Did you know that Google doesn't see 90% of websites? You've probably encountered this problem and experienced it firsthand.
A website's visibility depends on various factors. From user engagement to conversion rates. You will ask, where do I start and what should I do?
This is where SEO audit comes in for help. It includes all the essential bullet points you need to take in order to enhance your website's search results.
So, if you want to get into the remaining 10%, rank high in the search engines and get ahead of the competition, you are in the right place. This guide will clear up the confusion, providing you with a straightforward plan to fix these issues.
In this article we will go through:
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What is an SEO audit?
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Free SEO Tools
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Types of SEO Audits
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How to Do SEO Audit
Ready to roll?
Do you know how search engine optimization really works? Let’s find out.
Search engines use robots to explore the internet and collect information from websites. Each site has a value, like finding a topic in a book index. Users can find sites not only by name but also by their content. Each search engine uses complex formulas to determine how sites are ranked. These formulas consider hundreds of factors and are constantly updating.
In simple words imagine your website as a store. You want visitors, but they can't find you. SEO audit acts like the invisible wires connecting your shop and potential customers. It's like fixing your signboards, making your store easier to spot in a busy marketplace.
At Daniliants Ventures, our free SEO audit tool untangles those wires for you. Just provide your website's address, email, and company name and you'll get a detailed analysis with useful recommendations.
Now, let’s talk about benefits. What exactly does SEO audit do for your website?
With an SEO audit, your website and company can avoid:
SEO audit of your site can identify problems that might lead to a loss of visitors and a significant decrease in sales. So, we’ve got a lot to do. Let's get your website back on the map!
Pеrforming SEO audit rеquirеs thе right tools, which is crucial. In this section, I introduce a selection of free SEO tools that can play a pivotal role in the process:
Our in-housе SEO tool providеs a comprеhеnsivе analysis of your wеbsitе. The report includes website scores and backlink profiles. It also conducts usability tests, performance evaluations, offers recommendations, and more. Click the button to find out how to make your site perform better.
Okay, so what about Moz? Moz providеs various frее SEO tools for optimizing and auditing wеbsitеs. These tools include keyword research, link analysis, and on-page optimization, among others.
For еxamplе, thе crawlеr tool hеlps you find issuеs likе brokеn links or duplicatе contеnt that can harm a sitе's pеrformancе. Thе keyword research tool enables you to discover relevant keywords to increase organic traffic.
Moz can also show you who is linking to your sitе. This helps in building relationships with quality backlinks.
If you arе short on timе or just nееd a basic SEO analysis, Moz offеrs a frее browsеr еxtеnsion. This extension provides quick SEO insights for any site.
SimilarWеb is another popular tool that analyzеs wеbsitе traffic and compеtition. You can use the Competitive Tracker tool to analyze brands and competitor strategies to make informed decisions and adapt to market changes.
SimilarWеb offеrs an ovеrviеw of a wеbsitе's pеrformancе, considеring factors such as popular pagеs, sitе visitors and more.
I apprеciatе how SimilarWеb simplifiеs complеx data, prеsеnting information visually and making it accеssiblе.
Lighthousе is an automatеd and opеn-sourcе frее tool from Googlе that chеcks wеb pagе quality and pеrformancе. Lighthouse provides suggestions for improving page speed and accessibility. It also evaluates SEO and best practices for web development.
Lighthousе stands out bеcausе it's simplе, еasy to usе, and accеssiblе to еvеryonе. It analyzes your site's SEO and page speed, showing what you're doing well and where to improve. The tool identifies common problems and offers suggestions on how to fix them.
So, Lighthousе doеsn’t just tеll you if your sitе is pеrforming poorly, it tеlls you WHY.
Now that you understand the nature of an SEO audit, let's explore its different types:
To increase traffic and Google rankings, you need to do a thorough SEO content audit.
This audit helps improve your content and find ways to make it show up in snippets and "People Also Ask" sections.
Content audit makes landing web pages more accurate, fresh, and high-quality. The purpose of this audit is to identify which pages to keep, optimize, and remove. Google's E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) guidelines are very important in this process.
Technical SEO audit improves your domain's visibility on Google and Bing. It checks for issues that might prevent your site from appearing in search results, like problems with how the site is crawled and indexed.
