Your company’s brand new, shiny website was launched 3 months ago. It is, indeed, a thing of beauty.
Stunning, targeted images, the result of a highly professional photo shoot; eye-catching video clips using the latest technology; bold headlines that jump off the screen; beautifully written content designed to inspire and motivate – further, the copywriter has a working knowledge of the search engine processes and has even built in keywords in the appropriate places.
And yet, when you trawl through Google, your company is still languishing in the lower pages; higher than before, perhaps, but still not breaking into the higher echelons that are needed to generate the traffic that you had anticipated, and invested for.
Where did it all go wrong?
Your website is a living, breathing entity that requires regular health checks and, quality nourishment to survive, compete and ultimately survive in the voracious and predatory market place.
Think about it; there are millions of websites world wide, thousands in your geographic location and dozens, if not hundreds, in your own industry sector. To succeed in this congested arena and give yourself the best opportunity to build traffic and gain new customers, your website needs to be performing at optimum levels.
To ensure this, a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Audit is your first step of assessing, and addressing if needed, your website’s effectiveness.
Why is SEO so Important?
– SEO helps you develop a smoother and faster website that is highly user-friendly
– it helps bring in highly targeted traffic to your website, and eventually help you acquire more customers organically
– SEO-optimized sites load faster, are easy to read and are highly responsive to any device. This will help grab and hold attention, encouraging repeat business and, ultimately, loyal customers
– Organic search is driven by intent, with, in many cases, prospects already knowing what they are searching for
– Focusing on a great user experience (good loading times, usable across different devices) will improve your site’s rankings by search engines
– a strong presence on the search engines help to build trust in a brand
What is the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Audit?
Google and other search engines have numerous parameters that assess and “rank” website performance. As well, they are constantly updating and refining these search algorithms which means you need to be regularly fine-tuning your strategy to ensure you stay in the game.
The SEO Audit is designed to evaluate your website against these criteria and to make recommendations on ways to improve the site. It is an opportunity to analyze what’s is and isn’t working for your website and where new opportunities exist.
The “holy grail” of a first page ranking on search engines is only possible with a website that is fully optimized and is regularly updated with new content.
How Search Engines Work
Search engines exist to discover, understand, and organize the internet’s content in order to offer the most relevant results to questions that searchers ask. They do this through 3 activities:
Crawling – combing the Internet for content and looking over the code/content for each URL (Uniform Resource Locator) they come across.
Indexing – storing and organizing this content, which then ensures a page has a chance of being displayed to a relevant inquiry.
Ranking – providing the pieces of content that best answer a searcher’s inquiry, ranked by most relevant to least relevant
Thus, to be seen in search results your content must be visible to the search engines.
Here is an interesting graph to understand better the Google algorithm:
Asia Media Studio has been carrying out SEO Audits on behalf of clients for several years. We have invested in the human and technological expertise required to carry out effective audits that have delivered much improved rankings for websites, with the consequent increase in traffic and much improved sales.
In this article, we will outline our approach to SEO Auditing, a methodology that has proven successful time and time again.
The SEO Audit – the AMS Process
Indexing
This stage assesses the number of website pages that the search engines have indexed and which they deem to be the most important. If we discover that the home page or other key pages are not high on the list, there may be problems with a poor internal linking structure that needs addressing.
Robots.txt
Robots.txt is a simple text file that resides within the root directory of your website and its purpose is to inform the “crawler” robots that are dispatched by search engines which pages to crawl and which to overlook. This allows you to present your site to the search engines in a way that you want them to see you. We will check your Robots.txt to ensure it is performing efficiently.
Preferred Domain
A preferred domain is the version of your domain that you want the search engines to recognize. It is also the domain to which you want your users to be redirected, irrespective of whether they use www. or not. Setting a preferred domain for your website optimizes its appearance in search results and helps prevent duplicate content.
Sitemaps
A sitemap is a list of the website pages and it is recommended by The Webmaster Guidelines that a human-readable version is available on your website.
Broken Internal Links
These are not good both from a user and SEO perspective. They can frustrate visitors, undoing all your hard work in attracting them to the site. And From an SEO point of view, they are essentially wasted PageRanks. We use tools like Screaming Frog to alleviate these issues.
Mobile Friendliness
The mobile is fast becoming the dominant force for internet usage and if your site isn’t mobile-friendly you will certainly suffer on rankings. We will assess this using Google’s own Mobile-Friendly Test.
Page Speed
Not only is page speed important for your user, it improves your perceived value in the eyes of the search engines. “Site Speed” in Google Analytics is a quick and accurate rating (scale – 1-100; 65 is “okay”, “good” starts at 85) that we will use to determine your site’s effectiveness.
