A typical SEO site audit takes me around 50 hours to complete. If it is a small site (<1000 pages), I am working efficiently, and the client hasn't requested a lot of extra pieces, this figure can come in as low as 35 hours. If the site is large and has a lot of issues to document, the time investment inches closer to 70 hours.
At SEOmoz, we usually asked for a project time-line of six weeks to complete a full site audit. You need the extended schedule for resource coordination, editing for uniform voice and additional considerations when a team is involved. Even working on my own I prefer a six week time-line because it allows me to juggle several projects simultaneously and to put-down and pick-up various pieces as the mood strikes.
Regardless of how much time I spend on an audit, the best stuff is usually revealed in the first day. At the beginning of a project you're excited, the client is excited and there is so much undiscovered opportunity! In this post, I'll outline my recommendations for making the most of day one on a new SEO audit project. I've organized it by retro digital clock time stamp for your visual pleasure.
Template Preparation
You have a 9:00 client call, so you better get cracking! Take the time upfront to get your documents ready. The first thing I do once I've received a signature on the dotted line is prepare two files; my Excel scorecard and the Word audit document.
The audits I've worked on have always been extremely custom. Even so, the base document without client content is around 20 pages. This may sound like a lot, but once you prepare a cover sheet, table of contents, the appropriate headings and sub-headings for all the important SEO factors, and short (reusable) descriptions about each factor... it adds up to a hearty file.
I recommend that you create the base Word and Excel files and save them. Try not to work backwards off of an existing audit that you have on hand. Before I was an SEO myself, I was an SEO client of several smart folks. More than once the deliverables I received included other client names. It happens! 'CTRL+F' is not fool proof.
The Client Call
Whether you closed the deal yourself or you are lucky enough to have a fleet of salespeople doing that type of leg-work for you, a client kick-off call once the deal has been signed is important. Spend an hour getting to know your primary contacts. Hopefully this includes a senior stakeholder, a marketing lead, and a development lead. More often then not, these meetings are over the phone with the assitance of a web conferencing tool like GoToMeeting.
A sample agenda is as follows;
- Introductions (all)
- Site Tour (client)
- Past & Present SEO Initiatives (client)
- Key Areas of Concern (client)
- What is Required to Get Things Implemented (client)
- Review of Statement of Work & Deliverables Schedule (you)
When you come out of this meeting, you should have an excellent understanding of the website, business needs, and key pain points from the client. You'll also have had an opportunity to set expectations.
Bonus Tip: If you are working with an in-house SEO person, find out about the projects they have been trying to push through. You may be able to help them get that SEO enhancement moved up the development pipeline and make them look good in the process.
Coffee Break!
Use this time to recharge your caffeine and make notes about the call.
Leverage Your Coworkers
If you are part of a consulting team, like we had at SEOmoz, ping the other SEOs. This is expecially true if you will be tackling this particular project solo. Send them an email and request that they conduct a quick 15 minute assessment of the site. We did this with great success at SEOmoz. With a dream team that included Rand, Jen and Danny the output of 45 combined quick assessment minutes was incredible.
If you are an indepenent SEO, you can still use a system like this. Form a group of trusted SEOs and provide this support for each other. Be mindful of NDAs and potential conflicts of interest (see Sarah's post on consulting contracts for more great details).
Free Form Exploration
I'm pretty structured in my approach to SEO auditing, but there is nothing structured about my process during the free form exploration phase. I'm all about creating efficiencies through discipline and a deliberate work plan. That is what gets the project done and brings home the bacon. However, I always set aside at least three hours for unstructured play and exploration.SEO is part art and part science. The actions I'm attempting to describe here are definitely more Pablo Picasso than Marie Curie.
I fire up all of my FireFox Plugins and browse the site, start GSiteCrawler, hit-up Google with a flurry of search operators, run LinkScape/Open Site Explorer, have a grand ol' time in SEOmoz Labs, and check out the keyphrase landscape with Quintura and SEMrush. One find leads to another and I never know where I'll end up. No two sites are alike and I'm still coming across things I've never seen with each new audit.
