Digital marketers tell their companies that they should optimize their website for the search engines. But it is important to know whether you really need SEO to reach potential clients. SEO approaches are based on data and a plan to perform an SEO audit. An SEO audit plan helps ensure that Google crawls and indexes your site correctly and checks for on-page SEO issues. Here are some steps to perform an SEO audit:
On-Page SEO analysis
On-page SEO is a crucial aspect of search engine optimization. By performing thorough research, you can determine which phrases have the highest search volume for your website, and which ones require more effort. On-page optimization focuses on the content, including title tag, header tags, image alts, and more. To perform on-page SEO, you should use SEOCrawler, which is a leading on-page tool trusted by over 5,000 businesses.
Using an SEO tool to analyze your website’s onpage SEO can help you identify issues throughout your site. With Site Structure’s On-Page Audit, you can check duplicate content sitewide, CSS and HTML validation errors, and even check cache dates for individual pages. With Site Structure’s Page Structure, you can analyze individual pages and folder structures, as well as use user-friendly page names. The analysis tool can detect numerous on-page issues across your site, including duplicate content and stale content.
Sitemap
A sitemap is an essential part of an SEO audit, and it should be properly structured to be visible in search engines. The sitemap should be free of generic error code URLs, canonicalized URLs, no-indexed URLs, orphaned URLs, and only contain URLs that belong to your site. If you haven’t done so yet, you should use a sitemap tool to check its indexing. If not, you can submit it to Google Search Console and check its Index Coverage.
The “Errors” and “Excluded” sections will show you which URLs have been missed by Google. Incorrect URLs are those that redirect to a different webpage, or return a non-200 status code. Identifying and fixing broken links is easy with a sitemap audit tool. Another feature in a site audit report is URL Inspection, which tests live URLs and reviews internal linking within pages. If your site is large enough, you should split up the URLs into smaller sitemaps to give Google more focused coverage.
Backlinks
Performing a backlink audit is a vital part of your search engine optimization strategy. You can assess your current link profile, identify areas where you can improve your backlinks, and monitor the backlink profiles of your competitors. Then you can take steps to improve your SEO ranking and traffic. If your competitors are doing the same, you can use the information to improve your own website. Performing a backlink audit will enable you to determine where you can improve your link profile.
First, check your site’s content. Are internal links broken? Broken internal links create a poor user experience and send negative signals to search engines. Also, make sure your content is engaging for visitors. Performing an SEO audit can take days or even weeks. It is worth it, however, because the benefits will pay off in the long run. If your site is not accessible to users, search engines will consider it an abandoned site.