What Is SEO Analysis?

SEO is certainly not an easy process. It takes time and entails a lot of effort. If you want to ensure your resources aren’t going down the drain, you need to take advantage of SEO analysis. And for that, you need the experts.

At Position1SEO, we’re one of the leading SEO agencies in the UK and can help you by leveraging our considerable expertise to get things right first time. Among the many aspects that set us apart, our main point of differentiation is our ability to conduct an intricate SEO analysis for your website. All the steps we take initially and all subsequent SEO tweaks are planned and executed in accordance with findings from our in-depth analysis. The result is that you always get the best possible ‘bang for your buck’.

We’d love to have you on board and help take your business to the next level! Simply get in touch with us today and we’ll send across a few case studies of businesses we’ve assisted in the past.

SEO analysis is something everyone should do if they’ve spent any time or money at all on optimising their web presence. It’s particularly critical for businesses. Your website is the lifeblood of your business. It can be the cornerstone of your digital marketing strategy; a major tool in raising awareness of your brand; and for many, it may even be the main sales outlet. So if you’ve invested in a website to be any or all of these things, it’s critical you measure its performance.

After all, you want to know that you’re getting a good return on the investment you’ve made. And the only way to do that is to analyse how it’s performing and identifying what you can do next to improve that. Too many business owners pay to have a website set up, then think they’re done. They expect traffic to increase and sales to go up, but without ever looking at whether that’s happening and if not, why not.

Why SEO Matters

In fact, it’s estimated that 45% of businesses with an online presence haven’t even heard of SEO, or at least have an incomplete understanding of what it is. So before we can look at SEO analysis, we’ll explain briefly what SEO is and why it matters. SEO stands for search engine optimisation, and it’s the process of maximising the number of visitors to your website by convincing search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo that yours is a trusted, authoritative site. That persuades them to ensure your website appears higher up in the search engine results for particular search terms.

Demonstrating you’re a business that knows its stuff and offers high-quality information to your customers and potential customers can be done by various means. The first is by using the right keywords. These are the words and phrases your typical customers will use when searching for your goods or services. Aligned with this, you need great quality text on your website, content that gives your ideal visitors the information they were looking for when they searched the internet for information from companies like yours. And the third main strand is votes of confidence from others who already have a good reputation with the search engines – these come in the form of links, when a reputable website includes a hyperlink to your website.

There are a host of other factors search engines like Google use when evaluating a website, and good SEO addresses as many of these as possible. But SEO is an inexact science, some say it’s an art – so there’s always room for improvement. And the only way you know what improvements need making is by analysing what’s already in place and how it’s currently working. This is the thinking behind SEO analysis.

How SEO Analysis Is Done

The best SEO analysis requires a methodical approach and a good chunk of available time. A smallish website with around ten to 15 pages can take around a week to analyse effectively and fully; a larger one can take much longer. Experts say you should analyse your site on a quarterly basis. That gives you the opportunity to refine it quickly if, say, a broken link or a missing page is causing a drop in visitors.

Maybe the search engine you’re optimising for has changed its algorithm; or one of your competitors has significantly changed their own website and traffic you were otherwise expecting is now going to them. Whatever’s holding your website back from delivering the results you’d like must be identified and addressed as quickly as possible.

An SEO audit means working through a checklist and using various online tools to measure everything from how you’re ranking for the keywords you’ve chosen to how quickly each page loads. A full analysis will look at every aspect that the search engines might approve or disapprove of. You’ll find sample checklists available from SEO professionals on the internet, often categorised into the three main areas needing auditing: SEO onsite analysis, off-page, and technical SEO analysis.

All that may sound laborious and the average business owner tends not to have the time and intimate knowledge of SEO to carry out that level of analysis on an ongoing basis. Fortunately, SEO analysis and SEO competitor analysis services are offered by various SEO agencies. You can have an expert go through the finer level of detail more quickly and efficiently than you would be able to do. They will fix all errors, fill gaps in content and generally refine your SEO strategy to keep your website moving up the search engine rankings. That means more traffic and ultimately, more paying customers.

