Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is an instrumental part of any digital marketing strategy.
Great SEO will help you to rank well on the Google search engine results page when your customers look up certain keywords and phrases, and therefore help you get more brand recognition, clicks into your website, and conversions.
That’s why so many businesses work on their SEO every month, creating fresh content, adding keywords to landing pages, and improving technical aspects such as site speed.
But how often do you complete an SEO audit?
What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit is essentially a health check for your current SEO position. Many businesses will perform (or contract out) an SEO audit before they start efforts to optimise their website so they know where to focus their time and investment.
However it’s also a good idea for businesses with established rankings to do the occasional SEO audit to see how their efforts are performing, and to continue to make improvements over time.
This way, you can get a regular picture of how well you are optimising your website. You’ll be able to see areas that need improvement, areas that are strong and only need maintenance, and ideas for new steps you can take to improve your SEO, both on-site and off-site.
Why is it so important?
It’s vital to conduct a regular SEO audit to make sure you are on track to rank well. Organic (non-paid) Google rankings are extremely important when it comes to bringing in new customers online, as most people never look past the first results page. If you can reach that first results page and stay there, your website should have a lot more visibility amongst your target audience.
The problem is, Google’s search engine is very much ‘alive’ in that it is always changing and growing. So even if you reach page one of the results, you will need to continue to work hard to maintain this position.
Therefore, an audit should always be your first port of call if you notice a ranking drop.
Audits are also beneficial when you are about to rebrand or make major changes to your website, so you can build better SEO into the changes as you go, rather than waste time and need to redo them later.
Areas covered in an SEO audit
A good audit should cover on-site and off-site elements, including both content and technical aspects.
This includes:
- Keyword research
- Keyword use
- Meta data
- Site content structure
- Images and video
- Internal linking
- Backlinks
- Broken links
- Page speed
- URL structure
- Mobile friendliness
- Site security
- Google Business Profile
An SEO audit should be very in-depth to make sure it picks up any potential issues on your site. Something as small as broken links can be detrimental to your ranking, but it is relatively very easy to fix, so an audit will be able to rake through all of the details and ensure you’re not missing anything.
While it is possible to complete an SEO audit for your own business, it does take time, technical experience, and access to certain paid tools.
That’s why many businesses will seek out dedicated digital marketing agencies to run this audit for them. You’ll save time and headaches, and your report will include actionable points that you can work on immediately.
Contact the friendly team at Media Giant for an expert SEO audit to see how you can improve your website and move up the ranks in Google.
