Year-​end is the perfect time for your clients to engage in an SEO site audit. When marketers aren’t satisfied with the rankings they’re getting on Google’s search engine results pages, reviewing the details of the website infrastructure is the best place to start. According to Roger Montti, there’s more than one kind of SEO audit. A deep dive may be in order when your clients are determined to improve outcomes.

As a refresher, remember that the key elements of a technical SEO audit include checking out URL structure, reviewing redirects, and tweaking page headings and title tags. When the webmaster improves the way inbound links come to a site, for example, your clients will notice a change in their rankings. The same holds true for regularly reviewing titles tags.

Volumes have been written about title tags. Your clients need to remember to limit these tags to 50–60 characters with the most important keywords listed first. For example, Best Chicken in Peoria, is the kind of title tag that will pique interest from search engines and consumers.

An in-​depth audit should take go further and take keywords into account. While we’re on the topic of keywords, keep the goal of the audit in mind. Your clients should use keywords that drive leads and sales. Remind them of the difference between posting content that goes viral and posting content that results in more sales. Your clients might be delighted that a post about chickens that lay blue eggs is raising awareness of their business.

If they want to increase sales though, Montti suggests they consider how useful their keywords are for direct conversions, the value they have in leading to a sale, and their awareness-​building value. A post that includes keywords like Peoria Best Chicken Restaurant meets these criteria.

In his detailed analysis, Montti also encourage marketers to ensure that the right keywords appear on specific web pages. And, it’s always a good idea to view the site they way a potential customer would. The best website architecture makes it easy for consumers to find what they are looking for and doesn’t direct them to the least important pages.