When it comes to maintaining and improving your website’s performance on the SERPs (search engine results pages), one of the most important steps is conducting a thorough website SEO audit. We’re living in a very competitive digital landscape, that demands brands’ websites to be fully optimized to guarantee visibility and the engagement of their targeted audience. 

Your website SEO audit, essentially is what evaluates the elements of your website’s performance and pinpoints areas that need fixing, which ultimately will help you stay ahead of the competition.

That’s why today, the L.A. Creative Marketing team is guiding you through all of the steps involved in properly conducting a website SEO audit, some mistakes to avoid. Regular website SEO audits should be a regular part of your digital marketing housekeeping, so take notes!

Let’s get started. 

Why a Website SEO Audit is Essential 

Website SEO audits are vital for any business that wants to keep its footing online. Over time, as algorithms and other technologies innovate, our sites can rack up technical issues, content no longer relevant to the times, and sometimes suboptimal, SEO practices–all of which are harmful to your search rankings. 

It’s very important to conduct regular website SEO audits to g guarantee that your is always optimized and in compliance with the year’s SEO best practices. 

Steps to Conduct a Comprehensive Website SEO Audit

When you’re prepping for your website SEO audit, it’s vital that you know it involves a few things, including evaluating various elements of your site’s performance, like its on-page SEO, technical SEO, content quality, etc. 

So, let’s get into the steps to conducting a thorough website SEO audit:

• Analyze On-Page SEO Factors

The very first step in your website SEO audit is to analyze your site’s on-page SEO elements. Make sure that you’re optimizing your meta titles, meta descriptions, header tags, and any internal linking structure. 

Start by:

• Make sure that all of the pages on your site are optimized for a targeted keyword. 
• Check in on your URLs. Be sure that they are user-friendly and include the relevant keywords. 

When you’re optimizing your on-page SEO, you’re taking an active step to improve your website’s SEO. Search engines rely heavily on these signals to bring viewers the content that they are looking for, so make sure that they understand your website’s content and relevance to searches. 

• Check for Technical SEO Issues

Technical SEO is another aspect of your website SEO audit that you absolutely don’t want to neglect. If you let your site’s technical issues go unchecked, you run the risk of not meeting search engine requirements even with beautiful content. 

Start by:

• Run audits to check for any broken links, 404 errors, and slow page loading times living on your website.
• Make sure you are utilizing tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to properly evaluate your website’s loading speed, and calibrate it as necessary.

SEO audits should always include a detailed analysis of everything happening with your website’s technical performance. That way, you can guarantee that your site is in fact, fully optimized to meet the search engine requirements. 

• Evaluate Content Quality and Relevance 

High-quality content is king when it comes to the digital marketingscape we are dwelling in today. That said, you can consider it to also be the backbone of any successful SEO strategy. So, during your website SEO audit, make sure that all of the content is valuable, relevant, and totally optimized for your target keywords. 

Start by:

• Be sure to review all of your content to guarantee it aligns with your targeted users’ search intent and is offering something of real value to your viewers. 
• If your website is still housing any outdated content or duplicates, it’s time to rectify those issues. Fill in those content gaps by adding brand-new, freshly optimized content. 

Evaluating your content is an absolutely crucial step when it comes to conducting your website SEO audit because here, you are able to hone in on things you otherwise may not have seen. Rid yourself of outdated content, broken links, and error messages!

• Review Backlink Profile

Your backlinks play a huge role in your website’s SEO performance. The stronger your backlink profile, the higher you are boosted in the search rankings. If you’re looking to evaluate the quality of your backlinks,

Start by:

• Utilizing tools like Ahrefs or MOZ will be your best friend. These programs help you accurately assess your backlink profile and alert you of any spammy or harmful links that could be there. 
• Continue to build new, high-quality backlinks through the creation of shareable content or collaboration with industry influencers. 

• Analyze User Experience (UX) and Mobile Optimization

Your SEO efforts mean nothing if your user experience isn’t good. It’s truly a key factor when it comes to ranking. Google rewards good user experiences. Sites that deliver a seamless and positive experience for visitors and utilize the concept of mobile-friendliness will see a boost in their rankings. 

Start by:

• Be certain that your website is easy to navigate, with very clear calls to action and an intuitive design.
• Make sure that your website works well no matter the device it is being visited on. Most searches are happening mobile, so make sure that your website is mobile-optimized. 

Conducting Website SEO audits is no easy feat, but it is vital in making sure your brand’s website stays competitive, optimized to a tee, and well-primed for success. Are you ready to conduct your website SEO audit?

Not sure where to start? Click here to get in touch with one of the L.A. Creative Marketing specialists, and we’ll work with you closely to make sure that your website is ranking and your brand visibility is elevated.