Anyone who offers services or products and relies on the web for this purpose cannot avoid dealing with search engine optimization (SEO), depending on the competitive situation. With the right strategy, the necessary tools and sufficient time and financial investment, it is possible to optimize the relevant pages of a website for search engines. Search engines such as Google reward the work by placing the links to the technically and content-optimized pages higher in the search results than may currently be the case.
Optimizing websites in terms of search engine optimization is a demanding task and should be carried out in stages - systematically and purposefully. In order to document the current degree of optimization of the website and also to be able to answer the question of whether optimization work is necessary at all, most process models initially provide for the implementation of an SEO audit (SEO analysis), in which the website to be optimized is subjected to a thorough analysis with regard to SEO criteria.
This article deals specifically with this first SEO work step, the results of which form the basis for the actual implementation of search engine optimization by the SEO analyst.
Free vs. paid SEO audits
The SEO market is now home to a vast number of service providers offering services related to the optimization of websites. Some of these providers hope to receive paidfollow-up orders from SEO audits carried out free of charge, while others charge a fee for the analysis carried out.
The information that results from a thorough and comprehensive SEO audit is typically of very high economic benefit to the website operator. This automatically raises the question of the quality and usability of a free SEO audit, which, as already mentioned, forms the basis for successful search engine optimization.
In addition to a high level of analytical and communication skills, it also requires robust IT skills with specialist knowledge in the areas of web development and the basic functioning of search engines. Suitably specialized experts are very rare and, given the comparatively huge SEO market, are correspondingly highly paid. Taken together, the quality of SEO audits carried out free of charge must be questioned, as it is to be expected that in most cases these are only carried out by less qualified providers.
It is very easy for dubious SEO providers to feign expertise with lots of interesting-sounding SEO terms and IT buzzwords that are not available in the required depth. Often, a website owner does not realize for a long time, if at all, that they could have gotten a much more expert and solid service for the money spent on the subsequent work.
The collaboration between a website operator and an SEO analyst should also be seen as a long-term collaboration and should therefore consider having SEO audits carried out by several independent providers and comparing the audit reports with each other. This approach makes it much more likely that the more suitable SEO specialist will be chosen and a much more in-depth analysis will be obtained.
Components of an SEO audit
The aim of a professional SEO audit is to work out the strengths and weaknesses of a website in terms of its search engine optimization level. The results are prepared in an understandable and comprehensible way in the form of SEO key figures in an SEO report and their values are expertly interpreted . The SEO report also includes recommendations for action, which point the client in the right direction as to how the weaknesses can be remedied.
The components at a glance:
- Determination of the current optimization status of the website to establish the current status
- Carrying out and interpreting on-page and off-page analyses (implementation of search engine optimization)
- If there is optimization potential, depending on the relevance: Identifying the urgency and effort required for optimization
- Incorporating recommendations for action
- Formulate a summary that prioritizes recommendations for action in terms of cost/effort.
How time-consuming is an SEO audit?
As part of an SEO audit, a detailed inventory of the customer's website is carried out with regard to relevant SEO key figures and a meaningful SEO report is created. The time required depends heavily on the scope of the website under review.
What's in it for me?
The essence of SEO audits is to determine the current SEO optimization level of a website and to examine it for promising optimization potential. As already mentioned, SEO measures should be carried out systematically, in a structured manner and with a clear goal in mind.
The results of an SEO audit provide the necessary basis to show the website operator optimization potential that can be used to gain valuable competitive advantages over relevant competitors. All efforts in the field of SEO are aimed at achieving better visibility of your own website (compared to competitors) in search engine results.
What can I do with it then?
The detailed written audit report provides valuable insights into the current SEO optimization status of a website. The client receives valuable information that is required to decide whether it makes sense to implement specific SEO measures.
Regardless of what a client decides, investing in an SEO audit is a sensible measure, especially for websites that are intended to help generate sales.
Will my ranking improve as a result?
The ranking of the analyzed website will not be affected by an SEO audit alone. The SEO audit determines
optimization potential that can be exploited in a subsequent step by implementing targeted SEO measures in order to work towards a better ranking, a goal on which all SEO measures are focused.
Benefits of a subsequent workshop with transfer of SEO know-how
Reputable SEO service providers with a focus on maximum benefit for the customer process the findings of an SEO audit into a clearly understandable and comprehensible report. However, due to the complexity of the SEO matter, this is not practical in all facets for reasons of time and/or cost.
A workshop conducted with the client and prepared to meet their needsprovides the ideal framework for addressing the results of an SEO audit. Customer questions can also be answered directly and straightforwardly here. Thetransfer of general SEO knowledge and general SEO experience that the SEO service provider has is also of particular added value from the customer's perspective.
What happens if I don't do this?
Considering that more and more companies are requesting search engine optimization services and making the results an integral part of their marketing strategies, it is quite obvious that not doing so will ultimately lead to being left behind. If you do without SEO, sooner or later you run the risk of no longer being noticed in search engine results. What's more, the longer you do without SEO measures, the higher the subsequent costs of achieving goals that could have been achieved earlier.
Can I do this myself?
According to Google, search engines evaluate around 200 criteria to determine the position of a website's pages within search results. However, their complex interaction makes it typically very uneconomical for website operators without extensive SEO experience to achieve meaningful SEO optimization results. This is all the more true as search engine optimization is a cross-sectional discipline that requires solid knowledge in areas such as web development and server administration and requires at least a basic understanding of statistics in addition to above-average language skills.
