An SEO audit is the process of modifying, strengthening and analyzing online relevancy of your website or how well your web presence relates to best practices. It is the process of identifying problems that could prevent your website from ranking on search engines like Google.
SEO audits take a deep dive into your site to evaluate numerous factors that impact your ability to rank in search engine results pages or SERPs.
Why Is It Important to Audit Your Website?
It’s important to have regular SEO audits to check everything is in order and to ensure:
- Improved Organic Search Visibility
- Better and Stronger Content
- Enhanced Usability
- Improved Conversion Rates
- Determine and Capitalize on Traffic Trends
- Improved Keyword Distribution
- Identify and Fix Onsite and Offsite Issues
- Improved Information Structure
- Competitive marketplace insights
There Are Three Parts to An SEO Audit
1. On-page SEO : Your on-page SEO audit consists of site elements you can control and optimize, and a large portion of that is the content. In other words, an on-page SEO audit focuses on optimizing elements within your website that impact your site’s SERP rankings. Through – keyword strategy, internal link building, having sitemaps etc.
2. Off-page SEO : Off-page SEO consists of SEO elements that you don’t directly control, but you can influence. For example, backlinks. Backlinks can help you rank better for keywords that matter the most to your business. The higher you are in the SERPs for relevant keywords, the more valuable traffic you can get to your site. Bringing traffic to your site for targeted keywords can result in qualified leads, and then actual sales, for your business.
3. Technical SEO : A technical SEO audit takes a deeper dive into the mechanics behind your site. It helps us with various things that we can group into:
- Accessibility
- Indexability
A technical SEO audit is conducted by answering questions such as:
- Does your website load quickly?
- Is your website, and all of its pages, mobile-friendly?
- Is your page secure?
How Do You Carry Out an SEO Audit?
Here are the steps to conducting an effective SEO audit:
- Crawl Your Website
- Check Search Engines for Indexing Problems
- Make Sure Your Website Ranks on the First Page For Your Brand
- Perform an On-page SEO Check
- Check Your Website for Duplicate Content
- Review Your Site and Page Speed
- Conduct a Backlink Audit
- Evaluate Your Organic Search Traffic
- Look for Broken Links and Fix Them
- Look for Content Opportunities and Gaps
How Often Do You Conduct an SEO Audit?
For a large website with frequent changes and lots of content, you will benefit from more frequent audits- every month or every quarter. For a smaller website, an audit every six months or once a year will be fine.
SEO auditing is a crucial process for your website. With an SEO audit, you can discover what is wrong and what you need to improve upon, which can make your website more visible to search engines leading to more traffic and conversion.