Why an audit is so important?
-
Hi Mozzers,
I was wondering what are the greatest benefits of an SEO audit and how to explain the necessity to do it to a customer?
Thanks for your answers,
Jonathan
-
Thank you very much everybody. It's very helpful!
Regards,
Jonathan
-
I love doing audits as they allow you to see the things that don't work, and the things that need work.
When an audit is completed, you end up with a very clear roadmap of what you need to do in order to correct issues. Jane and Donna have both covered pretty much all of the points.
What I particularly like, is finding those areas that might otherwise go unchecked and only performing an audit will reveal them. I end up with a long list of checks, and as I go through them, they pass or fail. If they fail, how can they be corrected.
OK, they can end up very long, but I still see them as one of the most comprehensive studies any site owner can have completed.
-Andy
-
Hi Jonathan,
Agree with Donna - these are all very good reasons.
From the perspective of what an engagement will look like without an initial audit, a consultant can be left trying to piece together small fixes, unsure of whether some issues are more important than others because they have not had the time to develop a full picture of how a website is structured and how its CMS works / is managed.
Clients tend to be less willing to implement changes if they have not received them when they expected to, i.e. in an audit process with a prioritised list of changes and reasoning behind why the changes are necessary. The process of fixing a website can get arbitrary - emails and calls here and there about random issues. Web developers usually don't like operating like this: they want to know that the next push is for SEO purposes and that a set amount of time will be dedicated to making the changes proposed or working with an external team (you) to find compromises if what you suggest isn't possible. You can schedule whole days on-site with a client to get this stuff done and worked out, rather than badgering devs or managers for months with the things you discover along the way.
Audits can also tell the consultant a lot about how the site works that they might not have been told otherwise by the client (who might not know or understand themselves), both from the manual investigation and use of tools to analyse the website. I find that as a consultant, this knowledge sticks with you - if you learned that a client's CMS performs a certain task a certain way early on, you go into every situation understanding how it works and expecting certain functionality. This increases efficiency for the rest of the engagement. You are rarely taken by surprise by an issue, and many on-site issues are much easier to avoid / solve when both you and your client have a comprehensive document outlining how the website is structured.
I hope this helps!
Jane
-
I'm a big fan of SEO audits. From a customer perspective:
- they tell you what's broken;
- they tell you what's working well;
- you can prioritize the work that needs to be done;
- you can more easily identify the skill sets needed to complete the work; and
- identify inter-dependencies so you acquire what's needed, when it's needed.
Audits also give you a baseline that you can use to draw "a line in the sand" and know where you're starting from. You can then more easily demonstrate measured improvements over time.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why Arabic URLs considered long length by Moz Pro Audit?
I am running a multi-language website (Ar/En): https://drmoamenada.com/ When I carry out Audit using Moz Pro, I see many issues related to long URL length in Arabic pages although they don't exceed 65 characters long in the Arabic language. Can you help me with this issue, please?
Technical SEO | | MoamenNada0 -
Alt Tags - how important for SEO?
Hi I know alt tags should be on an image, however at the moment I have 23,741 missing on the site, how important are these? It's a big project for someone to update & I need some justification Thanks Mozzers 🙂
Technical SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Is it important to include image files in your sitemap?
I run an ecommerce business that has over 4000 product pages which, as you can imagine, branches off into thousands of image files. Is it necessary to include those in my sitemap for faster indexing? Thanks for you help! -Reed
Technical SEO | | IceIcebaby0 -
Importance of correction of technical errors
Hello everyone!!! I have question that i know it has been asked so many times. However i am looking for an idea for my specific situation. I own a website about commercial steel. My main focus has been getting incoming links from important companies and sites, while maintaining a good quality site. Ive been struggling with ranks and Page Authority. Ive never put attention to technical errors such as Duplicate Content, 4XX Errors and critical warnings such as Redirects. I have around 70 errors and around 400 warnings. Someone told me that as long as the website is "user friendly" i should worry about that. I have scarce resources to my SEO efforts. Which aspect should i put more effort?. Link Building and Quality Content vs Technical SEO ??? Is there a recommended balance mix towards a better PA, DA and Overall Quality?? I know is difficult, but it would be extremely helpful to hear from you!! Regards.
Technical SEO | | JesusD0 -
What are the 5 most important things that a novice blogger can do to improve Moz Rank
I have been blogging for sometime now.Around 50 days to be specific. The best part is in these 50 days is I have been able to Monitor and improve my Alexa rank for above 19 million to below 400 thousand now and its still improving.More so,my country rank has improved quite drastically,its now among the first 20 thousand websites in India. However,I have noticed these things in particular - 1.Mozrank has been constant at 1.5, all this while. 2.The Root domain authority improved by just 1 point to 96,as I am using blogger platform. 3.The mozTrust has been 0 all this while too. I don't understand how to tackle these issues.As I am already featured in couple of websites among the top ranked blogs from India.I have kept my eye on the moz Rank now for quite sometime. Hence this obvious question.In my situation what are the 5 most important things a blogger can do to improve the ranking. I am targeting the bracket of 2-3 for the coming month ranking. Thank you beforehand. Much Regards Amit Ganguly Promote Green .. Promote Sustainability ..
Technical SEO | | amit.ganguly0 -
Advice on importing content please to keep page fresh
Hi i am working on a site at the moment http://www.cheapflightsgatwick.com which is a travel news and holiday news site but i am trying to find out what is best reference content for the following section http://www.cheapflightsgatwick.com/humberside-airport What i am thinking of doing to keep google keep coming to my section of the site is to import content, what i mean is, to use google for keywords such as humerside airport and have the stories appear on this page as well as writing my own content. I was thinking of importing content because it would help keep the page fresh without my original content become too old but i am concerned about this and not sure if it is the right thing to do. i am concerned if i do this if my rankings would reduce because i am importing content and for people to read the rest of the story they will have to leave my site. i am also worried that google will reduct points for duplicate content. can anyone let me know what i should do, if i should just stick to original content and not import it or to import it and if i should import it using google news how would i do this. many thanks
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Site:www.tld.com rank is it a measure of googles per page importance?
Hello, does the order of pages in a site:www.tld.com search show how important each page is to google? what if the homepage is not the first result?
Technical SEO | | adamzski0 -
How do I prove to a client their important cat level pages are 301-ing?
I've cut and paste webmaster reports showing the webmaster the "301" page perm moved, however they still believe the pages are running up and normal, as 200s. Its been tough to get them to acknowledge the problem, however I'm certain its negatively affecting results. Any help would be greatly appreciated, asap!
Technical SEO | | ankurv0