Module 13: Site Audit System - Review Your SEO Every 90 Days

By the end of this module, you'll have a practical 90-day SEO audit process - a structured checklist you can run quarterly to catch problems early, find growth opportunities, and keep your site in good health without spending all day in spreadsheets.

Why a Quarterly Audit Beats Constant Tinkering

One of the most common mistakes small business owners make with SEO is either ignoring it completely until something breaks, or obsessively checking rankings every day and making constant small changes.

Neither works. Rankings fluctuate naturally - checking daily is noise, not signal. But leaving your site unreviewed for a year means problems accumulate silently: pages get deindexed, content decays, technical issues go unnoticed.

A quarterly audit solves this. Four times a year, you spend 2-3 hours reviewing your site systematically. You catch what's breaking, double down on what's working, and create a clear action plan for the next 90 days. Between audits, you focus on executing the plan - not reacting to every ranking movement.

By this point in the course, you have 12 modules of SEO knowledge. The quarterly audit is how you put all of it into one regular maintenance routine.

Step 1: Check Indexing Health

Start by confirming Google can still access and index your site correctly. Technical issues here are the highest priority because they prevent any other SEO work from having effect.

Do this:

1. In Google Search Console, go to Coverage (or Pages) and look for errors - pages that failed to index
2. Click on any errors to see which pages are affected and why
3. Common errors: "Submitted URL not indexed", "Crawled but not indexed", "Page with redirect"
4. For any pages that should be indexed but aren't, investigate - is there a noindex tag on the page? A robots.txt block? A redirect loop?
5. In a browser, type site:yourdomain.com in Google - how many pages appear? Compare this to how many you expect. A significant difference could indicate an indexing problem.

Also check:

• Your XML sitemap is still live: yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
• Your sitemap is submitted in Search Console (Settings > Sitemaps)
• Your robots.txt isn't blocking important pages: yoursite.com/robots.txt

Step 2: Audit On-Page Quality

Google regularly updates how it assesses content quality. Pages that ranked well 12 months ago may have slipped if the content is now thin compared to what competitors have published.

Do this:

1. In Google Analytics 4, go to Reports > Engagement > Pages and Screens
2. Sort by sessions - find your top 10 traffic-driving pages
3. For each of those pages, ask:
   • Has the content been updated in the last 12 months?
   • Is the information still accurate?
   • Does it have a clear CTA?
   • Is the meta title still within 60 characters and keyword-relevant?
   • Are the internal links still working (not broken)?
4. In Search Console, go to Performance and sort by Impressions
5. Find pages with high impressions but low click-through rate (CTR) - under 3%
6. These pages are appearing in search results but not getting clicked - their meta title or meta description needs improvement

Step 3: Check Technical Health

Technical problems can develop quietly. A quarterly check catches them before they affect rankings.

Do this:

1. Run a free crawl of your site using Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs) or Sitebulb's free trial
2. Look for:
   • 404 errors (pages that don't exist) - fix with redirects or by restoring the page
   • Redirect chains (A redirects to B which redirects to C) - clean these up to point directly to the final destination
   • Missing meta descriptions
   • Pages with duplicate title tags
   • Images without alt text
3. In Search Console, go to Core Web Vitals - are any pages flagged as Poor?
4. Test your site speed at pagespeed.web.dev - check both mobile and desktop scores. Aim for a mobile score above 70.
5. Check your site on a mobile phone manually - does it look correct? Are buttons large enough to tap?

Step 4: Review Authority Signals

Once a quarter, check whether your domain authority is growing and whether your link profile looks healthy.

Do this:

1. Log into Ahrefs Free Webmaster Tools
2. Note your current Domain Rating and compare it to last quarter's record
3. Check new backlinks gained in the last 90 days - are they from relevant, credible sites?
4. Check for any spammy-looking new links - unfamiliar domains, foreign language sites, irrelevant niches
5. In Search Console, go to Links > External Links - which pages have the most backlinks?

