Introduction
The 20th century has changed the way business used to run. From filing tax returns to employment proofs, the list goes on and on. One might wonder why there are so many pre-hiring checks. But all this comes with the requirements of the fast-paced world of the 20th century. While some business continuously looks for ways to evade tax, the government keeps coming up with the stronger audits to see the ground reality.
Importance of audit
Audits aren’t necessarily always done by companies. Sometimes the companies also do internal audits to assess the consistency between physical inventory and documented records. Audits cover vast fields which aren’t just limited to small and big businesses but also websites. One might ask how to do a website SEO audit and that is exactly what this article is about.
SEO audit
An SEO audit reflects on the gap between the website’s presences as compared to the practices that are considered to be ideal. It is the beginning of the improvement process which helps identify an implementation plan to drive fruitful results.
Purpose of technical audit
One query that a lot of websites face is the differentiation between organic and inorganic reach. It is an agreed fact that in the long run organic reach is not only an achievement but also is the only sustainable way of going ahead. Therefore, the purpose of SEO audit is to identify issues that are affecting organic growth directly or indirectly.
Key SEO audit aspects
There are several aspects that an SEO audit might cover issues related to:
- Technicality
- Structure
- Page driven
- User interface
- Content consistency
- Competitor Insights
- Technical Aspect of audit
This article will mainly revolve around the technical aspect of the SEO audit which can be further divided into subcategories. All these technical aspects are to be monitored to perform an accurate SEO audit in 2020. For instance, if you own an ESA therapy center and you want to see the results or organic consumers generated by the search results of “ESA therapists near me” an audit has to be done correctly to close the gap between the paper and real reach. For these results to be accurate, a technical SEO audit for the website is necessary.
The technical audit for the SEA website might include (but not limited to) the following:
Indexation Analysis
This is important because this helps in concluding what content received more impressions depending on the meta tags used on the website. This also helps identify the tags or components of the website with minimum reach.
Status Codes
These are analyzed to get acquainted with the response of the server to various clicks on the website.
Redirects
They are used to identify the actual URL if any changes are made. A redirect is therefore very use full for both the users and the search engines because they link you to the actual website from the one that is initially entered.
Page Speed
As the name suggests it is the speed at which the website loads onto the user’s device. This once again remains an integral part of the audit since page speed is a major player in terms of website ranking in any search engine.
URL Structure
This is a simple way to access the location of a resource.
Robots.txt
This is another important technical aspect that allows the users to see what is not that a website shows and what matches the search. This once again plays a vital role an SEO audit because robots.txt not only prevents the overloading of a website but also affects the page speed by preventing overloading.
Canonical Tags
Although canonical tags are not completely technical they affect the ranking of the website which makes them another key feature be monitored in an audit. They are directly linked with the display as a result of any search therefore it is extremely important to look at these during an audit to improve the website rankings.
Duplication
It means that the contents of the website are not unique. Therefore, a search engine would be unable to distinguish which content to show. This is another crucial thing that is observed during the SEO audit. The goal is to minimize duplication and any duplication observed is highlighted in the audit and action items for improvement or removal of those duplications are added.
Off-page analysis
Analysis of the website other than the actual page is another integral part of an SEO audit. For instance, if one was to search “ESA therapists near me”; search engine would show a lot of websites although other technical aspects might be the same one key feature that makes a real difference is an off-page influence. This is anything that improves the ranking and promotes the website by bringing it to the top. Therefore, in an SEO technical website audit off-page analysis lies at the heart of a fruitful outcome.
International SEO analysis
This is mainly linked with the international content a website provides. In n SEO technical website audit the factors that influence international consumers are analyzed in depth. These factors may range from the language barrier, friendly content, diversification of images, and friendly URL selection.
Although an SEO audit deals with both the structural and technical aspects of a website this article has mainly explained the technical terminologies that are foreseen in an audit.
Conclusion
All these technical aspects are required for a transparent audit of an SEO website in 2020. These aspects must be analyzed step by step to achieve the desired results. Any missing aspect or misleading information can result in an improper action plan or can result in a remedial action which may lead to an undesired result. An audit is a gradual process and it might take up some time but what is important is to cooperate with the specialists and work on their findings. Each finding during the audit may reflect on a missing action. To fill in the blanks some remedial actions are taken which will help a team move closer to their goal.