When we take over an SEO campaign, one of the first steps we take prior to any other work is completing a full SEO technical audit. Clients often question why we would do this and we always explain that for a campaign to work effectively we need to ensure that the foundations are correctly laid before we start building!
When an SEO technical audit takes place, this enables you to get a full picture of the site and its effectiveness. A comprehensive audit highlights areas that are fundamental to your site’s success online and suggests ways in which you can improve it.
It is often surprising how the basic technical elements of a site have not been addressed. From issues such as duplicate, missing or over length meta tags and alt text to missing sitemaps and long page load speeds. Many sites have very little written content or do not upload new content on a regular basis.
There are also things such as canonical issues to check and the correct implementation of robots.txt. All these elements have an impact on your site’s performance online and if your competitors have these elements covered correctly, then they will outperform you despite your efforts.
It is imperative that site audits keep up to date with shifts and changes within the SEO world. For example, one of the more recent developments within technical audits is to check that the site is mobile friendly.
As users increasingly use mobile devices, having a mobile friendly site is of growing importance, to the extent that many SEO practitioners believe that it will become a Google ranking factor.
Once your initial SEO technical audit has taken place and improvements have been made, it is vital that further audits take place. This ensures the smooth running of your site and ensures that your site is kept up to spec throughout your campaign.
If you would like further details on the benefits of an SEO technical audit, or perhaps you feel your site would benefit from an audit then do not hesitate to contact us at Digital State Consulting today.
