Why an audit is so important?

[JonathanLeplang]

Hi Mozzers,

I was wondering what are the greatest benefits of an SEO audit and how to explain the necessity to do it to a customer?

Thanks for your answers,

Jonathan

[DonnaDuncan]

I'm a big fan of SEO audits. From a customer perspective:

• they tell you what's broken;
• they tell you what's working well;
• you can prioritize the work that needs to be done;
• you can more easily identify the skill sets needed to complete the work; and
• identify inter-dependencies so you acquire what's needed, when it's needed.

Audits also give you a baseline that you can use to draw "a line in the sand" and know where you're starting from. You can then more easily demonstrate measured improvements over time.

[JaneCopland]

Hi Jonathan,

Agree with Donna - these are all very good reasons.

From the perspective of what an engagement will look like without an initial audit, a consultant can be left trying to piece together small fixes, unsure of whether some issues are more important than others because they have not had the time to develop a full picture of how a website is structured and how its CMS works / is managed.

Clients tend to be less willing to implement changes if they have not received them when they expected to, i.e. in an audit process with a prioritised list of changes and reasoning behind why the changes are necessary. The process of fixing a website can get arbitrary - emails and calls here and there about random issues. Web developers usually don't like operating like this: they want to know that the next push is for SEO purposes and that a set amount of time will be dedicated to making the changes proposed or working with an external team (you) to find compromises if what you suggest isn't possible. You can schedule whole days on-site with a client to get this stuff done and worked out, rather than badgering devs or managers for months with the things you discover along the way.

Audits can also tell the consultant a lot about how the site works that they might not have been told otherwise by the client (who might not know or understand themselves), both from the manual investigation and use of tools to analyse the website. I find that as a consultant, this knowledge sticks with you - if you learned that a client's CMS performs a certain task a certain way early on, you go into every situation understanding how it works and expecting certain functionality. This increases efficiency for the rest of the engagement. You are rarely taken by surprise by an issue, and many on-site issues are much easier to avoid / solve when both you and your client have a comprehensive document outlining how the website is structured.

I hope this helps!

Jane

[Andy.Drinkwater]

I love doing audits as they allow you to see the things that don't work, and the things that need work.

When an audit is completed, you end up with a very clear roadmap of what you need to do in order to correct issues. Jane and Donna have both covered pretty much all of the points.

What I particularly like, is finding those areas that might otherwise go unchecked and only performing an audit will reveal them. I end up with a long list of checks, and as I go through them, they pass or fail. If they fail, how can they be corrected.

OK, they can end up very long, but I still see them as one of the most comprehensive studies any site owner can have completed.

-Andy

[JonathanLeplang]

Thank you very much everybody. It's very helpful!

Regards,

Jonathan