7 Audit Checklist Items For Better SEO
As a business owner, you know that appearing at the top of search engine results is vital to driving traffic (and sales!) to your website. But what does it take to get there? How can you ensure that your website is optimized for search engines? The answer is an SEO audit.
An SEO audit service assesses your website's compliance with best practices for Search Engine Optimization. By running an SEO audit, you can identify any areas where your website needs improvement so that you can make the necessary changes. Not sure where to start? Use this checklist as a guide.
- Check for title tags: Every page on your website should have a unique title tag that accurately reflects the page's content. Title tags should be 50-60 characters long and include relevant keywords for the page.
- Evaluate meta descriptions: Similar to title tags, every page on your website should have a unique meta description. Meta descriptions are brief summaries of a page's content that appear in search engine results pages (SERPs). They should be 150-160 characters long and again, include relevant keywords for the page.
- Inspect headers (H1, H2, H3, etc.): Headers are used to structure content on a web page and make it easier for both users and search engines to understand the hierarchy of the information presented. Thus, it's important to use headers appropriately— refrain from using too many or too few, and don't stuff them with keywords.
- Analyze your website's URL structure: Search engines give more weight to web pages with short, descriptive URLs that include relevant keywords for the page's topic. If your website's URLs are long, confusing, or don't include keywords, consider making some changes.
- Study your site's navigation menu(s): Your website's navigation menu(s) play a key role in how easy it is for users—and search engines—to find information on your site. Make sure that your navigation menus are well-organized and easy to use; otherwise, you risk losing visitors (and ranking positions!)
- Examine your site's images: All images on your website should have alt text—a short description of the image—that includes relevant keywords for the page on which the image appears. This helps both users and search engines understand what each image is depicting and how it relates to the surrounding content.
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Check for other common technical issues: In addition to the items listed above, there are a number of other common technical issues that can hurt your website's SEO performance, including broken links, duplicate content, and missing 404 pages. Use this checklist as a starting point for auditing your own website—but keep in mind that it is by no means exhaustive. Performing regular audits is key to maintaining a strong SEO presence—so add it to your marketing calendar and make sure to check off all items on this list!
Conclusion
Regularly auditing your website's compliance with best practices for Search Engine Optimization is key to maintaining a strong corporate enterprise SEO presence online. Use this checklist as a starting point for auditing your own site - but keep in mind that it is by no means exhaustive. Add regular audits to your marketing calendar and check off all items on this list!