As an SEO agency, we’ve noticed a pattern – B2B companies publish useful content and invest in SEO but still, they don’t get the results they’re hoping for.
Do you know why it happens? Because, they miss an important piece, clarity. Something in their strategy, setup, or execution is holding them back, but they do not know exactly how to figure it out.
That’s where an SEO audit comes in. A good audit shows what’s going wrong, what’s actually working surprisingly well, and what needs to change to get meaningful results. To help B2B companies facing the same issues, we’re sharing our own SEO audit process.
Why We’re Confident Our SEO Audit Process Will Help You
- Because this same process has helped us spot critical issues for many B2B websites.
- Because it helps us see problems from a real user’s perspective, not just from the data.
- Because it highlights technical gaps that quietly affect rankings and performance.
Without making further delay, let’s get started!
Here’s What We Collect First From Our B2B Clients
Before starting an SEO audit, these are the important details we make sure to collect from our every client but what exactly do we use this information for? Let’s break it down!
1. Admin Access to Their Website & Essential Tools
Credentials to the client’s CMS (Content Management System), Google Analytics and Search Console Account helps us review their site’s technical health and track performance of important metrics.
2. Their Preferred Competitors List
Most clients consider certain brands as their true competitors so it becomes important for us to collect information regarding it from them before conducting an SEO audit. Later, we use this information for comparing keywords and backlinks.
3. Business Goals & KPIs They Want to Achieve
A client’s goals and KPIs influence how to prioritize an SEO audit. So before we start analyzing their site, we ask these questions upfront. This helps us know exactly what issues to focus on, whether it’s lead generation or nurturing buyers.
4. Their Target Keywords & Existing Content
These inputs give us the baseline that helps us determine what’s working, what’s not, and what should be prioritized after the SEO audit. This is how we ensure every recommendation we make aligns with the website’s current performance and real business goals.
This is the 5-Step SEO Audit Strategy We Use to Identify Issues and Assess the Performance of B2B Websites
Now, let’s take a closer look at what’s included in each step:
Step 1. Run a Technical SEO Audit
This is our first step because technical SEO is the foundation. If it is not strengthened, nothing else matters- be it acquiring high-quality backlinks or publishing outstanding content.
Here’s how we conduct a technical SEO audit:
a. Crawl the Website : Using the tool Screaming Frog, we first of all check if search engines are able to access the client’s website (especially its key pages) properly or not. This step also helps us identify broken links, duplicate content, technical errors and hidden problems that are not easy to detect manually.
b. Site Speed Test : Here we use Google Page Speed Insights and check the website’s speed both across desktops and mobile versions. This helps us identify the elements that may be slowing the client’s site down.
c. Mobile Usability Check : To check how well the client’s site responds on mobile devices, we use two simple methods. First, we run a Mobile-Friendly Test through SE Ranking.
Then, we also make sure to manually inspect, which we do this way – open the browser’s Inspect tool, switch to mobile view, and then check how the site pages are being displayed across different screen sizes, like for:
- iPhone models
- Android devices
- Tablets
- Custom screen sizes
d. Evaluate Schema Markup Implementation : By using Google Structured Data Testing Tool, we check if search engines are displaying the site’s important additional information (like reviews, product info) in rich snippets or not.
e. Review Robots.txt and Sitemap Files : Here, we prioritize reviewing Robots.txt file in which we check if it is not blocking important pages of the site from being crawled and to do this, we use Google Search Console’s “robots.txt Tester”. Then, we also check XML sitemap configuration and see all the relevant pages are listed well there.
Step 2. Evaluate On-Page SEO Elements
Our next step is to check if the site is understandable and optimized as per search engines and users.
Here’s how we run On-Page SEO Audit:
a. Title Tags & Meta Descriptions : Using Screaming Frog, we collect meta tags of key pages and ensure they are:
- within the recommended word count length (50-60 characters for meta titles & 150-160 characters for meta descriptions).
