Site Audit: Monitor, Analyze, and Optimize Your Website’s Technical SEO

Site Projects in GoHighLevel SEO are your hub for tracking the health and performance of websites (domains). This feature aggregates data about your website’s authority, search traffic, backlinks, and technical health all in one place. In this article, we’ll cover how to create and use Site Projects, explain the metrics shown, and provide step-by-step guidance to analyze a website’s SEO using GHL. We’ll also cover how to leverage Google Search Console data through this integration, and how credits are used for site monitoring and audits.

What Are Site Projects?

A Site Project represents a website (or specific domain/subdomain) that you want to monitor and optimize. When you add a site project, GHL’s SEO tool will:

• Fetch or calculate the site’s Domain Power

• Show the number of backlinks the site has (and referring domains).

• Display organic traffic trends (estimated monthly visits from search).

• Provide a Site Health percentage or score – summarizing technical SEO health from site audits.

• List the count of SEO Issues detected (if an audit has been run).

• (If Google Search Console is connected) Display real search performance data like total clicks or keywords.

On your GHL dashboard under Sites > SEO > Site Projects, each project is typically listed as a row with the above columns. This gives you a high-level snapshot of how each monitored site is doing.

Example:
After adding “example.com” as a site project, you might see something like:
Domain Power 45, Backlinks 1.2K, Organic Traffic ~5,000/month, Site Health 82%, Issues 10.
This tells you that example.com has moderate authority, some traffic, and a decent technical health score with a few issues to fix.

Adding a New Site Project (Step-by-Step)

1. Create Project:
   In the Site Projects tab, click “New Site Project” (the button label might be “Add Site” or similar). A form will prompt you for the Domain or URL of the site. Enter your website’s homepage URL (e.g., https://www.example.com ).

2. Connect GSC (Optional but Recommended):
   If you want to import Google Search Console data, you’ll need to connect your Google account. Click “Connect Google Search Console” (if prompted). Sign in to your Google account and allow access. Then select the correct property for the domain (make sure you have that site verified in GSC).
   If you skip this, you can still add the project; you just won’t see GSC performance data. (You can always link GSC later via the Settings tab or within the advanced SEO interface’s GSC module.)

3. Initialize the Project:
   After adding, the system may take a moment to fetch initial data. You’ll then see the new site listed in the Site Projects table. Initially, some metrics might show as “–” or zero if data is still loading or if an audit hasn’t run yet.

4. View Site Details:
   Click on the site’s row (or a “View”/“Details” button if provided). In the GHL dashboard, this might show a basic drill-down with recent metrics. For full control and detailed analysis, click “Launch Advanced SEO”.

5. Use Advanced Tools for the Site:
   In the advanced SEO interface, your site project will open to a detailed dashboard. Here you can navigate through multiple tabs for that site:

   • Overview: high-level metrics (Domain Power, total keywords, traffic trend, etc.).

   • Organic Keywords: the keywords the site ranks for, their positions and volumes (populated via GSC and SearchAtlas data).

   • Backlinks: a breakdown of the site’s backlink profile (number of referring domains, anchor texts, top backlinks).

   • Top Pages: pages on your site that get the most traffic or rank for the most keywords.

   • Site Audit / Issues: summary of technical issues if a crawl audit was performed, including the Site Health score and issue counts.

6. Interpret Metrics:
   Use the data to understand your site. A higher Domain Power indicates a stronger site likely to rank well. Organic traffic trends help you gauge if SEO is improving. Backlink count and quality hint at your off-page SEO. Site Health and Issues tell you where technical improvements are needed. GSC data (if connected) will show actual clicks, impressions, and average rank for your keywords – invaluable for spotting which queries drive traffic or need attention.

Using Google Search Console Integration

One huge benefit of GHL’s SEO integration is the Google Search Console (GSC) Performance module.
By linking GSC, you automatically import all the keywords your site ranks for, along with clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), and average position. This means no manual keyword input for your own site – you’ll get a treasure trove of data:

• All ranking keywords: GHL will pull in up to the top 10,000 keywords per site from GSC (even if you aren’t tracking them manually).

• Performance metrics: For each keyword, see how often it appears in Google searches (impressions), how many clicks it got, its average rank, etc.

• Pages data: The integration also imports page-level data – up to 2,000 pages per site (starting with those with the most impressions) are stored for analysis.

