How to do a Self-Audit of Your SEO Marketing Strategies

It’s an excellent idea to audit your own SEO marketing methods at least once a year. That means scrutinizing all of the different elements of your online business to see how each part is performing in the search results. It’s not quick and easy, but an SEO self-audit is necessary to make sure you’re getting the best ROI for your business.

Here’s what it entails:

1. First, Get Your Audit Kit Together

There are a few indispensable items you’ll need to conduct your SEO audit:

Google Keyword Planner: It’ll help you research and plan the keywords you need to rank for, which are not always the ones you’d expect. More established competitors might have the market cornered on the most “common” keywords, but GKP lets you work around that and maximize your marketing strategy accordingly.
Google Search Console: It’s no surprise that Google dominates more than 90% of the search market. Your company will be competing for valuable virtual real estate on the first search results page, so it pays off to know exactly how your current layout is working — and make the necessary SEO changes if it isn’t.
Google Analytics: Google Analytics is the meat and potatoes of your SEO auditing package. Insight is the name of the game. Use Google Analytics to find out where traffic is coming from, how long they’re staying and engaging with each page, and measure the effects of your SEO auditing in real time.

2. Keyword Matching

The search feature in Google Analytics is a useful way of testing your keyword optimizations. You can link the keywords you want to rank for, with your website to review in detail how your site is placing among competitors when you search for each keyword. That lets you get a strong idea of your current positioning and start devising a growth plan for your niche.

Make sure that your brand name is actually ranking in the search results. Unless you have a very generic name or literally just put your website up a few minutes ago, you should be seeing yourself at bare minimum when you search for your own company. If not, it’s a sure sign that your authority isn’t where it should be.

3. Check for Duplicate Content

It’s important to make sure your content is as fresh and unique as possible. No matter how similar your product may be to others in the market, there’s always something about it that makes it your product and not anyone else’s. Your website, business information, and content marketing efforts had better reflect that.

Google will penalize you for duplicate content and content that is too similar to everyone else’s. Your authority matters when it comes to SEO, and your company will be dinged in the rankings if you’re too closely imitating a competitor (not to mention outright copying them). You can also be penalized for having duplicate content on your own website, so keep each page unique.

4. The Details Matter

So, what exactly are you looking at? To summarize it in one word: Everything.

Does your landing page use the right and most relevant geo information in the heading?
Are you using the right tags and are they easy to click through?
Are your headers and subheaders SEO-friendly?
Does your content flow smoothly, or have you been keyword stuffing?

Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to those coveted top spots on the search results page.