What Is an SEO Audit and Why Do You Need It?
Running an online business means juggling multiple jobs – developing the perfect product, providing stellar customer service, increasing your traffic, building community etc.
SEO (search engine optimisation) is an important part of running a successful online business.
With so many factors to consider when running a business, there is no surprise SEO is often overlooked.
If you are unsure why your website’s performance is important or are confused about how best to measure the performance of your website, then contact a digital agency such as Herdl to help you understand the benefits of SEO marketing.
Agencies can transform your SEO presence nationally, internationally, or locally.
We have compiled a helpful guide below about how to conduct an SEO audit of your website and what it means for your company’s success.
What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit is the process of identifying issues that could prevent your site from ranking on Google and other search engines.
During an SEO audit, you will check the technical aspects of your website’s SEO like indexation, metadata, backlinks, site speed, etc. as well as highlighting all the upcoming key actions that need to be implemented or fixed.
The purpose of an SEO audit is to identify as many foundational issues affecting organic search performance as possible so that you can rank better.
What does an SEO audit cover?
The 3 main factors affecting your website SEO performance:
☕️ Technical factors: These include all technical factors like loading time, web hosting, and indexing of the website on search engines.
☕️ On-page factors: These include factors such as the quality of content and target keywords.
☕️ Off-page factors: These are the external factors like backlinks and other outside references like reviews and mentions
Below are some website fixes that SEO audit covers:
☕️ Crawl your website (check crawled pages, metadata, broken links, redirects, duplicate content, and more. This is important because a technically robust site can make a difference between page 1 and page 2 rankings)
☕️ Review your sitemap (A sitemap gives your website a structure and provides information about the relationships between all the pages and categories)
☕️ Fix broken internal links (An SEO audit should highlight all the broken pages, so you can either update them with new content or remove them. Internal links are an important ranking factor)
☕️ Do a backlink audit (During a backlink audit, you’ll identify and remove all toxic backlinks pointing to your website. Toxic backlinks are usually low-quality network links that only damage your website’s authority)
☕️ Check if your website is mobile-friendly (Your site must be easy to navigate on mobile and tablet screens because about 50% of searches are done on mobile)
☕️ Test your site speed (9 out of 10 people are likely to bounce off when your website takes over 5 seconds to load)
☕️ Flatten the website architecture (The site architecture should link all the web pages in a logical hierarchy. You should reduce the click depth and position the most important web pages close to the home page)
☕️ Identify any content gaps and opportunities (This allows you how your website’s content performs for the search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo compared to your competitors)
People Development Magazine compiled a helpful guide detailing 5 reasons why every website needs an SEO audit. Check it out for further information on SEO audits.
Why is conducting SEO audits regularly so important?
Because the website that ranks in the top 3 positions on Google gets 75% of the clicks (Backlinko 2020) leading to more traffic and sales.
When you implement actions from an SEO audit on your website, you improve your chances of appearing on the first page of Google.
By regularly reviewing how well your business is performing online and identifying ways to improve what you are currently doing, will set you up for success in the future.
Keeping an eye on SEO updates and considering the ways that you can implement them into your business to remain relevant and competitive while monitoring what your competitors are doing, are a great way of keeping on top of your company’s SEO.
I hope that you found this guide helpful and that you feel you have the knowledge to go on and complete that long-overdue SEO audit for your business!