How to use it:
In the advanced SEO interface, go to Site Metrics > GSC Performance (or a similar section). You’ll find tables and charts for Queries, Pages, Countries, Devices, etc. Use filters to adjust date ranges or search for specific terms.

Example:
You can filter to last 3 months and sort by clicks to see your top-performing keywords, or filter by position to find queries where you rank #5–#15 (great opportunities to improve and break into top 3).

Quota Note:
GSC integration itself doesn’t “consume” credits the way other tools do – linking a site uses up one of your GSC Project slots (limit 4 sites). Once linked, data updates are automatic. Understanding quota usage - A Quick Walkthrough of SEO: A Guide to Boosting Your Search Rankings

Running On-Page SEO Audits (Single Page Analysis)

Within a site project, you can perform On-Page Audits for specific pages on your website. This tool analyzes a single page’s content and SEO elements against a target keyword, giving you a Content Score and Technical Score, along with recommendations. It’s great for optimizing important pages like landing pages or blog posts.

How to use On-Page Audit:

1. In the advanced SEO interface, navigate to Content > On-Page Audit (or from the GHL dashboard’s Site Project view, there might be a quick link to audit a page).

2. Enter the URL of the page you want to audit.

3. Enter one or more target keywords that page is aiming to rank for.

4. Click Run Audit. The tool will crawl the page and compare its content and HTML against the top-ranking pages for those keywords.

5. After a short processing time, you’ll see results including:

   • Content Score (how well content covers the topic/keywords) and Technical Score (how well on-page SEO technical factors are implemented).

   • Recommendations divided by categories like Content, Technical, and Structure.

   • A comparison of your page vs. competitor averages.

6. Apply changes to your page as needed (this is done outside the tool, in your website/CMS). Then you can re-run the audit to see if scores improve.

Quota Usage:
Each on-page audit consumes 1 audit credit per page analyzed, regardless of how many keywords you enter. You have up to 40 on-page audit credits per month. Re-auditing the same page again will use another credit. Understanding quota usage - A Quick Walkthrough of SEO: A Guide to Boosting Your Search Rankings

Monitoring Site Health with Site Audits

Beyond single-page audits, the Site Projects section also allows full site audits (crawling your entire website to find technical SEO issues).

How to run a Site Audit:

1. If you just added the site project, an initial crawl might have been done automatically.

2. Click Launch Advanced SEO and go to Site Audit.

3. Create a New Audit Project. Provide the domain, set preferences:

   • Max Pages to Crawl (e.g., 5,000 pages).

   • Crawl Frequency: manual or scheduled.

   • Exclusions: skip folders like /admin or tracking URLs.

4. Start the audit. The crawler will check dozens of factors.

5. You’ll get a Site Health Score and categorized list of issues:

   • Errors: Critical problems.

   • Warnings: Moderate issues.

   • Notices: Minor tips.

Quota Usage:

• 1 page crawled = 1 page credit.

• 50,000 pages/month total across all sites.

• Up to 4 sites can be actively audited.

• Understanding quota usage - A Quick Walkthrough of SEO: A Guide to Boosting Your Search Rankings

AI Recommendations or One-Click Fixes

After a site audit is run, AI can auto-fix some on-page issues.

How to use AI Recommendations:

• Navigate to AI Recommendations after adding a site project.

• Each fix suggestion consumes 1 credit (500/month available).

• Fixes include title updates, alt tags, internal link improvements.

• AI can generate meta descriptions or even content paragraph suggestions.

Important:
Always review fixes before applying. Ensure content fits your voice and brand.

Best Practices for Site Projects & Audits

• Regular Monitoring: Check dashboard weekly.

• Leverage GSC Data: Use it to spot keyword opportunities.

• Don’t Waste Crawl Credits: Use smart schedules and exclusions.

• AI Fixes – Use Wisely: Apply only on approved sites.

• Track Historical Progress: GHL stores historical SEO data.

Troubleshooting & Common Issues

• Site Not Crawling: Check robots.txt, sitemap, and max pages.

• Data Not Updating: Try refreshing in advanced SEO interface.

• GSC Not Linking: Match exact domain in verified property.

• AI Not Available: Check site compatibility and slot limits.

• Metric Differences: Expect variations between SEO platforms.