A Chartered Accountant audits your finances to improve your financial health and help you manage your wealth efficiently. An IT security professional audits your cyber security solutions to safeguard your valuable data and enhance your system’s performance. Similarly, the best SEO agency in any region audits their clients’ websites for better performance.
A website audit is a thorough analysis of its technical makeup and performance. From the site’s design and layout to its content and performance on SERPs (search engine results pages), an SEO site audit includes several activities leading to the common goal of performance enhancement.
There is no centralized system for conducting website audits. Different SEO experts use different metrics to rate the performance of their clients’ websites. However, the basic framework of almost all audits remains the same. Have clearly defined goals, decide the key metrics, and score your site’s performance accordingly. The analysis will tell you what works and what doesn’t work for your website. You can also ask for a comprehensive site audit checklist from SEO professionals to give you a clear direction to head in.
Let us make your job easier by giving you a step-by-step guide to conducting an SEO site audit:
Some of the most robust SEO site audits begin with analyzing the site speed. The speed at which your website loads on your target audience’s screens significantly determines its overall performance.
For more than a decade, Google has been prioritizing site speed as a parameter to index websites. So, if you want your site to be seen high up the Google SERP, check its speed in advance. Use reliable analytics tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and more to score your website’s speed. Slow speeds reduce a website’s authority, making it tumble down the SERP ladder.
Only an optimized website can rank high on search engines. Your SEO site audit should always include on-page optimizations. Ensure that you have used the right meta tags and descriptions for all web pages. Check if your website contains relevant alt tags for all images and/or videos. Analyzing these aspects can give your website the much-needed SEO boost.
No matter how optimized and technically sound your website is, it will not perform well on the SERPs with poor content. The content published on your site is its soul and determines its rank to a great extent. Your site audit should always include a thorough content quality evaluation.
Ensure that your site’s content is relevant, unique, and engaging. The last thing you’d want to do is bore the visitors into bouncing off! Make your content as readable and simple as possible. Stick to the point and stay true to your audience’s search intent.
This is also the stage where filling content gaps becomes necessary. These are the gaps between the content already published on your site and what your audience wants to consume. Techniques like competitor analysis and other relevant SERP assessment methods can help you find these gaps. Once found, you can either revamp your site’s content or make necessary additions.
Some of the most common causes behind poor website performance are technical SEO issues. As you conduct your SEO site audit, identify complications like 404 errors, non-indexed pages, and more. Most digital marketers take Google Search Console’s help in identifying and rectifying such issues.
Every website is created to provide value to its users. If your target audience is not satisfied with your website, it will not perform well. A site audit is incomplete without user experience (UX) analysis. Are users finding it difficult to navigate your website? Work on your site map and improve internal links. Are some of your site’s pages loading at slower speeds than the rest? Fix that issue.
From the quality of content to the size of fonts, focus on the smallest details influencing user experience.
Accessibility audit is getting increasingly important with time. It works on the need to make a website accessible to all. Whether your target audience stumbles upon your site on a mobile device, a desktop, or a smart TV, they should be able to navigate through all its content seamlessly. Digital marketers are also actively working to make websites accessible for users with disability.
While conducting your website audit, ensure that it is optimized for all users, irrespective of the devices they use or the complications they struggle with.
Once you find everything that needs fixing, you should create a robust and tailor-made action plan for your website. Create a timeline and start working on the changes that will improve your website’s health and boost its performance. Keep track of your site’s performance over time to ensure seamless application of the recommended changes.
SEO site audit should never be a one-time endeavor. It should be an ongoing process that aims for continuous improvement. There is no 100% efficient website at all times. As technologies evolve and we enter new phases, your website will need some maintenance. Without regular audits, you won’t be able to identify, acknowledge, and resolve issues with your site.
For this, you need to work with SEO professionals who are in tune with the ever-changing landscape of web development and digital marketing. Informed experts offer personalized services to improve your site’s overall performance. As long as you have a clear goal to pursue and an SEO partner who understands it, you are good to go!
A website audit is a continuous procedure that improves your site’s performance and helps it rank better on SERPs. Work with skilled SEO professionals to identify the areas to focus on and the metrics to score your site on. Devise a personalized audit plan that works best for your company and target audience today.
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