Just like you go to the doctor for customary check-ups, your website also requires routine inspections to ensure its general health and functionality. For instance, an SEO audit will point out issues and suggest solutions that can improve your site’s visibility, usability and readability. Here are four reasons why you should conduct one as soon as possible.
What Goes into an SEO Audit
1. Google Updates
Since Google is always updating their algorithms, the rules and guidelines that dictate successful SEO are constantly changing. In order to ensure that your website is not penalized, always stay up-to-date with these new trends.
When you embrace these innovations, you can improve your site’s visibility and placement on search engine results pages. Otherwise, if your site fails to adapt, your online presence will fall by the wayside and your ranking will suffer.
2. Uniform Content
At its core, your site’s content should be related to your industry and the products or services that you provide. When you conduct an SEO audit, you will be able to go through and double-check the consistency and quality of your content.
- First, make sure that it is easy enough to read so that visitors can quickly find what they’re looking for.
- Secondly, your content should contain organic keywords, a call-to-action and a clear message.
- Lastly, ensure your content has a sensible code-to-text ratio, since it’s what search engines use to decide your site’s relevancy.
3. Speed and Functionality
In this day and age, with so many digital content providers on the web, users have their pick of the litter when it comes to buying products and services. That’s why, if a site takes longer than a few seconds to load, they will likely abandon it for other opportunities.
Therefore, the time you actually have to capture a user’s attention is minimal, so make it count. During an SEO audit, you will be able to test the actual speed of your site. If there are problems that need to be resolved, the inspection will make them clear. After all, the last thing you want is a slow site that loses visitors.
4. Search Engine Profile
The way that your website appears on search engine result pages plays a vital part in acquiring new readers. During an SEO audit, URLs, page titles and meta-descriptions should all be analyzed and corrected to include proven optimization tactics.
By using a keyword in your page titles, having short, consistent URLs and providing accurate information in your descriptions, your search rankings will likely improve. When you rank higher and provide accurate information in your listing, a user will be much more likely to click-through to your site.
No one ever said that conducting your own SEO audit would be easy—but it will always be worth it in the long run.
