Website SEO Audit FAQ

What are the benefits of an SEO Audit?

✅ A website SEO Audit has many more advantages than just listing existing SEO issues to fix. Audits drive measurable value by providing research and insights that help provide the foundation for improved website rankings, conversions, and visitor experiences.

The most common benefits include the following:

✔️ Pinpointing what specific website issues are negatively affecting your SEO efforts and how to fix them.

✔️ Understanding which SEO priorities (quick wins) to focus on first to boost rankings and traffic.

✔️ Identifying the correct portfolio of SEO terms and topics.

✔️ Identifying strategies and tactics to beat your online competition.

✔️ Developing a business case to get Senior Management support, buy-in, and funding.

What do you want to achieve with your SEO Audit?

There can be many different goals for completing a website SEO Audit.

Some of these include:

✔️ Diagnose and fix SEO traffic, and rankings decrease.

✔️ Mitigate organic search traffic loss from site redesign or domain change.

✔️ Ramp up SEO efforts to increase traffic, leads, and sales.

✔️ Build an SEO business case of opportunity for executive team buy-in.

✔️ Determine how to compete more effectively against online competitors.

✔️ Identify weaknesses and opportunities in your website content.

✔️ Identify the correct search terms and topics to target to drive sales growth.

Are there different types of website SEO Audits?

✅ “Free SEO Audits” take data from an SEO tool and show you a minimal view of your SEO issues and opportunities. They output some SEO scores and provide a list of usually technical website issues that need fixing to increase your SEO score. However, free SEO Audits are generally not very useful and don’t provide an accurate picture of which specific SEO ranking factors to focus on.

✅ SEO Software-only Audits occur when you plug your website URL into an SEO analysis tool to get an SEO score and report. Generally, these reports are high-level and provide little value.

✅ Technical SEO Audits provide technical issues related to your website design, architecture, site speed, and crawling and indexing issues that negatively affect your SEO rankings. These audits are a vital part of the SEO audit process but represent only 1/3 of the categories you need to analyze. Backlinks to your website and content are the other categories you should include in an SEO Audit.

✅ Comprehensive SEO Audits encompass website content (including the title tag and meta descriptions), technical (page loading time and 301 redirect issues), backlinks, and other ranking factors like online competition and identifying the correct SEO Terms and topics to focus on to improve SEO rankings and performance. These audits provide the foundation for a solid SEO strategy.

I’ve done Google research, but it’s unclear what I need.

If you’ve Google researched SEO Audits, you will find all kinds of different opinions and options.

Based on my over 20 years of SEO experience, it comes down to the following.

Regardless of your business situation (losing organic search traffic, rankings dropping, increased competition, want to boost SEO efforts for more leads and sales, etc.), it is recommended to conduct a comprehensive SEO Audit that helps you diagnose, prioritize, and develop a strong business case for SEO resources and funding.

✅ The SEO Audit report helps you to prioritize SEO technical fixes, identify content Gaps, forecast organic traffic growth, identify the level of internal and external resources required to maximize SEO program value and ROI results, and identify SEO quick wins to gain SEO momentum.

What type of website SEO Audit do most clients need?

Ultimately, this will depend on your business situation. For example, are you redesigning a new website and want to mitigate SEO ranking decreases and organic traffic loss? If so, a Site Migration SEO audit would be the best fit here.

✅ A comprehensive SEO Audit is your best choice to increase your SEO rankings, compete more effectively against online competition, and emphasize SEO-driven traffic, leads, and sales.

Last, if you are doing year-end marketing planning and budgeting and need to build a business case for SEO investments and annual budgets, then you would need an Opportunity and Budget SEO Audit.

What is usually included in a website SEO Audit?

The average website SEO Audit will include a list of technical design issues that need fixing. These may consist of crawlability/indexation issues (including XML sitemaps), site performance factors related to page speed, internal and external links, site health issues like 404 errors, 301 redirect problems and broken links, on-page items like the title tag and meta description tags or duplicate pages on your site, and other SEO ranking factors.

What rarely is included in the SEO Audit? (but should be included)

The average SEO audit is a software-generated list of technical SEO items to fix.

Other beneficial items (but rarely included in the SEO Audit) include:

✔️ Organic baseline KPIs: (web traffic, current site rankings, backlinks, leads, sales, etc.)

✔️ SEO growth forecast (if your SEO issues were fixed, what are the projected traffic, leads, and sales impacts for your business.)

✔️ Competitor analysis (keyword rankings, content, backlinks, strategies, tactics, etc.)

✔️ Keywords/topics portfolio recommendations (identify the best SEO terms and topics to focus on to maximize rankings, traffic, and leads across your buyer’s journey.)

✔️ Content Gap Analysis: (identify missing, outdated, or weak content negatively affecting your SEO efforts – product, service, brand, and blog posts.)

✔️ Identify top high-value SEO pages on your site (these drive SEO traffic and conversions.)

✔️ SEO Quick-wins recommendations require a low effort but greatly affect improving SEO rankings and traffic.

