Perform a Content SEO AuditDo You Need a B2B SEO Audit?
If you’re running a B2B business, chances are, the web is your go-to marketplace, right? Your sales engine thrives on it. Want to see a rise in your lead count? It’s time for a deep-dive B2B SEO audit. Spot those SEO glitches and soft spots, and look for areas that can be polished up.
Why is this so crucial, you ask? Well, imagine your website climbing up the search rankings, reaching more of the folks you’re trying to connect with. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Think of your B2B SEO audit as a treasure hunt. The more you dig and sift, the higher your chances of striking gold. For a simple SEO audit, you’ll want to focus on two key hotspots: content and technical SEO. Wondering about their importance? Stick with me, and I’ll fill you in.
No-Obligation Marketing Assessment
Not sure yet? Let’s talk for 30 minutes and we’ll provide a gap analysis of what’s missing in your digital marketing mix.
How to Perform a B2B Content SEO Audit
Creating relevant and refined content will boost your search engine optimization performance chances. Subsequently, you must analyze several points, from keyword research to writing easy-to-read copy.
Keyword Check
Fortunately, you don’t have to guess which best-performing keywords will boost your ranking in Google search results.
Instead, you can use keyword SEO tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics. Alternatively, you can give the work to SEO and digital marketing professionals.
Your primary keywords should align with your business voice and industry and be relevant to your site visitor’s search intent.
Redirecting Traffic
Your primary keyword may redirect more traffic toward your information blog posts than your service web pages. Consequently, while you may get more organic traffic, your site’s conversion rate might not tally up.
You can resolve this issue by integrating canonical tags from your blog posts into your service pages. Additionally, convert your posts to be more service-centric or migrate the blog post keyword-injected portion to your service page.
Add Long-Tailed Keywords
Some primary keywords are exceptionally competitive, making ranking high more challenging in most search engines. Luckily, you can incorporate long-tailed keywords to boost your search visibility. The process revolves around specifying your target audience’s search intent.
That said, you can use techniques like geo-modifiers which is ideal if your business operates in specific locations.
Another keyword portion you can add is a specialized service or feature. For instance, words like “affordable” and “SMEs” can narrow your keyword difficulty.
Lastly, industry-specific keywords can also rule out many competitive keywords. You can use terms like “B2B” or “Vertical Farming.”
Content Check
During your content check, you need to observe and address these aspects.
Thin Content
Your blog posts should be relevant to your site visitor’s search intent. Avoid limiting your web pages to 300-word thin content posts that’ll offer little value to users. Keep your average between 1,000 to 2,000 words per post.
Content Gap
Chances are, your competitors have pieces of information you don’t have, creating a gap. Subsequently, a competitor analysis run will allow you to fill the information gap.
Nevertheless, even though your site may contain similar information, using the optimized keywords decides who ranks best.
Outdated Content
How long has it been since you’ve replenished your blog posts? Your website’s content should be regularly updated, especially when addressing financial or economic indicators. Otherwise, your site will become irrelevant and unaligned with the present trends.
High-Ranking Content
If your content already ranks high from chosen keywords, build upon that. Attempting to rank for new keywords is often challenging and time-consuming. In turn, older posts carry more opportunities.
Potential High-Ranking Content
After completing a content audit, look at the posts on search engine results from pages two to five. These have the potential to become high-ranking and may require additional relevant keywords to boost them to page one.
Technical SEO Audit
After addressing your content SEO audit, it’s time to observe technical SEO auditing. When organizing your SEO strategy, your site’s crawlability, speed, index status, and mobile-friendliness are essential considerations.
Page Speed Check
The average loading page speed of a website is 3.21 seconds. Going any lower than that can inhibit your users’ experience.
Site speed is critical since it’s included in one of Google’s Core Web Vitals, the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). You can check your speed through tools like Google PageSpeed Insights.
Duplicate Content Check
Duplicate content muddles Google’s decision on which of your web pages to rank. The issue can come from URL variations or printer-friendly versions of your content. Alternatively, your site may carry domains from both HTTP and HTTPS or www and non-www.
