Want to conduct a comprehensive SEO audit for your web site but didn't know how to get started? Download this SEO Audit worksheet - it's free, easy to use, and produces great results! Covering over 90 of the most common SEO mistakes that most web sites make, this SEO audit tool will help you learn the best practices of search engine optimization as well as where to focus your attention so that you can start realizing ROI for all your hard work. Have more SEO questions? Feel free to connect with me on Twitter at @jcolman - http://twitter.com/jcolman

1. SEO audit worksheet
Developed by Jonathon Colman (Twitter @jcolman) - 05/13/2011
Site name:
Site URL:
Intended
Page #1 Page #2
answer
General accessibility of content
Content embedded in Flash? No
Frames/iFrames used in site construction? No
Secure server? No
Robots.txt blocking crawlers? No
Entry page requiring verification? No
Input form (e.g., search field) required? No
Login required? No
Page access restricted by cookie? No
Page-level metadata elements
<title> element present? Yes
<title> element < 70 characters? Yes
<title> element includes primary/secondary keywords? Yes
<meta> description element present? Yes
<meta> description element < 150 characters? Yes
<meta> description element includes primary/secondary keywords? Yes
<meta> keywords element present? Yes
<meta> keywords element includes primary/secondary keywords? Yes
Canonical <link> element present? Yes
<meta> robots element with "noodp" attribute present? Yes
Page-level content
Keyword research performed, primary/secondary keywords identified? Yes
<h1> element present? Yes
<h#> elements used for all headers? Yes
Body content exists? Yes
Body content is original? Yes
Body content is unique to this page? Yes
Body content presents value? Yes
Body content marked up in semantic elements? (e.g., <p>, <strong>, <em>, etc.) Yes
Text abstracted from images? Yes
Internal link anchor text uses primary/secondary keywords? Yes
Front-end coding
JavaScript, Flash, or other client-side rendering used to display priority content? No
JS consolidated, linked in a single, external file? Yes
In-line JS used? No
CSS consolidated, linked in a single, external file? Yes
In-line CSS used? No
Page constructed so that body copy appears first in code? Yes

2. Rel="nofollow" used for links appearing within user-generated content? Yes
Rel="nofollow" used for internal links? (e.g., "PageRank sculpting") No
Rel="nofollow" used on all external links? No
XHTML validates successfully without errors Yes
CSS validates successfully without errors Yes
Microformats present for structured content attributes (e.g., hCard, RDFa, etc.) Yes
Site-wide architecture
Universal navigation present? Yes
Utility navigation present? Yes
Contextual navigation present? Yes
Footer navigation present? Yes
Multiple calls-to-action present? Yes
URL rendered in browser matches canonical <link> element? Yes
Navigation rendered in XHTML? Yes
Images used for navigation? No
JavaScript used for navigation? No
Flash used for navigation? No
HTML site map exists and is linked to? Yes
XML site map exists and is linked to? Yes
Highest-priority content linked to? Yes
Duplicate content - <title> elements? No
Duplicate content - <meta> elements? No
In-line links present in body copy? Yes
Page deeper than three levels from the homepage? No
Less than 100 total links present on page? (including navigation) Yes
Site performance issues
Page loads in 1.5s or less according to Google Page Speed/Google Analytics? Yes
Total page file size > 150 K (before images, CSS, linked files, etc.)? Yes
Images optimized? Yes
Linked files (JS, CSS, images, media, etc.) optimized? Yes
HTTP requests minimized? Yes
JS code minified? Yes
CSS code minified? Yes
X/HTML minified? Yes
Compression used? Yes
Code optimized for client-side rendering? Yes
Browser caching used? Yes
Images combined into CSS sprites? Yes
URL structure
Session IDs used? No
"Natural language" URLs used in page name? (e.g., keywords in URLs) Yes
"Natural language" URLs used in directory name? (e.g., keywords in URLs) Yes
"Natural language" used in domain/sub-domain name? (e.g., keywords in URLs) Yes
URL parameters avoided? Yes
Overly long, dynamic URL avoided? Yes
URL rewrite/canonicalization in place? (e.g., "/" vs. "/index.html") Yes

3. Use of redirects
301s used for redirect instead of 302s? No
<meta> refresh redirect used? No
JavaScript redirect used? No
Redirect chain (multiple redirects in a row) avoided? Yes
3xx error? No
4xx error? No
"Soft 404" error? No
5xx error? No
Metrics and analysis
Web analytics is set up and yielding actionable data for this page? Yes
Page is indexed in Google? Yes
Page is receiving organic keyword traffic from Google? Yes
Page is indexed in Bing? Yes
Page is receiving organic keyword traffic from Bing? Yes
Page is indexed in Yahoo? Yes
Page is receiving organic keyword traffic from Yahoo? Yes
Page is linked to from external web sites? Yes

4. Site section #1
Page #3 Page #4 Page #5 Page #6 Page #7 Page #8 Page #9 Page #10 Page #1 Page #2

7. Site section #2
Page #3 Page #4 Page #5 Page #6 Page #7 Page #8 Page #9 Page #10 Page #1 Page #2

10. Site section #3
Page #3 Page #4 Page #5 Page #6 Page #7 Page #8 Page #9 Page #10 Page #1 Page #2

13. Site section #4
Page #3 Page #4 Page #5 Page #6 Page #7 Page #8 Page #9 Page #10 Page #1 Page #2

16. Site section #5
Page #3 Page #4 Page #5 Page #6 Page #7 Page #8 Page #9 Page #10