This is also a good time to review your Google Business Profile if you serve a local area: are your reviews increasing? Are your photos up to date? Have your hours changed?

Step 5: Review Conversion Performance

Module 11 covered conversion in depth. Every quarter, pull the conversion data and look for patterns.

Do this:

1. In GA4, check your conversion events for the past 90 days
2. Which pages are generating conversions? Which are getting traffic but not converting?
3. Apply the 10-point conversion audit (from Module 11) to the highest-traffic, lowest-conversion page
4. If you made a conversion change last quarter, did it improve?
5. Check your contact form is working - submit a test enquiry and confirm it arrives

Step 6: Find Quick Wins Using the Search Console Performance Report

This is often the highest-value part of a quarterly audit. The Performance report in Search Console shows exactly where you're close to ranking well - these are your fastest improvement opportunities.

Do this:

1. In Search Console, go to Performance > Search Results
2. Click the "Average Position" box to add it to the view
3. Look for queries where your average position is between 8 and 20 - you're appearing on page 1 or the top of page 2, but not high enough to get many clicks
4. Click on each query to see which page is ranking for it
5. Open that page and ask: can I improve the meta title to be more compelling? Can I add more depth on that specific subtopic? Can I add the query as an H2 heading?

Pages ranking between 8-20 are your lowest-effort, highest-return improvement opportunities. A small improvement to a page already in this zone can move it from position 15 to position 5 - a significant jump in traffic.

Step 7: Create a 90-Day Action Plan From Your Findings

The audit is only useful if it leads to action. After working through Steps 1-6, list your findings and score each one by impact and effort:

Focus on High Impact / Low Effort items first. These give you the best return for the time invested.

Write your action list for the next 90 days: specific tasks, not vague intentions. "Update meta descriptions on [page A], [page B], [page C]" is actionable. "Improve SEO" is not.

Your 90-Day Audit Tracker Template

Copy this table into a Google Sheet and fill it in each quarter:

Audit Date:

This quarter's Domain Rating: This quarter's total referring domains: Top 3 actions for next 90 days:

Foundation Checklist

• I have run my first full quarterly audit
• I have checked indexing health in Search Console and resolved any errors
• I have reviewed my top 10 traffic pages for content quality
• I have run a technical crawl and noted any errors
• I have checked my backlink profile and Domain Rating
• I have reviewed conversion data and identified at least one page to improve
• I have used the Search Console Performance report to find keyword positions between 8 and 20
• I have a written 90-day action plan from my findings

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a full quarterly audit take? 2-3 hours for a site with 20-50 pages, once you're familiar with the process. The first audit takes longer because you're learning where to look. By the third or fourth quarter, you'll know your site well enough to spot issues quickly.

Do I need paid tools to run a proper audit? No. Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, and Screaming Frog's free tier (up to 500 pages) cover the core checks. Ahrefs Free Webmaster Tools adds backlink data. These free tools are sufficient for most small business sites.

What if I find a major technical problem? Fix it before anything else. Technical issues that prevent indexing or slow the site significantly will undo all other SEO work. If the fix is beyond your skill level, this is one of the few cases where paying a developer for a specific task is worthwhile.

What is "decaying content" and should I delete it? Decaying content is pages or posts that used to get traffic but have seen a consistent decline over 6-12 months. You have three options: update the content to make it current and more comprehensive; merge it with a similar article and redirect the old URL; or leave it if it's still genuinely useful (not every post needs to rank). Deleting without a redirect is usually a mistake.

How do I know if my SEO is improving overall? Track three metrics over time: organic sessions from GA4 (monthly), Domain Rating from Ahrefs (quarterly), and average position for your target keywords from Search Console (quarterly). Improvement across all three over 12 months is a reliable signal that the system is working.

Quick Wins Linked to This Module

• The 90-Day SEO Audit Checklist
• How to Find Decaying Content Before It Costs You Rankings

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