Optimizing your content and website for search engines has become an integral part of any marketing strategy. However, it’s not always easy to know exactly which changes you need to make on your site to make it adequately optimized. Of course, you also need to measure how well those changes are performing. As you can see, SEO isn’t a one-and-done kind of thing.
If you want your website to stand out in SERPs, you will constantly need to monitor the state of your site. To make things a bit easier, we have put together a guide on how to conduct an SEO audit of your website.
Your website could be suffering a penalty from Google, which will cause your SEO to drop. Google will let you know about manual action penalties in their search console. You can fix the issue causing the penalty or dispute the claim. You should always keep track of the changes to Google’s algorithm and monitor your website traffic after any updates to the search engine get rolled out. If you realize that there is a sudden drop in the number of your website visitors, there could be new guidelines in place. Carefully read all of the information on the latest update and adjust your SEO accordingly.
What is a SEO audit of your website?
In order to simplify SEO audits, you can think of them as health checkups for your site. The primary purpose of SEO is to make your website more appealing to search engines like Google. SEO relies on many techniques to get Google and other search engines to notice your pages. If your website does particularly well, Google will rank better when delivering results to users. Performing an SEO audit is just checking up on how the relationship between your site and search engines is doing. Thankfully, there are many tools available that will let you do the audit yourself. However, you can also take online classes to learn more about SEO and master digital marketing.
The changes you’ll be making on your website generally fall into two groups: fixing things that aren’t working properly and changes that will lead to better performance on search engines. Although many marketing experts try to present SEO as an exact science, it actually requires a lot of skill and experience to master.
The changes you’ll be making on your website generally fall into two groups: fixing things that aren’t working properly and changes that will lead to better performance on search engines. Although many marketing experts try to present SEO as an exact science, it actually requires a lot of skill and experience to master.
Don’t believe all the digital marketing myths and think that you can make your website fully Google-friendly. There are way too many factors that influence SEO for your website to achieve top marks on everything. If you go down that road, you will quickly realize that it’s an impossible task. Instead, you should monitor how certain aspects of your site are performing and make small changes where they are needed.
Here is how to conduct an SEO audit of your website:
1. Check to see if there are any penalties on your website
Your website could be suffering a penalty from Google, which will cause your SEO to drop. Google will let you know about manual action penalties in their search console. You can fix the issue causing the penalty or dispute the claim. You should always keep track of the changes to Google’s algorithm and monitor your website traffic after any updates to the search engine get rolled out. If you realize that there is a sudden drop in the number of your website visitors, there could be new guidelines in place. Carefully read all of the information on the latest update and adjust your SEO accordingly.
2. Take a look at your social media
Nowadays, most businesses can’t survive with just a website, and they also need to have a strong presence on social platforms. Unfortunately, neglecting your social media accounts can have a detrimental effect on your SEO. Take a look at your website traffic and see how many visits you get from social media. Many people have started using social networks as search engines and are looking up businesses there instead of going to Google. Try to fill your profiles on social networks with videos, articles, and other engaging content. This will get users to interact with your business profile, and, as a result, you’ll be seen by more people.
Nowadays, most businesses can’t survive with just a website, and they also need to have a strong presence on social platforms. Unfortunately, neglecting your social media accounts can have a detrimental effect on your SEO. Take a look at your website traffic and see how many visits you get from social media. Many people have started using social networks as search engines and are looking up businesses there instead of going to Google. Try to fill your profiles on social networks with videos, articles, and other engaging content. This will get users to interact with your business profile, and, as a result, you’ll be seen by more people.
3. How does your website perform on mobile devices?
With an increased number of mobile users, Google is naturally factoring in mobile-friendliness when ranking websites. Make sure that all of the user interface elements offer easy navigation on your pages for both mobile and desktop users. You can also use mobile tools to improve your social media marketing. Ensuring that your website loads fast and works well on mobile devices needs to be a top priority if you want to rank well in SERPs.
With an increased number of mobile users, Google is naturally factoring in mobile-friendliness when ranking websites. Make sure that all of the user interface elements offer easy navigation on your pages for both mobile and desktop users. You can also use mobile tools to improve your social media marketing. Ensuring that your website loads fast and works well on mobile devices needs to be a top priority if you want to rank well in SERPs.
4. Conduct a technical SEO audit
You can use the free tools in Google’s Search Console to track and improve your technical SEO. From there, you can check how many of your site’s pages are submitted and indexed, as well as how you are ranking for your chosen keywords.
You can use the free tools in Google’s Search Console to track and improve your technical SEO. From there, you can check how many of your site’s pages are submitted and indexed, as well as how you are ranking for your chosen keywords.
5. Inspect your on-page SEO
Many of the factors that end up influencing your rank on search engines come from your own website. Take a look at how your pages are structured, and optimize the titles and descriptions to align with what search engines are looking for. Format your pages using headlines and bold important parts of the text. Another huge aspect of on-page SEO is your content. You need to create content that will interest users and offer them something of value. Having relevant content is the best way to attract users to your site, and Google will reward you for it with a good position on the results page.
Many of the factors that end up influencing your rank on search engines come from your own website. Take a look at how your pages are structured, and optimize the titles and descriptions to align with what search engines are looking for. Format your pages using headlines and bold important parts of the text. Another huge aspect of on-page SEO is your content. You need to create content that will interest users and offer them something of value. Having relevant content is the best way to attract users to your site, and Google will reward you for it with a good position on the results page.
6. Track website conversions
Ultimately, most of your SEO efforts are geared towards increasing organic traffic. The more people can reach your website through search engines, the more potential leads you will be able to generate. However, an often overlooked aspect of SEO is the performance of your landing page. Unless you can optimize your landing page and get users to perform the desired action on your site, all that SEO won’t mean much. Having a solid call to action brings many benefits for your business. It’s the best way to ensure brand growth and inspire your website visitors into action. Therefore, you shouldn’t get caught up in all the technical SEO jargon and forget about the end goal. You need to use SEO to grow your brand and improve your bottom line.
Ultimately, most of your SEO efforts are geared towards increasing organic traffic. The more people can reach your website through search engines, the more potential leads you will be able to generate. However, an often overlooked aspect of SEO is the performance of your landing page. Unless you can optimize your landing page and get users to perform the desired action on your site, all that SEO won’t mean much. Having a solid call to action brings many benefits for your business. It’s the best way to ensure brand growth and inspire your website visitors into action. Therefore, you shouldn’t get caught up in all the technical SEO jargon and forget about the end goal. You need to use SEO to grow your brand and improve your bottom line.
To summarize
Regularly monitoring the performance of your website will let you focus on improving the elements that aren’t working like you are expecting. Before you start fixing on-page SEO elements, it’s essential to first know how to conduct an SEO audit of your website. Once you know which features need your attention, fixing them is easy.
Regularly monitoring the performance of your website will let you focus on improving the elements that aren’t working like you are expecting. Before you start fixing on-page SEO elements, it’s essential to first know how to conduct an SEO audit of your website. Once you know which features need your attention, fixing them is easy.