Any robust SEO strategy starts with a solid foundation. If your website isn’t performing well in organic search, then the issue may lie beneath the surface.
At FSE Digital, we’ve created a manual 41-point SEO audit / health check designed to uncover hidden performance issues and ensure your website is fully optimised to meet the latest SEO standards. By splitting the audit into three key core areas of, Indexation & Accessibility, On-page Optimisation, and Technical Optimisation – we provide a comprehensive roadmap to SEO success.
Here’s how our health check can revitalise your website’s SEO performance.
What’s Included in One of Our SEO Health checks?
A health check carried out by us is a meticulous audit of your website’s SEO performance. Covering critical factors like indexation, content optimisation, and technical functionality, this 41-point checklist ensures your website not only complies with search engine best practices but also capitalises on opportunities to improve visibility and engagement.
By addressing areas such as site speed, keyword targeting, and canonical tags, our health check provides actionable insights to optimise every corner of your website. Here’s a closer look at the three core sections we cover:
1. Indexation & Accessibility
Indexation is the process by which search engines discover and catalogue your website. Without proper indexing, your website simply won’t appear in search results. This part of the FSE health check ensures your site is not only visible to search engines but is also user-friendly.
Key checks include:
- Meta Robots Settings: Are critical pages set to index and follow? Incorrect settings could prevent search engines from crawling your site, meaning users won’t be able to reach important service pages easily, losing you traffic and therefore business. It’s surprising how often we see this mistake on the sites we audit.
- Site Speed Test: Slow-loading websites lead to higher bounce rates and lower rankings. We analyse your site’s speed and recommend improvements. A one second delay in load times could result in as much as a 7% loss in conversions and a 16% decrease in user satisfaction1. (TIP: Use Google’s Page Speed Insights tool to check your site!)
- 404 Errors: Broken links disrupt user experience and can harm SEO performance. Identifying and resolving these errors is essential in ensuring a smooth customer journey, which will help visitors to your site to convert.
2. On-Page Optimisation
Effective on-page SEO ensures that your content aligns with the queries/keywords that your target audience is searching for in the likes of Google, Bing, etc. This section of the health check focuses on improving your website’s content, meta data, and user engagement to improve your rankings in organic search.
Key checks include:
- Keyword Targeting: Are your pages optimised with the right keywords in titles, headers, descriptions, and body text? Proper keyword placement improves rankings and attracts relevant traffic.
- Conversion Tracking: Are conversions (now known as ‘key events’) being tracked in GA4? Without tracking, it’s impossible to measure the effectiveness of your website’s performance and marketing efforts.
- Content Optimisation: Does your content provide value? Google’s guidelines emphasise Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (EEAT). High-quality, relevant content is critical to success and will draw in a better calibre of traffic.
3. Technical Optimisation
Technical SEO ensures that your website’s infrastructure is primed for performance. Search engines reward websites that load quickly, function seamlessly, and adhere to best practices for coding and structure. (TIP: Make your website the best it can be by maintaining it regularly!).
Key checks include:
- Language Tag Compliance: Is your site configured with the correct language tag? For those in Britain this would be: <html lang=”en-GB”>. This ensures your site is aligned with the relevant geographical audience and location and leads to better ranking. It signals to Google (and other crawlers) that your site is meant to be displayed in UK SERPs.
- Canonical Tags: Are these in place to prevent duplicate content issues? Proper canonicalisation ensures search engines understand the primary version of your pages.
- Mobile Responsiveness: Is your site mobile-friendly? With mobile-first indexing, responsiveness is no longer optional.
For a deep dive into your site’s technical optimisation, explore our Technical SEO services.
Why You Might Need an FSE Health Check
Unlike generic SEO audits, the FSE health check is tailored to provide actionable insights that address the unique needs of your website. Our 41-point checklist is designed to go beyond surface-level issues, digging deep into the root causes of underperformance.
The Benefits of an FSE Health Check:
- Improved Visibility: By fixing indexation and accessibility issues, your site becomes more visible in search results.
- Enhanced User Experience: Optimising speed, content, and mobile usability ensures visitors stay engaged.
- Higher Conversions: Tracking conversions in GA4 and optimising call-to-action elements boosts your ROI.
- Relevancy: Help search engines to better understand your keyword targeting and help acquire more relevant users to your website.
Why Get a Site Audit in 2025?
SEO is an ever-evolving field, with changes in Google algorithms, user behaviour, and technology constantly shifting the landscape. Recent trends highlight the importance of technical optimisation and content relevance, as search engines place greater emphasis on Core Web Vitals and user intent.
An FSE-style health check ensures your site stays ahead of these trends, providing a solid foundation for future growth. Whether it’s fine-tuning existing pages or laying the groundwork for a comprehensive SEO campaign, our health check helps you stay ahead of the competition.
Ready to Jumpstart Your Website’s SEO?
Don’t let hidden issues hold your website back. A health check is the first step to unlocking your site’s potential. By addressing the three critical areas set out above, we can help you build a website that performs well in both the eyes of users and search engines.
Take the first step today and get in touch to find out more about how we can optimise your site, and improve rankings, traffic, and results.
Resources:
1 https://majordigital.com/articles/website-speed-impacts-your-bottom-line
