If you’re not attempting to rank on search engines organically at this point, you’re leaving business on the table. SEO is a budget-friendly, long-term digital marketing technique that doesn’t require any massive swings or fancy tricks. It’s a practice that requires time and consistency, with a few different core pillars of technique. The process that starts the strategy off? The SEO audit.
SEO audit services come from professional digital marketers, who use simple but effective techniques to determine where your business is in terms of SEO. This article will explore the importance of getting an SEO audit, while also illuminating more of the technical side of what the audit will achieve.
What is an SEO audit?
SEO audits are designed to identify technical issues (website SEO audit), content quality pitfalls and backlink profiles. When you audit SEO factors, you can lay out an effective map for the next steps, whether they take the form of content creation or a website remodel.
Reasons to have an SEO site audit
Your existing SEO profile needs to be assessed before you can really start to create a high-ranking presence on search engines. Without following a clear SEO audit checklist, you might enact a time-consuming, costly strategy that’s not truly going to make a positive impact. The following elements might be blind spots that a technical SEO audit service will put the spotlight on, allowing for more meaningful changes.
Mobile usability & friendliness
Over half of all website traffic comes from mobile devices these days, meaning a lack of mobile friendliness will significantly limit your ability to connect with potential customers. An audit will reveal your website’s mobile usability, while the team that enacts the process should also be able to fix any issues and make your business phone-friendly.
General user-friendliness
A slow website load can have a significant impact on your website’s success. Customers greeted by a slow website are much more likely to click away, meaning they might leave before even having a chance to get to know your business.
Readability and skimmability also play into this, which is why a website should be structured in an eye-friendly manner that visitors can skim through with ease. Also involved in this is the presence of internal links and drop-down menus, allowing visitors to easily navigate multiple pages in one visit.
Technical backend SEO checks
There are some elements of an audit that might feel fairly small and ancillary; however, they have a significant impact on the technical SEO of a website. These exist outside of the realm of an SEO content audit, focusing more on the things you can’t see on the page, such as:
- How HTML is used on your website
- The structure of the URLs used on your website
- The presence, or lack thereof, and quality of meta data
These boring, yet essential aspects will help to establish your business on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Creating a backlink profile
This process will determine whether your business appears as a backlink on any other areas of the web, while also helping to build a list of blogs or publications for you to target with ongoing outreach PR articles.
Steps after an SEO audit
Any agency that enacts an audit for you should be similarly capable of filling any of the gaps they’ve highlighted. With a better picture of where your company currently stands SEO wise, the agency should have a clear direction to go in concerning technical SEO and more content-focused strategies alike. Don’t waste time, get your audit from an expert team sooner rather than later.
