Hiring a new SEO company to help improve search engine performance almost always results in an SEO audit. We do SEO audits here at Webtek. But even if you’re not bringing in a new provider, regular audits are still a good idea. Why? Because the internet is an ever-evolving space. SEO audits are one of many good tools to ensure your website is keeping up.
If your website has never been audited for SEO performance, you should seriously consider having an audit done. A good audit can reveal weaknesses you didn’t even know existed. It can provide a path for moving forward, a path that could ultimately lead to more traffic and higher conversion rates.
SEO Audit: What It Is
An SEO audit should not be difficult to understand in principle. Basically, it’s an evaluation of how effectively a site is designed to maximize search engine performance. An effectively designed site works well within the parameters of the most popular search engines, guaranteeing that it ranks on the first page of search engine results more often than not.
If you are confused, think about a financial audit of a company’s books. It is designed to verify that the company’s financial practices are both compliant with the law and sound in principle. If not, the audit should uncover problems in need of correction.
Likewise, an SEO audit should uncover weaknesses or direct problems that prevent a website from performing well in organic searches. Only when revealed can you do something about them. Otherwise, you continue to fly blind.
SEO Audit: Why It’s Necessary
The internet continues to change. As it changes, so does the way Google and its competitors do what they do. A company not actively maintaining its website to keep up with all the changes is ultimately left behind.
There are billions of pages across the internet. What are the chances that any of your company’s pages will be found by first-time visitors if you are still employing SEO practices from the 2010s? Not good. You must keep up. There is no neutrality. Your site is either keeping up or being left behind.
SEO Audit: How It’s Done
How an agency conducts SEO audits depends on its preferred strategies. However, the fundamental principle of auditing remains the same from one agency to the next. A typical SEO audit covers the following:
- Site indexing and crawling
- Site architecture
- Keyword choices
- On- and off-page SEO
- Inbound and outbound links
- Benchmarking (against competitors)
- User experience.
Though these areas are not listed in any particular order, site indexing and crawling tend to be the starting points. That’s because search engines rely on automated bots to constantly crawl the internet in search of new and updated content. Without the bots, search engines do not run.
No Time Like the Present
When was the last time your website underwent a comprehensive SEO audit? If it has been a while, chances are your site isn’t performing as well as it could be. It might not be performing at all. And if that’s the case, you’re paying for a digital placeholder that’s doing nothing but taking up space on a server. But you can change that.
We recommend regular SEO audits. How often these are performed depends on individual circumstances. An annual audit is usually enough, but once per quarter is really the best practice. At the very least, you are going to need a fresh audit if you’re planning a website redesign or looking to bring in a new SEO agency.
