Introduction
Okay, so some SEO companies will start working on implementing SEO straightaway.
That’s to say, eager to show that progress is being made, you may see new blog posts fly onto the website and links being built- but is this the right way to go about things?
Well, no, because SEO is like building a house, yet if the foundations are rubbish, well, the whole structure of the house will be compromised.
So, we have to ensure the foundations are rock solid and that any problems are rectified before work.
So how do you do this? Well, you need to conduct an SEO audit.
Now, some digital marketing agencies say they have undertaken an audit; what they mean is they have clicked the mouse, and an automated SEO program has done the work.
It then condenses all that information into a rather fancy-looking report, usually packed with marketing jargon and line graphs, which mean next to nothing.
So, what do we suggest instead?
After implementing SEO for over ten years, we would like to call on our experience to hone in on issues.
These can become opportunities because, once corrected, they can be like unblocking a dam that has been stopping people from finding your business.
So, this page will be rather long-winded, but we would like to explain what an SEO audit involves.
It’s long, so we recommend you make a brew or grab a cup of coffee.
Evaluation of the business content marketing
Okay, so some people think that search engines are rather stupid; if they keep writing about the same things and write it to say 400 words, the business SEO will magically improve.
And so many SEO agencies do just that, or they did until their client’s websites started to see a substantial drop in visitor numbers.
So, what should a business be doing instead?
That’s easy; they should be capitalising on their expert knowledge and using this to create content that’s so far better than the competition that they will have SEO that’s far superior.
And how do you do this? Well, that’s why you answer the questions your customers frequently have.
So, for example, you may make wedding dresses, and your customers may want to know how far ahead of the big day they need to order with you.
By answering such a question and writing a detailed blog post, you will be helping your customers, and you will also be inadvertently helping to improve your business’s SEO.
However, writing blog posts that improve your business’s SEO often also requires the help of a white hat SEO agency. That is so because alt tags, meta titles, meta descriptions, internal links, anchor text, and external links flowing to that page will all be needed to improve where that website ranks.
Are internal links being used?
We would need to assess whether the business uses internal links and, if so, how the company has used them.
Do the internal links help the reader? Or, are they a blatant attempt for the business to try and improve its SEO? If so, the algorithms used by Google and the other search engines may deem the approach used by the company as “spammy”.
So, we must assess whether the anchor text is being used in a white hat way.
Is the website too slow?
Some companies use the cheapest website design company, offering good web design.
Yet, what can sometimes happen is the web hosting may well be so slow to load that it may damage your business SEO.
When people want to get onto your business’s website quickly, they don’t want to wait ages for the page to load.
Your website could gain a very high bounce rate, which means that your business rankings may drop.
Are there any broken links which are causing 404 errors?
Okay, so product lines change; for example, you may be selling winter jackets, the summer season may start, and you may be selling t-shirts.
Yet, it’s how your SEO company handles broken links, which is essential. If your website has loads of these, this could also cause a high bounce rate.
If your website has loads of 404 errors, well, you will often need the help of your website designer and a digital marketing agency like ours to help your business.
Any crawl issues?
This could be as simple as the “no-index” button being selected. Still, one thing is for sure: if Googlebot or the other automated programs used by the other search engines can’t index your website, well, your website isn’t going to rank.
By rank, we mean it isn’t likely to appear on Google
That’s because the no-index tab tells Googlebot not to index that page or website, so Googlebot can’t “crawl and index” that page or website.
So, the business information can not be read, and all that SEO work would be a waste of time if the no-index issue isn’t fixed.
Does the client have Google Analytics installed?
So we always explain to our clients here in Cardiff that if your business hasn’t got Google Analytics installed, it’s like driving your car and having someone remove the dashboard.
That’s to say, as you’re driving along, you will want to know fuel levels and road speed. Well, if you have a website, you will want to understand how people are finding the website, that’s to say, is it via the organic results, PPC or direct?
Does the client have Google Search Console installed?
This is another SEO tool; it can tell you things, such as where your website ranks for certain words.
Also, it can tell you some of the backlinks linking to your website.
There are many other essential things; your SEO company will need access to your business’s Google Search Console account.
What are the backlinks like?
So many businesses and some SEO companies have wrong link building. This can mean the business incurs a penalty, like a Google Penguin penalty.
This can then mean that the business rankings drop, sometimes not by just a bit; no, a website can drop beyond page 20.
Or, sometimes, if the backlinks are rubbish quality, the website could be removed from Google altogether.
So basically, your business needs excellent quality backlinks; these are difficult to build most of the time, so this can mean that some SEO companies spend a long time building backlinks for their clients.
