Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, is likely one of the first strategies you will use to establish a strong ranking for your website. After all, keeping your site visible and high-ranking is a solid benchmark for success in content marketing. However, you may be wondering how your competitors outrank you each month despite your efforts. One way to give yourself a boost is SEO auditing. By following the steps ahead, you can attract more revenue, leads, and visitors.
Still, you may be wondering…
WHAT IS SEO AUDITING?
Essentially, an SEO audit is a comprehensive analysis of a website that evaluates its ability to appear in search engine results pages. A successful audit should provide you with reasons why your website is not performing as well as it could be. You may be providing visitors with stellar content and a clean design. But if search engines cannot read your website, all of that goes to waste. This is why auditing your website on a regular basis is critical to make the most of your SEO services. With that being said, you can follow these steps to conduct an SEO audit to boost your site ranking:
- CHECK WEBSITE TRAFFIC
When it comes to SEO, traffic is the goal. It is important to check your website’s traffic at least twice a week. You want to stay on top of any sudden dips that may be caused by a number of possible technical glitches. Alternatively, you want to be able to see if your traffic and search visibility increases with a high volume keyword. This is tangible evidence of your hard work. - CHECK GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE COVERAGE REPORT
Google Search Console is a must-have tool for SEO. The pages you want Google to index need to show up in search results, and this tool can tell you just that. Ultimately, it will give you a look into how Google sees your pages – allowing you to monitor those on your website that are indexed. It also provides a way to catch errors such as crawling errors before they cause any damage. - PERFORM A SITE CRAWL
A site crawl can help you identify specific issues. It will point out pages you may have accidentally set to “noindex.” In this case, search engines cannot crawl your page and you lose the opportunity to rank for that page. It will also point out 404 errors (due to deletion or changed URL) and 500 errors (due to internal issues).
- MAKE SURE PAGES ARE MOBILE-FRIENDLY
Statistics show that by 2021, 52.3 million Internet users will only browse via mobile. With that being said, you want to make sure your website is mobile-friendly. You can use programs such as Google’s Mobile-Friendly test to see where you currently stand. It also allows you to see how your website looks on different devices. - USE A CONTENT SEO STRATEGY
Your website should not only run well but present visitors with great content. Many websites achieve this by publishing articles, blogs, and whitepapers. However, there is a specific strategy to optimise your content. If you’re using WordPress you should install the Yoast SEO. This plugin shows how your work is optimised for target keywords. Your content marketing strategy will directly impact your ranking and traffic. - CHECK SITE SPEED AND LOAD TIME
Page speed is a priority in today’s fast-paced world. In a 2015 survey, 46% of people reported the thing they most disliked about mobile web-browsing is waiting for pages to load. If visitors become frustrated by slow load times, they will likely leave your website. Over time, this can have a huge impact on your traffic. There are many factors that impact your speed, such as page size, script issues, caching, image file size, and a high code-to-text ratio. You can determine your website’s speed with Pingdom’s Website Speed Test today.
REFINE YOUR SEO STRATEGY WITH DIGITAL INNOVATIONS
With a wide variety of web content services, Digital Innovations can help you achieve first-page traffic. Their knowledgeable SEO team provides monthly reports to help you identify opportunities and potential threats from competitors. Your online presence will remain secure and thriving. Request a quote today to get started!
