Why A SEO Audit Is Important

Every website has a common ambition: attracting as many visitors as possible. Yet, unlike a traditional brick-and-mortar business on a bustling street, achieving this isn’t solely a matter of having the most eye-catching facade. The intricacies of attracting visitors online are paved with complexities and are far more nuanced and demanding – this is where SEO comes into play and why performing an SEO audit is vital for success. 

 

Executing effective SEO strategies isn’t a mere feat of chance; it requires a systematic and methodical approach – precisely the role of an SEO audit and SEO in general. Therefore, it’s easy to see that SEO audits play a pivotal role in determining how a site performs and devising a strategy for the holistic enhancement of every facet of the digital domain. 

 

So, let’s answer some important questions about SEO audits and why they are needed. 

 

// What is SEO Auditing, and why have an SEO audit done? 

 

Within the digital realm, search engine algorithms are an enigma - no matter how meticulous you are with your site’s presentation or content, sooner or later, your site will experience a drop in rankings. Many who notice that their organic traffic is flat or down don’t know what to do – after all, numbers don’t tell them what’s wrong.  

 

This is where the significance of SEO auditing emerges as a beacon of clarity - SEO auditing is the first step in improving the site’s presence in search engine results; findings will shape what SEO tactics and actions are needed.   

 

At its core, an SEO audit is a comprehensive evaluation of a site’s compatibility with search engine criteria; it involves a thorough examination of multiple technical, on-page and off-page elements that collectively gauge the site’s health in terms of visibility and position on search engine rankings.  Effectively, an SEO audit offers a bespoke perspective on a website’s performance through the discerning lens of search engines and will highlight opportunities for improvement. 

 

Here are 6 aspects of SEO you need to know about. 

 

// What can an SEO audit do in practice for a business?  

 

An SEO audit will determine how many known ranking signals your site ticks and highlight areas to improve.  

 

An SEO audit will: 

 

• Identify weaknesses in the site’s basic SEO profile; it will look at finding metadata, alt texts, headings, etc., that don’t conform with current guidelines  

 

• Identify opportunities to improve technical aspects; it will look at finding crawling and indexation issues and discovering things such as broken links and links to redirects and assess if canonicals, hreflang attributes, etc., are used correctly. Read more about technical SEO here. 

 

 

• Identify causes for any Core Web Vitals and Page Speed failings leading to mobile and desktop optimisations 

 

• Identify ways to improve the site structure; it will look at how the navigation can be improved and identify internal linking opportunities 

 

• Identify keywords that the site doesn’t yet rank for or keywords that the site ranks for but in non-traffic generating positions 

 

• Build an SEO content strategy 

 

• Look at competitors; it will identify opportunities to close the gap or lead ahead of the competition. it will check what keywords they target, where they get backlinks from and what SEO strategies they use 

 

 

• Create an SEO plan, a plan that works on improving and monitoring all aspects of the above 

  

 

// Are regular SEO audits really needed? 

 

Very much so, and this is why:  

 

• Search engine algorithms are constantly changing 

 

• A dynamic site will constantly have changes done to it, meaning inevitably, new errors will appear 

 

• The competition never sleeps – understanding what your competitors are doing is vital for any business 

 

// How Loud Mouth Media can help with SEO needs 

 

At Loud Mouth, we have an experienced SEO team that has provided long-term incremental growth to many clients over the years.  

 

As a digital marketing agency, we always advise all our PPC and Social clients not to underestimate the power of an SEO audit and SEO in general. If you want to learn more about why the alliance between SEO and other channels is necessary, have a read here. 

 

And when you’re ready, let’s talk SEO!