Is the website’s design easy to use?
Sometimes, a website won’t be easy to use. For example, the business stocks thousands of products, and finding the product you want is hard.
Or perhaps the menu just is not easy to use, in which case, even just improving the website’s menu by making it easier to use, well, sometimes this can reduce a business’s bounce rate.
Does the website’s design make it hard to implement SEO?
Okay, so some businesses believe that SEO can be applied to any business website; however, if the website design is quite bad, this can make implementing SEO quite challenging.
For example, the business may have a website that it’s had for the last ten years; it hasn’t changed, and as such, it looks rather old.
The business may not have a blog, it may not have contact us forms, and it may not offer much information. So, in this case, the SEO agency may recommend a website redesign; this should allow, for example, a blog section to be added, and as any good digital marketing agency knows, adding good quality content marketing can help to improve the business’s SEO.
Have previous SEOs been low-quality?
Sometimes, a business will not know the difference between an SEO company that offers good-quality SEO and a low-quality SEO.
This means that a penalty may have hit the business; for example, the company had many rubbish links, so a Google Penguin penalty hit the website.
It makes sense to change the SEO agency, but that doesn’t automatically mean the problem is fixed.
So, an excellent white hat SEO business should ensure that the problems that caused the penalty are fixed. For example, the marketing agency may disavow some of the low-quality backlinks.
This means that the new digital marketing agency should fix any SEO problems the business may have. This should be picked up in the SEO audit, and the SEO company should propose a way to fix the issues.
Are there pages that lack detail?
Sometimes, a business will spend a lot of money on a new website, yet sometimes, the website design agency may be just interested in the website design; that’s to say, SEO is sometimes not forgotten.
This can sometimes mean that the website will not have much text. For example, the business may well be a dental practice, yet if each service, such as teeth whitening, only has one line of text to describe the service, it will be hard to improve that page’s SEO.
So often, an SEO agency may recommend that more detailed descriptions be added to each page that describe the services or products the business can offer.
How have the meta titles and meta descriptions been written automated or manual?
Sometimes, a business will use the same meta title and the same meta description for a whole bunch of products.
So, let’s, for example, the business is an electrical retailer, and the company uses the same meta title: “We sell fridge-freezers at low prices, plus we offer free next-day delivery!”.
The business may think that to save time, it would be a good idea to copy and paste the same meta title and meta description for each fridge freezer they sell. However, this is not something we would recommend; instead, we would recommend adding a unique meta title and meta description to each page.
So, for example, you add the manufacturer’s name, the model number and some of the features of purchasing that fridge-freezer.
And you may now be thinking, well, why bother? That sounds like a lot of work, and we sell thousands of different products, so this will take ages!
Well, we would recommend adding a unique meta title and meta description to each page, as when someone knows which model fridge freezer they want. Therefore, they are just trying to find the best price; well, having a page with a unique meta title and meta description can help improve that page’s SEO.
Is there any duplicated content?
The SEO audit should include a check to see if the website has any duplicated content. For example, the previous SEO agency may have copied and pasted some articles, which is not good SEO practice; it’s likely to cause the business to incur a penalty.
So, the new digital marketing agency should check for duplicated content marketing.
Otherwise, what will happen is that Google’s algorithm could detect the duplicated work and issue a penalty, such as a Google Panda penalty.
Also, some businesses often have duplicated content when a product description has been copied from the manufacturer’s website.
So, let’s say, for example, you are selling electric toothbrushes; if the product description has been taken directly from the manufacturer’s website, this will cause a duplication problem.
So, the retailer should write their product description.
How has the business optimised its anchor text?
Your anchor text should be optimised in a white hat way, and what we mean by this is you should only use anchor text that helps the reader know where the link will take them.
So, let’s give you an example: say you are a construction business, and you may wish to use an internal link to direct someone to the page on your website that talks about loft conversions.
Yet, if you’ve employed an SEO company that’s not white hat and doesn’t offer good quality SEO, they may copy and paste the exact anchor text for every link, so for example, they may write “builders + city name”.
This is rubbish SEO, as it’s a blatant attempt to try and get the business to rank for “builders + name of city”.
Google’s algorithms are too sophisticated for this type of SEO; they will see this type of SEO as spam, and the website will likely incur a penalty.
So, how should a business write its anchor text instead?
Well, that’s simple; the SEO company should write the anchor text in such a way it helps the reader.
So, for example, you may have a page on your website that talks about loft conversions, yet the homeowner wants a Dorma loft conversion; well, you may wish to state that in the same circumstances, the homeowner will need to apply for planning consent. Youu may highlight the text “How to gain planning consent for a loft conversion” as your anchor text, which can help the reader follow the link and read a blog post that you have already written about gaining planning consent for a loft conversion.
