What is SEO AUDIT ? and why do you need it?

Have you ever visited an SEO Company website and read a call to action for an SEO Audit, and wondered what it is?

SEO Audit is the epitome of all SEO. It takes a real expert in Search Engine Optimization to know how to perform an SEO Audit on a website

So, What Is an SEO Audit?

SEO Audit is a full website checkup that analyzes every page of a website which involves many aspects, including the coding of a website. H tags, crawling, indexing, website structure and design are few of the items in a website audit.

It’s very technical, only understood and interpreted by an expert seo company or seo consultant. In other words, an SEO Audit is like a full health checkup.

Why Is an SEO Audit the First Step Towards a High-Ranking Website?

Before you start SEO on any website, you need to know your current ranking on search engine, in other words how good is you ranking or how popular is your website on google compared to your competition.

Once you perform an SEO Audit, you will know where you stand with Search Engine Optimization ranking wise. You’ll want to get some pointers that will lead you to the right path.

The outcome of a good and deep website audit is an action plan or a crafted strategy that can improve your website ranking in google, and other search engines, which is an integral part of your digital marketing efforts.

SEO AUDIT Results Will Put You on the Right Path

How will an SEO AUDIT put your ranking on the right path?

It goes back to the old definition on insanity, doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting to get different results.

Simply put: If your website is not getting the right kind of traffic, that means that you are doing something wrong, which needs to be corrected.

The SEO Audit report analysis may come back with, ‘Not having enough backlinks’ which is very common among new launched websites.

Why SEO AUDIT?

Q1: Why do you need an SEO Audit?

A1: Some SEO tasks don’t need to be redundant; it costs more time and money. Also, search engines may penalize you for over optimizing your website.

What to do After You Get Your Website SEO AUDIT REPORT?

At this point you have 2 choices.

First Choice: Hire an SEO Consultant or an SEO Company that can perform a full website seo audit. It may cost you a few thousand on average, and time wise, some seo companies can take a week or more in order to dig deep into your website.

Second choice: Do it yourself. Use some type of an SEO Audit software, Clix Plus recommends SEMRUSH.com for SEO Audit. Using SEO performance software or software as service still needs an above minimum knowledge of Search Engine Optimization skills.

Shall I hire an SEO Company or an In-House SEO Expert?

We will assume that the website has been seo audited and you have already received your SEO AUDIT report. At this point, you have two options.

Choice 1: Have an SEO Expert read and interpret the report and explain technical seo to you in simple layman’s terms.

Choice 2: Hire an SEO COMPANY that can explain to you and suggest courses of actions that can improve your search engine optimization efforts.

Please note: Some SEO COMPANIES over charge for their services. It’s wise to call seo firms and get a pricing quote.

Back to the question, should you hire an SEO Agency or an in-house SEO Expert?

Factors That Impact Your Decision to Hire an Agency or an In-House Seo Expert

It all depends on your SEO REPORT that you are going to get. Some websites may need more work done than others. If you have a new website that has not been optimized, then you need a good SEO Expert to help you take it off the ground.

Never Hire an Amateur to Optimize Your Website

We don’t suggest that you hire a rookie or friend to do it. Also, be cautions when you hire some seo companies, you will spot a bad seo company once they promise you the first page of google in a short period of time. Performing seo for a website or two does not make one a seo expert. It takes over 50 optimized websites to label someone as a seo pro.

No SAAS SEO Services Either

You will find those automated services when signing up for hosting. You get $50 worth of SEO SERVICES; these are automated SEO SERVICES that are not good for ranking. There is nothing better than manual SEO by hand, having a real human makes a real difference.

If your website had been auto submitted for link building or has used cheap seo methods in order to get results fast, it can ruin your entire digital marketing efforts. It will take weeks to bring a Google penalized website back on the saddle, honestly, some website reputations get ruined permanently.

The Verdict Is

Whether your hire an SEO Company or SEO Consultant in house, they must really have tremendous experience in search engine optimization, hands on and not just a project or two.

Hiring an SEO in house can be beneficial if your major seo blue print and strategy has been put in place.

In other words, if someone has done some basic seo, crafted the right digital strategy and finally integrated this seo plan as part of the overall strategy. At this point, you can hire a junior SEO, still the overall strategy is overseen and managed by a Senior SEO.

Example Used as an Analogy:

A newborn baby needs a good doctor to see and getting sick requires a qualified doctor that can prescribe the right medicine vs an amateur doctor. Same for your website, if your website is a newborn or just launched online, you don’t want it to be in the hands of an amateur seo, do you? You want your website to be optimized by an SEO pro.

What are the Methodologies That are Used for an SEO AUDIT?

Performing an SEO AUDIT requires an old hand in the game. Most of the real seo experts have had one website penalized by google at some point. But they were able to bring it back from the ditch. SEO experts use different methodologies when they perform an SEO AUDIT, here are some of them.

Geo Targeting Audit

Language and Slang used

Some seo experts look at the language used when writing the content.

Example: The word “Center” in the US vs “Centre” in the UK. Looking at websites written in British English and expect it to rank in the USA is a big challenge.

Affiliate links infested websites 

This is a big SEO offense and one of the No-no’s of SEO. Websites with major affiliate links if not all affiliate links.

Hidden Links

It’s ok for a website developer or web designer to put a link on your website in order to get a link from your website, but it’s not ok to put a JavaScript or Base64 coding on a website. According to website security specialist, this is a virus on your website.

Is your website skinny on content?

Website Audit will also review the amount of content on your website. It determines, if your website has enough content to even make it to search engines.

Technical SEO in an SEO AUDIT

Some of your website may give code 404, which means not found. An SEO AUDIT is able is pick this one up. A lot of 404 is not good. That means a website is missing on traffic. Visitors will click on a link and get nothing. As expert SEO’s we look for 301 redirects which means a page has moved permanently.

The use of H tags

H tags are basically headlining, just like newspaper headlines. Google and other search engines look at H tags implementations as one of SEO ranking factors. In other words, implementation and proper use of H tags tells search engines that your website is readable.

Duplicate Content

A good SEO AUDIT will pick this one up. It finds out if your website has duplicate content. Every duplicate content on the same website can cause what is referred as “Keyword” cannibalization which is a real mess.

Duplicate content on the same website is somehow acceptable. However, finding exact content duplicated falls under the definition of plagiarism. If found through an SEO AUDIT, you need to sit your content writer down, this is a very serious issue and will affect all of your SEO efforts.

Is the website secured?

Does the website have a green locked key up top, or does it not? A secured website is https (http + S for secured). Part of a full website audit is finding out if a website is secured. Being secured will secure your website a good position in search engines.

Not Secured Website don’t rank as well as secured ones.

A non-secured website gets a warning from a browser, if this is a worrying sign for you, imagine how google takes it. Generally secured websites build trust and will contribute to better ranking in search engines.

Other factors can show up on SEO AUDIT REPORTS

There are over 50 other factors that are reported in SEO AUDIT Report. XML sitemap, Title Meta Tags, Website Speed, Code to text ration and canonical URLs errors to name some.

Conclusion

SEO AUDIT is a must have and it is the first thing to look at before deciding to hire an expert seo to optimize and rank your website. Based on this report, you will be able to make a decision that is sound and logical.

Some websites are more local based, such as Pizza Delivery or a local eatery which will need a local seo expert.

Finding a local SEO is an easy task. However, if you would like your website to rank regionally, then you are going to need an SEO Master to be help you.

Hire Clix Plus to do you next SEO AUDIT. It is second nature to us, this is what we do, we will look at your website and perform a Manual SEO AUDIT for your website. Manual AUDIT can pick up what a machine cannot.