358: The Ultimate Website Audit Checklist With Ian Cleary

Podcast: Download (Duration: 45:46 — 52.7MB)

A website audit starts with analytics access, then works through technical SEO issues, quick-win ranking opportunities, user journeys, conversion paths, and brand consistency. Ian Cleary runs audits as a genuinely independent service, meaning he identifies what is broken and does not offer to fix it, which removes the incentive to recommend a rebuild.

In this episode I sat down with Ian Cleary, founder of Razor Social and Razor Audit, who has spoken alongside me at Social Media Marketing World for several years.

Below is the full process: what to check first, how to move a page from position twelve to page one, how much links actually count, and what most small businesses get wrong about branding.

Key takeaways

• Start with analytics access. Missing analytics is frequently the first problem found.
• Roughly 65% of ranking weight relates to links, per a survey of 65 SEO professionals.
• Find your quick wins on page two and expand the content around related keywords.
• Treat H2s as mini titles. Google now ranks individual sections.
• Removing junk content lifted traffic 20% to 30% on messy sites, after a couple of months.
• Target under three seconds on speed index rather than chasing PageSpeed scores.
• Deindex podcast pages unless you write genuine articles rather than transcripts.
• Finish this sentence: “only we…” It is the hardest and most useful branding exercise.

Why an independent audit is different

Ian’s company audits websites and does not build or fix them, which changes what the recommendations look like.

Most audits come from agencies who build websites and do SEO, which creates a structural incentive to recommend the work they sell.

His focus is finding issues that drive more traffic and convert more business. Where possible, that means fixing what exists rather than recommending a rebuild.

People do ask him to implement the fixes, and the answer is no.

How to start a website audit

Get access to Google Analytics and Google Search Console first, because the setup itself frequently reveals the first problems.

A meaningful number of sites simply do not have analytics configured properly, which makes everything downstream guesswork.

With that access, extract traffic data and pair it with SEO tools to understand where visitors come from and how well the site is optimized.

The full audit covers user experience and journeys, SEO, branding, conversion, content analysis, competitor analysis, and analytics review, depending on scope.

What to check in a technical SEO audit

Start with the basics that are usually broken: missing titles, duplicate titles, and missing meta descriptions.

These are unglamorous and produce a concrete batch of issues someone can work through immediately.

The second pass looks for quick wins. Identify pages already ranking for good terms on page two or low on page one, where a modest improvement produces disproportionate traffic.

How to move a page from page two to page one

Study who ranks on page one for that term, then expand your content to cover what they cover.

Ian uses Ahrefs to see which main and related keywords the page-one results rank for, which reveals what your page is missing.

The practical work is adding sections. Target the related keywords with additional paragraphs that genuinely belong, rather than padding.

Then optimize the title and meta title, and add internal links pointing at that page from elsewhere on your site.

External links are the harder lever and the one that moves things most.

Why H2 headings matter more than people think

Treat every H2 as a mini title, because Google now surfaces and links directly to individual sections.

Most people write vague headings and lose the opportunity entirely.

Two reasons this matters. Google parses those headings and you can end up ranking for the content inside a specific section. And descriptive subheadings produce a better-structured document regardless of search.

How to find internal linking opportunities

Search Google using a site operator plus your target keywords to find your own related content.

Typing site:yourdomain.com followed by the keyword makes Google search your own site and surface the posts worth linking from.

There is also a plugin approach. Link Whisper parses all your articles and proposes internal linking opportunities you approve with checkboxes, updating the source posts automatically.

How much do backlinks still matter?

Roughly 65% of ranking weight relates to links, based on a survey of 65 top SEO professionals.

Their breakdown: about 25% for the authority of your website, 25% for links, and 15% for relevant anchor text on those links, which together account for most of the picture.

On-page optimization accounted for around 15%.

Despite Google downplaying links publicly, Ian’s position is that they remain absolutely crucial and that has not meaningfully changed.

How to build links without a large network

Relationships determine your hit rate, and Ian converts roughly 75% of outreach to people he actually knows.

Mass outreach performs very differently. Blasting a thousand emails might return five or six links, which is a great deal of work for very little.

The tactics that work within a relationship: replacing links to poor-quality posts with yours, replacing dead links pointing at content that no longer exists, and occasional link exchanges.

On exchanges specifically, Ian’s view is that small numbers are not dangerous and nobody has been penalized for a handful, though this should never become your primary approach.

The prerequisite is doing the relationship work first. Share people’s content, interact genuinely, and build standing before you ask for anything.

How to compete against sites gaming the system

Established authority sites rank junk content, and the answer for smaller sites is being genuinely better plus niching down.

Ian is direct about the asymmetry. Large publications rank for almost anything with no links to the specific page, because domain authority carries it.

His own approach when launching Razor Audit was to find the gap. He searched for the best existing content on website auditing, found good articles covering pieces of it and nothing comprehensive, and wrote a 32,000-word article.

The purpose was link building. Content at that level of depth makes outreach work, because people notice something they have not seen before.

Without authority you need exceptional content. With authority you need less, which is the uncomfortable reality of how this works.

What to audit for conversions

Conversion work starts before calls to action, with whether the site is comprehensible at all.

The sequence: a fast site, a well-designed layout, and content supporting the customer’s journey. Only once someone can understand what you do and navigate toward buying does call-to-action placement matter.