Analyze Page via the mozBar showing a less-than-fantastic title tag
I'd say I find 80% of a site's issues and opportunities during this brief free form exploration. Most of the remaining 45+ hours of a project are spent elaborating on the findings and detailing the action plan to support my original finds.
Be sure to take notes and screen shots as you go. Bonus points if you manage to input them directly into your master Word file. Huge time saver.
Lunch
Try to step away from the laptop, but bring a notepad with you. No doubt your brain will still be working as your hands work to fill your belly.
Client Email
Based on the morning's kick-off call and your findings in the free form exploration process you no doubt have a few questions for the client. If you don't already have access to Webmaster Tools and analytics, now is a good time to ask. I usually have questions for the client about things that aren't always apparent from an external view of the site such as how their expiring content policies work. This follow-up email keeps the communication lines open, impresses the client because you've uncovered so much opportunity already, and gives them a chance to ask additional questions or provide more info.
Populate Some Data
At the end of a busy day I like to shift my focus to something that requires less brain power and benefits from simple funcitons like copy & paste. I usually wrap up my day by populating things like the current robots.txt file (for analysis later), top 25 links from Open Site Explorer, etc.
Top Pages via OSE - Yikes! They need to fix those 404s...
Action Items
- Take the time to set-up your templates first.
- Schedule a call with the to kick off the project.
- Ping your coworkers or a small private SEO network to give a quick assessment.
- Give yourself time to play and explore freely.
- Get key follow-up questions into the client early.
- Choose something easy for the end of the day.
Thanks for giving me a read! I'm working on a bi-weekly series that covers all things audit. If you liked this, you might also like 4 Ways to Improve your SEO Site Audit. You can find me in SEOmoz's PRO Q&A and on Twitter as @Lindzie.
The first thing I do when visting a potential client's websites for the first time is assess usability. You only see a website for the first time once... and as you start to learn the website it all begins to make sense and you navigate the site via recall.
During that first visit I sit with a notepad and jot down my initial impressions - was I able to indentify the puspose of the site immediately? What drew my attention first? Was the navigation clear? etc.
That is a stellar idea Jordan. You're dead on about only getting a first impression once, and if you do anything with usability, it ought to be the first thing you address.
Excellent point.
Great 1st day article Lindsay! Personally, I find that really small site audits can be banged out in 10 or 15 hours, though mega-sites or sites that are in extremely competitive landscapes have taken me upwards of 50 or 60 hours.
I give myself anywhere from two weeks to two months depending on the scope and my current workload. This is such a huge concept because if I commit to a faster turn-around, I don't allow myself to ponder on key issues, or I try to force myself to focus, and that can result in missing some really critical aspects of the audit.
Ah... PONDER! That is the word I was looking for. Much better than what I came up with.
Ponder time is critical for me. My best ideas / realizations usually happen when I am away from the screen. Without enough of a project time-line I don't get enough ponder time as I go through things.
Exactly! that's why I try to never devote more than 25 to 30 hours of client related work / business management time a week. I need that ponder time! And when I take on too much, it becomes overload as well. Which just causes it to be that much more difficult to ponder! :-)
On the subject of site audit's, Alan won't mention it, but I'd like to point to two excellent site audit post's he's written. Anatomy of a Hands-on SEO Site Audit – Part 1 and Anatomy of a Hands-on SEO Site Audit – Part 2
They are both well done and while not as transparent as Lindsey's [he says hoping to inspire Alan to compete with Lindsey in the transparency dept ;) ] they are chock full o' good stuff.
Glad goodnewscowboy mentioned Alan's excellent SEO Audit posts!
Wanted to note that I estimate 30-80 hours, depending upon size of site, competitiveness of market.
A couple factors that increase length of audit:
Agree that auditing takes time. It's not like a blood test where one gets the results in a week.
