Having your website audited might seem scary. Why would you want something audited in the first place? Having your website audited allows for a full technical SEO audit that can help discover some areas of improvement across your website. An in-depth analysis of your website can yield exciting facts such as pages loading slow, 404 errors, broken images, and more. Running an audit might sound tedious or unnecessary, but we promise you they are anything but. Uncovering areas of improvement are crucial to the success of your business. A slow-loading website could be costing you thousands of dollars every year from customers who leave your website after it does not load for them. At the end of this article, we will provide you with an essential website SEO audit checklist that will help you run a self-audit and begin identifying areas of weakness.
If you are interested in having a professional audit … rvResortScout offers an in-depth technical SEO audit that has the potential to increase your online visibility massively.
The topics we will cover in this article include better visibility in search engines, boosting user experience, improving website performance, identifying weak spots, and pinpointing winniVisibilityng content. We will then wrap up the article by showing you how to run the self-audit mentioned above. Suppose you are interested in having a professional audit run on your website. In that case, rvResortScout offers an in-depth technical SEO audit that has the potential to increase your online visibility massively.
Better Visibility In The Search Engines
Being visible in the search engines can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars are sent your way simply because you rank atop a Google search. A technical SEO audit will tell you exactly where you rank and for what keywords you are ranking. Simply put, the more keywords you rank for on the first page of Google, the better your results will be.
Seeing the value in your ranking is simple. More clicks equal more awareness which equals more revenue for your business. A detailed website audit will allow you to perform this check and give clear insights into where you can improve. Knowing which pages rank in the top 20 of Google’s search results (per keyword) allows you to optimize these pages. Having just a one-page rank atop Google’s search list can be a game-changer. Imagine what ten or more pages can do for you.
Boost User Experience
We have all been on a website that loads slow, has broken images, broken links, and overall offers a terrible user experience. Chances are, we immediately left that website and never returned. A poor user experience can turn away customers and lead them straight to competitors. Running a website audit boosts user experience and directly leads to more sales. Having an SEO audit checklist that combs through your website can help you fine-tune your user experience so each visitor that lands on your webpage leave happy.
Boosting experience on your website is often one of the easier things to do. Ensuring your website is responsive (easy to click buttons) and has no broken images takes testing. We wrote an article describing how important the testing process is and how it can save your business. If you’re interested in learning why you should test everything before making your website live, you can read this article on web design mistakes.
Technical SEO Audit Helps Improve Performance
An excellent technical SEO audit cannot be complete without looking at your website’s specs. Drilling down into page load speed, image optimization, and how quickly a user can achieve the desired task. A fast-loading website will have all the content and images loaded within two seconds. But anything under five seconds is acceptable and will keep your visitors on your website. Broken images and links are another leading cause of frustration for your visitors. Not only does it make the website look unprofessional, but it can also make the website nearly impossible to use.
Knowing that these issues exist and taking steps to fix them are essential to any functioning online business. Running your personalized website audit will give you insights into what is currently holding you back. After running your audit, the power you receive makes you wish you would have done one much sooner. Many business owners would love the chance to know precisely what is wrong with their website. Moreover, how to fix it. Now you have that opportunity.
Identifying Weak Spots Using a Website Audit Checklist
The prevailing theme of a technical SEO audit is identifying weaknesses that you can address. The scope of the weaknesses an audit can identify includes several items. The most common include:
- Slow loading pages
- Broken Links
- Security issues
- Optimization
- Content Issues
- SEO ranking
- Not having a well organized privacy policy page, disclaimer, terms of use, etc
These are just a few of the issues a search audit can help you solve. Knowing your weaknesses and solving them is a remarkable ability to have in your toolkit.
Pinpoint Winning Content
One of the main benefits of a website audit is pinpointing content that is doing better than other content on our website. Knowing which content is excelling allows you to focus on it and perfect it. For example, if you have a web page in the top 10 on Google’s search results for a particular keyword. You would be wise to work that webpage to the number one spot on Google’s ranking. The difference between the second and first spots can be huge for your business. There can be thousands of users clicking the top listing and only a few hundred clicking the second. This number only drops off more dramatically as you go further down the search rankings.
Here are some steps on how you can boost content that is already doing well in the search ranking:
- Identify winning content
- Compare your content to the top Google search for that keyword
- Note how often they use the keyword, images, titles of sections, and other important information they may have that you do not.
- Make a slight change to your article or content that is ranking high. Note: Making several significant changes can hurt your ranking. Take note of what you have changed.
- Allow for a period of one-two months to see where your content now ranks. If it has improved, continue to make gradual changes as you work your way to the top.
- Constantly monitor your content to ensure it remains in the number one position.
Technical SEO Audit: Performing a Mini Audit
Performing a full-blown SEO audit would take a lot of time to explain and, in reality, might not be what you’re interested in. So let’s run through the basics on performing a mini-audit, and if running a full-blown audit is something you are interested in, we can get you started. We will cover running a speed test, basic search engine rankings, and content review.
Speed Test
Running a speed test is probably the most straightforward thing for your website. It will take you less than five minutes and give you an idea of how fast your website is loading.
Ideally, your score after running this test should be an A, but even a B means your website is running pretty well. The great thing about running a speed test is you’ll have the ability to see the changes you need to make in real-time. So let’s get to it. Here’s the link to get your speed test, and you can perform your very own on your website.
Search Engine Rankings
Checking your place in the search engine rankings is also extremely simple and can provide great insights into your current rankings. There are a few ways you can do this. The first way is to type your business name into Google’s search engine and look at the pop-up results. If you are not at the top of the list, then this is what you should work on first. If you are, then you can move to step two. In Google, search for specific keywords you feel your business should be ranking for. For example, if you are a campground in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Consider typing in {best campgrounds in Stone Mountain Georgia} and seeing what pops up. Similarly, you could also try the best campgrounds near me. Assuming you are near your campground, you would expect your campground to be one of the first listed.
If you notice you are not listed atop the search engines, you should now take this time to improve your standing. Look at things such as your meta descriptions, page content, headers for your website, and page load speed. All these factors will factor into where you rank for each search term.
Content Review
Content review is the last step we will cover in our mini audit. Having things such as your contact details, headlines, and keywords readily displayed on your homepage are essential elements to have. If you do not have them, make a note of what you are missing and then take the time to address each issue.
Have clear headlines with a font that is easy to read, and make sure your keywords are visible on your homepage.
A couple of tips include making sure your phone number and address are easily visible if you are a business with a physical location. Have clear headlines with a font that is easy to read, and make sure your keywords are visible on your homepage.
rvResortScout’s Technical SEO Audit
rvResortScout is a digital agency for campgrounds specializing in driving traffic to your campground. One of the ways we do that is through an extensive website audit. We take everything we have discussed above and do a detailed scan of each component of your website. We measure aspects such as page speed, content, images, optimization, and the usability of your website to give you a grade.
Once we have compiled our findings, we will send them to you via email. After reviewing your audit, you will then have the choice to work with rvResortScout to fix all the issues or use the guidance we have laid out in the audit to work on the problems at your own pace. You can find more information on our website audit here. If you’d like to speak with one of our team members, you can make an appointment using this link. We thank you in advance for considering rvResortScout as your web auditing service.
One last tip: We have compiled an easy-to-follow SEO audit checklist if you’re interested in running your SEO audit. You can perform this checklist at your own pace and identify your website’s potential strengths and weaknesses. If you run into a snag, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Additionally, if you’re interested in redesigning your website, learn about the Importance of good RV Park Website Design.
