- SEO audits need to begin with a comprehensive checklist, carefully assess various SEO factors, and end with an improvement plan based on audit results.
- Key components of an enterprise-level SEO audit are keyword alignment, ensuring proper indexing by search engines, and adhering to best practices for URLs, title tags, meta descriptions, headers, images, SSL certificates, XML sitemaps, and backlinks.
- SEO audits are continuous processes for sustained success with the suggested frequency of every six months.
A business SEO audit is important for making sure that your business has a strong online presence. Read on to explore what an SEO audit entails for your business and why it is vital for your commercial success.
The Three Pillars of Enterprise SEO Audits
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website’s visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Conducting a thorough SEO audit is essential for businesses to identify areas for improvement and enhance their online performance. Let’s take a closer look at the three main components of any SEO audit.
SEO Audit Checklist
This checklist encompasses all the factors that contribute to your website’s SEO performance. Tools such as an SEO Checker can be valuable for initiating a preliminary audit, but for a more exhaustive examination, you should invest in a professional enterprise SEO audit.
Careful Assessment of SEO Factors
From keyword targeting and URL structure to content quality and security, each component of your website plays a vital role in its SEO ranking. The audit process should be holistic and comprehensive as there are more than 200 factors that search engines such as Google take into account when ranking pages.
Creation of an Improvement Plan
Based on the audit results, a tailored plan for implementation should involve addressing the identified strengths and weaknesses of your current SEO strategy. Whether it’s refining keyword usage, optimizing URLs, or improving page speed, the plan should guide your company’s efforts toward enhancing your website’s overall SEO performance.
Key Components of an Enterprise-Level SEO Audit
An SEO audit will help you ensure that the keywords on your website align with the interests of your target audience. It will also help you identify short-tail keywords that you should focus on to balance competitiveness with potential traffic.
Another benefit of an SEO audit is that it will flag such issues as keyword stuffing. It will also verify that your target keywords are in key positions, such as the first 100 words of the web copy. An SEO audit will confirm that Google indexes all pages of your website for visibility in search results. Tools like Google Search Console can help address any potential indexing errors.
An SEO audit can help you identify if you have any problems with the following best practices:
- You should limit URLs to five words and use hyphens and lowercase letters.
- Each page of your website should have a title tag under 60 characters, a meta description under 155 characters, as well as H1 tags, H2s, H3s, and other headers.
- Images should have short, descriptive filenames with relevant keywords. They also need alt tags to aid search engines in understanding content.
- Your website should have an SSL certificate for HTTPS designation.
- An up-to-date XML sitemap to assist search engine crawlers in indexing pages.
An SEO audit will also assess the quantity and quality of backlinks from unique, authoritative domains. Ahrefs and Google Search Console are useful tools to monitor backlink profiles. Tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test can help assess mobile compatibility during an SEO audit. Google’s PageSpeed Insights measures and enhances page loading speed.
How Frequent Should Your SEO Audits Be?
SEO audits are not one-time endeavors but ongoing processes for sustained success. In-depth audits are recommended every six months to provide you with a more comprehensive understanding of your site’s performance. If you make any major site changes, you should conduct additional audits to ensure continued alignment with SEO best practices.
If you’d like to learn more about SEO strategies in 2024, and in respect to WordPress in particular, you can watch the following CanSpace Webinars: SEO Today and in 2024 and How to troubleshoot, secure and perform SEO for WordPress. We are here to help your business succeed with our website hosting services and beyond. Contact us today!
