A website SEO audit is the diagnostic that tells you exactly which fixes will move your rankings, and which are wasted effort. This is the template I use with my real estate agent clients \u2014 47 checks across 8 categories, in priority order. Run it on your own website over a Saturday and you’ll have a 90-day work plan when you’re done.<\/p>\n
You’ll need free access to these tools (free tiers work):<\/p>\n
Open a spreadsheet for the audit. Three columns: Check, Pass\/Fail, Priority. Walk through each item, mark pass or fail, then prioritize by impact.<\/p>\n
These are the technical basics. Failures here block everything else.<\/p>\n
Site is HTTPS, not HTTP.<\/strong> Check the URL bar \u2014 green padlock visible? If not, install an SSL certificate (most hosts offer free Let’s Encrypt). HTTP sites lose rankings and trust.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n WWW vs. non-WWW resolved.<\/strong> Either XML sitemap exists at Robots.txt exists at Site is in Google Search Console and verified.<\/strong> If not, claim and verify today.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Site is in Google Analytics 4.<\/strong> If you’re still on Universal Analytics, migrate \u2014 UA stopped processing data in July 2023.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Custom favicon installed.<\/strong> Small but signals care.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n 404 page is helpful, not generic.<\/strong> Custom 404 with site search, top content, or contact form.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n No “Coming Soon” or maintenance pages visible to search engines.<\/strong> Common on partially launched sites.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n WordPress core, themes, and plugins are current.<\/strong> Outdated software is a security risk and often a speed problem.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n These move rankings the most directly.<\/p>\n Every page has a unique title tag.<\/strong> Format: Title tags are 50\u201360 characters.<\/strong> Longer gets truncated in search results.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Every page has a unique meta description.<\/strong> 145\u2013155 characters, compelling, includes the primary keyword.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Every page has exactly one H1.<\/strong> Multiple H1s confuse Google.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n H1 matches the page’s search intent.<\/strong> Not “Welcome” \u2014 “Stapleton Denver Real Estate Agent.”<\/p>\n<\/li>\n H2\/H3 structure is logical and hierarchical.<\/strong> Scan with browser dev tools or use a Chrome extension like “HeadingsMap.”<\/p>\n<\/li>\n URLs are clean: lowercase, hyphenated, no stopwords, \u2264 60 chars.<\/strong> No No dates in evergreen URLs.<\/strong> Primary keyword appears in title, H1, first 100 words, URL, and at least one H2.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n No keyword stuffing.<\/strong> Read each page aloud \u2014 if it sounds like a robot wrote it for an algorithm, fix it.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Internal linking is present and varied.<\/strong> Every page has 2\u20135 contextual links to other relevant pages, with varied anchor text.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n External links open in new tabs and use rel=”noopener”.<\/strong> Optional but good UX.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Content quality is the largest single category of fixes, but the work is bigger per check.<\/p>\n Every priority neighborhood has a dedicated page.<\/strong> 2,500+ words. Original content. Not template-spun across neighborhoods.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Service pages (Buying, Selling, Relocating) are 1,500+ words each.<\/strong> Not stub pages.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n About page has visible EEAT signals.<\/strong> Headshot, credentials, license number, years of experience, designations, contact info.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Blog has been updated within the last 90 days.<\/strong> Stale blogs hurt rankings.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n No thin pages (under 300 words) indexed.<\/strong> If they exist, either expand them or add Author bylines visible on blog posts.<\/strong> Real estate is YMYL \u2014 anonymous content underperforms.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Google indexes the mobile version as primary since 2024.<\/p>\n Site passes Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test on every important page.<\/strong> Run it on your home, about, and top neighborhood pages.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Tap targets sized 44\u00d744 pixels minimum.<\/strong> Buttons big enough for thumbs.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Content parity between mobile and desktop.<\/strong> All desktop content also visible on mobile. No hidden accordions removing important info.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Mobile navigation works.<\/strong> Hamburger menu opens, links are tappable, search is accessible.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n No horizontal scrolling on mobile.<\/strong> Common on poorly-designed listing pages.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Run PageSpeed Insights<\/a> on home, about, and a representative neighborhood page. Check mobile scores.<\/p>\n LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) under 2.5 seconds.<\/strong> Most agent sites fail here due to large hero images.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n INP (Interaction to Next Paint) under 200ms.<\/strong> IDX widgets are the common culprit on real estate sites.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) under 0.1.<\/strong> Images without dimensions, late-loading ads, and shifting widgets cause CLS issues.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Total page weight under 2MB.<\/strong> Larger pages mean slower loads on 4G.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Images are compressed and in modern format (WebP).<\/strong> Use Squoosh<\/a> or a WordPress plugin like ShortPixel to batch-compress.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Schema is the structured data that feeds Google and AI search engines.<\/p>\n Run each page through the Rich Results Test<\/a> to validate.