A SEO audit is a technical analysis of your website performance which you can use to optimize your site’s search rankings for relevant queries or website pagespeed. A SEO audit provides in-depth insights on areas for improvement for your search ranking performance. For example, a SEO audit can show you that you need to significantly increase website load speed because your current pagespeed is low and the pagspeed is hurting your search ranking. An SEO audit can also help you identify the relevant keywords that will help your website rank higher on searches and whether or not you’re attracting the right audience.

Unravelling these insights is the first step in optimizing your website’s search. Here are the top five benefits of performing a SEO audit for your website!

1. Understand your current SEO ranking

   Performing a SEO audit of your website helps you understand your website’s current search rankings for relevant keywords. If you’re a Vancouver-based vegan food eCommerce store and you’re selling to the Canadian market, you can learn about your website’s search rankings for relevant search queries such as “Vancouver vegan food” or “vegan tofu Canada” by performing a SEO audit. You can also understand your website’s search ranking for pertinent but niche search queries such as “post workout snack” or “high protein snack”. Gaining these insights helps you learn about your current rankings and identify areas for improvement.

2. Understand competition

   In addition to understanding your website performance, you can gain insights to your competitors’ performance through a SEO audit. You can learn which keywords your competitors’ are ranking highly for and see if you could target these keywords. You can also identify SEO practices that your competitors are implementing that you can execute for your website. For example, if you find out that your competitor has a FAQ page to rank for question-based search queries, you can implement a similar approach for your website.

3. Identify trending keywords

   You can find out which search queries are trending and which new keywords are emerging in your industry. Staying updated on trending keywords helps you know which new keywords your website should optimize or which keyword phrases your website should continue to work on.

4. Understand your website technical SEO weaknesses

   Website technical SEO elements include website pagespeed, website crawlability, or broken links. Performing a SEO audit helps you identify technical SEO issues on your site. For example, you may find that your website has many broken links or your website pagespeed score is slow. Finding out these issues is an excellent first step in optimizing your website’s search ranking!

5. Understand off-site SEO opportunities

   SEO is broken down into two components: on-site SEO and off-site SEO. On-site SEO is elements that we’ve mentioned above – repairing brokens links or improving pagespeed. Off-site SEO refers to backlink building. Backlinks are external links to a website. For example, if Website A links to Website B, Website A is a backlink of Website B. The more quality backlinks a website has, the better it is for the website’s search ranking. Google uses the number of quality backlinks a website has as a significant factor when determining a website’s search ranking. The more backlinks a website has, the more credible the website is and higher the website ranks on search results. Performing a SEO audit helps you compare the number of backlinks your website has with competitors’ numbers of backlinks. Engaging in this gap analysis helps you determine how you perform against competitors and whether you need to actively earn more backlinks.

A SEO audit is paramount in diagnosing your current website performance in comparison with your competitors, trends in your market, and areas of improvement. If you’re interested in a comprehensive SEO audit and recommendations on optimizing your website to improve your website’s search ranking, please contact us for a discovery meeting!