NICE post Lindsay!
To go one step further, we like to offer three types of site audits:
The reason why we are doing this is because sometimes clients are a bit conservative or simply don't have the budget to pull out the number 3's. What we try to do in those cases is to "guide" them into the SE landscape and start with a small workout (the number 1). Later on, when a client has seen some small, but essential results from the number 1 effort, they are more willing to invest in the long term SE projects, since they also feel that you have proven yourself, apart from the fact that they are more convinced that SEO actually has an effect.Ps. with the number 1 & 2 comes - of course - a specific disclaimer that the expectations on the effect of the site audit shouldn't be too high, since we (client & company) are choosing to do a "quick and dirty" version of it.
Nice read and walkthrough, Lindsay.
I was initially shocked my self by the time it takes to do an audit, but when you break it down like that it makes more sense. I particularly liked the idea of bouncing ideas off with you fellow workers, two heads and all... Looking forward to the rest of the series!
Aren't you lucky!! you close shop at 3pm!! or you do other stuff till 5pm?
Out of pure curiousity, why would a company who has an in-house SEO expert hire an external company?
That is a topic that would need a full post to explore properly! A few of the reasons I've come across for hiring an outside SEO consultant despite in-house resources are;
1. Too much to do. Internal resources can't handle it all.
2. Validation. The client is about to invest major resources in an enhancement and want to make sure they have it right.
3. Fresh eyes. SEO is so in-depth that even the best SEO can miss some things.
4. Strategy vs. Implementation. Sometimes, in-house SEOs are experts at the implementation but not the strategy or visa versa.
5. Settle the Score. With massive companies that have a large team of SEOs sometimes there is disagreement about the best way to proceed for SEO. An external resource can help guide.
6.Due Diligence. When a potential investment is at stake, sometimes the VC types will hire an SEO consultant to work with the existing team to audit not only the site, but the staff!
7. Technical vs. Marketing. Sometimes SEOs are better in one area of SEO than the other. An in-house SEO may lean to the technical side and need help devising a content strategy, for instance.
Every one of these reasons is spot on from my experience. Right now I'm providing outside consulting to a company that's got $75k worth of site rebuild going on and they have an excellent, seasoned in-house SEO. Yet they brought me in to validate his thinking, offer bigger picture strategy, provide fresh eyes to his work, and to provide the boss with due diligence given the magnitude.
We're talking about a company that does ZERO PPC because they had as much success as they did with his SEO, yet they're going national now and it made perfect sense to bring in the extra eyes.
Thanks a lot for that Lindsay and Alan.
Makes lot of sense and I assume this would be a short contractual period as well. Although I won't want to be in the shoes of the in-house SEO though! lol...
Actually, as an in-house SEO the opportunity to hire an external expert is one to be envied. The learning potential is huge. When I was a junior SEO in-house we hired Rand and company which ended up accelerating my learning on the subject.
Hmmmm.. that's another way to look at it.
If you're a junior SEO-in house, it would make lots of sense. Someone else to look up to and learn from.
But if you're supposed to be a senior person it might seem as though you're not doing your job right. So they're bringing in someone else to 'monitor' you.
I guess it about being open minded and also the way its presented... :)
Really well thought out comment Lindsey. This could be fleshed out into a separate post on its own: Consultant vs. In-House
How about so the inhouse has someone to bounce ideas off 'cos nobody in the org is able to make any meaningful contribution to any discussion on SEO?
That's where I am at.... got my work cut out training the PR Manager!!
So much useful info here!
When I grow up I wanna be an SEO like you Lyndsay ;)
Feels like half an episode of 24 and half SEO. Entertaining post! I was immediately shocked by the 50-70 hour number. As primarily a link builder, this threw me off a little. But it makes sense with a little more "free form explanation".
I think I just need to get on your level. Or to your level of depth. Nice job!
I had the 24 tick tock sound effect running through my head as I reread it just now.
