What Is An SEO Audit And Why Is It Important?

What Is An SEO Audit And Why Is It Important?

Posted By admin | May 24, 2022 | No Comments | SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has been one of the most influential tools in attaining better visibility and high website traffic organically. It builds credibility like no other marketing initiative because it does not appear as a paid promotion to the customers. It primarily involves using backlinks and keywords with valuable data to reach the audience. However, at times, the SEO strategy can also develop some errors that might get overlooked and create impediments in ranking higher on search engines. 

Thus, if you wish to make your SEO in Gold Coast highly robust and result-driven, you need to get an SEO audit done. Like any other audit, it helps in identifying the problem areas to help the digital experts get rid of them. Let us help you understand what it means and why it is needed by businesses trying to stay visible on the digital medium.

What Is An SEO Audit?

Man pointing SEO Audit

SEO audit involves an analysis of the business website to determine its search engine friendliness. It includes examining all the on-page and off-page initiatives, backlinks, social media marketing, keywords, content, site architecture, etc. 

Digital marketing professionals conduct the audit carefully checking each of the parameters that are considered as ranking factors by Google to ensure the effectiveness of the optimisation techniques. The entire process can take up to a month, wherein the professional keeps finding problems and striking them off by using corrective measures. The following elements are assessed during the SEO audit.

  • Technical Audit 

The technical part of the assessment includes checking the page loading time, URL structure, crawlability, mobile SEO, duplication, indexation, XML sitemap, off-page analysis, canonical tags, robots.txt, etc. 

  • On-Page Audit 

The on-page analysis includes checking the usage of keywords, images, videos, content on the website, the theme of the content, meta descriptions, title tags, internal linking, user experience and more. 

Why Is It Important to Conduct An SEO Audit?

An SEO audit must be conducted regularly to identify the weaknesses in your SEO strategy and utilise the opportunities to enjoy the following benefits:

  • Boost Website Performance

Increasing graph of website performance

The website should be performing at the best speed and must have an appropriate architecture to be used on any device without any challenges. It must offer smooth navigation to allow the users to find information effortlessly and display all the content in a cohesive and readable manner. The internal linking should be easy to follow. 

The idea is to keep the user away from bouncing off. Also, there should not be any broken links or issues with the interface. If there are any problems on the site, the SEO expert will start working on eliminating them. Some of the technical issues can take longer than expected. Also, it is important to remember that Google takes time to identify the technical changes, and this might delay the desired results. 

  • Content Improvement

While evaluating the content, the professionals check the keywords. Small businesses need to identify relevant keywords for their industry and products that must be embedded synchronously in the content. The best strategy is to use keywords that are less competitive and are long-tailed. Thus, you will have to find complex phrases that can attract customers who are looking for your products and services. 

The SEO auditor will determine these high-value phrases for the business and guide you on their presence in the website content. They will also change the structure of the content and introduce headings and subheadings along with numbered lists to allow the Google bots to easily crawl the text. 

  • Competitor Analysis

The SEO audit goes beyond the website and investigates the competitor’s SEO health as well. It identifies the keywords that are helping the competitors to gain conversions and rank higher. The auditors will list the ones that they are missing and use them on your site to get their traffic. 

They also check the websites that are linking to competitor sites and try to get backlinks from those sites to enhance credibility. Analysing the competitor’s strategy also helps in understanding what they are doing to get the attention of the audience and how it can be emulated.    

  • Monitor Performance

The reports generated from the audit provide a SWOT analysis of the SEO strategy to make amendments and progress. These reports can be used as a benchmark for the next audit. They can be utilised to measure the improvement in ranking after the changes are made to the site and content. 

The data gathered from the regular audits allow the business owner to identify the high priority tasks and make informed decisions to forecast the marketing plan for the next quarter. Without the audit, it may not be possible to make tailored improvements in each period to the site since you will not know where you need to make changes to succeed. 

  • Increasing User Friendliness

The users should have an immersive experience while visiting the site and this is possible when they get highly relevant and valuable content. Thus, the quality of the text present on the website must be original, informative, readable, interesting, engaging and communicative. The call-to-action buttons must be highlighted and clearly visible for the user to take action when needed.

The images and videos on the site must be compressed to avoid increasing page load speed without affecting the resolution. The image caption should be optimised with keywords. The copy on the page should be complete and rich with facts and figures. It is the best way to rank higher and an audit can quickly identify a lacking page with less content or irrelevant information.

  • Enhancing Local SEO

Paper on keyboard pointing local seo

Local SEO has become highly significant in the current marketplace, where customers are vying for local brands and searching for products and services in their location. The SEO audit will include checking the local citations, local directories, local reviews and listings. 

If the auditors identify any weak points in this area, they will give you the best advice to get them corrected. Thus, you can find more customers in your local region and generate more foot traffic to the physical store in addition to the website.

Conclusion

When you are performing SEO in Gold Coast, you need to undertake regular SEO audits to ensure that you are on the right track. It helps in making the process highly efficient and gaining improved visibility.