Like seeing your dentist for a regular checkup, your website needs a little TLC from time to time. An SEO audit is just that.
It analyzes the technical infrastructure of your website and screens your search engine visibility, conversion, and detects ways you can optimize usability and maintain your good standings with Google.
If you think you can dodge regular SEO audits, think again. It’s in every business’ best interests to check up on the health of their website and find opportunities to perform better.
Imagine retaining a higher ROI from more traffic and potential paying customers. Doesn’t that sound awesome?
So let’s get to it! Here are five reasons why you shouldn’t skip regular SEO audits. But aside from SEO, an expert IT solutions company will also guarantee success for your business.
5 Reasons for Regular SEO Audits
Algorithms change – and you don’t want to be the last to find out
Google, Bing, and search engines alike regularly update their algorithms to offer better search results. And when they change, and you’re in the dark, you can lose out on valuable traffic to your business.
For every user who types their query into the search bar, such as “Edmonton SEO,” “healthy lunch recipes,” or “pet insurance,” your website could be showing up first among a long list of competitors.
Keep tabs on these algorithm updates as they often change and sometimes without rhyme or reason.
Take last year’s SEO best practices, for instance. What may have been considered tried and true then may not hold its weight today. What’s more, Google rolled out nearly 10 major updates to its search algorithm this year alone. Talk about turning on a dime!
So watch out for algorithm changes to snag higher rankings and placements in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Diagnose technical issues
Do you see double on your pages? Are you running into agonizingly slow-loading pages? Have you misused your H1 tags?
All this and more can be assessed and fixed through an SEO audit.
That’s the great thing about running an audit – there’s not just one specific problem it solves, but instead, it can identify all the issues that prevent your site from ranking higher and reaching its full potential.
Spot problems with an SEO audit to ensure your site is:
- Crawlable and indexed properly
- Safe and secure
- Loading pages quickly
- Doesn’t contain duplicate content
- Optimized for metadata
- Optimized for mobile
- Linking to all the right places
And so much more!
By running a regular SEO audit, you can help Google and other search engines recognize you as an authority on the topic.
Get rid of outdated content
Your site’s content should be informative, engaging, and above all–valuable to your readers.
Whether you’re answering visitors’ burning questions or just providing them with great-to-know insights, you’ll want your visitors to come back.
That means leaving a good impression.
Ensure your content is fresh, headers are optimized for SEO using keywords, and, of course, be careful not to stuff your site with keywords where they don’t belong.
Don’t forget about removing any redirects or 404 errors either, as they can hurt your chances of ranking higher and being in the good graces of Google.
Gain attention where it matters: titles and metadata
After plugging a query into the search bar, your potential users are presented with a list of viable results. Whether or not they choose your website really comes down to two factors:
- Are you ranked at number one?
- Does your title and metadata description entice users to click?
While it’ll definitely take some time and money to reach the most coveted position on Google, the next best thing is to step up your copywriting game on the search results page.
Titles and metadata descriptions are the very first things people see when their results pop up, so you’ll need to ensure that yours are relevant and attention-grabbing.
Now, there’s not a whole lot of space to work with since titles are restricted to between 55 and 65 characters, and the description limit sits at 160 characters.
So work your magic by incorporating relevant keywords, maintaining uniqueness from your competition’s titles and descriptions, and adding a call to action.
Make your website the obvious choice for users, and they’ll come knocking on your door.
Cut ahead of the competition
One of the most valuable benefits of running an SEO audit is learning about your competition’s standings, their products, price points, and, best of all–how you can potentially overtake them in the rankings.
Get a rundown of the overall market and where you fit versus your competitors. You can strategically capitalize on their weaknesses by identifying gaps and moving in on them.
Even if you’re a relatively new business, SEO audits can level the playing field for you and make it fair game.
You can figure out your competitor’s top-performing content and re-strategize your own to perform better for keywords and phrases.
How often should you run an SEO audit, and how do you do it?
“Regularly” is a pretty ambiguous term, but how often you run an SEO audit can depend on how active your site is or whether it requires more maintenance.
Sometimes the more services or products you sell or the number of pages you have can dictate more frequent checkups. A good rule of thumb is to perform an audit every 3 to 6 months.
So now you know audits uncover a lot. But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You can hire an SEO expert, leverage an SEO audit tool, or, if you prefer to learn yourself, DIY with manual page audits.
Get into the habit of achieving long-term success
Don’t delay regular SEO audits because it can hurt your chances at maximizing your business, getting more traffic, paying customers, and newcomers to discover what you’re all about and how fantastic your solutions are.
Keep these tips in mind for your first or next round of audits, and you’ll be well on your way to better performance!