If you are present on the web with a website, it is because you have surely understood the challenges of digital presence and therefore of natural referencing. Yet your business remains at a standstill. You are struggling to attract traffic and your visibility is almost nil. So where can this come from? Have you ever thought about having your site analyzed? Recognized by the greatest digital marketing professionals, an audit is no more and no less than a global inventory of your interface. With targeted actions, this diagnosis can literally boost your organic traffic and therefore your sales. Wondering how it works? We immediately take stock of how to perform an SEO audit.
What is an SEO audit?
By definition, an audit is a control and analysis procedure that identifies the strengths and weaknesses of a service, system, or company for the purpose of improvement. The SEO audit is therefore simply an inventory of a website. This will make it possible to underline according to a list of criteria the blocking points and the axes of improvement to be worked on in order to better position oneself on the search engines.
Moreover, this procedure can be summarized in 3 steps:
- Screen the technical and editorial elements of the website.
- Identify issues that hinder performance.
- Solve by means of recommendations and actions to be implemented.
These steps make it possible to define a natural referencing strategy, necessary for the achievement of commercial objectives. When deciding to have a web presence, it is important to leverage it. Note, however, that an SEO audit is an obligation of means and not of results. In other words, all means will be implemented to improve the SEO curve, but nothing guarantees good positioning, it’s the law of SEO!
3 essential elements to take into account to improve your natural referencing
1/ The technical criteria of the site
The technical elements constitute the foundations of the site and play a key role in performance. A coherent structure of a site will make it possible to enhance the editorial content. But you should know that these technical elements are numerous. During an audit, it is a referrer will be in charge of looking at them in order to give you recommendations on the basis of his ghostwriter.
Among these elements, we can cite:
- the loading speed of the pages and the site in general;
- mobile compatibility. Today, 54% of searches are done by mobile, so Google favors the referencing of so-called “responsive” sites;
- the tree structure and structure of the site to assess whether navigation is fluid;
- the presence of redirect errors, such as dead links (404 error);
- analysis of robot.txt and sitemap.xml files;
- etc.
2 / Editorial content
To raise your website or web page to the top of Google’s natural results, working on your content is essential. The objective is twofold:
- give the Internet using the information he has come to seek and bring him added value;
- be well positioned in the SERP and generate targeted traffic.
For this, the HTML markup of your pages will be scrutinized. For example, a blog post must be structured, which is why the presence of a title and subtitles is essential.
Adding paragraphs or bulleted lists is also good for UX (User Experience). This will allow robots to scan the article to understand its essence and readers to easily find the answers to their questions.
Do you want to gain visibility? Prioritize quality! This is by far one of the most important criteria. Information-poor content that adds no value and is riddled with spelling mistakes will have no chance of reaching the podium.
Finally, image optimization should not be overlooked. During an SEO audit, the size and the ALT tag of the visuals are analyzed. Does the size of the images impact the loading speed? Has the description of the ALT tag been filled in? If so, does it include the key query? These are questions that a writing professional may ask when taking stock of your site.
3/ Net linking
Popularity goes hand in hand with good SEO because the notoriety of a site is one of the criteria recognized by Google to be well-referenced. How does it recognize a popular website? Through net linking. This strategy consists in increasing the number of good-quality incoming links on your site, links which are then called backlinks.
During an SEO audit, an SEO will, for example, assess the quality of the link, which is essential for good visibility. The diversity of the links will be studied in the same way as the authority of the external site (referring domain) or the keyword or the group of words associated with the anchor of the link.
Also, note that the acquisition of so-called artificial links is not permitted. We aim for a natural and sustainable strategy so that in the eyes of Google your site is perceived as a site with the value of authority and trust.
Performing an SEO audit of your website: tools VS experts?
Rely on web tools to analyze the relevance of your site
With the understanding of the issues related to good visibility, many Web players have made tools available to allow everyone to see the strengths and weaknesses of their site in a few clicks. This advent is a boon for site owners, who, depending on their objectives, can establish their own analysis. However, be sure to see these tools as supports, because nothing beats the support of a professional to acquire quality organic traffic.
Let’s take a look at some of these SEO allies:
- Google Search Console: the GSC is a free SEO support tool. It will highlight the performance of the site and it will give reports on elements such as the keywords typed to find your site, the number of URLs sent in error by Google (3xx, 4xx, 5xx), or even external links or internal to allow you to analyze their quality.
- Google Analytics: as its name suggests, GA is an analysis tool. In particular, it allows you to collect information on the behavior of your Internet users in order to better understand your audience. You can then set up actions consistent with your traffic. It is a free service just like the Search Console.
- Uber Suggest: finding keywords easily is a bit like the promise of Uber Suggest. Thanks to its fluid and easy-to-access interface, you can quickly analyze the relevance of a keyword by typing a query. This tool has a limited free version and a more comprehensive paid version.
- Majestic will allow you in the free version and by means of an online audit to synthesize your network of links. It will point to link quality, profile, acquisition, etc.
Be accompanied by professionals to carry out an SEO audit
SEO agency
Using an agency to acquire natural traffic can be very advantageous. You will be surrounded by a versatile team with various skills to help you optimize the referencing of your site. An agency is therefore particularly suitable and equipped to meet the needs of large structures or ambitious projects.
On the other hand, the prices of this type of service provider are expensive. It is an investment that must be considered.
An SEO consultant
Unlike an SEO agency, an SEO consultant is independent and acts alone. Where an agency can form a team of experts in specific areas, the consultant will pool this know-how.
Moreover, the freelancer in referencing can justify more specialized expertise by his experience and can bring a real added value during his accompaniment. Its rates will also be more competitive than those of an agency. On the other hand, since he cannot multiply, he will find it more difficult to position himself on big projects.
The SEO web editor, the expert in optimized content
Now that you have understood the importance of working on the quality and optimization of your content, you may be wondering how to do it. This is where the SEO web editor comes in.
As an expert in the creation and management of optimized content, the SEO editor has a web pen and above all a lynx eye to scan at a glance whether your articles or your content comply with Google’s requirements.
This is why the SEO web editor is able to carry out a complete editorial SEO audit. He knows how to use tools to help with analysis reports in order to put in place measures to work on improving editorial content. Whatever the size of the project, you can either surround yourself with a team of writers through platforms such as web editing or hire a freelancer.
SEO audit, what to remember to obtain an optimized and efficient site
As you will have understood, the theme of the SEO audit is a vast subject, but here is what you must remember to improve your natural traffic.
- An SEO audit will help you define a natural referencing strategy.
- Working on your SEO is the best way to get targeted, quality traffic.
- The 3 pillars of a successful and optimized site are technique, content, and popularity.
- There are tools, but nothing will replace SEO professionals capable of analyzing your site.
Besides, do you think that the content of your site does not meet the criteria of Google requirements? Use a web editor with SEO expertise. He will be able to advise you on the best content strategy to adopt.