Then make the calls to action obvious, with clear book now, buy now, or contact options.

Mobile is a common failure. Sites frequently have content that was never properly adapted for mobile, which drops conversion directly.

For the majority who will not buy today, capture details instead. Exit-intent offers, checkout-abandonment prompts, and email capture all serve this.

The Facebook pixel does the same job without requiring any information. Even visitors who give you nothing can be advertised to months later.

Email is then the mechanism for moving people from cold to warm to hot through a welcome sequence and ongoing sends.

How to think about page speed

Target a speed index under three seconds rather than optimizing for a PageSpeed Insights score.

Ian’s key point is that PageSpeed scores measure whether you use recommended techniques rather than whether the site is genuinely fast. You can score well on a slow site, and developers do occasionally optimize the score rather than the experience.

WebPageTest gives a more realistic view, and the speed index specifically measures when the page appears loaded to a user.

Different tools measure differently and will disagree. GTmetrix defines fully loaded time as the moment loading stops plus two seconds, which is why scores vary across tools and even between refreshes.

The practical test is manual. Empty your cache, load your site, and see how it feels, checking international performance if you have international customers.

Progressive loading beats all-at-once. Two pages that both finish in two seconds feel different if one shows content progressively, and the perceived speed is what matters.

Mobile scores are always lower because Google throttles both network and CPU in the simulation.

Does removing bad content improve rankings?

Yes, with traffic increases of 20% to 30% on genuinely messy sites, appearing a couple of months after the cleanup.

The caveat is links. Never delete pages with good inbound links. Redirect those instead, which reassigns the link value to stronger content.

The overall effect comes from tidying: removing low-quality articles, fixing broken links, and consolidating link equity into pages worth ranking.

Should you index podcast episode pages?

Deindex them unless you are writing genuine articles rather than transcripts.

Transcripts do not rank and nobody links to them. A real article drawn from the conversation, with the audio embedded alongside it, is a different asset entirely.

The practical version is hiring someone to listen, extract the substantive points, and write a proper article around the episode.

Which content platform to start with

Start with a blog, then add a podcast quickly.

Ian’s reasoning on blogging is production cost. Writing a thousand-word article is far less work than setting up, recording, editing, and promoting a video.

His observation about YouTube is that people who succeed there focus on it exclusively, and typically have weak blogs or none. Doing both well is genuinely hard.

The podcast argument is relationships rather than traffic. It creates a reason to reach out to influential people, builds a network, and each guest distributes the episode to their own audience.

My own experience confirms it. Almost every significant link I have earned in the past year came from someone who appeared on this podcast.

The reason a blog still comes first is ownership. You need a home base to collect emails and pixel visitors regardless of what else you do.

What to audit for branding

Brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room, and your website is a room you are never in.

The elements Ian checks: a tagline describing what you do, an expanded description below it, a good logo, consistent colors, consistent fonts, and a consistent message throughout.

The failure pattern is recognizable. Calls to action scattered everywhere, navigation across the top and down the side, unclear services, inconsistent font sizes, and a logo that differs between the site and social media.

Small businesses frequently dismiss branding as something for large companies. It requires consistency and clear messaging far more than it requires budget.

One specific tactic: reserve one color exclusively for calls to action and use it nowhere else, so that color always means action.

The other test is speed of comprehension. Within about three seconds a visitor needs to know what you do and why you are different, which means concise copy at a readable size.

The “only we” exercise

Mark Schaefer’s exercise is finishing the sentence “only we…” which is deliberately hard.

The difficulty is the point. It forces you to identify what is genuinely different about your business rather than what you would like to claim.

Ian’s own answer is that only they provide independent digital marketing support and auditing, since nobody else offers the auditing independently.

Frequently asked questions

How do you do a website audit?

Start with Google Analytics and Search Console access, then check technical SEO basics like missing and duplicate titles, identify quick-win pages ranking on page two, review user journeys and conversion paths, and assess brand consistency across the site.

Do backlinks still matter for SEO?

Yes. A survey of 65 top SEO professionals attributed roughly 25% of ranking weight to domain authority, 25% to links, and 15% to relevant anchor text, meaning around 65% relates to links against about 15% for on-page optimization.

How do you move a page from page two to page one?

Study the page-one results for that term, identify the main and related keywords they rank for, and expand your content to cover the gaps. Then optimize the title and meta title and add internal links pointing at the page.

Does deleting old blog posts help SEO?

On genuinely messy sites, cleaning up low-quality content produced traffic increases of 20% to 30% after a couple of months. Never delete pages with good inbound links. Redirect those so their link value transfers to stronger content.

What page speed should you target?

A speed index under three seconds on WebPageTest, rather than a specific PageSpeed Insights score. Those scores measure whether you use recommended techniques rather than actual speed, and can be optimized without the site becoming faster.

Should podcast episode pages be indexed?

Not if the page is just a transcript, since transcripts do not rank and nobody links to them. Deindex them, or write a genuine article drawn from the episode’s substance with the audio embedded, which is a linkable asset.

Which platform should a new business start with?

A blog, because writing costs far less production effort than video and you need a home base to collect emails and pixel visitors. Add a podcast soon after, primarily for the relationships and links it generates rather than for traffic.