For many people in the past decade, SEO has been all about throwing a few links and working social signal to get the rankings improved. Not many people used to pay attention to the role of technical audits in the website’s SEO. But lately, many people seem to be getting it.Still, the general mindset that is used in approaching the technical audits is not something that can guarantee great results.
For starters, people seem to be paying more attention to the use of tools and data in order to do the audit. They don’t seem to be focusing on getting a sense about the needs and goals of the website. As a matter of fact, understanding the requirements and objectives is needed long before you ask about the use of tools and data.
And then, there is “cookie-cutter SEO” which also includes audits. Depending on the budget, goals and limitations, SEO audit can be vary. For instance, a stand-alone technical audit is going to be more comprehensive as compared to the one which is conducted as part of an ongoing program. You also have to take needs and limitations into considerations.
Understanding the business
There can be different requirements of the people coming and asking for the technical audits of their websites. These requirements are first based on the type of business they are running or the situation that has led them coming to you and asking for the technical audit. The purpose here can include anything from improving the site’s performance to fixing any issue to risk assessment.
After determining the purpose comes the onboarding phase. This phase includes the following procedures:
- Asking right questions
- Getting past data from SEO and developers’ teams
- Getting to know about the business model
The initial onboarding process can never be ignored here. You need to get the answers of following questions in this regard.
- Did they read a blog post?
- Are they coming to you with specific concerns?
- Are they coming to you after having an advice from someone?
- What is the end result they want from the audit?
In other words, you need to know about the factor that motivated them to have a website audit. This way, you will not only be able to manage their expectations but you will also be able ensure the provision of actionable reports to them.
At this point, you need to know about your main point of contact. There are certain possibilities such as:
- A team leader
- Marketing director
- Business owner (in case it is a small business)
- SEO agency
- Web design firm
Depth of the audit
You need to determine the type of audit that you need to perform. There are two types of audits that you can do here.
The first type of audit is the limited site audit. This approach works well for the people with limited budgets. This process is based on a top-down analysis which tends to identify the elements which need to be analyzed in depth. Surely you are not going to do this further analysis because you job is to identify the elements.
The second type of audit is the comprehensive site audit. This audit involves a deep dive into the entire list of elements which need to be analyzed during an audit. Obviously this audit is going to be costlier because of the level of efforts and expertise required in the task.
Reporting and deliverables
After you have worked on the audit, you need to determine what should be in the report. A few things that you will need to consider in this regard are as under.
- Make sure that the report is functional
- You need to know who is doing implementation based on the report you have submitted
- You have to see if it is a first time or a quarterly review
- You need to know if there is more than one team working on the report
Make sure that you are delivering manageable reports which include proper information about the elements with problems. You need to suggest practical solutions to the problems. And for best results, you need to meet with the contact and the teams which are going to be assigned the task of working on your recommendations.