SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) improves the volume and quality of traffic to a website or specific web page through search engines. Given its importance, many aspects need to be analysed to ensure that SEO strategies contribute to achieving your business goals. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct regular SEO audits to guarantee that all website optimisation efforts benefit the company.
This article explains what an SEO audit is and which elements a checklist for such an audit should include.
What Is An SEO Audit?
An SEO audit is a method of detecting and analysing current search engine optimisation problems. By optimising your website’s search results, an SEO audit determines the following: the number of websites complying with various rules and regulations of major search engines and search bots, the amount of effort being put into link building, the presence and size of link directories, and the presence of backlinks from domains not belonging to the client.
To begin the SEO audit process, assess the current situation. This includes analysing meta tags, keywords, headings, and any other static or dynamic information about your website. After this initial analysis, you can evaluate the internal pages. This includes checking the sitemap, navigation, internal link structure, URL creation strategy, and other pages invisible to users.
Your team should also check for duplicate satisfied, cross-domain links, and any other inconsistencies in your website’s structure. The entire audit method can take a full day, especially if you have a large or complex website.
Primarily, the SEO audit will identify all problems with your website’s current design and architecture. Once identified, the main areas requiring improvement should be determined.
What Should Be Involved In Your SEO Audit Checklist
Before conducting an SEO audit, it is crucial to create a checklist to ensure that no critical details are overlooked. This checklist should cover all aspects of your website that can affect its ranking in major search engines.
Below are some of the most essential elements to include in your SEO audit checklist:
1. Technical Aspects
The Technical SEO optimisation is the process of optimising your website for search engine crowded and indexing. Technical SEO helps search engines quickly and easily access, index, crawl, and read your website. It is also known as comprehensive optimisation because it covers various criteria used by search engines to rank websites.
Most technical SEO audits are performed manually, as scanning web pages and analysing their structure requires significant programming and coding. First, you should check the sitemap, homepage, website structure, internal links, and backlinks from other domains pointing to your site. You should also check all the files that make up your website, including prototype and image files, JavaScript scripts, style sheets, and security headers.
2. Local SEO
Your SEO audit checklist should also include local search engine optimisation (local SEO). This is especially important for businesses looking to expand their customer base around their physical location. Local SEO is the process of optimising your website to attract more customers through relevant local search questions performed by your target audience in search engines.
A local SEO audit may include the same components as a technical SEO audit. However, the former focuses more on the website’s performance in local search results. As part of a local SEO audit, ensure your company’s name, location, and contact information are accurately listed in major online directories.
3. Content
A content SEO audit is a powerful tool for improving your website’s search engine rankings. However, it can be complex and time-consuming if you’ve never done one before.
A content SEO audit provides a clearer understanding of how to improve your SEO strategy by showing which content is valuable, which keywords to use, and which content should be removed entirely. By analysing the audit results from this perspective, you’ll better understand the steps to improve your website’s ranking and increase revenue.
In addition to the benefits mentioned, conducting a content SEO audit provides a more detailed analysis of the website’s indexed content. This information is used to determine which pages generate traffic and conversions, and which are duplicates or should be removed.
4. Links
A link SEO audit can accurately show which links (if any) on your website pose a risk to your search engine placement. This detailed information is vital for many reasons:
- Allows for prompt action to minimise damage
- Provides for more thorough analysis
- Allows for a better understanding of competitors’ strategies
- Provides rapid analysis and feedback
SEO link auditing can also include analysing incoming links by examining the website’s backlink profile. This audit checks whether the website has good or bad links. Having low-quality links pointing to your website can negatively impact your search engine rankings.
5. Keywords
In the triumph of any SEO strategy, keywords play a fundamental role. The choice of keywords is crucial to achieving high search rankings for your website. Keyword auditing remains one of the most essential practices for conducting a current SEO audit, so it should always be involved in your SEO audit checklist.
A keyword audit will provide you with valuable insights into the thoughts, needs, and preferences of your target audience. Using a keyword administration tool, you can check how your keywords rank in search results. You can also analyse their historical performance and compare it to their current performance. Based on this information, you can update your relevant keywords to match the most popular and frequently used keywords in your niche.
When To Hire An SEO Agency
You can probably handle some SEO tasks yourself, but not all of them. If you have too little time to create a checklist for an SEO audit and implement SEO strategies, you can seek help from a data-driven SEO agency like Traffv. A good SEO agency will help you increase long-term organic traffic and attract new customers.
If you want to conduct a more in-depth SEO audit and implement a larger-scale SEO campaign, engaging an SEO agency will help accelerate and simplify these processes thanks to expert guidance. A good SEO agency conducts a technical website audit using software to analyse your site. With precise data tuning and keyword-ranking-chasing tools like keyword.com, an SEO agency can help increase SEO quality and make more informed decisions.
If you want to optimise your business for local search and search maps, an SEO agency can also help. This way, your potential customers in specific geographic regions can easily find your business on maps and in local search results.
SEO agencies are also doyens in monthly reporting to assess campaign performance, as well as in creating keyword maps to assign target keywords. They can also assist with link-building campaigns without harming websites. Furthermore, they can help create relevant content tailored to your target audience.
Final Thoughts
The importance of an SEO audit lies in several aspects. This process helps improve website ranking by removing invalid entries and optimising performance and overall page quality, thereby increasing website traffic.
SEO auditing is fundamental because it helps address website usability issues. All pages need to be examined to identify any internal problems and then implement appropriate solutions. Therefore, it is crucial to have a comprehensive checklist for the SEO audit so that no element that could affect the website’s ranking is overlooked.