When a person goes to a dentist periodically for a checkup of his teeth, this checkup is called an audit in technical terms. Regular check-ups are always needed to keep the things maintained whether it is a machine, software or a human. Today, we will be talking about an audit of a website to ensure its Search Engine Optimisation.
Need for SEO Audit
There are several reasons for conducting an SEO Audit of a website. Let’s take a look at few below:
• Compliance with updates in Google Webmaster Guidelines.
• Changes in SEO rules from last year.
• Identify the bugs on the website to increase the traffic.
• Get rid of the outdated content and bring some fresh ideas to users.
• Stay ahead of competitors in Search Engine Marketing.
• Improvement of rank in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
How to conduct an SEO Audit
An examination of Search Engine Optimisation can be performed by yourself if you have enough knowledge of technical terms and computer language, alternatively, you can appoint an SEO expert to get the job done for you.
Whoever is conducting an audit, it goes through three main stages:
Stage 1 - Analysing the current state of the website: At this stage of the audit, all the problems with sites such as the percentage of keyword usage, broken links, image ALT attributes, meta-descriptions and URL issues are identified to resolve them.
Stage 2 – Planning for the new state of the website: At this stage, an SEO checklist is prepared as per latest Search Engine Optimisation Rules which then will be used to compare the old state with new state and proceed accordingly.
Stage 3 - Take action to change the condition of the website: This is the main stage where a comprehensive audit will be held. We will break this stage further into 5 phases to better understand the audit:
Phase 1 – On the site SEO tricks: During this phase of the audit, all the things on the website are considered to optimise the
search engine results. These will include the following:
- Ensure that the titles for each page are unique and the length is within the characters limit specified.
- Ensure that URLs are properly formatted and easy to remember.
- Ensure that the content in the website is correctly formatted using H1 (main title), H2 (sub titles), italics and bold wherever necessary.
- Ensure that the content of the website is unique and able to pass Copyscape check.
- Ensure that related pages are internally linked with one another.
- Ensure that images used in the content have a proper description and ALT tags. The size of images should also be appropriate to reduce the loading time of the page.
- Ensure that website does not have any broken links.
- Ensure that website is user-friendly. There are no criteria to determine the friendliness of a website. However, proper main menu, search bar, reasonable advertisements are some of the things to be considered.
- Ensure that the speed of the website is appropriate by removing the unnecessary data and images.
- Ensure that the content of the site is properly structured into different categories and pages. Further, the website should contain an about us, privacy policy and disclaimer page as well.
Phase 2 – Website Control: This phase allows you to ensure that the website is managed. You must use proper tools to administer a website such as Google Webmaster. Moreover, make sure that google bots do not face any difficulty in searching your website.
Phase 3 – Social Media Marketing: This phase helps us to analyse the social media platforms to increase the traffic on the website. In this social media society, your website will not survive if it is isolated from social platforms. Launching your website on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will increase the links and visits for the website. Thus, this phase is as crucial as others in SEO audit.
Phase 4 – Off-site SEO: Other websites also refer to our website, and so we do. At this phase, you must identify the following characteristics of sites pointing at you; websites with unique domains, pages of your website that are mostly referred, the number of links covering your home page and internal pages and the links from trusted websites. This activity will also help you optimise your search engine results.
Phase 5 – Promote your website: Your website will not get as many visitors as the website which has; mobile version, Android application and presence on YouTube / Dailymotion to get the increased hits. SEO audit allows you to exploit all the possible opportunities available at your disposal to market your website.
Advantages of SEO Audit
Following are the benefits of conducting an SEO audit on a timely basis:
➢ Outperform the competitors in the search engine industry.
➢ Save yourself from Google penalties.
➢ Increase the traffic on your website.
➢ Stay visible in search engine result pages.
➢ Satisfy the visitors with a user-friendly website and updated content.
➢ Get off-site links to other favourite websites.
➢ Embed your domain name in social media marketing.
➢ Increased orders and income.
The above list of benefits is not exhaustive, and there are many other perks of maintaining your website with SEO audit.
Frequency of SEO Audit
The frequency of SEO audit depends upon the nature of your website. If your primary business is associated with the website, then the best practice to keep your website up to date is that you should conduct the SEO audit every quarter if you can afford the time and cost of the audit. Otherwise, a semi-annual audit will also play the role to a great extent.
Cost of SEO Audit
The cost of SEO audit is not fixed. It depends on the nature and traffic of the website under audit. Some professionals charge for the entire project, some break the audit into phases and charge for every phase separately, and others charge hourly. So, if your website is complex, then you will be charged high and vice versa.