Most businesses with a web presence will have heard about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) – the process of sending strong, positive and contextual signals to the search engines to help your website get indexed for the right keywords and gain more visibility in search results.

The problem is that SEO is pretty complex, so before you start developing and implementing a strategy, you need to know exactly where you are now, so you can see what you need to do to get where you want to be!

This is the main benefit of undertaking an SEO audit, but it also helps to give you an idea of what your competitors are doing, so you can compare yourself to industry leaders and try to find a way to overtake them in the search results – it’s a great benchmarking exercise that can add lots of value to your business.

It can also be beneficial to get an independent SEO audit carried out before you start engaging with an SEO supplier – it will give you a deeper understanding of what they’ve proposed for your business and whether they’re acting in your best interests or suggesting unnecessary work.

What does an SEO audit cover?

So whether you’ve chosen an alternative SEO agency to work with, want the good folk here at AMA to help you increase your rankings and conversion rates, or even if you’re planning on implementing your own strategy and just want a helping hand to get started, here’s a quick look at what our SEO audits cover…

Current position – we’ll run your website through sophisticated software to analyse your current rankings.

Competitor comparison – we’ll also check your main competitors, so we can see how you’re performing in relation to their websites.

Keywords – we’ll look at the current keyword strategy across your website and assess its suitability and accuracy.

Meta data – we’ll look at your page titles and meta descriptions to ensure they’re being utilised effectively and in line with best practice.

Formatting – are you using H tags properly? How about alternative image tags?

Technical and code – page loading times, hosting, ‘cleanness’ of code and many other technical factors impact on your SEO, so we’ll check them all to see what’s right and what needs improving.

Content – we’ll take a look at your content levels and quality, plus use of keywords and internal linking.

Links – external links are essential to help guide Google and other search engines to your website and verify its value. We’ll look at all the links currently pointing to your site and assess whether they are positive or damaging – in the latter case, these links will need to be removed

SEO recommendations

This is just an overview of how an SEO audit works, but gives you an idea of the different factors that need to be assessed in order to create a solid strategy.

The reports and information collated through the process will enable us to put forward accurate and detailed recommendations, so you can compare them to any SEO proposals you’ve had submitted, or use the information to undertake your own strategy.

If you feel an SEO audit would be beneficial to your business (we’d say it certainly will be!), or would like more information about the process, please call us on 0113 322 6211.