Therefore, it is obvious that all websites on the Internet aim to achieve a higher ranking, and those websites that already have a top ranking, aim to maintain their existing position. The reason behind this behavior is that a high ranking increases the profitability of the business because a top ranking brings a higher number of visitors and therefore a higher number of potential customers. The website SEO audit is one of the most important marketing tools and is designed to analyze how websites rank on Google and offer you an SEO strategy.
What is an SEO strategy?
When you have a website and an online presence it is important to be visible and attract visitors. To do this you need to know what works and what doesn't, what improvements need to be made, and what your customers are looking for. The SEO audit is an essential step that analyses all the elements of your website: content, architecture, and descriptions - they are systematized and indexed by the search engines, and understanding them serves to establish the steps to work on the site. So, a properly conducted SEO audit will flag up any SEO issues your website has. And then will offer you a strategy for improvements.
An SEO strategy is a plan designed to be followed over a period to achieve the desired result. In the same way, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and website promotion must follow a strategy for a certain period. This strategy is about continuous change and adaptation, which is why conducting a regular SEO audit. Only with it can you get a real-time overview of how search engines perceive your website. The main purpose of this analysis is to create and implement effective optimization strategies that will place you at the top of Google's search rankings, considering the frequent updates and adaptations of its algorithms.
Content of a Website SEO Audit
A Website SEO audit should contain a minimum of both technical and content information. In addition to recognizing and pointing out problems, the audit should also come up with applicable solutions. This will help you find out where the weaknesses in your strategy lie and analyze your direct competitors. An SEO audit also gives you feedback on all the important aspects a website needs to function properly and be relevant and prioritized by search engines. To make sure your website is well optimized for search engines, an website SEO audit will provide information about: site architecture, URL structure, the most relevant keywords, keywords for which Google has already indexed the site, redirects, 4xx and 5xx errors, indexing in Google, content, internal and external duplicate content, meta tags and headings, links, images, and videos possibility to create new pages in the site, site loading speed, optimization for mobile devices, optimization of social media presence, Google Search Console and Google Analytics and other aspects specific to the site analyzed.
Off-page audit
The SEO audit also provides you with an off-site analysis showing you how your website is seen from the outside. Here the following aspects will be evaluated, the authority and diversity of the backlink source domain, the relevance of links reported to the site, diversity of link types, the distribution of links on the site pages, analysis of anchor texts, the rate at which links are added, quality and quantity of links compared to competitors, most relevant competitor sites and their authority, penalties and solutions that can be applied to remove them. If you want to find out if your website is properly optimized for search engines, you can use the services of an SEO agency like GAMIT SEO.
SEO optimization can be a very difficult process for those who have never. The rules are constantly changing, and this causes people to struggle to find the best "new" techniques to build effective SEO strategies. Even with the best SEO tools, getting ranked seems like a very difficult process. If you fall into the category of people who can't understand the role of SEO in online promotion, you don't need to worry. We're going to present you with a relatively simple, effective, and smart strategy.
5 Types of SEO Strategies
1. Offensive strategies:
When we talk about SEO strategies, this type first comes to mind as it is the most common strategy for SEO that is used by companies to lift the website from its current position. However, it is also the most expensive type of SEO strategy and it involves the risk of being flagged as negative SEO, in this case, if certain timeframes are not met.
2. Defensive strategies:
At the opposite pole of offensive strategies, there are always defensive strategies. These are designed to defend a ranking already achieved by creating certain barriers that do not allow other competing websites to gain the current position of the targeted website. For example, if the website has achieved a Page Rank of 7, it is less likely that other websites will try to challenge it to take over its position.
3. Guerrilla strategies:
These strategies involve launching many new small websites designed for certain keywords that redirect to the main website via certain links. This tactic requires the existence of a highly skilled SEO professional so that others do not notice similarities between these websites, thus discovering that it is the same business.
4. SEO intimidation strategies:
These strategies are not recommended, do not have a great impact, and have a negative substrate as they involve intimidating competitors to leave you out of their sphere of interest.
5. Hidden purpose strategies:
These types of strategies have an extremely interesting form and involve creating a false impression for competitors, namely that your website is not a real threat to them. This buys time for your website to be picked up, and it is too late for other competitors to act against it when they realize the real purpose of your website. For example, one can launch the website's social network in a certain niche, but without focusing on the critical aspects until a certain point, thus gaining some hidden advantages.
Before you can use this approach, however, you need to learn the basics yourself. The foundation of any SEO campaign is built on your brand goals, your target audience, and the social channels you can take advantage of. Once you've identified all these factors, you can start a smart SEO strategy. If your preparations are complete, you need to start working hard using the following 4 points to help you with your SEO Strategy.
1. Usability is a priority
Your website is your digital home. This is where you want to direct all your consumers. For this reason, user experience is very important in your SEO effort. Google wants to provide the best possible UX and they want to see the same from the sites they rank. A site that users leave after the first interaction is a signal to Google, and Google will treat the site's ranking as such. If you make clear, clean and focused presentations to guide the visitor to the next step in their journey, you will be able to keep visitors interested for a longer period, and that improves SEO. When structuring a website, make sure that as many elements as possible enhance the main purpose of your company. Of course, more steps are needed to improve your website from an SEO point of view, such as Image Optimization, getting inbound links, and keyword research. This brings us to our next point.
2. Different types of keywords
Keyword analysis and research are the cornerstones of SEO. You need to target the right keywords to reach the right audience. Even though certain keywords, such as long-tail keywords, have gained popularity recently, you need to understand things in a much deeper way than that. The keywords that define your website are phrases that users use in searches when they want to describe a business. These keywords are very general and it's very hard to get good rankings for them, but still, they play a key role in your keyword strategy. These phrases should be placed throughout the content of your website. Product keywords are more niche keywords. These terms characterize the "merchandise" that your site offers. To use these keywords as effectively as possible, they need to be as specific as possible. If your brand sells footwear, then the keywords you should use are Nike, Adidas, New Balance, etc.
GEO Targeting keywords are a must for a local SEO business. These terms are about location and help Google or other search engines identify the location of your business, which can then be distributed to users. GEO Targeting keywords are extremely important because as Google said "50% of co-consumers who performed a smartphone search for a business location visited that location within 24 hours." Although this tactic will take time to get results, a great way to get the relevant information through keywords is to implement a voice search feature on your website.
3. HTTPS - an important new ranking factor
Google considers user security very important. HTTPS URLs offer a much more secure experience for site visitors compared to HTTP. The "S" in HTTPS stands for Security. Google even developed a ranking signal for HTTPS in its algorithms. Backlinko, an SEO training service, conducted an experiment that covered more than a million Google search results and found that "there is a strong correlation between Google first page ranking and HTTPS". Furthermore, Gary Illyes, a Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, sent out a tweet in 2015 stating that "if you work in SEO and recommend against HTPPS, you're wrong and should feel bad."
4. Create content
You're probably tired of hearing about content marketing, but it bears repeating. Content plays a huge role in SEO, and it needs to be created consistently and focused on the keywords you want to rank well for. But that doesn't mean that that content shouldn't be useful to users. Developing useful content that your readers will enjoy is the goal of this "game". Content not only contributes to your SEO strategy but is capable of ranking on its own, thus becoming twice as effective. In addition, constant posting of content causes crawl bots to return to your site showing that your site is active; another factor that contributes to improving SEO.
A website SEO audit can be tough at times, but with the right SEO strategy and the above tactics it is not so complicated anymore and you can take massive benefits out of it. If you want your website to endure online, a website SEO audit is a necessary tool to improve your business.