The audit also looks at technical details such as HTTPS status codes, the robots.txt file for excessive requests, the length of your meta description, and broken links.
By examining every part of your site, the audit ensures nothing holds back its optimization. Even small changes can make a big difference in how your site ranks.
This SEO audit can find hidden technical problems, like errors in language settings or mixed content, making your site perform better online.
Improving on-page elements is vital for SEO. It means tweaking parts of a web page, like titles and headers, to make it show up higher in Google results. Using the right keywords and organizing the page well help people find the site with ease. Simple, clear URLs also make a big difference. Fixing these things can significantly increase a website's visibility online.
Off-page SEO audit focuses on factors outside of the site that can impact its search engine rankings. This involves examining the number and quality of links to the site, as well as its social media presence and reputation.
To make a website more visible and respected in search results, it's crucial to create a strong network of quality links and maintain a good online reputation.
To improve your online presence, you can get links from trustworthy sites, use social media to increase brand awareness and manage your online image. These actions help a site gain trust and authority, which leads to increased visibility in search results.
Doing an SEO audit without a plan can be tricky. To make it easier, I have prepared the 10 most important SEO audit aspects that can improve your site's performance.
Besides that, you can always try our free SEO tool to get your full audit report in just a few clicks.
Let's talk about something crucial: indexation. If web pages don't appear on Google search results, it's likely because they're not indexed in Google's database.
There, you can see if your pages made it to the list. If not, they won't appear in Google's search results. It can be for various reasons such as the page having noindex tag, being blocked by robots.txt, XML sitemap errors, etc.
Not every single page needs to be on this list – only the ones you want people to be found. For example, admin, feed, and pages with redirects shouldn't be indexed. If you spot a missing page that should be there, follow Google's guidelines to fix the issue.
Also, remember that indexation is not the same as ranking. Just because a page is indexed doesn't mean it will rank highly. Ranking depends on numerous factors, including relevance, backlinks, and content quality.
Let's get into the details of crawling your site. So this is how Google finds content on websites through links. Crawlers download pages, extract links and categorize them. Efficient crawling ensures content visibility.
To crawl your site, you can use such tools as Lighthouse or Moz . However, they don't crawl the entire site.
Pay attention to crawl errors and redirects. Fixing these errors guarantees that search engines navigate your site smoothly. Redirects help maintain a neat site structure, preventing you from losing valuable traffic.
For instance, if a page displays a "404 error," set up a redirect to the appropriate page. Doing these actions regularly keeps your site good for search engines and visitors. Remember, a healthy website equals happy search engines and even happier visitors.
To keep your server fast, do the following:
Take a look at these web addresses:
To the untrained eye, they might all look the same. For Google, they're distinct entities, considered as separate websites.
You should have only one version of your site indexed. How do you ensure this? Simple. Open these four variations of your website in your trusty internet browser. If they all lead to one unified version (for example, if http://site.com automatically redirects to https://site.com), you're good.
Want to double-check? Type site:domain.com. This will show you how your domain appears in results and reveal any duplicate versions.
But, if your site has these variations that don't align, no worries. Set up those 301-redirects , and you'll ensure they all lead to the same version.
Mobile is becoming the heart of online search, with 60% of Google queries coming from mobile devices. Google has started to use their Mobile-First Algorithm, which means that now it uses the mobile version of your site for both searches.
To see how your site performs on smartphones you can use our free SEO tool or other tools like Lighthouse, Moz, or SimilarWeb.
If during checking you have encountered some issues or just wanna make sure your site is good, here are bonus tips to keep it more mobile-friendly:
Your content should be easy to read on small screens. What looks good on a desktop might not work on a phone. Test it out on different devices and make sure it's legible. Stick to simple fonts and use bolding for emphasis - it goes a long way.
To keep image quality high while making file sizes small, compress your images. Consider formats like JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, AVIF, and WebP. Well-optimized images mean faster loading times and better compatibility with smartphones or tablets.
Pick a layout or theme that plays nicely with all screen sizes. Responsive designs adjust everything smoothly, giving users a consistent experience without making them wait.
Don't just test on one device. Try a bunch. Android, iOS - cover all your bases. This way, you can catch any issues and make sure your site rocks on every platform.
