The Right Way To Use SEO Audits
Source: The Balance Small Business
Auditing is a staple for any company wishing to improve their search engine optimization – this much is common knowledge.
Websites like Serpwizz can help you perform the audits and streamline, making the process as efficient as possible.
However, this is only useful if you know what you are looking for. It’s one thing to have a list of faults and errors on your website, but the key to an effective audit is knowing how to fix them.
While SEO tips and algorithm speculation are pages upon pages, it is best to get it directly from the horse’s mouth.
Therefore in this article, we will refer to Google’s advice on how to improve SEO.
How Google operates
Despite popular belief, Google actually does not have access to every single website on the internet.
While it does have an impressive amount of sites stored, a website has to be registered in Google’s index to appear in an actual search.
Do not fret, though. This fact shouldn’t require any manual registering on your part. Google automatically adds these pages with its crawler that scours the internet, checks sites, and adds them to its index.
While it is hard to get an actual figure on how often Google updates its index, the answers I have seen range from daily to several times per day, so we can conclude that it is pretty up to date.
So if you were to create a brand new website today, it is safe to assume that Google would index it by the next day or, worst case, the next few days.
The first step to optimizing your search engine results is to get on the search engines. There are some reasons Google gives why your website may not be indexed, which gives us insight into what it prioritises.
One is that it isn’t well connected to other sites on the internet, which shows the importance of backlinks. Another is inefficient website design, which harms SEO and makes the general user experience disjointed, which is bad for any website.
Key SEO Factors
Like I previously said, it is one thing to use an audit to outline errors, but you need to know what an optimal site looks like to help you act upon these errors.
These are a few of what Google itself tells you to use for a good website (and thus what will help you rank higher).
They tell you to use relevant keywords that will appeal to your customer. Predict what your customer will search up and incorporate those answers into your website and make it clear.
Be consistent, don’t use a range of irrelevant keywords to get as many people to your website as possible. Only target people who are looking for your website and can gain some utility from it.
They discourage any dishonest or deceiving tactics, so any malpractice will negatively affect your SEO without a doubt.
Source: Magneticians
Optimize your site’s speed. They claim quicker load times will result in a better experience for customers and make them more likely to suggest your site.
This links to general website health, as you need to ensure your website is as streamlined as possible. This includes page size, file sizes, healthy links, etc.
The use of meta data has become very controversial in modern-day SEO, with many saying it is entirely ineffective and a waste of time.
However, Google themselves make it a point to say alt text (the same as meta-text) ‘should be descriptive, specific, and accurate.’ They do specify that front-end content is more critical than back-end to them, but it is still vital in its own right.
This should be enough to tell you to include it because, at best, it can improve your SEO and, at worst, doesn’t add or take away.
Some SEO audit tools have begun to exclude meta text checking in their checks, but Serpwizz still recognizes its importance, as should you.
Furthermore, it should also be mobile and browser friendly, meaning it should be usable on practically any smart device, e.g., phone, laptop, tablet, and any browser, e.g., internet explorer, safari, chrome, etc.
Final thoughts
This is meant to be a condensed version, and anything I mention can be found directly from Google in more detail, as well as other things I didn’t get the chance to mention. Click here for the unabridged version.
You can also browse our website for a better idea of the services offered in our audits. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of using SEO auditing tools effectively and what your website should aim to look like.
