SEO audits can be a major deal. They can be overwhelming especially if you have not conducted one before. There is no better feeling to update a client future or current that their audit looks great. The goal at the end of it all is to add value to your customer with your site recommendations for both the short-term and the long-term. We will go over the need-to-know steps for conducting an SEO audit and how you can tie that into a new client.
When Should I preform an SEO Audit?
When a potential future client expresses interest in working with you, it is a good idea to know what the client’s business is all about including their services, products, employees, facilities and so much more. Before you even get a introduction call scheduled conducting a mini SEO audit is a great start, that way you can familiarize yourself with the potential client as much as possible! Going through social media is another great idea check out the business’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all other channels that are public.
Here are some questions to ask your client during your first meeting:
- What are your overall business goals?
- Who is your target audience?
- Do you have any business partnerships?
- How often is the website updated? Do you have a web developer or an IT department?
- Have you ever worked with an SEO consultant before? Or had any SEO work done previously?
These questions will give you a good feel of the client and where they business and mindset are. Obviously, if it was a productive good meeting send over a proposal to start working with the client. During your first month it is important to conduct an in-depth SEO audit to get a full understanding of where the website and content stand. These in-depth audits vary depending on who is conducting them and the size of the website. Audits can be broken down into three separate categories:
- Technical: Crawl errors, indexing, hosting, etc..
- Content: Keyword research, competitor analysis, meta data, page titles, etc..
- Links: Backlink profile analysis, growth tactics, etc.
What You Will Need From Your Client Before Conducting an SEO Audit
When you start working with a client it is important to have access to certain programs and tools so you can do your job effectively. These programs and tools include:
- Google Analytics or any third-party analytics tool
- Google & Bing Ads
- Webmaster Tools
- Website Backend Access
- Social Media Access
- List of Vendors
- List of internal team members and any work that might be out sourced
This will allow you to be organized and communicate effectively with your client to ensure that you are not stepping on any toes if they are outsourcing other services. This will be effective for you as you will be able to conduct your work at your digression with out having to have access granted each time you want to make a change or post content.
Tools for SEO Audit
Before beginning your SEO audit you may be wondering what tools you can utilize to make sure that you catch every detail. Here are a list of tools that you can utilize to optimize your clients website.
- Screaming Frog
- Xenu Sleuth
- SEO Browser
- Wayback Machine
- Moz
- BuzzSumo
- DeepCrawl
- Google Tag Manager
- Google My Business
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Bing Webmaster Tools
- PageSpeed Tool
Now, this list may seem intimidating, but if using these programs effectively you can ensure that you catch every detail about your clients business. Some of my favorite ones that I have used are Screaming Frog, Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, & Google My Business. These programs give me a good idea as to the direction that the site is being steered in when it comes to content, keyword, internal links, and so much more.
Screaming Frog
You can access Screaming Frog from their site and it is free to download! Once you have it all set up plug a clients website URL into the box provided and let it do its magic. Once the scan is complete you will find a list of URLs and a list of issues. These issues can range from duplicate content, missing H-tags, duplicate h1 tags, internal link errors, and so much more. One of the best features of Screaming Frog is it gives you a break down of the error and how to fix each one. It truly does the heavy lifting for you, your job is to just make the changes necessary.
Contact Boston Web Marketing
Here at Boston Web Marketing, we work with businesses of all sizes in a variety of industries to help them improve their SEO and online marketing efforts, optimize their social media accounts, update their website design, and much more. Our skilled SEO experts have experience when it comes to conducting SEO audits to ensure you the search results you deserve! To learn more about how we can help your business, call us today at 857-526-0096, or visit our website to get started!