So, in a nutshell, the anchor text must be helpful to the reader; it must tell them where that link is going.
Instead, if you optimise your anchor text just for words you wish to improve your business’s SEO for, the company will likely incur a penalty.
Has the website got a separate page for each leading service it offers?
Sometimes, a business will have a “one-page website”, which means everything is on one page, and to get to a different section of the page, you often press a button; it automatically scrolls you to that section.
Yet, from an SEO perspective, there’s a problem with this sort of website, and that’s because it makes it very difficult to optimise each service that the company may offer.
So, for example, let’s say the business in question is an SEO business. The company will offer the following services:
· Local SEO
· Organic SEO
· Content marketing
· Link building
· Onsite SEO
· Website design
So we would recommend that each different service the business offers has its page.
This will mean that each page can have its own:
· Page title
· Meta title
· Meta description
· Alt tag
· Internal links
· Anchor text
· Product or service description
So, as you can see, SEO often becomes easier if each service or product has its own page.
How has local SEO been implemented if the business only wants to obtain customers from Cardiff?
Sometimes, a business will have a website and only wish to gain customers within their city.
So, for example, let’s say the business offers double glazing installation within Cardiff; that business will need local SEO.
This means that an SEO company will generally improve the business SEO in the following areas:
· Business citations
· Ensure that NAP information is written on the website
· Build high-quality backlinks
· Add content marketing to the website
· Improve the business onsite SEO.
What’s the website’s bounce rate?
An SEO company should check the business’s bounce rate; for example, if the business has a very high bounce rate, the SEO company should reduce it.
If you do not know what a bounce rate is, it simply means the percentage of visitors that have landed on your company’s website yet decided to leave more or less straight away.
This may be due to something as simple as the visitor thinking that a product is too expensive, or it could be something that an SEO company could help to improve.
For example, each product may have an inferior product description. So, if the company had better product descriptions, this may convince more visitors to purchase the product.
If a company sells thousands of different products, the products may be added very quickly. Yet, if the product descriptions are not detailed, this can often cause a high bounce rate.
Does the website receive regular SEO?
Here’s a critical point: some businesses invest in SEO, then stop altogether.
Perhaps that’s because the business has a flurry of new orders yet can not possibly manage to fulfil those orders.
Or, sometimes, it’s because the business believes it has reached the top of Google, so there’s no point in paying any more for SEO.
However, here’s the thing: if a business were to stop investing in organic SEO, it could often be overtaken by its competitors. This means that in a matter of months, or sometimes just in a few weeks, the business will be overtaken by its direct competitors, so organic SEO often needs to be invested monthly.
Does the website have optimised URL extensions?
It is essential that when a website is being designed, thee URL extensions are created to help improve the business’s SEO.
For example, sometimes a website designer will design a website, let’s say using WordPress, yet the website designer may not write their URL extension.
So, for example, let’s say you have a website and sell dog leads. You may have a page that sells red dog leads so that the URL extension could be /red-dog-leads.com
This can help improve your business’s SEO if you write the URL extensions so that they help tell the search engines what that page is about.
That’s because when the algorithms read that page and try and work out what it is about, well, a page with a URL extension that spells out what that page is selling makes it much easier for the algorithms to know what that page is about.
This is as opposed to a website that doesn’t change its URL extensions, so the website may make URL extensions that don’t mean anything. For example, the extension may read / 9796709609
Has the business got a Google My Business account?
The SEO company must ensure a Google My Business account if your business invests in local SEO.
So, for example, let’s say you run a marketing business here in Cardiff; well, the SEO company should ensure that your Google My Business is optimised. By this, we mean that the Google My Business listing should have the following:
· NAP (name, address and phone number of your business)
· The NAP information must be the same as what’s on your website
· The Google My Business listing should be kept up to date, so if you change address, your account should be updated
· A link to your website should be added
· Opening hours should be added
· You should consult with a white hat SEO company, like us, to see how we can further improve your business’s Google My Business account.
Why would an audit of my competitor’s SEO also be needed?
So, for the majority of this article, we have concentrated on describing how we would undertake an SEO audit of your business’s website.
However, the next stage is for us to complete an SEO audit of some of your competitors. So, for example, we would want to know:
· Have your direct competitors got good backlinks?
· Where have they obtained their backlinks from?
· What’s your competitor’s onsite SEO like?
· Have they used white hat SEO?
Can our SEO agency help?
If you run a business within Cardiff and would like to improve your SEO, why not give us a ring?