So you want to improve your organic search performance but are unsure where to start? You may want to consider a website SEO audit! Here are 10 great reasons why an SEO Audit is an important part of any solid SEO campaign.
Identify Technical Issues:
An SEO audit can help identify technical issues such as broken links, duplicate content, and crawl errors, which can negatively impact your website’s search engine rankings. (Learn more in our recent post: 10 Technical Issues to Look For During an SEO Audit)
Improve User Experience:
An SEO audit can also help identify user experience issues such as slow loading times, difficult navigation and poor mobile optimization. These factors can all lead to a negative user experience resulting in hurt your search engine rankings and user engagement. (Read more about User Experience in our recent post, 10 Tips for Improving User Experience and also check out 7 Tips for Improving your Website Speed)
Keyword Analysis:
Conducting a keyword analysis can help identify which keywords and phrases your website is currently ranking for, and which ones you should be targeting to improve your visibility in search engines. Combining this with a content gap analysis to see what your competitors are doing can be extremely valuable.
Competitor Analysis:
An SEO audit can help you identify your competitors and analyze their strengths and weaknesses, which can help create a more effective SEO strategy. In many ways a competitor analysis can be its own “thing” as you dive deep into their site and discover just what they are doing to help them rank well in search. For regular audit purposes, performing a content gap analysis, or keyword gap analysis on your competitors can be a great informative addition. Be sure to check out 5 reasons why a competitor analysis is important for SEO.
Improve Content Strategy:
An SEO audit is also great at helping identify gaps in your content strategy and providing recommendations for creating new content for targeting your desired keywords and audience. This can be worked into a Content Gap Analysis where you look at your competition to see where they are creating great content to help discover holes in your site.
Identify Backlink Opportunities:
A thorough SEO audit can help you identify potential backlink opportunities to improve your website’s authority and search engine rankings.
Mobile Optimization:
With the growing number of mobile users, it’s crucial to ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices. An SEO audit can help identify any mobile optimization issues and provide recommendations for improvement. For 7 tips on how to improve your websites mobile responsiveness, check out our latest blog post, Tips to Improve Mobile Responsiveness
Website Structure:
An SEO audit can help you evaluate the overall structure of your website and make recommendations for improving its organization and hierarchy.
Local SEO: If you have a local business, an SEO audit can help you identify opportunities to improve your local SEO and increase your visibility in local search results.
Measure Success:
Finally, an SEO audit can provide a baseline for measuring the success of your SEO efforts over time. By conducting regular performance audits, you can track your progress and make data-driven decisions to improve your search engine rankings and overall online presence.