One company that provides this kind of service is Position1SEO. We’re one of the premier SEO agencies in the UK – in fact, we’ve been at the forefront of SEO for the last ten years. We offer a complete SEO service and our very first action when partnering with any of our clients is to carry out a full site audit. We look at your website’s current performance alongside a host of technical aspects that might be holding your web presence back. We use this to draw up an action plan to improve how your website is viewed by the search engines, and ultimately, your paying customers.

We carry out research for the ideal keywords for your business, including SEO competitor analysis, and can create original, engaging, search engine optimised content or improve what you already have. We also emphasise Conversion Rate Optimisation – no good SEO strategy is complete without this – so you’re not just attracting new website visitors; you’re converting them into active customers.

And we also focus on lifting your credibility outside your website by engaging in social media and building high-quality links back to your website from credible, respected sources.

Because we at Position1SEO are strong advocates for SEO analysis as a means to improve your web presence, we report back to you on a monthly basis, demonstrating the impact of the changes we’re making and revising our strategy to offer you the maximum return possible on your investment.

We understand not all businesses have a huge marketing budget, so from the outset, we’ll discuss your goals, what you want to achieve, and recommend which of our SEO packages best suits your needs. We’ll tailor that to fit your requirements so you get the best bang for your buck.

Of course, SEO doesn’t happen in a day – we can’t promise instant results, and you should never trust an SEO company that does. But we’ll be very clear about what you can expect to achieve by working with us. And our monthly reporting cycle gives you the opportunity to monitor your site’s upward trajectory on an ongoing basis.

For transparent and effective SEO analyses and implementation, call Position1SEO today on 0141 846 0114. Our website, https://position1seo.co.uk/, also contains a huge amount of information on our processes and we’re always delighted to share case studies so you can see how we deliver on our promises in practice. We look forward to hearing from you!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How do you do an SEO analysis?

SEO analyses should check webpages’ visibility via Google Search Console. Ensure all URLs, meta descriptions, titles, and headings within content are optimised. Evaluate the value of incoming links and that no internal links are broken.

Make sure all web content is up-to-date, useful, and keyword-rich. Ensure all images are appropriately labelled and optimised; and check each page’s loading speed.

What is SEO and how does it work?

Search engine optimisation (SEO) are principles applied to all web content so it’s visible to search engines and valuable to site users. Keyword use is vital, but optimisation also includes addressing technical issues like site structure and page loading speeds. SEO ticks all the search engines’ boxes so they show your pages high up in search results for applicable queries.

What are analytics in SEO?

SEO analytics are methods and measures used to monitor and improve the acquisition of engaged, organic web traffic. By examining what’s going well and where performance is poor, SEO practitioners have the opportunity to improve specific areas to achieve better results.

How do I know if my website is SEO friendly?

There are many SEO scanning tools to help monitor how effective your SEO is. Google Search Console, for instance, helps you check your website’s performance and troubleshoot any problems holding it back from ranking higher.

If you’ve no idea where to start, some SEO agencies offer a free SEO analysis report and can then help make the changes necessary.

What is SEO competitive analysis?

Competitive SEO data analysis means looking critically at how your competitors are performing, what keywords and links they’re using, and their content. You can use the results to borrow techniques that are working for them or to give you ideas on how you can outperform them, for instance.

What are SEO tools?

SEO tools report on current performance of web pages in search engine rankings or against the metrics the search engines measure webpages by. Some are free, some require paying for. A good SEO agency will have access to the best tools to give you the most accurate SEO auditing data on your web presence’s performance.

Why is competitor analysis important in SEO?

Competitor SEO analysis enables you to identify opportunities you may otherwise have been missing to improve your webpages and actually get ahead of businesses competing in your space. You simply analyse what’s working well for other businesses of your type and use this knowledge to improve your own SEO strategy.

Why is SEO important?