<\/p>\n NAP (name, address, phone) consistent across site, GBP, and citations.<\/strong> Same exact format, down to punctuation.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Hyperlocal content on home page.<\/strong> Specific neighborhoods named, not just “Denver.”<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Embedded Google Map on contact page.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Embedded recent Google Reviews on home or testimonials page.<\/strong> With Service areas in GBP match service areas mentioned on website.<\/strong> Consistency reinforces entity signal.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Audit conversion mechanics, not just SEO.<\/p>\n Home valuation tool visible above the fold on home page.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Multiple lead magnets across the site.<\/strong> Not just one generic “Contact me.”<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Forms work.<\/strong> Submit a test form yourself. Many agent forms haven’t worked in months.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Auto-response confirmation sent within 60 seconds.<\/strong> Test it.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n You’ll likely fail 15\u201330 checks. Don’t try to fix everything in week one. Prioritize:<\/p>\n Priority 1 \u2014 Same Week (impact: highest, effort: low):<\/strong> Priority 2 \u2014 Within 30 Days (impact: high, effort: medium):<\/strong> Priority 3 \u2014 Within 90 Days (impact: high, effort: high):<\/strong> Priority 4 \u2014 Ongoing (impact: compounding):<\/strong> Once your audit is complete:<\/p>\n For most agents, executing the Priority 1 + 2 fixes produces visible ranking movement within 90 days. The neighborhood content layer (Priority 3) is the compounding investment that pays off in months 6\u201318.<\/p>\n For the broader website SEO strategy, see the Real Estate Agent Website SEO pillar<\/a>. For the Core Web Vitals deep dive, see the Site Speed for Real Estate Websites spoke<\/a> (coming soon).<\/p>\n If you’d like me to personally walk through this audit with you on your site, reach out for a free 30-minute review.<\/p>\n Jon Smith is a 20+ year SEO veteran specializing in real estate agent website audits. He has audited hundreds of agent sites across North America.<\/em><\/p>\n Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n Free 52-check website SEO audit template for real estate agents \u2014 across foundations, on-page, content, mobile, speed, schema, local SEO, and lead capture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-website-seo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/localrebrand.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/localrebrand.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/localrebrand.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/localrebrand.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/localrebrand.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/localrebrand.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224,"href":"https:\/\/localrebrand.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/localrebrand.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/localrebrand.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/localrebrand.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}https:\/\/yoursite.com<\/code> or https:\/\/www.yoursite.com<\/code> redirects to the other. Both versions resolving to live content creates duplicate content issues.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\/sitemap.xml<\/code>.<\/strong> Submitted to Google Search Console. Visit https:\/\/yoursite.com\/sitemap.xml<\/code> \u2014 should show structured XML, not a 404.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\/robots.txt<\/code>.<\/strong> Doesn’t accidentally block important content. Visit it and look for Disallow: \/<\/code> (blocks everything) or other restrictive rules on important paths.<\/p>\n<\/li>\nCategory 2: On-Page SEO (12 checks)<\/h2>\n
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Primary Keyword | Hyperlocal Modifier | Brand<\/code>. No duplicates across pages.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\/page-id=842<\/code> URLs.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n\/blog\/2024\/buying-tips\/<\/code> ages your content badly.<\/p>\n<\/li>\nCategory 3: Content Quality (6 checks)<\/h2>\n
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noindex<\/code>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\nCategory 4: Mobile (5 checks)<\/h2>\n
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Category 5: Core Web Vitals & Speed (5 checks)<\/h2>\n
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Category 6: Schema Markup (5 checks)<\/h2>\n
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Organization<\/code> or LocalBusiness<\/code> schema on every page.<\/strong> Validates with Rich Results Test.<\/p>\n<\/li>\nRealEstateAgent<\/code> schema on home and about pages.<\/strong> Includes NAP, service areas, license info.<\/p>\n<\/li>\nArticle<\/code> + Author<\/code> schema on every blog post.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\nFAQPage<\/code> schema on any page with a FAQ section.<\/strong> Should match visible content exactly.<\/p>\n<\/li>\nBreadcrumbList<\/code> schema on non-home pages.<\/strong> Helps Google understand navigation hierarchy.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nCategory 7: Local SEO Specifics (5 checks)<\/h2>\n
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Review<\/code>\/AggregateRating<\/code> schema (only if you display them; don’t fake the markup).<\/p>\n<\/li>\nCategory 8: Lead Capture (4 checks)<\/h2>\n
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Prioritizing Your Fixes<\/h2>\n
\n– HTTPS, sitemap, Search Console, mobile-friendly failures
\n– Title tags + meta descriptions on top 10 pages
\n– Broken forms
\n– Missing schema markup on home and about<\/p>\n
\n– Core Web Vitals fixes (image compression, IDX widget audit)
\n– Internal linking pass on top 20 pages
\n– NAP consistency audit and fixes
\n– About page EEAT upgrade<\/p>\n
\n– Neighborhood page rewrites\/expansions
\n– Service page content expansion
\n– Schema markup site-wide
\n– Blog content cadence reestablishment<\/p>\n
\n– Weekly content publishing
\n– Monthly NAP and schema audits
\n– Quarterly Core Web Vitals checks<\/p>\nWhat to Do With Your Results<\/h2>\n
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