"The following events take place between 9 a. m and 10 a.m.". Just wondering what SEO could be compared to Jack Bauer.
Great post Lindzie, thanks!
The clockworks reminded me of the day uphand (it's 8:32 over here now), and also reminded that there's a lot to do today, but anyway, nice graphics!
The thing that I always struggle with is defining the target group and targets of the website. Sure, I can come up with them after some good reasoning and reviewing of the website, but I'm missing the input of the client on this very often! It strucks me to see that most clients are mostly result driven, and are thus left wondering when I asked them about their target group or specific goals.
Do you have to deal with that situation often? That you have to do a site audit, but you don't have all information up hand from the start? How do you deal with that?
By the way, it's encouraging to see that I'm not the only one leaving the no-brainers for the last moment of the day :), was good fun to recognize some of the usual habits!
The first thing that i do before starting any audit is, email the 'Questionnaire for SEO Site Audit' to the client. It contains a list of 23 questions which are good enough to get started for any site/project. It serves three purposes. First it helps me in getting all the vital information from the client in writing which i can easily refer to whenever i want. Thus there is no need to do any documentation of client's calls, needs, wants, marketing objectives etc. Secondly, the client gets enough time to write about what he has and what he wants. Who are his target audience etc. Over phone there can be ambiguity and answers are often half baked or given in haste. Thirdly i don't need to schedule any call/meeting, which means lower business overheads in terms of time, resources and money.
I like the idea of a questionnaire, but feel that the client often appreciates the verbal interaction and support. I offer the kick-off call, but if the client can't make the time that is fine, too. I conducted a site audit for a client earlier this year with whom I did not have a single live conversation. It can work.
I love the post, Lindsay! But like seo-himanshu, I believe every SEO audit should begin with a client survey of some type. IMO, doing an SEO audit without the survey is like an insurance agent selling you life insurance without doing a complete financial review.
There's is a lot of stuff that could be very useful to have in writing. Here are a few:
and most importantly...What are their expectations from SEO? Do they want to dominate their market, just be a player, or just be in the hunt? If you're using the audit to sell your services, this is critical in helping you determine level-of effort required to help the customer achieve their goals and to not cause you to overbid or underbid the project. I agree with you completely about the client appreciating verbal interaction which is the reason I prefer to review the survey in person or over the phone.
One of the problems I've encountered in the past is that clients many times don't have their analytics tools properly installed...conversion or ecommerce tracking. I'll include proper setup of Google Analytics (and Webmaster tools) with my audit. If this is the case, I really want to see at least 30 days of traffic with GA properly installed. So, although I might spend 40-80 hours on an audit, it might take 45 days or more to complete because I like to include data from Google Analytics. It's very powerful to show them live data from GA and Webmaster Tools.
questionnaire works for me as i often deal with clients in different time zones and scheduling time for live conversation/call is often difficult and sometimes impossible. I have done several projects with no live conversation at all. But i do feel that live conversation helps in building creditability and should be carried out often esp. if the client has skype or is from the same country. But as gerard has pointed out, there can be disagreement or misscommunication. So written communications from the client himself is the best to minimize any possible conflict. In fact i always encourage client to send emails for any query or request made. no skype messages or phone calls. This is my way of documenting each and every proceeding of the project. You can always forward the email in case of a disagrement or just for quick reference.
Good point seo-himanshu. You're totally right about having all client's requirement in a paper or a mail. It will avoid a lot of future problems and disagreements. But like Lindsay, I prefer to have some verbal interaction, you can get better information of what the client really wants. So if you can, and that's not always posible, try to have both, verbal and write contact.
I use a questionnaire, however have had trouble getting the client to fill them in. My clients are small businesses and never have the time!
To encourage them I have simplified it and explained that the more they fill in the better the job I can do.
Great article Lindsay, I will be following the events as they unfold.
Thanks for the tip seo-himanshu!
