SEO is constantly evolving. Search engines are always changing their algorithms to match new search patterns. What this means is that businesses have to constantly review their SEO practices so as not to get left behind. This is what necessitates the SEO audit.
What is the SEO Audit?
The SEO audit refers to a comprehensive process used to identify any issues with your website capable of affecting your ranking and reducing traffic to your site and suggests ways to optimize the website. Conducting a regular SEO audit is a way to ensure that your online strategy continues to be successful despite changing algorithms by search engines. It helps you to analyse your SEO efforts and take decisions as to what needs to be changed and what should be retained to achieve your business goals.
An SEO audit will run a check on keyword usage, linking, organic search ranking, competitor efforts, site architecture, URL structure, content, meta descriptions etc
How to Start an SEO Audit for a New Website
Perhaps the hardest part of an SEO audit is knowing what to include and what not to include. Next to this problem is knowing where exactly to start from. Experts and newbies alike find it difficult choosing which is why we have written this article to point you in the right direction as to where you can begin from.
1. Choose the Right Tool for SEO Audit
Without the right tools, SEO audit can quickly get cumbersome and bothersome, especially if you are not very tech-inclined. Equipped with the right tool, you can successfully scan for any technical issues, identify all content-related and off-page issues, find broken links etc. Most SEO software comes with a site audit tool that allows you to run a check on the health of your website. Some of them are Google Analytics, mysiteauditor, Screaming Frog, SEMrush Site Audit Tool to mention a few.
2. Scan your URL using the Audit Tool
Input your website URL into the site audit tool. Once this is done, the site-auditor uses crawlers to scan your site and generate a report about all identifiable issues. These issues are often grouped into categories and presented in an easy to recognize way.
Most audit tools apart from generating this report also highlight immediate ways for you to fix the issues. With that, you can easily set about fixing the identified issues, checking the problems off your list one after the other.
3. Start with Technical Issues
Any attempt at on-page and off-page SEO without technical SEO will not yield a significant result. Thus it is advisable that you first deal with any technical SEO issues identified before others. Some of these issues can include website security (HTTPS vs HTTP), crawl error, page loading speed, duplicate content, outdated site-maps, mobile-friendliness, broken links etc. Many of these can be fixed easily using the same SEO software with which they were identified.
4. Sort out On-page Issues
Once you have dealt with the technical issues, it is time to look at issues relating to your content like the quality of the content (organization, conciseness, grammar, plagiarism), keyword relevance, duplicate content, internal and external links etc.
Conclusion
It is important to always ensure your website is optimized and carrying out regular site audits is one way to do so. Interestingly, it doesn’t have to be something so scary and demanding that you shy away from it. Using a site audit tool, you can easily find out these issues with your website and fix them. Sign up with My Site auditor to try out our audit feature today.
