You spend your hard-earned money and invest your time and energy into creating the best SEO strategy for your brand, how do you know if this is the right strategy? And how do you know if you are driving the required results or not?
An SEO audit is the best way to analyze your ranking strategies and their effectiveness. Just like all other aspects of digital marketing strategies, it is also very dynamic. Any ranking strategy works today may feel outdated after six months. Google and all other search engines update algorithms too frequently and therefore, an SEO audit will assist you to save your money and efforts.
It is essential that you should conduct an SEO audit twice a year. This will help you know the strategies that you have implemented are up-to-date, and your website has all the developments in regards to its SEO. There are several tools that you can use to perform an audit and ultimately improve the ranking. SEO company Irvine like Drivve Traffic Media can guide you through the recommended SEO tools.
Below are the critical aspects of an SEO audit:
1.Technical Audit Checklist
Technical audit is one of the significant ranking factors. There are various components of the technical SEO which you need to consider during the audit.
Design a mobile-friendly website
Recently, Google has introduced one of the critical technical SEO tools, i.e., Mobile First Index. Lets put it simply this way, if your website is not responsive, it will not rank easily. Therefore you need to make sure that you create a mobile-friendly website.
With Google’s new test tool, you can check if already have a mobile-friendly website or not. If your website does not pass the test, it will show suggestions on how you can rectify them.
Fix broken links
A broken link will always repel your audience. You can not afford any broken links on your web pages or the website, which will negatively affect your user experience, which will lead to poor ranking.
Identify any broken links you have on your website and fix them to improve the search engine ranking. You can add the ‘Check My Links’ extension to your browser. This extension will help you identify the broken links, and you will be able to fix them efficiently.
If you have not yet moved the site to HTTPs from HTTP, it is time to do it right now. Firstly because it secures your website and secondly it is one of the significant ranking factors. Also, there is a clear correlation between HTTPs and the search engine ranking. More than 50% of the website pages that are ranked are HTTPs. Make sure you change all the HTTP to HTTPs to improve the overall ranking of your website.
2. On-Page SEO Audit Checklist
An on-page SEO audit is essential for search engine ranking. SEO company Irvine such as Drive Traffic Media is an expert in both on-page and off-page SEO. Follow these ways to optimize your website for the search engine ranking.
Short URLs
The shorter the URLs, the better. It is because Google understands short URLs easier and then quickly analyzes what topics you have covered. Statistics show that nearly 1 million Google search results found that short URLs ranks easier than long URLs.
Use the main keyword in the title tag
Always use the main keyword in the title tag – it is a must. Sometimes it becomes confusing where to add the keyword. The most favorable placement of the primary keyword could be at the beginning of your title tag.
Your focus keyword should be placed in the first 150 words.
First 150 words of any post are critical for Google. Therefore make sure your focused keyword is placed one time in the first paragraph.
Use keywords in headings H1, H2, and H3.
The keywords must be placed in H1, H2, H3. Use the main keyword wherever required.
3. Keyword Research Audit Checklist
You can’t do SEO without keyword research. It is a powerful element of your website SEO. Follow these steps to identify the keywords that are best for your brand.
Low competition keywords
Always search for the keywords which have low competition. If you use a lot of highly competitive keywords, it will affect your website ranking negatively. Since so many people are already trying to rank them, therefore it would be difficult for you to outperform them.
Find unique keywords with low competition. You can use a variety of tools like KWFinder and SEMrush to identify highly searched and low competition keywords.
Find keywords using Google Keyword Planner
Use Google keyword planner to find some solid keywords in your niche. GKP is a free tool of Google, which can help you identify and explore the best keywords.
Use Google Suggest to find the long-tail keywords
Use Google suggestions to find long-tail keywords. All you have to do is to type in your main keyword in the bar, and so many suggestions will pop up. You can use all the suggestions that Google shows in your long tail keyword strategy. These keywords appear based on user searches. Therefore they carry great potential for your business.
Search engine optimization components mentioned above are very critical for the ranking for your website. Contact Drive Traffic Media, an SEO company Irvine to seek professional help to boost your business. Do you think we have missed any SEO audit element? Let us know, and we would love to add it to our list.