nexus with this keyword arsenic anchor text.

The Recap

As you tin see, you don’t request to put a batch of wealth into costly SEO crawling tools to get an thought of however your tract is doing successful presumption of SEO.

What’s more, if you are caller to SEO and privation to larn astir important SEO elements, you tin bash that with Ahrefs Site Audit which offers explanations for each SEO contented it checks. 

I anticipation you liked this tutorial and you present cognize however to usage Ahrefs Webmaster Tools to audit your tract and find speedy SEO wins.

If you similar this guide, marque definite to cheque my different SEO audit tutorials:

• How to audit a tract with JetOctopus
• How to audit a tract with Google Search Console
• How to execute a method SEO audit (188+ points)