Many business owners are under the false impression that once an SEO campaign has been completed and their rankings have improved that this is the end of the work. The truth is it is only the beginning and there are several reasons for this.

The first is that Google is constantly amending and updating its algorithm which allocates rankings for every search term. What might have worked last month to boost rankings may no longer work after Google makes a change. Also, Google likes to see websites that are growing rather than those which sit still and offer no new content.

Then there is the not-insignificant fact that your local competition is unlikely to just sit around and accept that you have outranked them on Google. They are more than likely to instigate an SEO campaign of their own and if you are the top-ranked website it is you that they are gunning for.

So, hopefully, you see that you must stay on top of your SEO efforts, and one of the most important elements of that process is conducting an SEO audit. An SEO audit is an assessment you carry out on not just your website, but each page you are trying to rank to ensure that it is fully optimised for when Google’s spiders come crawling to assess all the on-page ranking factors.

If you are unsure how to conduct an SEO audit, then you could employ an SEO agency to conduct one for you. However, even then it will still be valuable if you at least have an understanding of what constitutes an SEO audit, so here are seven of the main tasks that will be the basis for it.

Conduct Keyword Research: SEO without keyword research is akin to trying to shoot at a target whilst wearing a blindfold. Keyword research identifies what keywords attract the most searches, which you can target for quick rankings due to low competition, and new keywords that attract increased search volumes.

There are many aspects of a website’s SEO performance that contribute to its search engine ranking so you should be aware that an SEO audit is going to assess several factors. For that reason, do not expect any SEO which is conducted on your website to be a five-minute job, at least not if it is being done by a reputable and professional SEO expert.

An SEO expert’s audit will be comprehensive, it will be detailed, and it will be thorough. Most importantly for the business owner, they will be able to establish from that audit what needs to be done in order to improve the SEO of their website, and the actions required to implement them fully.

Depending on the arrangement you have with your SEO expert, your SEO audit can be presented in several ways. You may simply ask for an overall summary, which the expert will do in one or two pages with the major headlines relating to the SEO of your website.

At the other end of the scale, they could produce for you a fully comprehensive report running to as many as 70 pages, with details on every single test and analysis they have completed, along with their suggested actions to remedy or improve the SEO of your website.

To carry out all the checks that are required an SEO expert will need full access to the control panel of your website, and if you have one, access to your Google Search Console. They may also ask to discuss some aspects of your current marketing and SEO, such as who your main competitors are and which keywords you are currently targeting. While this isn’t essential it will certainly help them to do a more thorough analysis of your SEO, if you can provide that information.