I like the idea of having a paper trail, since it's good to have it (in case of illness/ disagreement/ miscommunication)! We currently use a questionnaire during our initial client meetings, but those are mostly used as a guideline. Then, after the meeting, I'll write an (extensive) summary and let the client agree on it. Actually, most of the time the scope and detail of a project come from that initial meeting and are thus included in the quotation.
It might be good to experiment with a written questionnaire and see the results, especially in situations where an initial meeting isn't necessary, for example if you have some sort of history already with that client.
Thanks for appreciating the graphics. :) They took longer to produce than I'm going to admit in writing.
I've worked with a lot of sites who have their target market confused. Take the job board space, for example. A typical job board makes it's revenue from employers and thus incorrectly identify this group as their primary target market. On one of the sites that I worked on, less than 3% of site traffic was in the employer group. The remaining traffic was job seekers... of course! But that is really what the site is selling in the first place, job seeker traffic.
Sometimes the client doesn't know who their target market is and need help to define it.
I've also become adept at auditing without much client input at all. I'll take what I can get in terms of client provided info, but it isn't required. I look at it this way. I'm auditing the site from the perspective of a search engine, anyway. Google doesn't have the advantage of client phone calls (Google: "Tell me, what would you like to rank for?") and this is a good thing. Put your SE hat on and do it that way. :)
That's a good take on writing perspective actually... Although CTR is likely to go down whenever a site doesn't connect with its audience, because it's lacking goal alignment. Still reasoning and contextual deduction based on what you see on the website is a good vision in how to deal with the issue of missing information from the client. :)
BTW: I'm glad Google doesn't call clients! That would turn me from an SEO into a receptionist (no pun intended) and that's not why I got started this morning :)
Clients are often not sure about their target market. Therefore after asking 'who is your target market?', the next question should be 'why'.
I cant believe you are allowed a coffe break....
Great Post,
Internally we just discussed the importance of using a template or guide to walk you thru an investigation...oterwise it is all freetime.
A difficult part of this job is avoiding the blackhole discovery can be, meaning as you investigate and identify problems it is so easy to follow it to the end
Coffee break are one of most fruitful and casual creative moments a SEO can have (or any other professional)... it's good to have moments you can look at other things than what you're actually working on: they gives you the right distance to see thing from another perspective.
The three hours break is a wonderful tip.
Personally what I do first when starting an audit is to simply surf the website I'm auditing, as if I was a casual user jumped into that site.
I know that my SEO-neurons are working in the backyard registering things that I'll will write down as a factor that has to be corrected.
The scope of this casual navigation is to see/perceive if all those things the client told me about his objectives, needs, public... are really shown and evident to me as a user. As far as I tend to combine classical SEO with CRO and other web marketing tactics, this time "wasted" is very useful in order to start breeding ideas.
Then, I especially like the 15 minutes audit session done in collaboration with SEO fellows. I admit it's something I'd love to do more often, especially with SEOs that usually priorities SEO tactics that I do not... it's a sort of "clash" of ideas that can give a real wide spectrum of the problems and of the potential solutions to them.
And, Lindsay, I laugh a lot when to warned not to use old audits as template... because when I did it. then I spent more time explaining to the client who was that strange URL he found in his doc about.
Finally, as seo-himanshu told in one of the first comments, to have a questionnaire with SEO / Web Marketing centered questions is really a good method, also in order to have a sort of screenplay to follow in the phone/web conference.
In the immortal words of Wayne Campbell, "We're not worthy!"
Thanks Lindsay, I'm a sucker for detailed lists.
Man that's so funny sly-grrr. I was just thinkin' about you a little bit ago.
Phillip was mentioning high mileage, and... well, um ...oh, look at the time! Gotta go.
Yes, well in the words of another movie icon, Indiana Jones, "It's not the years, it's the miles" and I have to admit them.
