A comprehensive SEO strategy isn’t merely reliant on relevant keywords and a good-looking website. As far as improving your brand goes, you need to be running a website audit every six months. If your seemingly ultra-sleek navigation system and stand-out content aren’t converting traffic into sales, it may be time for an audit.
Similar to a standard company audit, a website audit pertains to a review of your page against SERP rules and regulations. A professional auditor then determines areas of improvement and methods of ranking your website higher.
To put it bluntly, if you’re enlisting the expertise of local SEO services but skimping on your audits, you’re not going to rank! Sure, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it—unless you don’t know it’s broken, in the first place.
Money-saving and competitive advantage isn’t all you’ll reap from a much-needed website audit. If your website is loading slower than you’d like, an audit will pinpoint whether your website’s latency perpetrators are massive images, bulky codes, messy Javascript, or sluggish servers.
Not to mention, a website audit can hold you accountable for potential keyword stuffing. If your definition of a “high-quality” article is to rain keywords on every sentence, you’re going to lose your readers in seconds. When it comes to keyword research, focus on relevance!
Like a mortgage or ice cream flavor, website audits come in many shapes and sizes. Depending on your specific needs or desires, you can choose to conduct a:
Technical audits zero in on website functionality, including broken links, speed issues, or oddly crafted structures. An on-site audit will provide a full review of your website regarding keyword use, which may span anything from your meta descriptions to H-tags. Lastly, an off-site audit will take a look at your company’s value concerning your website.
The point of a website audit is optimization. From content to resource locators, marketing your business more effectively or advertising your services to a broader audience has a lot to do with knowing where you stand.
If, for example, you’re looking to hit millennial crowds, but your website isn’t mobile-responsive, a website audit might advise you to get on the mobile train quickly. If your keywords aren’t ranking, a website audit will tell you why.
Self-editing isn’t an overnight skill. While a DIY audit may keep your budget in check, working with a professional will be worth every penny. An expert might note a marketability issue or navigation problem you might’ve missed yourself. If you’re overseeing a dozen operations on the side, committing fully to a DIY audit becomes a more difficult task.
You can give your business website a makeover without knowing what it needs to begin with. While a website audit may seem inessential to improving your operations, it can go a long way for your website remodel.
Link up with us at Grapheec before you dive headfirst into your web design and development re-strategy. Sign up to get a notification on our oncoming re-launch—we’ll be ready to serve you in an instant!