Internal Link Structure
Every link on a page reduces the value of the others and whilst they should not all be removed, too many will lead to bad navigation. This is frustrating for the visitor, likely to reduce load times and dilutes page ranking. Ideally the website needs a focused linking structure that is designed to lead users to the most important aspects of the site.
Broken Links
Broken links are not only bad for user experience, in that they lead to a “404 page”, but can also harm your site’s relationship with the search engines. We will fix any broken links by redirecting them to working pages -a particularly important action if the site has undergone redevelopment that has introduced new URL structures or paths.
Page Titles
Each page title should be focused on a single specific topic, with the brand name consistently at the end of each title. We use Screaming Frog to check all titles and highlight duplication and missing titles.
Meta Descriptions
These are designed to draw visitors to your website, and a clear, focused meta description will attract more people to your site when they are using a search engine. Again, Screaming Frog will help identify missing and duplicated meta descriptions.
Duplicate Titles and Descriptions
Duplicated title and meta descriptions delivers poor experiences for those using a search engine and are also bad for SEO.
These are the main technical issues that we will cover through our auditing process, but there are a number of other ways to improve SEO.
As we mentioned at the beginning, websites need to be nourished. The search engines love relevant activity on a website; it demonstrates that the site is current and active.
So, your site needs to be up to date with all new information – new product launches, promotions, CSR activities, management changes, and, last by no means least – newsletters and blogs.
Blog articles in particular – like this one you’re reading now, are an important communications tool in their own right, but can also have a significant positive impact on SEO.
Why Choose AMS?
– Partnerships
We value the relationships we develop with our clients and are proud of the fact that many of them have worked with us for several years, on multiple projects. You will find us to be friendly, capable, committed and enthusiastic!
– A Talented Team
As well as our recognized expertise in the technical side of SEO, we bring highly creative designers and content writers to the table and are one of very few agencies able to manage the complete SEO and digital marketing process from strategy through to execution.
– State-of-the-Art
We provide our talented team with the best, most up-to-date technology there is. We only buy authorized software that is safe, proven and reliable. The “tools of our trade” include:
Screaming Frog, SEM Rush, Ubersuggest, GT Metrix, Google Analytics, Google Search Console …
– No Contracts
Our clients stay with us because they like us and like the work we do – not because we lock them into long-term contracts. If, for any reason, we don’t deliver, or you are unhappy with us, you’re free to go.
– Reporting
We provide regular reporting on a timescale to suit you – weekly, monthly, quarterly – with a number of key reports to keep you updated:
– Dashboard
(Executive Summary) that will give you a tailored, concise overview of the return on your investment.
– Goals
Goals that have been agreed between us at the commencement of the project and that can be tracked in Google Analytics. These may include goals such as Page Visits; Visit Duration; Conversions; URL Destinations.
– All Work Completed
A detailed report that outlines exactly what work was performed over the reporting period.
– High Quality Links,
High Quality Links that have been earned over the period, an important metric in the eyes of search engines as it reflects positively when other reputable sites are linking back to your content.
– Overall Keyword Growth
A report that identifies the number of related keywords we’ve ranked for you over the period and how this is making an on-line impact or is identifying opportunities.
– Mobile Traffic Growth
A report that shows how your services are reaching people who are using smartphones – nowadays so important given the reach and influence smartphones now have.
Our reporting is always custom-designed to suit your needs and may include other variables that we will agree with you at the beginning of our involvement.
FEATURED AS TOP DESIGN AND PR AGENCY IN BANGKOK
With that being said, we are excited to announce that we’ve been featured on Clever Thai’s website as a valuable resource for those looking to explore the top PR agencies in Bangkok. The article highlights the leading agencies in the city, providing insight into their expertise and services. To learn more about the top PR agencies in Bangkok and discover the best suited partner for your brand’s communication needs, make sure to check out https://www.cleverthai.com/top-pr-agencies-bangkok/. We are grateful to Clever Thai for recognizing our contribution and including us among their recommended resources.
Conclusion
Our over all aim is to ensure your brand and company:
- Improve rankings
- Increase traffic
- Increase exposure
- Build brand credibility
- Generate more leads and sale
And once the audit is completed and the issues identified, we will advise you on the most appropriate solutions for your business to improve your SEO.
If you are interested in our SEO Audit services and would like to know more, please feel free to get in touch or pop in for a chat.
We are conveniently located in downtown Bangkok, just 5 minutes from Asok BTS and Sukhumvit MRT stations, and we are always happy to welcome you at our offices. You can contact us.
