Running an online business can be challenging and profitable, but it also comes with certain risks if you don’t perform regular checks to ensure your website isn’t experiencing problems that could hurt your reputation or profitability. How do you know if there are any issues to address?
The most effective way to check the health of your website and keep it performing optimally is to use an enterprise seo audit. Here are ten important things you should know about how to do that successfully and efficiently.
What are the signs you need an SEO Audit?
- You’re not getting any traffic from organic search.
- Your traffic has plateaued or decreased recently.
- You’re ranking for keywords that don’t convert well.
- You’re not appearing in any local search results.
- Your website loads slowly or isn’t mobile-friendly.
- You have a lot of 404 errors or other technical issues.
- Your content isn’t engaging or isn’t well-written
What Should You Look For in an SEO Company?
Make sure the company has a good reputation. You can check this by reading online reviews and speaking to other businesses that have used their services. Find out how long they have been in business. The longer they’ve been around, the more likely they are to be reputable and to have a good understanding of SEO.
Ask about their qualifications and experience. You want to make sure they are qualified to do the job and have experience with enterprise SEO specifically. Ask for examples of their work. This will help you get an idea of what they’re capable of and whether or not their style is a good fit for your needs. Make sure they are transparent about their pricing.
How Much Does an SEO Audit Cost?
On average, most SEO audits will cost between $500-$2,000. The final cost will depend on a number of factors, including the size and complexity of your website, as well as the company you hire to do the audit.
An SEO audit is an important tool for businesses to ensure their website is optimized for search engines. It can help identify issues that may be holding back your website from ranking higher in search results. A good SEO audit will also provide recommendations on how to improve your website’s performance.
What’s Next When You Get Back from Getting it done?
You have your list of things to do from your SEO audit. Now what? You need to take action on what you’ve found and make changes to your website. This can be a daunting task, but don’t worry, we’re here to help. Here are ten important things to keep in mind when you’re fixing your website up post-audit.
- Remove/Update Outdated Links
One common issue we see during website audits is outdated links. Outdated links are those that are no longer working or have been replaced by newer versions. When users click on these links, they will be taken to a 404 page not found error. This can frustrate users and cause them to leave your site. To avoid this, make sure to remove or update any outdated links on your website.
- Check for Broken Links
Another common issue we see during website audits is broken links. Broken links are those that lead to a dead-end or an error page. This can also frustrate users and cause them to leave your site. To avoid this, make sure to check for broken links on your website and fix them as soon as possible.
- Fix Internal Linking and Optimize URL Structures
Use a tool like Screaming Frog to check for broken internal links and correct them. You should also take a look at your website’s URL structure and make sure it is optimized for both users and search engines. A good URL structure is short, keyword-rich, and easy to remember.
- Improve Page Load Times
One way to improve your website’s page load times is by using a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN stores your website’s static content (images, CSS, JavaScript) on servers around the world and serves it up to visitors from the server that is closest to their location. This can greatly reduce the time it takes for your pages to load.
- Do On-Page Optimization
One important way to measure the health of your website is through on-page optimization. This includes making sure your website is properly structured and using the right keywords throughout your site.
- On-page optimization also encompasses things like optimizing your website for speed and mobile-friendliness.
- You can do a quick check of your website’s health by running a free audit with a tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights.
- If you’re not sure where to start, or if you want a more comprehensive analysis, consider hiring an SEO expert to do an audit of your site.
- Get Rid of Redirect Chains & Fix Broken Links
Redirect chains occur when there is more than one redirect between the initial URL and the final destination URL. This can happen when a page is moved and the old URL is not redirected to the new URL, or when multiple pages are redirected in succession. Redirect chains can cause problems for users and search engines, so it’s important to fix them.
- Upgrade Site Speed & Increase Page Load Time
One way to help improve your website’s ranking is by increasing its speed and page load time. A slow website can be a major turnoff for potential customers, and can also lead to lost sales and revenue. Here are some tips on how you can upgrade your site speed:
1. Use a content delivery network (CDN).
2. Optimize your images.
3. Minimize HTTP requests.
4. Use caching.
5. Reduce the number of plugins you use.
6. Consolidate CSS and JavaScript files.
7. Enable gzip compression
- Identify Effective Keywords & Competitor Keyword Research with SEMrush Analysis
The first step in effective keyword research is identifying your target audience and understanding their needs. Once you know who your target market is, you can begin researching which keywords will be most effective in reaching them.
The next step is to research your competition. By understanding what keywords they are targeting, you can better determine which keywords will be most effective for your business. Finally, once you have identified a list of potential keywords, you can use a tool like SEMrush to further analyze their effectiveness.
- Update Meta Tags, Title Tags, Image Alt Tags & Canonical URLs
A website’s meta tags provide information about the topic of a webpage, which can help search engines categorize your site correctly. Title tags are the most important part of a webpage’s metadata, as they tell search engines what the page is about. Image alt tags describe what’s on an image, which is important for both users who can’t see pictures and search engine crawlers indexing your site.
Finally, canonical URLs are used to specify the preferred version of a webpage when there are multiple versions available. By specifying a canonical URL, you’re telling search engines which version of a page they should index.
Conclusion
By now, you should have a good understanding of what an enterprise seo audit is and why it’s important for your website. Before you begin your audit, it’s important to understand what your goals are and what you want to achieve from the audit. As you crawl through your website, you’ll want to take note of any errors or potential problems that you see. After you’ve completed your crawl, it’s time to start analyzing your data and looking for areas that need improvement.
