Win new clients with a comprehensive SEO audit. Learn the step-by-step guide to impressing potential clients and increasing your agency’s success in 2023.
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This post was sponsored by SE Rating. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the sponsor.
If you’re hoping to gain new clients in 2023, the key is to demonstrate your expertise and value right away.
Conducting a comprehensive SEO audit of a potential client’s website is a great way to get your best shot in the door.
Don’t worry about potentially losing time if the customer closes the deal.
With the right tools, creating a proactive and comprehensive SEO audit won’t take your team long.
In fact, it can be done in just six steps. Let’s start with the basics first.
What is a comprehensive site audit?
A thorough website audit goes beyond superficial analysis. Explores the different components that contribute to the success of a website.
These audits can provide an in-depth understanding of the current state of a website and provide valuable insights for future improvement.
By comprehensively analyzing your client’s website, you proactively:
- Discover the untapped potential that will improve their website’s SEO performance.
- Demonstrate your commitment to comprehensive analysis and improvement.
- Convince potential clients to choose your agency for their business needs.
However, conducting a comprehensive SEO audit can be a resource-intensive process for agencies. That’s why some agencies choose to send instant automated website audit results instead of investing in comprehensive analytics.
How can I speed up the SEO audit process?
By implementing a well-defined workflow and using the right tools, your SEO audit process can be streamlined, making your colleagues’ lives easier and increasing your chances of winning potential clients.
In this article, we’ll examine why a comprehensive SEO audit is important and then provide a step-by-step guide to make sure you’re ready.
Now, get ready to win customers during your initial pitch. What is required to achieve this is a strong understanding of the importance of these audits.
Step 1: Gather resources and prepare for an SEO audit
To prepare for an SEO audit, it is important to gather relevant information.
Tools that make this step faster:
- Google Search Console and Google Analytics (although your potential client may not be able to give you access at this time).
- Custom, for example, which will give you insight into the site’s performance – even if you don’t have access to the site’s backend.
Get a complete view of the company and its website performance
Start by collecting website analytics data and accessing back-end tools. This data is the basis of the audit process.
Then have an open conversation with customers to get to know them:
- A job
- Objectives
- Available resources.
For example, determine if they have a dedicated development team that can address technical issues and optimization.
Finally, conduct a comprehensive analysis of the client’s target audience and industry to uncover insights into their specific needs and preferences.
For example, in the case of an e-commerce customer, understanding their audience’s purchasing behaviors and preferences can inform optimization strategies for product pages and conversion funnels.
By conducting thorough research, participating in discussions with the client, and setting goals, you can prepare an effective SEO audit that uncovers the specific challenges the client faces and paves the way for tangible results.
Step Two: Conduct competitive research and analyze strategies
Thorough competitor research is an important part of any SEO audit.
Gain valuable insight into your potential client’s competitive landscape by examining the client’s primary competitors:
- Vision
- Traffic sources
- Required words
- Back cookies
This analysis gives you a better understanding of your customer’s strengths and weaknesses.
They’re also great for uncovering successful keyword strategies, which is key to developing a comprehensive strategy that differentiates your client in the market.
How to accelerate competitive research
Custom SEO tools, like SE Ranking, can simplify this process by providing comprehensive data and insights.
It provides information about:
- Estimated traffic.
- Keywords that drive traffic.
- Quantity and quality of backlinks etc.
It also helps in identifying a client’s closest competitors in organic search based on the keywords they are ranking for.
Competitive research provides you with actionable insights to put your client on the path to success, leading to better rankings, increased organic traffic, and increased conversions.
Step 3: Conduct a technical audit of the website
Now, let’s move on to the next important step: conducting a technical website audit.
Start with:
- Review various technical aspects, such as on-page experience, broken links and redirects, sitemaps and robots.txt files, noindex and canonical tags, and the overall structure of the website.
- Analysis of a website’s underlying web trends reveals potential issues that may impact user experience and search engine rankings.
- Communicate the importance of each issue discovered to your customer, highlighting its impact on the website’s performance and appearance in search results.
If your client is targeting a global audience, also deal with translation issues, including incorrect language settings or regional targeting. Ensuring a consistent experience across sites is key.
How to speed up website technical audits
You can streamline the process with a technical audit, which provides a comprehensive view of these technical elements and helps uncover areas for improvement.
By presenting the results of a technical audit, you can effectively demonstrate how your expertise can deliver tangible results and contribute to the client’s overall success.
Step 4: Analyze keyword rankings
The next step in auditing your client’s SEO performance is keyword analysis.
Start by analyzing a client’s current keyword positions and dynamics over time.
Identify keywords that reach the top 10 positions and can serve as a basis for further optimization.
Next, conduct keyword research to identify new target keywords that align with your client’s goals and industry trends.
Compare your client’s keyword rankings with their competitors. Look for keyword overlaps and gaps to identify areas where the client excels and areas that need improvement.
This approach helps you develop an effective strategy that closes gaps and outperforms competitors in searches for relevant keywords.
Think of different ways to achieve this, such as improving existing content, creating new targeted content, or improving on-page optimization techniques.
Step 5. Evaluate The Backlink Profile
Start this step with a thorough backlink profile analysis.
Check the number and quality of backlinks, referring domains, commonly used anchor texts, and the ratio between dofollow and nofollow links.
Evaluate the quality and relevance of backlinks by considering factors such as domain trust, anchor texts, and diversity of linking domains.
Next, compare the customer’s backlink profile to their competitors to identify any potential gaps and opportunities.
This analysis enables you to develop a targeted strategy for obtaining high-quality backlinks that will increase the authority of your client’s website and its visibility in search engine results. This may include awareness campaigns, guest blogging, partnerships or content promotion.
Step 6. Collect the scores and prepare for the field
After collecting data, conducting a comprehensive website audit, and completing competitive research, it’s time to compile the results and prepare for the client presentation.
Start by creating an executive summary of the audit findings, highlighting the site’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. This summary will provide a brief overview of the key points from the audit process.
Next, identify actionable recommendations and improvement strategies based on the audit findings. These recommendations should address specific areas for improvement, including technical improvements and SEO practices.
Identify low-hanging fruit, which indicate SEO tasks that have been neglected or untouched for too long. These tasks are often straightforward, but when done correctly can lead to a significant increase in organic traffic.
Design a custom report and presentation that displays data visually and communicates your ideas and suggestions effectively.
How to Speed Up Creating a SEO Client Presentation
It is used to create impactful reports, increase customer understanding and interaction with information.
Tailoring audit results to suit the client’s specific needs and objectives, and designing recommendations according to their needs.
During your presentation, present the results of the audit and include any actionable recommendations. Also describe the potential impact and return on investment of implementing these proposed improvements.
Emphasize how the proposed changes can improve their website performance, user experience, search engine visibility, and ultimately increase business growth.
By demonstrating value and potential results, you increase your chances of gaining a customer’s trust and securing their partnership.
Now, it’s your time to shine
Conducting a comprehensive SEO audit is a powerful tool for agencies to impress potential clients and secure new business opportunities.
By leveraging these valuable assets, agencies can showcase their expertise and win great client offers.
Use the power of website audits to drive business growth and build lasting partnerships with clients.