When most people hear the word “audit,” they think of the IRS, and a panic attack ensues. Fortunately, an SEO audit has nothing to do with taxes, and it can actually help you make money (unlike audits given by the tax man). But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s start with the basics.
What Is An SEO Audit?
Simply stated, an SEO audit is a comprehensive review of your site through the eyes of a search engine. Search engines use various signals (or rules) to determine where your site should rank for a given search query. If your site gives off more of these signals than your competition, your site will rank higher in the search engine results pages. And how do you know which signals your site is (or is not) giving off? You guessed it. An SEO audit!
For each page on your website, an audit will evaluate the effectiveness of numerous on-page and off-page signals. On-page signals are characteristics of the actual content on your site, and they include the following:
- Relevance and uniqueness of page titles
- Existence of substantive and unique content on each page
- URL structure and relevance to page content
- Optimized meta-data for images
Off-page signals are characteristics that are external to your website’s content. A few examples are the following:
- Number, quality, and diversity of backlinks (i.e., websites that link to your site)
- Age and trustworthiness of your site
- Popularity in social media (e.g., number and quality of Likes, +1s, and tweets)
- Page load times
Finally, in addition to observing your site’s signals, an SEO audit will also observe the signals that your competitors’ sites are giving off. This information is critically important if you want to rank higher than them in the search engines.
Why Do You Need An SEO Audit?
Obviously, an SEO audit is important because it reveals the signals that your website is giving off. But in a more general sense, it is important because it removes the mystery surrounding your search engine rankings. The audit establishes a baseline for your site’s SEO performance, and it clearly identifies the site’s strengths and weaknesses. Armed with this knowledge, you can quickly fix your site’s problems and easily evaluate the effects of all future changes (from an SEO perspective).
The Web Gnomes specialize in conducting thorough SEO audits, and we would be happy to conduct one for your site. Please contact us for more information, or better yet: request a quote!
