One of our ‘bread and butter’ tasks here at Serengeti Communications is that of the Search Audit. We will either perform these in conjunction with an Analytics Audit, or stand alone. That said, what is in a search audit? What do you find out? How does it help you?

Let’s start at the beginning and walk through it step by step.

1. The search audit basically starts off by taking a look at your current site. This indepth analysis looks at the structure of the pages on your site and the underlying architecture – to ascertain whether your current structure supports your intended goals.
2. Next, we take a look to see what your site is currently ranking for. In most cases, that’s not what you think you should be ranking for.
3. Then, we take a look at your identified vertical competitors to see what & how they’re performing.
4. Following that, we perform indepth keyword analysis to see what you should be attempting to rank for.  For this, we use several research tools, as well as information garnered from your competitors’ sites. Note: the highest traffic keywords may not be those that are the best for your site – those that bring the highest level of qualified traffic are.
5. Should you be performing PPC or wanting to perform PPC, we create an optional report showing the anticipated costs for the recommended keywords, as well as expected traffic for each across the various PPC providers.
6. The final section of the document details the recommendations for the site, and outlines an action plan along with any anticipated costs, should you decide to implement the recommendations internally. We’ll also include a proposal if you’d like us to implement the recommendations.
7. We come in and present the key points & recommendations of the document, and answer any questions that you may have.

Essentially, you come out of the process with a audit document that you can use to evaluate the current status of your site, and a path forward to the next level for your site.

Related posts:

1. The Digital Marketing Audit
2. The PPC Audit
3. The Analytics Audit: Is Your Data Accurate?
4. The Social Media Audit: Look Before You Leap
5. It’s an SEO and PPC Party, but are they missing an Important Friend? – Part 3

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