Sitemap Check
Offering Google search engines a sitemap to navigate your indexed pages and site structure will maximize your web page visibility. Tools like DeepCrawl and XML Sitemaps can give you a simulated crawl and pinpoint issues such as duplicate content.
Image Optimization Check
Adding images to your site is integral to user retention. In addition, you need to optimize these images by adding an alt tag, correcting their aspect ratio, and compressing them.
On-Page Seo Check
After a Google search, you want your website to stand out among the SERPs. Subsequently, features like your page title, meta-description, and H1 headings can impact your page’s clickability.
Aim for a short and enticing meta-description. Meanwhile, your heading should have your primary keyword.
Link Check
Broken external and internal links can set back your ranking potential. You’ll want to ensure your site’s link functionality. Plus, double-check your 404 page and 301 redirects.
Mobile Usability Check
Over 55% of web traffic originates from mobile devices. Subsequently, your site should operate through a Responsive Design to appear more professional for client mobile visitors.
The mobile version of your web page should have a readable font size, optimized and compressed images, and no pop-ups.
You can measure your mobile usability performance using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test or MobileMoxie.
A More Advanced Off-Site B2B SEO Audit
Conducting an off-site SEO audit is crucial to understand how your website is performing from an external perspective. Here’s a step-by-step process for doing this:
Backlink Profile Analysis
Your website’s backlink profile plays a significant role in search engine ranking. Therefore, analyzing it can provide insights into how you’re doing.
- Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to assess your backlink profile. These tools can show the number of backlinks, the quality of those links, and the anchor text used.
- Look for unnatural spikes in backlink acquisition, which can indicate black hat SEO practices that might harm your site’s reputation.
- Consider the diversity of your backlink profile. Links should come from various domains and be spread across different types of websites.
Competitor Backlink Profile
Understanding your competitors’ backlink profiles can provide insights into their SEO strategies and expose potential opportunities for your business.
- Use the same tools as before to analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles.
- Identify the sites where your competitors are getting their links from. These sites might also be interested in linking to your content.
- Assess the quality of these backlinks. Are they from reputable, relevant sites?
Link-Building Options
After analyzing your and your competitors’ backlink profiles, the next step is to evaluate your link-building opportunities.
- Start with the list of sites that link to your competitors. Approach them with high-quality, relevant content that they may consider linking to.
- Use tools like BuzzSumo to find popular content in your industry, then create better, more comprehensive content on the same topic (“skyscraper technique”).
- Explore guest posting opportunities on reputable sites in your industry.
Local Citations And Directories
Your business must be listed in the appropriate local directories if it has a local element.
- Ensure your business is listed on Google Business Profile and Bing Places.
- Use tools like Moz Local or BrightLocal to find other relevant local directories and check your listings.
- Consistency is key in local SEO. Ensure your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) information is consistent across all listings.
Social Media
Social media plays a significant role in driving traffic to your site and improving your site’s visibility.
- Ensure you have an active presence on relevant social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) based on where your target audience is most active.
- Utilize each platform’s unique features to promote your content and drive traffic to your site.
- Engage with your audience by responding to comments and messages promptly.
Other methods:
- Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with influencers in your industry can help you reach a larger audience and gain high-quality backlinks.
- PR and Media Outreach: Regularly issuing press releases and reaching out to media outlets can lead to coverage that includes backlinks to your site.
- Forum and Community Participation: Active participation in industry forums and communities (like Reddit or Quora) can help you gain recognition and, potentially, backlinks.
Remember, building a strong off-site SEO takes time and continuous effort. The key is to focus on building high-quality, relevant backlinks and providing value to your audience.
B2B SEO Audit Tools
Screaming Frog: The Detailed Crawler
Screaming Frog stands as an industry leader and for good reason. It operates like a search engine spider, examining links, images, CSS, and apps, providing invaluable insight into your website’s structure. With its unique ability to uncover broken links and duplicate content, Screaming Frog is a must-have tool for anyone serious about SEO.
