Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is so important to businesses, we don’t need to tell you that. SEO is what can make or break a business in this digital age we are living in. It can be the difference between your website making waves or treading water. SEO audits can help you to make sure that you are maximising your Search marketing efforts and spotting areas for development.
What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit is a full analysis of your website, it will identify any SEO issues that could be affecting your website’s ability to rank well in organic Google or other search engines’ search results.
An SEO audit initiates the foundations of building your website and your SEO process. A bit like if you were to start a new fitness regime and completely overhaul your lifestyle to be fitter and healthier, you would look at your current problems, weaknesses, areas for development before you started, it would help you prioritise different elements that could have the biggest impact on your success. SEO audits are just the same.
What does an SEO audit include?
Your SEO auditors are going to look at a number of different elements of your website and will use external tools to help them as well as their own expertise and experience. Google offers a suite of programmes to facilitate this and that you can use to track the progress of your SEO as improvements are made. Google will provide information such as search terms, page speed, mobile-friendliness, links, and indexability. Your SEO auditors will also look at your organic search rankings, as well as on-page SEO and technical SEO issues that might be occurring. Your XML sitemaps will also provide information to the auditors and will signpost some errors that might be preventing your website from ranking as well as you want it to.
What does all this information on an SEO audit actually mean?
The purpose of the SEO audit is to make your website successful, and it does this by highlighting the existing strengths so as to not change what is already working but also to pinpoint weaknesses, issues or problems with your website that can be tweaked and changed to maximise performance.
This is the kind of quantitative data that senior managers want to see, it is data that can help you sell the idea of SEO to them. Their support and understanding can be pivotal to making a real change when you show them the impact that an improvement in SEO could have in terms of revenue generation and ultimately, the bottom line.
Why complete an SEO audit?
You could employ an in-house SEO specialist who would undertake these investigations themselves, but that is a costly and time-consuming process, with no guarantees that the appointment will be a successful one or not. A digital marketing agency can complete an SEO audit, quickly, efficiently, and expertly. Anyone can read data, but the ability to interpret and analyse it and come up with a corresponding plan is best left to the experts.
If you would like more information on starting your SEO audit, give the SEO experts at Sierra Six a call today and let us help you grow your business.
Rachel Downes, Publisher, Sierra Six Media.
