Most search engines, especially Google, like to abide by the SEO Anomaly rules you set out in the robots.txt file. So if you tell a search engine not to crawl and/or index certain URLs or even your entire site by accident, that’s what will happen. An audit involves analyzing all elements of your site to make sure that you have not missed out on anything that could be hindering the optimization process. In many cases, some minor changes can improve your ranking significantly. So check that you’re not making the mistake of targeting the wrong keywords with your web pages, starting with the most important ones first.
You can use tools, like HubSpot’s Website Grader, to perform an audit on your competitor’s websites to gather more insights. You can learn how your competitors are attracting visitors and see how they’re garnering conversions. To start the audit, create a list of all your company’s social media accounts. Do some extra digging to make sure you don’t miss any you’re not aware of, such as accounts started by other departments. Your brand’s online performance can also be impacted by social media. If your social media presence isn’t pushing more traffic to your website, then it’s time to conduct a social media audit.
A higher ranking in search results can have a ripple effect on your company. The average timeline for an SEO audit also depends on the size of your website. If your site features 10 to 15 pages, it may take only a week to audit it. But, if your website features more than 100 pages, your audit could require more than 45 days.
I actually think that disavowing toxic links has little effect and tend to ignore them now. It was probably the new links that had the most positive effect. The recovery process began with a comprehensive audit of all website content. Using tools like Google Search Console and SEO analytics platforms, I identified pages with declining rankings and pinpointed the causes. The focus was on relevance, accuracy, and adherence to current SEO best practices. I’ve dealt with an SEO penalty before, and reassessing keyword targeting was one of the key strategies that helped me recover my rankings.
Getting started
- If it’s not a manual action, you may need to check further for Google algorithm updates, as they can significantly affect your site’s organic traffic.
- I pick websites to review – some requested it, others caught my attention for their SEO potential.
- It is a set of instructions to search engine crawlers detailing which subfolders and pages they are permitted to crawl and which they are not.
- Instead, an enterprise SEO auditor will base the audit on the scope or budget of the project itself.
- People intentionally seek out the information SEO helps surface, making it a more user-friendly and consumer-centered marketing tool.
That allows your company to start driving measurable results from your SEO. As company teams evolve, it’s not uncommon for SEO strategies to falter. For example, a new hire may not understand SEO, which can lead to the creation of unoptimized content or the implementation of bad SEO practices. It can even result in your company abandoning SEO altogether. With a more robust digital marketing strategy, you can maximize your investment and return. Remember, 75 percent of users stick to the first page of search results.
Header Tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.)
It makes sense, though, as their background results in better service and results. The experience of your agency also determines SEO audit pricing. Pick the SEO aspects or areas of your site that resonate with the biggest challenges you currently face. To make things easier, break them down into manageable chunks based on how quickly you can implement them. Once you get rid of the junk content, check how other pieces are performing. To find out what the best next steps are, you need to look at the data.
For instance, Google’s algorithm can index the wrong version of a page and it will get into the SERP. Or the whole website may be poorly indexed and considered spammy due to the huge number of duplicates. Essentially, orphan pages are lost pages, no longer connected to the internal linking structure of the website.