Before we begin our guide to performing an SEO audit there are a number of (free) tools we must install before we can start performing comprehensive audits on websites.  However, if you just want straight forward non complicated advice from an SEO specialist then contact us at www.lethalmarketing.co.uk/services/seo-manchester

Both are plugins for the Firefox web browser by Mozilla.
(Available at www.mozilla.com/firefox/)

• The first tool is ‘SEO for Firefox’, by SEOBook.com (Available at http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html)

• The second tool is ‘SEO Quake for Firefox’ by seoquake.com (Available at http://www.seoquake.com)

These tools attach on to the Firefox web browser and allow you to perform an analysis of a website on the spot, as you browse the internet.

To use the SEO for Firefox tool, browse the internet as usual until you find a website you would like to review. Then Locate you SEO for Firefox plugin (typically under the ‘Tools’ drop down menu on the Firefox browser.

You can then run two reports on this webpage, the ‘Lookup Tool’ and the ‘SEO XRay’.

Lookup Tool (Within SEO For Firefox)

To run the Lookup Tool, enter the exact web address of the page / website you wish to analyse.

Press ‘Go’ and a report is produced on the web pages relevant SEO information.

Report information explained:

PR: This is short for ‘Page Rank’. Google searches every page on the website and produces a page rank out of 10 for your website. 10 being the highest.

Google takes into account a number of things when producing this score, including link authority: are other popular websites linking to your site?

If websites with a high page ranking (PR) are linking to your site, Google deems your site as credible if it is receiving links from another popular website.

Google Cache Date: This shows the last date Google crawled your website for new content. This date can be controlled with Google’s Webmaster Tools.

Traffic Value: By double clicking this it directs you to a report generated by ‘SEM Rush’ which gives you a breakdown of keywords and traffic ‘values’ through figures such as Google’s Adword estimations. This isn’t available on all websites.

Age: This shows the age of the website. Google currently places a great emphasis on the age of your website, judging older websites to be more established. This is a known ranking factor in determining your websites position, however is not crucial.

Del.icio.us: This figure shows how many pages on your website have been bookmarked or shared through the del.icio.us website (http://delicious.com/).

More pages bookmarked and shared will create quality inbound links to your website, again from a reputable website.

Diggs: this figure will show content which has been shared through the popular website.

Digg (www.digg.com). The site works by internet users ‘digging’ the content on your website and sharing it. Again a higher score is likely to boost traffic and inbound links to your website.

StumbleUpon: Again another popular website for sharing content.

Y! Links: This figure shows how many links to your website are indexed in the Yahoo search engine (www.yahoo.com).

Technorati: Known as the ‘definitive blog guide’, this service is a must if you are blogging on your website. It is easy to submit your blog to and is another way get your content indexed within Google.

Alexa Ranking: Alexa are an internet statistics company. This ‘Alexa’ score is basically where your website ranks in comparison to all the sites in the world.

By double clicking this you get access to a host of (free) useful information such as traffic statistics, search analytics etc.

SEO Quake

SEO Quake is a great tool for analysing a website on the spot.

So, in Firefox, enter the web address of your competitor. Now on your tool bar you should have an SEO Quake bar listing the following information for the page you are viewing:

PR: This is the Google page rank. It scores your website out of 10 (1=lowest, 10=highest) and is based on how well optimised your website is and the quality of links back to the web page you are viewing.

Google Index: This shows the number of pages on that website which are indexed in Google.

Yahoo Links: This shows the number of pages on that website which are indexed in Yahoo.

Bing Index: This shows the number of pages on that website which are indexed in Bing.

Alexa Rank: This number is a figure generated by Alexa, who are one of the worlds biggest web information companies, and provide information such as traffic stats, search analytics and audience breakdown amongst many other things.

Age: This shows how old you website is, based on when you purchased the domain name.

Delicious Index: This shows how many pages on the site have been saved using ʻdeliciousʼ, a web page bookmarking service.

This tool is also useful as, whenever you are in Firefox and perform a Google search, all this information is presented in front of you for each page. You can then begin to analyse why and how they got to the top of Google, and itʼs typically pages with a higher page ranking that are placed higher up the Google Ranks.

If this does get a little annoying (it does take up a lot of the screen) then within file fox go TOOLS > SEO QUAKE > PLUGINS and deselect the plugin you do not wish to run.

Website Grader

Website grader is a custom report available through HubSpot (www.websitegrader.com)

Simply enter your website URL, or the website of your competitor.

You can also add competing websites or other websites within your industry to analyse.

Click ʻGenerate Reportʼ and wait for an automated report to be created.

The report analyses some key SEO areas of the website, from on-site SEO issues to link building and a social media summary.