What is an on-site SEO Audit?
An on-site SEO audit is a practice of evaluating your web presence and performance for your website.
The first step to implementing SEO strategies and creating a plan from measured results. The purpose of this audit is to identify any issues or steps you can take to boost your website performance. An audit can help you maximise your efforts so that your website is not left behind.
Why is an on-site SEO Audit important?
SEO audits crucial in keeping on top of your website rankings. If your website is not optimised for search, you could be missing out on potential clients and traffic. An SEO audit is maintenance that needs to be continued, like changing the oil of a car. Performing your audit regularly will keep your website performing and maintain its visibility.
Depending on the size of your operation, a good audit will take up to 6 weeks to finish. Every site audit is different, and there is no “one size fits all” method to perform it. All situations are different, so performing a Situational evaluation should be done for any website.
Reasons to consider an SEO Audit:
- Algorithm changes: Search engines are constantly changing their algorithms. These changes can affect your traffic and search engine rankings, be aware of these changes and strategies.
- Webmaster changes: Like algorithms, webmaster tools are continually changing and evolving. These changes can make your website non-compliant with their guidelines and can cause you some grief.
- Find website errors: The website inevitably has errors, so a website audit makes sure you identify any issues or errors.
- Find Outdated content: An audit is a great way to catch old content. Outdated content may not be relevant anymore and could be hurting your website. If people are not viewing or re-visiting your website, it could be something to do with your content.
7 Steps On-Site SEO Audit:
#1 Set Up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
This step is the most important step of them all. Webmaster Tools are developed to easily index your website rather than waiting for bots to find your website. Webmaster tools offer invaluable data insight into your site’s online performance.
Some key features they offer is the ability to view keywords or terms used for your website, submit new pages, submit sitemaps, identify crawl errors, and more. If you have not set up your Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools accounts, you should right now.
#2 Review keyword research
Keywords range from single words to long-tail complex phrases, telling search engines what a page is about. Reviewing keywords is crucial as it provides insight into what your target audience is searching for. Evaluating your keywords will be able to tell you if your strategy is effective.
Some tools you can do to do this is Ubersuggest or Answer the Public. Knowing what your target audience is looking for can not only help your content strategy but also your SEO strategy.
#3 Speed up your website
#3 Speed up your websiteSite speed was confirmed by Google that it has an impact on your ranking. To test your website speed, you can use PageSpeed Insights, GT Metrix, or Pingdom. These tools will recommend changes or any issues your website may have.
#4 Perform a Competitor Analysis
A competitor analysis is a great way to find gaps in your industry market. They help you analyse main market players and determine what strategies you can use to dominate the market.
More than likely, you will know who your competitors are, if you don’t, you can simply google search a product or service to find out. After you compile a list of competitors, Use a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This is a great tool to visualise where you stand in your current market.
Your analysis should cover these areas:
- Brand positioning
- Website performance
- Customer experience
- Sales strategy
- Pricing strategy
- Marketing strategy
- Content strategy
- Shipping strategy
- Service Strategy
#5 Analyse Your Backlinks
Backlinks are still an important part of your website. In a 2020 study, Backlinko found that backlinks are associated with rankings more than other factors.
To see your backlinks, you can use Neil Patel’s Backlink Checker or AHrefs Backlink Checker. You can use this data to compare against your competitors and see where you can get even more backlinks.
#6 Review your site structure
The structure of your site determines how a user navigates your website. Search engines use your site structure to understand your content and the page relationships. Optimising site structure also makes sure users find what they are looking for without going deep into your site.
A well-thought site map will drive traffic to your most important pages. Start your strategy by breaking down your pages in a way that makes sense, and avoid creating pages that take more than 3 clicks to view. An optimised structure has a positive effect on crawlers and users alike.
#7 Use a site audit tool
Performing a site audit without a tool can be very challenging, and that is why I highly recommend using SEMrush. SEMrush is known for its site audit tool but offers 50+ tools on SEO, competitor research, PPC, social media, content marketing, etc.
Ultimately, the way you use Semrush will depend on what you want to achieve. Semrush can help you measure your website visibility, compare competitors and improve website visibility.
Conclusion
In conclusion, an on-site SEO audit is the best way to evaluate your overall website performance. It can identify key issues and improve your SEO strategy to maximise your efforts. Performing an on-site SEO Audit can take time, but is time well invested. Give us a call or schedule an appointment if you need help with your SEO Audit.
