Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential form of marketing. It helps you compete with customers and cut through the noise of the internet.
By now most business people have heard of the importance of SEO, yet still, approximately 91% of websites don’t get any traffic from Google.
Knowing and doing are two different things, so you have to learn how to fine-tune your strategies so you can get results. It all starts with a thorough audit of your SEO. What is a technical SEO audit?
Below we’ll explain this, along with the technical SEO audit checklist that you need to get started.
Get Your Site Up to Speed
Visitors will be patient with a lot of snags, but a slow site will chase anyone away. People just have too many options and too many media brands competing for their competition to deal with sites that are sluggish and slow loading.
Run your website through a speed test to see how it compares to the competition. If your site gets low speed grades, here are some ways you can improve it:
- Lower the number of redirects
- Use the most optimized multimedia
- Combine the website files
- Run a DNS search and lower server response time
- Invest in more storage space
Work out the kinks with speed and the rest of your site issues are workable.
Make Sure It’s Mobile-Ready
In the United States, 85% of people have smartphones. People use their phones for just about all web activity. Because of this, your website should always be mobile-ready.
One of the benefits of SEO audits is the ability to test how your site responds on multiple mobile operating systems (OS) and devices. Work on minimizing your design and choosing themes that show up well across any smartphone or tablet.
Kick the Tires on Your URL
When running a technical SEO audit, shine a lens on your URL. Reduce the number of HTTPS requests that you get with your URL, and make sure that your internal links are discoverable.
Search for the sitemap file, and make sure that it’s located in the robots.txt document. Read through your URL info to make sure that it’s responding correctly, and that everything is up to date and correctly registered.
Run Your Site Through Audit Tools
The beauty of audits is that you don’t have to do it all yourself! Pros like The HOTH have a number of SEO tools that you can use for your site.
In learning how to do an SEO audit, you can use tools that track your keyword rankings, optimize your links, and scope out the competitors. Using these tools helps you get quicker and more efficient SEO results in the long term.
Use This Technical SEO Audit Checklist
By putting a technical SEO audit checklist to use, your brand has a good chance of competing with the big dogs. These suggestions serve as an excellent starting point so that you can then hire a professional to give you the best SEO campaign tips and results.
Always invest in your SEO so that you can get the traffic that will build revenue and business longevity. Now that you’re up to speed on your audit checklist, check out our other articles to help you with all of your marketing and branding needs.