✔️ New digital asset recommendations (these include items like tools, calculators, guides, white papers, and other valuable content used to help build quality backlinks to your website.)

SEO education: (understand why this factor is vital to SEO, how it affects site rankings, and what resources are needed to fix it.)

What makes Corey Wenger’s website SEO Audit services better than other SEO firms?

✅ You need more than a data dump of techy SEO items to fix.

✅ You need a prioritized SEO roadmap to increase your site’s rankings, traffic, and leads.

The Corey Wenger SEO Audit provides you with the data and insights to help you to:

✔️ The SEO Audit goes beyond a list of SEO items to fix. Instead, it is your foundational document to help you develop your business’s SEO strategies and tactics to scale your SEO efforts.

✔️ Identify high-value SEO terms your competitors are ranking for and engineer your SEO to boost your rankings around these high-value, money terms.

✔️ SEO business case – the SEO audit provides marketing professionals with the research and projections you need to quantify SEO resources and budgets.

✔️ Identify high-value content and topics your business should focus on to drive a consistent pipeline of leads across the buyer’s journey (early, middle, and late).

✔️ Identify website enhancements that provide better customer experience and conversion paths.

Why should you trust my SEO consulting services?

I have been in the SEO industry for over 20 years and have worked hard to develop proven and successful SEO programs to help clients improve Google rankings, boost organic traffic, and increase leads and sales. I have built my career as an SEO Trusted Advisor and Consultant across many clients, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

As a trusted SEO Consultant and Advisor, clients leverage my deep SEO knowledge and experience to diagnose, fix, and scale their SEO efforts.

✅ I have a 5-star Google Review rating, and I always encourage prospective clients to speak to my clients to understand what it is like to work with me and the results they get from my SEO Consulting services.

✅ I am proud to say I’m one of a select few to qualify as a certified SEMRush Agency partner. I am also certified in Google Analytics, Bing, and HubSpot.

Can I do an SEO Audit myself?

Yes, you can perform your own SEO Audit using common SEO tools like SEMRush, Ahrefs, SERanking, Screamingfrog, and other online SEO tools.

However, SEO takes the experience of these tools and knowing what to do with the information to improve SEO rankings and performance.

Therefore, it is best to leverage the knowledge and expertise of an SEO Consultant, as this is the quickest path to identifying, diagnosing, and implementing SEO fixes and site enhancements that lead to increased SEO rankings, traffic, and leads.

Why should I hire an SEO Consultant to do the SEO Audit?

✅ Hiring a search engine optimization consultant is the quickest way to improve your Google SEO rankings, leads, and sales.

✅ By leveraging SEO experience, toolsets, best practices, SEO processes and workflows, and proven search engine strategies and tactics, you save much time and internal effort.

✅ “Marketing ROI for SEO Consulting Retainers average Ten Times the annual SEO Contract.“

✅ I offer a 10 Times ROI Guarantee for clients who sign up for a 12-month SEO Consulting Retainer. (Clients average a 10 Times ROI on annual SEO Retainer Investments.)  If this ROI is not met, I will continue to work with you for Free until the 10 Times ROI is achieved. (terms and conditions apply.)

What deliverables can I expect from the Corey Wenger SEO Audit report?

The SEO Audit report will provide you with all the information to identify, diagnose and prioritize your SEO items to fix.

The report is provided in Word, Excel, and PDF versions to share with other internal stakeholders (Executive Team, IT, Content, Product, etc.).

I will schedule a call or onsite meeting to review and answer questions about the SEO Audit findings and recommendations and discuss the next steps.

What does the SEO Audit process look like?

Step 1: The process starts with a discovery interview that includes a simple online survey that allows me to understand your business, industry, customers, and sales/marketing goals. I will need access to Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Paid Search, and other marketing tools and platforms.

Step 2: Establish an SEO baseline and begin the SEO Audit analysis using various SEO tools, including SEMRush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, Screamingfrog, Sitebulb, and other SEO software.

Step 3: Around week two or three, you will receive a Quick-Wins report outlining specific, easy, actionable steps to fix low-effort/big-reward SEO items.

Step 4: Compile the final SEO analysis and recommendations report. This report will clearly show what SEO items need fixing, specific steps, and the overall SEO prioritization plan (quick wins to longer-term fixes).

Step 5: The final SEO Audit Report is sent to you to review. This Audit will show what SEO items need fixing, specific steps, and the overall SEO prioritization plan (short, mid, and long-range).

✅ Next Steps – I discuss ongoing SEO Consulting Services with your company. Ongoing SEO Consulting is usually a monthly retainer where I work with your internal and agency partners to help you implement SEO fixes and enhancements to increase site rankings, traffic, and leads.

To learn more about the audit process, visit SEO Audit Process.

Who needs to be involved in the SEO Audit process?

It is best to have these people and departments involved in the SEO Audit process:

✔️ Digital Marketing team: (Specialist, Manager, or Director)

✔️ Content writers

✔️ In-house technical resources: (web developers, web designers, or IT)

✔️ Product Managers

✔️ External resources: (Web agency and other web-related vendors)

What are the best SEO tools to use for SEO Audits?