A high ranking in SERPs demonstrates to visitors that your site is more trusted than others by search engines. Higher rankings equate to increased traffic to your website, therefore, which in turn improves your chances of increasing sales.  SEO is important for anyone who owns or manages a website, blog, or online store because it can draw in free, organic traffic.

How long does it take SEO to work?

Expect it to take between four and six months to see any significant changes in your SEO results. Be patient, though, and continue implementing, monitoring, and adjusting your strategy and over time, even greater results should follow. SEO is not about quick wins, it’s a long-term game. A search engine optimisation analysis helps keep you on track to meet your goals.

How do I analyse SEO for my website?

Areas to consider as part of your website ranking analysis:

• All pages visible on Google.
• All URLs and meta descriptions optimised.
• All titles and headings optimised.
• Note your website rankings.
• Analyse incoming links.
• Note your spam score.
• Test for broken links.
• Check all images are compressed and optimised.

How are SEO keywords used?

Website owners use keywords and phrases to flag up to readers what their content is about. Search engines use keywords and phrases to match users’ queries to pages that contain those words. Effective SEO is knowing how best to use your keywords to demonstrate to Google that you have the information certain searchers are looking for.

Analysis Of SEO Visibility

The term ‘SEO visibility’ doesn’t relate to whether your site can be seen or not. Instead, it relates to your position in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

If your page is the first result on page one of the SERPs, your visibility should read 35%. This means that 35% of people, when presented with the same page of results, are likely to click on your page, rather than one lower down.

The further down page one you appear, the lower the percentage of clicks you can expect to attract, with SEO visibility for the #10 slot standing at 2%.

If your page ranks at 0% for SEO visibility, therefore, it most likely means your page doesn’t appear on page one of the SERPs.

How To Perform A Fast SEO Analysis Of Your Website

A quick checklist for SEO inspection:

• Check all your pages are being ranked by Google.
• Ensure URLs are optimised (four to five words describing your content) and meta descriptions are optimised and reader-friendly.
• Ensure page titles and headings contain matching keywords.
• Check numbers of visitors, bounce rate, and average time spent on-site, along with which keywords are attracting most traffic.
• Analyse incoming links.
• Check spam score and eliminate bad backlinks.
• Check for broken links.
• Optimise and compress images.
• Ensure internal links all work.
• Remove duplicate content.
• Improve page speed loading time if necessary.

SEO Analysis Guide

Ongoing analysis of your website is essential to raise your standing in search engines’ results. It indicates where to target your precious time and resources for improvement.

Analyse all three areas of your web presence: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO:

• On-page includes all content, page structures, and HTML source codes.
• Off-page SEO includes everything you do outside of your website to improve your ranking, including SEO link analysis, local SEO, and guest blogging.
• Technical SEO includes checking for errors users or search engines might dislike, like http URLs rather than the more secure HTTPS and other URL errors.

Simple Guide To Keyword Competition Analysis

Don’t just pick the obvious keywords – you need ones that will help you rank higher, but will cost you as little as possible to use, while still offering you the maximum return on your investment.

That means establishing who your competitors are; and analysing what they’re doing – or not doing – to take advantage of that, either way. You should also analyse your customers and what they’re looking for at each stage of their buying journey.

This should help you identify the gaps, i.e., the keywords, you can capitalise on. A good SEO agency can help you with this complex analysis.

How to Do an SEO Competitor Analysis

Quick SEO competitor analysis report tips:

• Identify main competitors and use analysis tools to monitor their progress.
• Find out how each is doing in terms of backlinks; and look for sites that have linked to them multiple times (they’re a possible target for your linking strategy).
• Check for broken pages on competitors’ sites (so you can publish something to fill that gap).
• Examine which of their keywords pull in the most/ least traffic.
• Find and fill content gaps (where a competitor ranks highly, but you have no content to match).
• Find their most popular content and write better than that.

SEO analysis can be highly complex if you’re going to do it well and capture all the benefits it can offer. If you are looking for expert help with defining and refining your SEO strategy for the best results, call Position1SEO today on 0141 846 0114.