Optimizing your WordPress website for on-page SEO is crucial for better rankings and organic traffic. But with so many elements to evaluate across various pages, it can be an overwhelming task.
That’s where automated WordPress SEO audit tools come in handy! They analyze all critical aspects of on-page optimization and provide actionable suggestions to fix issues.
In this guide, we look at the top 6 free SEO audit tools to review on-page optimization for your WordPress site:
Later on we have a comparison table to summarize the key feature differences across tools. We also go through some frequently asked questions.
Let’s dive in to explore the various WordPress SEO audit options available!
Yoast SEO Plugin
Yoast SEO is the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress. Over 5+ million websites use it to optimize WordPress SEO and content.
The free version includes several key audit reports:
- Site-wide SEO analysis - Checks SEO meta for the homepage and provides an overall site score.
- Page Analysis - Audits individual posts/pages for SEO optimization opportunities.
- Readability analysis - Looks at page content readability based on combined score for paragraph length, sentence length, transition words and more.
- Focus Keyword - Suggests a focus keyphrase for each page based on content.
Within the plugin you can also configure various on-page elements like meta titles and descriptions, robots.txt, XML sitemaps and more.
The major limitation of the free Yoast SEO version is it only assesses the homepage and 20 posts/pages in the page analysis report. The premium paid upgrade offers unlimited auditing across all site content.
Overall though, for most small sites the free version still provides tremendous value for guiding daily SEO optimizations.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a must-have free tool for reviewing Google SEO signals.
Under the Enhancement section, GSC provides automated recommendations on critical on-page elements to fix. This includes analysis of:
- Missing page title tags
- Duplicate page meta descriptions
- Low word count pages
- Broken image references
Additionally, the manual URL inspection tool allows auditing any page for:
- Indexing status
- Page fetch details
- Valid hreflang markup
- Structured data validation
For more detailed technical auditing, inspect the Crawl stats like:
- 4xx/5xx status codes
- Indexed vs submitted URLs
- URL errors to investigate
While not as robust for specific on-page optimizations, GSC covers unique SEO auditing angles no other tool allows. And it’s 100% free!
Semrush
Semrush is the leading paid SEO and competitive analysis platform. But they also offer a free version that can audit portions of your website.
With a free Semrush account you can access:
- Page Audit Check - Checks various aspects of on-page SEO including tags, site speed, structured data and internal linking. Provides actionable tips to fix detected issues. However, limited to only 3 page audits per month.
- Position Tracking - Track website ranking positions for important keywords in Google results. Useful for gauging SEO visibility over time.
- Backlink Audit - Identify toxicity of any backlinks pointing to your site. Critical for assessing backlink profile risks.
- Keyword Research - Explore search volume and competition data for keyword ideas during initial research.
The major limitations center around seeing only 3 page audit reports monthly in the free account. And throttled access to certain keyword and backlink data. But for high level SEO auditing it still provides helpful insight.
Woorank
Woorank offers one of the most comprehensive free SEO audits available, making it easy to review on-page signals site-wide.
It checks elements like:
- Page titles
- Meta descriptions
- Heading tags
- Image SEO
- Structured data
- Social media integration
- Page speed
Woorank crawls the entire site then generates Actionable Task lists to improve critical issues impacting SEO and site performance.
The free plan allows auditing an unlimited number of pages with one site profile. For larger sites, Woorank is an extremely convenient way to analyze vast numbers of URL variations.
SiteLinx SEO Reports
SiteLinx SEO Reports offers a streamlined yet still thorough approach to reviewing on-page optimization issues.
It includes checks for:
- Duplicate page titles
- Missing meta descriptions
- Broken internal linking
- Redirect chains
- Server errors
SiteLinx also examines analytics metrics like:
- Organic keywords breakdown
- Top landing/exit pages
There are even reports assessing aspects like site accessibility and structured data implementation.
A free SiteLinx account permits unlimited audits for one website profile. The tool is very user friendly with clear visual reporting. It’s a great option for holistic SEO and site health overview.
SEO Minion
SEO Minion stands out with their extensive 404 broken link scanning capabilities. Finding and fixing bad URLs is imperative for healthy site crawls.
In addition, SEO Minion checks common optimization elements like:
- Page titles
- Meta descriptions
- Image alt text
- Structured data
- Sitemap validity
It also examines analytics metrics like organic traffic changes and landing page effectiveness.
With a free account you can scan 500 pages per audit scan for one website profile. So SEO Minion is better equipped for smaller to mid-sized WordPress sites. It produces easy to digest reports to guide next steps.
Free WordPress SEO Audit Tools Comparison
| Tool | Free Audits Allowed | Page Limit | Analytics Review | Broken Link Finder |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yoast SEO plugin | Unlimited | 20 pages | ❌ | ❌ |
| Google Search Console | Unlimited | Unlimited | ✅ | ✅ |
| Semrush | 3/month | 3/month | ❌ | ❌ |
| Woorank | Unlimited | Unlimited | ✅ | ❌ |
| SiteLinx SEO Reports | Unlimited | Unlimited | ✅ | ❌ |
| SEO Minion | Unlimited | 500 pages | ✅ | ✅ |
FAQ - Free WordPress SEO Auditing Tools
Here are answers to common questions around leveraging free SEO tools to audit WordPress sites:
How often should I audit my WordPress site for SEO?
Aim to conduct an SEO audit at least quarterly. Monthly reviews are even better to stay on top of new content and rapidly catch issues. Prioritize auditing pages showing drops in Google Analytics organic traffic.
What are the most important WordPress SEO elements to check in an audit?
Focus first on fixing errors around page titles, meta descriptions, image alt text, structured data, XML sitemaps and robots.txt files. Then examine page speed and on-page content itself for opportunities to better optimize for keywords.
Is it necessary to fix every discovered SEO issue from audits?
Not always. With larger sites especially it is often impractical to address every discovered flaw from crawls having thousands of indexed pages. Prioritize the serious technical problems first, along with optimizing top traffic landing pages.
Which free tool is best for beginners learning SEO auditing?
Yoast SEO plugin and Google Search Console provide the most beginner friendly introduction to auditing basics like titles, meta data, crawl errors, etc. Woorank and SiteLinx also offer very intuitive UIs explaining detected issues. Enable a few tools to start monitoring website health.
Conclusion
Conducting periodic SEO audits is imperative to sustainably grow organic traffic to WordPress sites long term.
Leveraging automated tools like Yoast, Semrush, SiteLinx and others highlighted here makes the process much easier. The free versions audit vast portions of website content and surface key areas needing optimization attention.
Be sure to setup at least one or two free SEO auditing tools for your WordPress site. Fix the most serious errors Impact website intercept first, while progressively addressing other enhancement opportunities over time.
Consistently monitoring your site’s health through audits pays huge dividends reaching more ideal visitors.
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