SEO audit for your website
SEO is a straightforward process that has no secrets. The success of a project depends on 3 main factors:
Off-page SEO optimization;
On-page SEO optimization;
Technical SEO
In short, it’s a complete analysis of your website, which includes a number of crucial factors:
- Your website’s visibility on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing;
- Errors on the page;
- Indexed pages and number of pages on the site;
- Page loading speed;
- Internal optimization (Onpage)
An SEO audit looks at how your website is currently functioning and selects the most appropriate strategy to improve the quality and performance of your website.
Know your goals
Before the analysis is carried out, find out what you are trying to achieve: Are you trying to increase traffic to your website, to increase sales? Do you want your website to make good use of online marketing channels? Or are you interested in expanding into new markets, in other words, developing an online marketing strategy?
A proper SEO study for your website will help you to quickly find out all the technical nuances that may have a negative impact on your online marketing strategy.
Simple optimisation changes, redirecting your website to more customer traffic, these are all critical factors, but they can be implemented very easily.
Why do I need a website audit?
First of all, this method will help you understand the current state of your website and its ability to compete with other businesses. Before making some drastic changes to your website, such as a major overhaul of the content, you need to find out what strategy would be best for your website.
The principles by which the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing rank their pages are constantly changing, so for a website to remain competitive on the web it needs to be flexible in terms of optimisation.
As an example, when ranking websites, Google takes into account as many as 2000 factors in its system, which are related both to the query made by the user and to what can be found on the website.
The old SEO strategies no longer work and, in order to get the content of a website right, it is necessary to take into account a large number of factors and to be able to carry out all the optimisation work periodically.
How long does it take to carry out a full website audit?
The time it takes to complete an audit depends on the work you want to do and the size of the website in general. For smaller sites, 2-3 days of work analysing its parameters is sufficient. A detailed audit, taking into account all factors, can take up to 2-3 weeks for a larger site.
How much can a website audit cost?
The main elements that determine the cost of a website audit are, first of all, the nature of your website. Different prices apply to informational and commercial websites. The price is also influenced by the amount of work to be carried out, if you carry out a detailed audit the price will naturally increase.
How to do the right SEO for your website?
Nowadays, most marketing experts know that an audit is an integral part of a website’s success. Since the search engine algorithms that rank websites are constantly changing, it is essential to know how to choose the right business strategy and be flexible.
Although it is a time-consuming and demanding task, you can do a proper website audit yourself, the most important thing is to be able to plan the work you are going to do.
There are certain areas that should be taken into account when carrying out an SEO audit of your website:
- Data visible in website analytics (e.g. Google Analytics);
- Proper keyword research;
- Website loading speed;
- Site indexation rate;
- The quantity and quality of links on the site (internal and external);
- Meta-analysis of the site (whether titles, descriptions for the different content sections are properly composed).
Types of website audit
Different types of audit require specific strategies and work. Here are the most important types of audit.
SEO Audit
The essential purpose of this audit is to find out the technical aspects that make your website rank one way or another in search engines. This takes into account the architecture of the site and possible errors such as incorrectly arranged or poor quality links.
Attention is also paid to keywords. Keywords help search engines and users to find relevant content, so it is essential to find out what phrases bring you visitors and what strategies can be used to increase their traffic. Keyword research is one of the most important parts of this audit and, although it is time-consuming, it helps to uncover a great deal of important data about a website.
Content audit
This focuses on how the content on the pages of the website can be improved based on better use of keywords. At the same time, it looks at the weaknesses and strengths of the content.
Technical audit
This analysis takes into account the loading speed of the website, its suitability for mobile devices and whether there are any problems related to these aspects.
Usability audit (UX – user experience)
Although a website may appear to be technically sound, this may not always mean commercial success. This type of audit aims to make the website more user-friendly for the visitor. At the same time, it looks at what influences the conversion of visitors into customers.
Backlink audits
As mentioned before, link management is also an important part of website optimisation. Reviewing them will give you an idea of whether you are at risk of being penalised by search engines for inappropriate or untidy links. Backlinks – or external links from other sources to your website – show search engines that your website is trustworthy and can be a relevant source of information.
How can I improve my website?
Whether you carry out the audit yourself or use a specialist firm, it is essential to take into account the situation of your website and the following aspects when carrying out a website audit:
- Technical audit
- Content audit
- Keyword analysis
- Identification and review of backlinks
- Competitor analysis.
If you think you need expert help with a website audit, please contact me.
What kind of SEO audits can we carry out?
If you want to commission an internal SEO audit, you can choose between two standard internal optimisation audits.
Basic SEO Audit
A basic SEO audit is carried out within 2-3 working days. For the basic SEO audit we use the following tools: the SemRush Audit Tool and the Website Auditor Tool.
You receive pdf reports from the tools listed and recommendations for any necessary changes to your website.
If you outsource the optimization work to us, this audit is enough to fix the main internal optimization problems.
Professional SEO audit
A professional SEO audit takes 7-10 working days. The steps involved in this audit are as follows:
- Performing a basic SEO audit (SemRush + Website Auditor)
- Check against internal optimization list (over 60 items)
- Creation of a work list
- Providing recommendations