Not auditing a website before determining the scope of work for a large SEO project is like going fishing with no bait. You’ll only get bites from the small fish that don’t really know SEO. An experienced SEO agency will not take on a large SEO project without auditing it first.
Oh, your website isn’t working? Can’t afford a website SEO and brand audit? There’s your problem right there. You don’t have a budget to do real marketing. Might as well not even finish reading this post then if you’re “one of those.”
What’s Does a Website SEO and Brand Audit Include?
I think it’s hilarious when business owners call and tell me their website traffic is tanking and when I offer a paid website audit, they tell me they don’t need it. Huh?!
Every website needs an audit, even if there is SEO actively being done. A full website SEO audit would include reviewing the following:
- Your brand and how those keywords appear on Google search
- How well search engines can access the website
- Which keywords the website is currently ranking for
- The design and user experience quality
- How fast the website loads on all devices
- How the website scales content to fit on all devices
- The online brand reputation
- Social media exposure and messaging
- Website content quality
- Quality and quantity of backlinks
- How many internal links are broken
- Duplicate content issues
- Link penalty issues
- Competition and their organic exposure
A comprehensive website SEO and brand audit should be performed by an SEO expert – someone who knows what to look for. Tools can help identify issues, but it still requires a professional to dissect the data and tell you what’s really wrong with your website. It also requires an expert to develop an effective SEO strategy that will fix all the issues found in the audit.
Seems like common sense right? That’s because IT IS.
You should perform an audit on your website on a quarterly or semi-annual basis. This doesn’t mean tracking the website in a tool and waiting for the tool to tell you what’s wrong. I mean a real website SEO audit where someone manually reviews all of the action items mentioned above.
Why You Need an Audit Right Now
Businesses often come to us with broken websites. The business owner doesn’t really know why their website is broken because they’ve been paying for “SEO” for several years. The truth is, their business probably wasn’t really investing into a real SEO campaign. There are a lot of companies out there that do spammy SEO techniques and get away with it because business owners aren’t aware of the shadiness.
Businesses that are caught up in the old SEO techniques, or that haven’t had their website analyzed in a while, need an audit right now to get out of the slump they’re in. Ninety-nine percent of the time, we will need to do a major cleanup of the past SEO to make the site compliant with Google’s quality guidelines.
Another reason you need an audit right now is because your website probably sucks. I’m not saying that in a bad way; it’s just true. There aren’t a lot of website developers that understand the complexities of SEO. Therefore, they won’t have the ability to build you a fully optimized website. It will just be a skeleton.
The real website experience comes from high-quality user experience designs, silo architecture, dynamic development and great content. If you’re missing any of those, your website sucks.
A rock-solid website requires a team of professionals to develop the site, because designers, content developers, website developers and SEOs should strategically work together to develop the most KICK ASS website for its industry.
When your website isn’t producing leads, your business is losing money and opportunities for growth.
Tweet this outKeeping Your Website Healthy Means More Money for Your Business
When you maintain a healthy website, the organic rankings will climb. The rewards? More money for your business because you’re constantly attracting qualified leads.
Keeping your website optimized with fresh content and digital assets creates a real advantage for your business. Websites can see thousands of organic rankings and easily 20,000 unique visitors by just keeping it clean with fresh, high-quality, optimized content the audience wants to see. We know because we’ve done it.
Don’t Cheap Out on Your Website SEO
Looking for qualified inbound leads? You need an audit.
Looking to grow your website traffic? You need an audit.
Trying to dominate your competition online? You need an audit.
Have an outdated website? You need an audit (and a new website).
To be real, every website should have a professional website brand and SEO audit done right now. We’re on a mission to clean up all the spammy websites that provide zero value to users. More specifically, we’re looking to build businesses valuable websites that have beautiful designs, messaging and SEO.
If your website SEO isn’t bringing in qualified leads or your website isn’t converting them, an audit is considered PRICELESS.
Tweet this outOur Website Audits and Custom Strategies
