Essential Aspects of an SEO Audit for Online Entrepreneurs
SEO audit is a process, the outcome
of which allows you to know your website better and where it stands in the
virtual world. With the help of this audit, you will be able to know the
strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of your website. Not only that, but
you also get to know the existing errors that you must fix for better web
traffic.
Let us delve deep into the topic
under the two sub-topics given below,
How will you carry out a local SEO?
Carrying out a site audit can be safely regarded as the first step that you must take if you are planning to arrange an SEO campaign. If improving your rankings in the SERPs and driving more organic traffic to your website is what you are looking forward to, an audit is an ultimate solution for improving visibility online.
It may be mentioned here that your
main objective must be to improve rankings in local search results. This will
allow you to appear in the local listings, which will eventually make your business
listings grow. Also, it was observed that the people that conducted local
searches on their hand-held devices enquired about the products or services
within two business working days and visited the store or ordered online.
Initiating SEO audit- How to go about
it?
Prior to starting the process, you
must check the name of your business, visibility with regard to phone, address,
and number. Aside from that, you must also have thorough knowledge about your
business’s geographical location, how well your business is listed locally and
also the content of your blog and website.
One of the better things that you can
do is performing a competitor analysis, which will help you to enjoy an edge
over the others operating in the same niche.
Keyword analysis
The keyword is said to be the
building base for any SEO audit and marketing campaign. Incorporating the right
set of keywords in your content determines how successful your website will be
in terms of digital footfall. As such, keyword analysis is key to initiating an online SEO audit.
As per Google algorithm, although keyword
is not the sole parameter for ranking even if you are competitive enough to
build inbound links that are authoritative in nature, as far as the decision
regarding ranking is concerned, thematic keywords play a crucial role.
Find out where you stand in the
listings
Another way to decide what steps you
must take for improving your visibility is to type in your business name in
Google and other search engines. Also, find whether there is an appropriate
alignment between your business name and the SERPs.
Coming to the next part of an SEO
audit, are the components of the same.
What are the essential components of an online SEO audit?
The main objective of SEO audit is to
understand the areas that you need to work upon so
that your business prospers and performs better. However, for
that, you have to know the main components that can help you to achieve your
goals. They are as follows-
Web crawling
Crawling is when Google goes through
or reads through your website, which is one of the essential components.
Indexing
This is whether or not or the
position in which your site’s web pages are being included in the search
results.
Easy accessibility
In order that your website ranks
well, you must find out whether visitors are having any trouble accessing your
website. 404 errors, lengthy server response time, and slow page loading are
main factors that hinder the smooth browsing experience for visitors. You must
do away with these hindrances.
Analyzing incoming and outgoing links
Links that you receive or share with
third-party websites must be relevant. Many tools can help you to assess
whether or not your data is linking to the desired websites and the pages that
you must emphasize on.
It is always said and perhaps is
undeniably correct that “Content is King.” From time to time, you
have to update and refresh your content on the website. Not only that you must
find out whether or not the present content is helping you adequately to get
ranking that you are looking forward to.
You have to know how long your
visitors are staying on a particular web page and address to bounce rates if
any. Content review does not mean putting up fresh content; it also means
adding value to the website and assessing how visitors will benefit by going
through your web pages.
Your website must have a simple,
easy-to-understand sitemap that will help visitors to navigate with ease. The
architecture of the website should be as per the theme of your website and most
importantly, your target audience.
These days you will find that most of
the people browse websites on their hand-held devices, even while they are on
the go. So, your website has to be mobile-friendly and indexed first by the
search engine major. Even if you already have a desktop version and if you do
not have a mobile version as yet, you will lose out on the rat race.
Compatible with algorithm updates
From time to time, Google implements
algorithms that ensure that the user experience is better than before and that
the user-experience is good. Ensure that your website is updated in tandem or
in sync with the changing algorithm.
Last but not least, the components
mentioned above in the points have to be implemented. Carrying out an audit
will not suffice. If you are able to adhere to these points and components, the
SEO audit that you carry out will be done justice with. Audit without following
the basic norms or not adhering to the underlying concept will only deter your
business and website from getting a good ranking.