If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself. JK
"I can promise you two things. One,I'll always look this good and two, I'll never give up... Ever" (Hellboy, edtited to suit me)
Lindsay, I love how you've broken down the steps for Day 1 of a typical SEO Audit...and can truly appreciate that even with all of the work on Day 1 it's still a six week project! Now if only employers/clients would be as understanding.
Very nice article. One question though--what are some of the categories that you include (and consider standard) in the 40 page word doc? I seem to have trouble creating standard facets of SEO for any site because they often depend a lot on the client's goal and demographic (consumer, business, etc.).
That is something I'll be covering at some point in the near future. Hint: the Ranking Factors study is a great place to start.
Great, looking forward to it :)
p.s. I love the clock images :P
Speaking of the Ranking Factors Study, another hint. Use it as a "Remediation Importance" gauge. It can help when giving your client the order in which things should be repaired.
I'm looking forward to it too.
Great post,
Will definitely try not to miss any following ones. As I am in a bit broader line of work I like finding out the negative mentions early on the audit too and make a separate case of how to mange reputation and revert the existing problems.
Good idea! If there are glaring issues in the SERPs they will surface in my initial Google queries, but this is something I should work into my audit process overall. Currently I don't directly address reputation management concerns as a standard.
That's a great time allocation break down, thanks for the post :)
One thing I'd like to add is that with individual consultants and small business, there's no one right way to structure an SEO audit (or any other task). Especially in SEO, where we have customer interaction, creative, and analytical steps involved in each major goal; I think it's important to create our own schedules based around routines that work best for us as individuals. For example, I do my best creative work at night, so that's typically when I do keyword research and writing - which frees a couple hours for an extended lunch each day, giving me more energy for working with customers after lunch.
Can you add the templates from the template preparation section as downloads?
this is a great illustration of what a good SEO audit takes.
Thanks great article. I will defaintly link to this article from my blog ...who knew this natural link building thingdoes make sense (at times)
cheers
Al Sefati
This is going to come in really useful when clients question why it takes so long to do it PROPERLY.
The client call and preparation for it is a good call and something that is particularly useful for setting up access points i.e. GWT as well as managing expectations and setting out your stall for timelines.
I was not at all shocked by the time involved in the audit as it is one of the most important steps in being able to track and measure the effects that your SEO strategy will have on the success and increase in search rankings.
In addition to performing a indepth site audit I also include an competitor benchmark of their top 3 online competitors, and provide as much details as I have access to for their sites aswell. This also provides a realistic time frame for when we can start seeing the strategy take effect and and with which words we will see the quickest progress.
It is hard to believe that other companies don't complete these tasks, which therefore lesson the value of our industry in the eyes of businesses receiving substandard SEO.
Hi Lindsay! Very useful post! And very graphical too!
Congrats for the article, I'll follow some steps you mention here and be more careful with the time that I asign to a site audit.
Hi Lindsay,
I enjoyed your SEO audit article and found it highly informative for me. What is the etiquette when using your material for myself?
Regards,
Tim.
Like many SEO folks I spend a lot of time working in a vacuum. I always love to see tangible and practical real-world examples of how my peers are doing things. Read this all the way through and I can`t often say that with the garbage heap of regurgitated SEO blog content out there. Many thanks.
Great piece of information.
I like to do most of the SEO Audit (along with client call, questionnaires etc) during the sales process itself. Audits are great sales tool and it should be done prior. The only side effect is that you never know if you will get any return on the audit hours as it's still in the sales cycle.
Once the project is in, I rather like to spend so much time with the execution team and give the team all information download.
But it's great to know how you guys're doing it and may be I can start having quick a higher level discussion with the client just after campaign initiation.
On a separate note, it amazes me is that you stay away from your laptop during lunch but you like to carry a notepad. SEO audit is last thing on my mind when I eat :)
Thanks for the awesome breakdown Lindsay!
It really helps when someone gives you a good detailed explantaion of site audits can't wait for the next installment.
Great post Lindsay!