Semrush: The Comprehensive Analyst
Next in our repertoire is SEMrush. SEMrush shines in competitor analysis, letting you peek into your competitors’ keyword strategies. It also offers many features, including an on-page SEO checker, social media tracker, and rank tracking, making it a multi-faceted tool for your SEO arsenal.
Ahrefs: The Backlink Explorer
Few tools can rival Ahrefs when it comes to backlink analysis. Its extensive link index lets you dig deep into your site’s backlink profile and competitors. Ahrefs provides an exceptional foundation for a robust link-building strategy by identifying new, lost, and broken backlinks.
Moz Pro: The All-In-One Seo Solution
Moz Pro offers a range of solutions for SEO audits. Its crawler identifies technical issues and provides actionable insights. The keyword explorer helps you discover and prioritize the best keywords. Furthermore, Moz’s Link Explorer identifies link-building opportunities, giving you an edge in the B2B market.
Ubersuggest: The Keyword Prodigy
Created by Neil Patel, Ubersuggest is a fantastic tool for keyword analysis. It gives you a wealth of information about any keyword’s search volume, competition, and seasonal trends. The tool also suggests many related keywords, helping you craft a winning keyword strategy.
Google Search Console: The Essential Freebie
No list would be complete without Google Search Console. This free tool by Google provides essential data about your website’s performance in Google search. By using it, you can identify crawling errors, examine backlinks, and monitor your site’s overall SEO health.
Google Analytics: The Unparalleled Web Insights Powerhouse
From its inception, Google Analytics has been a constant companion for businesses and marketers worldwide, offering deep insights into website performance and user behavior. Being a Google product, it enjoys unrivaled integration with other Google services, further enriching the data you can gather and analyze.
Universal Analytics And The Transition To Google Analytics 4
Historically, Google’s offering was primarily in the form of Universal Analytics. However, as technology and customer behavior evolved, so did the need for a more comprehensive analytics solution. This led to the advent of Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
Google Analytics 4: The Future Of Web Analytics
The transition from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 signifies a significant shift in data collection and interpretation. GA4 uses an event-based model, enabling businesses to understand and analyze customer paths comprehensively.
This shift facilitates a more granular view of the customer journey, offering insights into the effectiveness of different touchpoints, which is invaluable for B2B businesses.
Moreover, GA4 brings advanced machine learning models, helping businesses predict future customer actions. This enables proactive strategizing rather than merely reacting to past data. GA4 offers better integration with Google Ads, an enhanced data control mechanism, and comprehensive reporting features, making it a power-packed tool in your SEO auditing toolkit.
Leveraging Google Analytics 4 For B2b Seo Audits
GA4 can significantly enhance your SEO audit capabilities. It allows you to delve deep into user behavior, understand what content resonates with your audience, and how they interact with different elements of your website.
By analyzing this data, you can optimize your site structure, design, and content strategy, creating a superior user experience that search engines love.
GA4’s detailed reports also allow you to monitor the success of your SEO efforts. By tracking organic traffic, time on site, bounce rate, and conversions, you can measure your SEO performance and identify areas for improvement.
Furthermore, GA4’s cross-platform tracking gives you a holistic view of how users interact with your brand across devices, offering valuable insights to fine-tune your SEO strategy.
Choosing The Right Seo Audit Tools
Each of these tools provides a unique perspective on your website’s SEO. Choosing the right mix depends on your specific needs and objectives. By leveraging these tools effectively, you’ll unlock the potential of your website and outperform competitors in the SERPs.
Final Thoughts
In a highly competitive B2B industry, engaging in a B2B SEO audit is a must. Earning a page-one spot can take your business to new heights.
You’ll want to focus on your technical and content SEO audit to culminate your website. Every action counts towards your auditing process, from using the correct keyword to abating duplicate content.
The good news is that you can find assistance from numerous SEO audit tools that offer either site-wide or page-specific help.