Congrats on launching your new website. Now you’re ready for customers to visit and convert into paying clients…or are you? Visually speaking, everything about your new website looks phenomenal: compelling images, keyword-rich copy, and a responsive design. So why are you still on page 17 of Google? A new website doesn’t increase your ranking.
But conducting an SEO audit will help identify areas in need of optimization so that an action plan can be organized to improve your search rank. Start building momentum for climbing Google’s ranks with these 5 SEO auditing steps.
Step 1: Review Your Website’s Structure
Website structure seamlessly weaves the technical components such as navigation, the organization of the content structure, and the relationship with the various web pages. A website’s structure needs to make sense to both Google and to your visitors. Your navigation should help visitors easily find the information they want.
Before you begin any creative, plan the path you want visitors to follow once they land on your website. If your goal is to convert visitors into customers, lay out the most logical pathway to obtain this goal. What actions do you want them to take? Are there specific pages you want your visitors to see? A properly organized structure will help lead visitors down a pathway to create an opportunity for engagement.
Step 2: Examine Internal and External Links
An internal link creates a path from page A to page B within your website. An external link, in contrast to, which brings visitors to or away from your website. Internal linking helps visitors stay engaged on your website by prompting them to learn more about your company’s services and products. As you add links throughout your website, remember that sometimes less is more. Every part of your SEO campaign – no matter how small – plays an integral part. You should not recklessly insert links at every opportunity. Instead, you should only add internal links that serve a purpose for the visitor. Remember, links are like doors that allow search bots and visitors to discover and value pages on your website.
Step 3: Reevaluate Website Content
What drives action? Content. Compelling content sets websites apart from their competitors as well act as your first-class ticket to the top of Google. Google’s algorithms don’t focus on the creative look and feel of your website. Search engines crave relevant, targeted content that satisfies their users’ search needs. Having an appropriate keyword density drives your page’s value. These relevant keywords must articulate your value proposition in a clear intelligent manner.
Step 4: Optimize for the Mobile Experience
Today, almost 70% of all web traffic is mobile related via smartphones. With this in mind, Google rolled out a new algorithm which prioritizes websites that offer a mobile-friendly website. Compared to desktop visitors, mobile users want quick results requiring a quick upload, so streamlining your website’s programming is critical. Oh, and make sure your phone number is prominent and click to call ready.
Step 5: Don’t Forget About Meta Descriptions
A meta description is a rich snippet of extra text found on Google’s SERPs (search engine result page). This description provides relevant information to visitors about the specific web page’s content.
For the web visitor scanning down page 1 results, lower ranked pages can have stronger click-through-rates in spite of being further down the page because the description more accurately aligns with the consumer’s search intent.
Review, Optimize, Repeat
Once you’ve completed a comprehensive SEO audit, now is the time to start taking the time to move your website up Google’s ranks. But just because you’ve made some changes, doesn’t mean that you’re in the clear. After all, SEO isn’t a “set it and forget it” deal. You have to actively begin building authoritative backlinks.
Are you tired of appearing on page 17 of Google? Now is the time to move on up to greener pastures. Contact the SEO experts at Premiere Creative to learn how we can help you achieve a higher search rank or give us a call at (973) 346-8100 to talk to one of our experts.
