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Site Audit

Overview

The Site Audit tool is the diagnostic engine of Hotspot SEO. It deploys a crawler to scan your website's pages, identifying technical SEO issues that could prevent search engines from ranking your content.

Key Capabilities:

  • Health Score: A proprietary grade (0-100) indicating the overall technical optimization of your site.

  • Automated Crawling: Set-and-forget scheduling to ensure you are always monitoring for new errors.

  • Deep Scanning: Checks for broken links (404s), missing meta tags, slow load times, and SSL issues.

Dashboard Columns:

  1. Project: The website name and logo.

  2. Last Crawl: The date and time of the most recent scan (shows --- if never crawled).

  3. Status: Current state of the crawler (e.g., Not Initiated, Crawling, Completed, or Failed).

  4. Health Score: The overall grade (0-100).

  5. URLs Crawled: Total pages scanned in the last audit.

  6. Scheduled: Shows the automated frequency (e.g., Not Scheduled, Weekly, Monthly).

Setting: A quick-access Gear Icon (⚙️) to jump directly to the audit configuration.


How to Use Site Audit

There are two ways to run an audit: Manually (for immediate results) or automatically (for ongoing monitoring).

1. Configuring Automated Audits

To ensure your site is constantly monitored without manual intervention, set up a recurring schedule.

  1. Navigate: Go to your Dashboard or Website List.

  2. Open Settings: Click the Gear Icon (⚙️) next to the project you want to configure.

  3. Select Tab: Click on the "Site Audit" tab within the "Update a Project" screen.

  4. Configure Schedule:

    • Frequency: Select Daily, Weekly or Monthly from the dropdown.

    • Start Day: Choose the specific day (e.g., Monday) for the crawl to run.

    • Start Time: Select a time (e.g., 12:00 PM) when your server traffic is low to minimize impact.

  5. Save: Click Save to activate the schedule. The status column in your dashboard will now show "Scheduled".

Understanding the Data

Once an audit is complete, you can view the results in the Website Analyzing grid or the Project Overview.

Metric

Description

Health Score

A weighted score from 0-100.

• 90-100: Excellent

• 70-89: Good (Minor improvements needed)

• 0-69: Critical (Immediate attention required)

URLs Crawled

The total number of pages the bot successfully scanned. If this number is lower than expected, check your robots.txt file.

Last Crawl

The timestamp of the most recent completed scan.

Status

• Completed: Audit finished successfully.

• In Process: Currently in progress.

• Cancelled: The crawler could not access the site (check Firewall/DNS).


Here are some key components of a website audit:

Technical SEO Audit:

  • Crawlability and Indexing: Ensuring that search engines can crawl and index the website's pages.
  • Site Speed: Analyzing page load times and identifying areas for improvement.
  • Mobile Responsiveness: Checking if the website is optimized for various devices, especially mobile devices.

On-Page SEO Audit:

  • Meta Tags: Reviewing and optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags.
  • Keyword Usage: Ensuring proper and strategic use of relevant keywords in content.
  • Content Quality: Assessing the overall quality and relevance of website content.

User Experience (UX) Audit:

  • Navigation: Evaluating the ease of navigation and structure of the website.
  • User Interface (UI): Assessing the overall design and visual appeal of the website. Conversion.
  • Optimization: Analyzing elements that may impact conversion rates.

Content Audit:

  • Content Relevance: Ensuring that content meets the needs of the target audience. Duplicate Content: Identifying and addressing duplicate or thin content.
  • Content Structure: Reviewing the organization and formatting of content for better readability.
  • Backlink Profile Audit: Quality of Backlinks: Evaluating the quality and relevance of the websites linking to the site.
  • Anchor Text Analysis: Checking the anchor text distribution for natural link profiles.

Security Audit:

  • SSL Certificate: Verifying the presence of a valid SSL certificate for secure connections.
  • Security Vulnerabilities: Checking for vulnerabilities that could compromise the website's security.
  • Analytics and Tracking: Google Analytics: Verifying that tracking tools are properly implemented and configured.
  • Conversion Tracking: Ensuring that goals and conversions are accurately tracked.
  • After conducting a website audit, a detailed report is typically generated, outlining the findings and providing recommendations for improvements. Regular site audits are essential to keep a website in good health, adapt to evolving best practices, and maintain or improve its search engine rankings and user experience.