Getting Started with Site Audit

Our Site Audit toolset was designed to identify and monitor 17 technical SEO issues, or errors and warnings, as we call them.

If you’ve already added your domain(s) within Positional — for example, when using our Internals toolset — you will already see your domains listed in the dropdown menu. If so, simply click on Run Audit to kick off the audit process.

If you haven’t added a domain to Positional yet, you’ll need to do so.

First, click on Get Started:

When prompted, you’ll want to add your domain(s), either using our Google Search Console (GSC) integration or manually without our GSC integration:

During the integration, or import, process, you can specify certain sitemaps that you’d like us to crawl. This is optional but helpful if your website has a very large number of pages or multiple sitemaps. If no sitemaps are specified, the toolset will look at your robots.txt and in locations where your sitemaps would be expected to exist.

After adding your domain, click on Run Audit to kick off the crawling process.

By default, Positional will crawl as many as 5,000 URLs from your sitemaps. If you’d like it to crawl more than 5,000 URLs, please contact us directly for support.

After a crawl is complete, you’ll be presented with the results of the site audit:

You’ll also receive an email from Positional with the audit results.

An error is an issue that we believe to be more significant than a warning (for example, Webpage is Missing an H1).

A warning is an issue that we believe to be less significant than an error (for example, Webpage Has More Than 1 H1).

The Site Score quantifies the number of errors and warnings based on severity and the size of your website. A score of 100 would be the highest score possible and would indicate that no errors or warnings have been identified, whereas a score of 20 would be a very low score and would indicate that there are issues worth addressing.

Click on View All Affected Pages to see a breakdown of the pages affected by either the error or warning specified:

You can export the results from the site audit by clicking on the export icon at the top of each table.

To schedule a monthly site audit, click on the timer icon located to the right of the Run Audit button:

Once the monthly audit is scheduled, our Site Audit toolset will run automatically each month, and you’ll receive the results via email.

Types of Errors

HTTPS Webpage Internally Links to an HTTP Webpage: As a best practice, you should avoid internally linking from a secure HTTPS webpage to an unsecured webpage delivered on HTTP.
Webpage Includes Broken Links: As a best practice, you should avoid having broken links within your webpage, as this can be disruptive for SEO and user experience.
Webpage is Missing an H1: As a best practice, your webpage should include an H1 tag. This is helpful for search engines and for users navigating your webpage.
Webpage is Missing Title Tag: As a best practice, you should set a title tag for each webpage on your website. A title tag is the title that will display on your webpage in search results.
Webpage With Duplicate Text and No Canonical: As a best practice, if you are duplicating a significant amount of text across your website, you should implement a canonical to tell search engines where the content’s primary location is.
Webpage with 404 Status Code: As a best practice, you want to avoid having 404-ing URLs included in your sitemap.
Webpage with 4XX Status Code: As a best practice, you want to avoid having URLs returning 4XX status codes in your sitemap.
Webpage with 5XX Status Code: As a best practice, you want to avoid having URLs returning 5XX status codes in your sitemap.

Types of Warnings

Webpage Has Incorrect Title Tag Length: As a best practice, you should keep your title tags between 50 and 60 characters in length. A title tag is the title that appears for your webpage in search results.
Webpage Has More Than 1 H1: As a best practice, we recommend using only one H1 on each webpage.
Webpage is Orphaned: As a best practice, you want to link to important pages on your website internally. This warning is fired when a webpage that has no internal links pointing to it from other pages in your sitemap is identified.
Webpage with Duplicate Title Tags: As a best practice, you want to avoid reusing the same title tags on multiple webpages on your website. A title tag is the title that appears for your webpage in search results.
Webpage is Missing a Meta Description: As a best practice, you should implement meta descriptions on each of your webpages. A meta description is the description that appears below your title tag in search results.
Webpage’s Meta Description is an Incorrect Length: As a best practice, you should keep your meta descriptions between 50 and 160 characters in length. A meta description is the description that appears below your title tag in search results.
Webpage with Low Word Count: As a best practice, you should avoid having too many pages with a low word count. This warning is fired if a webpage containing less than 200 words is identified.
Webpage Has No Outbound Links: As a best practice, you should externally source or reference helpful resources when making claims within your webpages.
Webpage Has Redirect Chain: A redirect chain occurs when a URL is redirected to another URL, which is then redirected to another URL, and so on. As a best practice, you should avoid redirecting chains.
Webpage is Missing a Canonical: As a best practice, we recommend specifying canonicals for your webpages. The rel="canonical" tag is an HTML snippet that allows you to define the original location of your content.

Site Audit FAQs

Is there a limit on the number of times that I can run the audit?

No.

Is there a limit on the number of domains that I can add?

Yes, the number of domains you can add will depend on your selected tier.

No results are coming back; what is going on?

Occasionally, our crawlers will get blocked. If you aren’t seeing any results being returned, please contact us for more information.

Alternatively, our Site Audit toolset won’t work properly if you don't have a sitemap.

Can I crawl more than 5,000 URLs?

Yes, but please reach out to us for more information.

Can I schedule weekly audits instead of monthly audits?

Not yet, but this is something that we are planning to support in the future.