Some people here are mentioning that they dissuss strategy as part of site audit.
I think that strategy and goals comes in something before audit (but they are important for making an audit). I call that master plan that is foundation for all overall internet marketing activities.
I have question to ask as well. So far I have wrote in audits the diagnose and cure for each issue (how to implement something exactly), but recently I got audit from another, respected agency from client where they produced ton of pages without any specific "cure".
Do you write immediatelly the diagnose and cure in the same document or cure comes later in separate document? Because diagnose for me is no use at all for client without cure... Then with cure elements of audit, development company or department can implement the needed changes.
Ivan
You already know what I'm gonna say Lindsey. I need to dig out my thesaurus to stop sounding like a broken record when I comment on your posts. Hmm...Portentious. No that's not it...Exceptional. Not enough...Stupendous! that's the word that fits.
What a great in depth look at the process Lindsey. I love the clocks. They really drive home the point of staying focused on the matter at hand.
I found it fascinating that you allot 3 hours of "free time" I'm more single task focused (go page to page looking at the same on-page factors, etc.)and I am going to try to employ the free time method.
My main concern with the method is having to stop to document everything as I discover it. Any tips on how you handle that part without it interfering with the creative process?
Thanks! Positive feedback is always welcome. ;)
I am careful to take only brief notes and too avoid digging in too much during my free time phase. A few notes might look like this;
- Possible dup content between aaa.com/aaa and aaa.com/bbb.
- Title tags too short in the /ingredients directory.
- Wierd redirect from aaa.com/ccc
Thanks. You answered my question exactly. I am on my way to SEO Audits à la Lindsey.
What informations can be useful of the past & present SEO strategy.
What is interesting of the client's answer ?
A couple things. It is good to know what projects are currently in the development schedule so that you can audit them as they will be, as apposed to how they are. Also, insight into past tactics can help mitigate potential penalties moving forward such as the purchase and sale of links.
I think its a great tip to fire at the client what you have uncovered within a few hours.
I hope you will be revealing more when it comes to site audits. They really help a lot.
Thanks,
Inspiring process sharing post! Thank you!
Great post. Thanks Lindsy
I can i look forward to your bi weekly post
I am now thinking of putting this knowledge into a mind map
Like this one alot. Going for the Coffee break now :DNice to see how you structure your SEO day one. Going to follow this approach.
Every project should start with the business objectives, and goals to establish KPI. One of the largest problems with sites is the lack of focus. SEO is essentially enhancing communications with search engines, and users with focused content.
Thanks Lindsay, great information. It would be great if you can provide sample templates you use for the SEO Audit.
Is there a tool out there that will put the Title tags, meta descriptions etc of all/the month important pages into a spreadsheet?
I use theSEOMoz toolbar Page Elemets section currentlyand have to copy and paste element by element, page by page.
I recently had the experience of seeing a "big name" SEO company audit of a site I provided the SEO for a year ago.
It was 65 pages long. It was useful and informative but definitely designed for shock and awe effect, the kind of thing you could drop on a boardroom table with a Thud!
But at the end of the day, there was just one page with containing the reccommendations to action.
A ratio of 64 pages of never to be read waffle to 1 page of useful content.
So when I see 80 hours, as a client I would be sceptical of the value delivered, especially as you say, most of the benefit is found in the first day.
I like you, I mean the post! Looking forward to your succeeding posts Lindsay!
Very nice refresher, thank you! It always helps to know how others approach these things, and you obviously have a lot of mileage.
Are you calling me old? ;)
ROTFL! I had the same thought when I read "high mileage"! Good thing you've got a young looking avitar Lindsey. :)
I think Phillip meant "You obviously have unusual wisdom for someone so young." :)
Great stuff - I love the idea of mapping out your process like this. So often, we say something like "This report should take about 50 hours", based on vague experience, but then we're stumped on where to start or how to organize that time. It's too easy for that 6-week project to become a 6-month project.