I have tested dozens of SEO tools for SEO Audits and analyses. The best tools for SEO Audits include SEMRush, Ahrefs, SERanking, Screamingfrog, Sitebulb, Lumar/Deep Crawl, and SEO Site Checkup.

What data do you need access to for the SEO Audit?

To perform an SEO Audit, it is best to have access to the following data: Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Ads, and Google Business Profile.

What can I do with the SEO Audit report?

The SEO Audit report can be used for a variety of uses. Some of these include:

✔️ Review quick wins with internal technical and content resources and prioritize SEO tasks to complete for site ranking improvements.

✔️ Build business cases and budgets from the projection data (increases in traffic, leads, and sales).

✔️ Identify SEO tactics to use to compete more effectively against top online competitors.

✔️ Identify high-value SEO terms and topics you need to develop content for (build out a content calendar for blog posts and product/service pages).

✔️ Develop an SEO strategy to increase organic rankings, traffic, leads, and sales.

✔️ Develop a plan to integrate with your paid search marketing efforts.

Who should I share the Audit with?

Marketing and Digital Marketing personnel, Website Designers/Developers, and Agencies.

How can I get the most value from the SEO Audit?

Now that the SEO Audit is complete, it’s time to prioritize SEO tasks and fix site issues.

✔️ Start with the Top 10 Quick-win items and proceed to mid-level effort items. This will help you build momentum and positively affect site rankings and traffic.

✔️ Develop an SEO strategy integrated with Paid Search and link building campaigns.

✔️ Identify content gaps and create new content to fill in those gaps. This will help increase site rankings for highly relevant terms and topics.

✔️ Identify online competitor SEO strengths and weaknesses. This includes identifying SEO terms they rank for, and you do not. Then, prioritize high-value, relevant terms and topics for your content calendar.

✔️ Develop new digital content and assets to attract links from external websites. Obtaining quality backlinks is a critical component of your SEO program.

Why are some SEO Audits free? Can I trust these audits?

Most “Free SEO Audit reports” are a data dump from an SEO Software tool that provides minimum value.

They lack the depth, business context, and priorities to make the Audit a valuable and helpful report. Free Reports are simply a lead generation tactic and are not designed to provide the client with much tangible value.

Do you have a website SEO Audit checklist I can use?

Yes, I do. Please contact me, and I will gladly send it to you.

How often should I do an SEO Audit?

SEO Audits are typically performed once per quarter or whenever there are significant updates and changes to your website that could affect your SEO rankings and user experience.

Certain business events will always trigger a need to perform an SEO Audit.

These include:

✔️ Domain changes

✔️ Major website redesigns

✔️ Rebranding initiatives

✔️ Dramatic decreases site rankings and organic traffic

✔️ Considerable marketing push to scale SEO results across the company’s portfolio of websites.

How much does a Website SEO Audit cost?

Generally, most website SEO Audits cost cost between $5,500 to $15,000+. (Pricing varies by number of sites, site complexity, number of competitors, and search terms/topics portfolio.)

 

What is the average time to complete a comprehensive website SEO Audit?

On average, it takes 3-5 weeks to complete a comprehensive website SEO Audit. However, times may vary depending on the client’s responsiveness and access to analytics/data.

What happens after the Website SEO Audit is presented to the client?

Once the final SEO Audit report is reviewed with the client, there are three paths to choose from.

✅ Path 1: A monthly SEO Consulting Retainer is discussed with the client to help implement, project manage and leverage SEO at scale. I will put together an SEO Retainer proposal that provides you with options and recommendations.

This is the fastest way to improve your SEO efforts, resulting in quicker ROI and site ranking improvements.

Path 2: The client uses the information within the report to build a business case for future SEO program investments, which may include internal resources (technical, content, and web-related) and external resources (SEO Consultant, web design/development agency, freelance copywriters, etc.).

Path 3: The client takes the SEO Audit information and performs their SEO fixes and enhancements.

What Monthly SEO Consulting do you offer to clients? What are my options?

Usually, I work with clients on a Monthly SEO Retainer basis, which usually involves 15-35 hours per month in prioritizing, project management, SEO subject matter expert knowledge share, data analysis, target keywords research, competitor analysis, SEO training/upskilling of staff, SEO tools setup, reporting and dashboarding, and various other tasks.

What can I expect from the monthly SEO Consulting Retainer?

✅ You can expect that I will help you achieve your SEO sales and marketing goals by applying my over 20 years of hands-on experience to help you accomplish your SEO sales and marketing goals.

✅ In addition, I will help train and upskill you and your staff on the best SEO tools, best practices, workflows, and industry trends.

✅ As a result, you improve your SEO rankings faster, successfully scale your SEO efforts, improve your organic search traffic, and leads, and increase sales revenues.

What do you do next?

Let’s discuss moving forward with a Monthly SEO Retainer, so I can help you implement, manage, and scale your SEO success. Call or use the contact me form below.

I look forward to partnering with you and continuing to be your SEO Trusted Advisor and Consultant.

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