Nearly half of your potential visitors would leave if your site takes more than 3 seconds to load . It's not just a matter of impatience. Yes, we are all impatient nowadays. But it directly impacts your brand's image.
So, how do you prevent it?
First, assess your website's loading speed. Tools like Lighthouse are your best friends here. They not only measure your domain speed but also pinpoint the exact areas that need a little boost.
Now, let's talk files. Compressing is the idea: the lighter, the better. Reduce those file sizes without sacrificing quality.
Your server response time matters too. A slow server response can turn away even the most patient visitor. Ensure your web server isn't causing unnecessary delays during the loading process. After all, a swift server response is the backbone of a seamless user experience.
Redirects. Having too many can slow down your server, causing long loading times, so they are needed. Stay on top of those redirects, keep them updated, and your pages will load without a hitch.
We remember browser caching. Your domain can quickly respond when visitors return because it stores their data. Recent versions of your site are automatically updated by most Content Management Systems (CMS). Plus, you can tweak the settings to make sure even static content like logos, images, and scripts loads in a blink.
Let’s move to the next step.
Core Web Vitals are like report cards Google uses for sites. They check how fast a page loads, how quickly you can interact with it, and if the page layout stays stable. There are three main scores:
These scores are crucial for your site's Google ranking. To keep track, you can use tools like Google Search Console.
Your content needs good links.
When you're reading a webpage, you sometimes come across words that are clickable and take you to another page. Those are internal links. You probably know that.
Now, why are they important? They help Google figure out what's where on your site. When you keywords in these links, you are telling Google, "This page is really about 'healthy recipes'!" So when someone searches for 'healthy recipes', your page has a better chance of showing up.
When you create new content, link it from related older pages. This expands your site's link network.
Find and link from pages on your site that are popular for that topic.
Tools like MozBar can help you pick the best pages to link from.
Remember, think about what links would help your visitors. This not only improves your internal linking but also creates a better experience for users.
But don’t overdo it. Too many links on a page can be overwhelming. Just like in a good conversation, it's about quality, not quantity. So, make sure your links are relevant and genuinely helpful.
And one more thing – where you place these links matters. If you put them near the top of your page, people are more likely to click on them.
It’s when visitors reach your website through unpaid, natural search engine results.
For example, when someone searches for "horror movies with jump scares" and clicks on your website listed in the results, that visitor is considered organic traffic. It’s valuable as it reflects the genuine interest of users and is not influenced by paid promotions or advertisements.
When monitoring your site's traffic, understanding the reasons behind fluctuations is essential. Two significant factors to consider are Google algorithm updates and manual actions.
Google frequently updates its algorithm, which can greatly impact your website's visibility in results.
Google's human reviewers take manual actions when they find your site violates search guidelines. This can lead to penalties, causing your site or parts of it to be excluded from Google's search results.
If your traffic drops to zero, it could be because Google thinks your site doesn't meet its rules. You can check for this in Google Search Console's Manual Actions report.
If there are no problems, look into recent Google updatеs that might have affected your site's traffic.
Analyzing what your competitors do online is important for successful SEO. It's like seeing what other businesses in your field are doing to be visible online.
By checking their sites, content, keywords, and linked websites, you learn a lot. For instance, if a rival ranks high for a keyword, you can get ideas to improve your own site's visibility.
Also, seeing how they use social media and online ads teaches you how to boost your own online marketing.
Remember, this isn't a one-time job. It's ongoing. Keeping an eye on competitors helps you adapt and stay ahead in your industry.
If you think you used all the keywords but your site performance wishes you the best, reconsider this thought.
Keyword research is a fundamental element of a successful online strategy. To check if there are keywords you are missing, you can use any tool I've provided you earlier.
Enter your competitors' sites using this tool.
Look for organic search keywords driving traffic to their sites.
Focus on keywords that are relevant to your business and have high search volumes.
Done.
Also, here are some bullet points to make your keyword research better:
So that's how you conduct an SEO audit.
Now you can explore these expert SEO strategy tips to increase your traffic even more. But it's important to make sure you're converting the incoming traffic, or there will be a dead end.
To grow your business and increase revenue, focus on getting visitors to stay on your website. This is where Daniliants Ventures can help you. Get a free consultation to learn more.
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