- optimized with the target keywords.
- actually represent what’s inside the content of a specific page.
b. Heading Tags (H1, H2, H3) : Here, we inspect manually, the headings and their structure is used properly and logically, for every page or not. Additionally, we ensure the target keyword is naturally included in the headings and there is no over-stuffing.
c. Keyword Usage : This is something we check manually as well as using SEMrush. After headings, here we check how well the body content for each page is optimized with the target keywords.
Basically, we evaluate:
- Target Keyword density
- Target Keyword placement
d. Internal Linking : This step is about examining if the critical pages (whether service or blog posts) are internally connected through links in a logical manner or not.
To check the same, first we access the website’s content hub page and then see, have they connected topics in a supporting logical navigation or not. So, the process goes manually.
e. Image Optimization : To check if all the site images are compressed, we either use Google Search Console or SEMrush.
Other than image size, we check for every visual, the descriptive, keyword-optimized Alt Text has been used or not.
Step 3. Review Existing Content
At this stage, we check what all the client has covered on their site till that moment. Here’s how we Review the Existing Content:
a. Identify Content Gaps : Using Ahrefs Content Gap tool, we first check what the competitors have covered but our client has not. Here we also find:
- What their buyers are actually searching for
- Popular industry topics and subtopics our client has not covered yet
b. Detect Thin Content Presence : Screaming Frog helps us identify low word-count pages while to check content depth, we use Surfer SEO.
As far as determining topical coverage expertise, we do that manually. Google Analytics also plays a great role in helping us identify low-engagement pages indicating weak content.
c. Keyword Optimization : Here we use the tool Ahrefs to check whether:
- each page targets the right keyword
- the keyword matches B2B search intent
- secondary/semantic keywords are missing
Step 4. Analyze Backlink Profile
This step is about checking the reputation of the client’s site.
Here’s how we Analyze Client’s Backlink Profile:
a. Toxic or Low-Quality Backlinks : Using Ahrefs, first we check if there is any backlink on the client’s site that is hurting rankings or triggering search engine penalties or diluting their site’s domain authority.
b. Backlink Gaps : Here, we compare the client’s domain against their direct competitors as well as with the sites that are ranking above them for their selected target keywords using Ahrefs’ Link Intersect tool.
This helps us identify:
- Authority websites linking to competitors
- Guest posting opportunities
- High-value link prospects
- Resource pages or directories where client’s site should also be included
c. Anchor Text Distribution : This step is about analyzing whether the client’s site has a natural anchor profile or not. Through Ahrefs (Anchors Report), we easily detect it, forming our foundation for sharing recommendations with the client.
Step 5. Create a Report with Findings & Prioritize Actions
Here, we put everything discovered be it technical issues, content insights, backlink data and on-page gaps into a clear and easy-to-understand report that includes screenshots captured through authentic tools as well.
While preparing the Audit report, we mention things to fix on a priority basis. Usually, our priority goes like:
- High Priority: Fix crawl errors, broken pages, redirect chains
- Medium Priority: Rewrite thin content, add schema, fix duplicate pages
- Low Priority: Image alt text, minor internal linking improvements
Here’s What We Submit to Our B2B Clients After an SEO Audit
Our goal since beginning has always been delivering clarity to our clients and this we follow while submitting reports as well. Basically, after conducting an SEO audit, we submit these two documents (in the form of PDFs) –
- A clear list of findings
- A prioritized action plan with their impact
The reason we are not sharing an Audit document sample is that findings and fixes vary for every site and also we don’t want to reveal the site weaknesses of the clients with whom we’ve worked in the past.
Need Help in Fixing the Identified Gaps?
With this we’ve reached the conclusion and hope with our process, you will be able to find the issues in your website. But in case you feel a need of guidance or want our team to directly audit your website, we are ready to do that. Just, contact us and we will help you in your expected way!
