Checking your website’s success in the search engine rankings is easy enough. However, checking the SEO on your website is a completely different ballgame. And it matters. After all, as GE capital retail bank states, 81% of consumers research a business online prior to purchase. This makes SEO vital if you want to ensure you are discoverable, and easy to do business with.

There are three important foundations you must take into account when you check the SEO on your website.

A comprehensive SEO audit will include an assessment of your technical SEO, the content and keywords used on your website, and a robust analysis of your competitors’ sites. If you’re new to all this, and aren’t sure exactly how SEO works, it may seem like a big job, but worry not, as we’ll lay the basics out for you here. 

Technical SEO checks

Essentially, the foundation of good SEO is your website’s structure and speed. After all, neither web crawlers nor those looking for services on the internet want to wait for the content they need to see. There are various technical SEO checks you can perform, using tools such as Google’s Page Speed Insight to assess your site’s performance. You’ll also need to make sure that your site is accessible on all devices, particularly as Google uses the mobile version for indexing and ranking. In addition to this, your site needs to be easy to crawl, which means your setup should be well-structured and there should be an XML site map that is easy to understand. If you’re concerned about whether this is working for you, you can use Google’s Search Console to have a look at where crawling errors have occurred and see which pages are indexed.

On page SEO – keywords and content

The next vital pillar of your SEO is your website’s content. It’s vital to be using relevant search terms within your content, and these can shift overtime so it is worth keeping an eye on them. Using tools such as SEMrush or Google keyword planner can help you to discover which keywords are right for your business type. You can take a look at your key rankings using the Google Search Console. if you top ranking page isn’t also ranking well for other relevant keywords, as AHrefs suggest it should, you might need to revisit your strategy.

Once your keyword research is complete, it’s time to look at your existing content. It’s vital that your content appears helpful, engaging and authoritative. It needs to be high-quality, comprehensive and aligned with what your target market is searching for. You will have competition here, as 61% of marketers consistently prioritise the improvement of their SEO to grow their organic presence. This means your content should be head and shoulders above the competition to rank. Don’t forget to check whether you are using proper title tags and meta descriptions as well as relevant headers within your content. Optimise your images for faster loading and use alt tags to bring everything together.

Competitor analysis

Identify your top competitors and take a look at their website carefully. Assess their website’s user experience, keyword rankings and content as well as any backlinks they may have. Moz and Ahrefs are good options for this type of analysis, allowing you to benchmark vital metrics such as domain authority and organic traffic to see where you stand.

Creating a website and optimising it for SEO isn’t something you’ll only do once. You’ll need to keep a check on your technical SEO, the relevance of your content and your competitors’ performance. By doing this regularly, you will obtain valuable insight into how to improve your search engine rankings.

However, this will take time, which not all business owners have. If you’re looking to get your SEO checked to see where it can be improved and where you’re performing well, why not get in touch with our team? Our experts are well ahead of the curve when it comes to changes in SEO strategies and trends, and we are sure to be able to come up with solutions that will enhance your businesses rankings.