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Ever wondered why your competitors always seem to outrank you every time you search a keyword or phrase that’s related to your industry? You know for a fact that you have an excellent company deserving of a higher rank in searches. But Google and other search engines don’t know that. They rank you based on many factors -except what’s happening in the real world.

In today’s digital age, unless you’ve been living under a rock you will have heard about Search Engine Optimisation or SEO. It’s a very complicated game where the winner takes it all – and if you want to be that winner, then it’s time for you to start getting SEO analysis happening. But what is it, why is it important, and how can you do it? We’ll answer all of those questions here, so read on.

What is SEO analysis?

SEO analysis, as the name suggests, is the process of analyzing a site’s SEO strategy to identify which areas are doing well and which ones need improvement. In a nutshell, it’s your site’s status report that will help you determine where it generates traffic, where the errors are, who your competitors are (and how they position themselves), and how you’re performing both for on-page and off-page SEO factors. It involves using several tools, such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEMrush, and more.

Why is it important?

By knowing how you and your competitors’ sites perform in SEO, you’ll be able to determine if your SEO strategy is working well for you or you need to improve it. Having a solid SEO strategy is only the first step. With the ever-changing SEO landscape, it’s crucial to analyze your site’s performance regularly so you can stay ahead of the competition.

Simply put, SEO analysis is important so that you will rank higher, drive traffic, expand your reach, and improve your site’s overall performance.

How to get started with SEO analysis

Check your visibility on Google

The first step and probably the most crucial one is to check how your site ranks on Google. It also pays to check how many of your pages are ranking in the search pages. Also, check your average position in the SERPs. In short, check your site’s overall visibility on Google and other search engines.

Assess your URLs and meta descriptions

Your site’s URLs are what describes the content of your page. The ideal length of a URL must be about four or five words only. If it’s too long, you have to optimize it accordingly so that the search engines’ bots will understand what your page is all about. Similarly, your meta descriptions should be a summary of your page’s content, which must include primary and secondary keywords.

Optimize your site’s content

When doing SEO analysis, you should never miss evaluating and optimizing your content, as this is a significant factor in making your site perform better. Each page must have unique content from the others. Duplicating content is a big no, so if you find any duplicates, re-index it or remove it. You should also ensure that your content is always fresh and high-quality.

Analyze your images

Images play a significant role in your website’s overall wellbeing because search engines can’t crawl them. That means you have to give it your best effort and ensure your images are high-quality and attractive to your consumers. Images should also have a title that describes what the image is all about. Optimize it by adding a proper ALT tag that contains appropriate keywords. You also have to compress and reduce the size of the images so that your site’s loading speed improves.

Examine your website’s speed

Speaking of speed, it’s uber-important to ensure that your site loads quickly or you will end up with a higher bounce rate. Your website’s speed affects the user-experience tremendously. When doing your SEO analysis, you must always include your analysis of speed to ensure that its’ loading time is fast and efficient. An excellent tool to use for this purpose is Google PageSpeed Insights.

Check your internal links

Internal links are a vital aspect of your SEO strategy in more ways than one. Doing these right helps build solid page authority, connects your pages, and improves user-experience, as well as your site’s traffic. It’s a good idea to check your internal links at least every 6 months and while you’re at it, try to add internal links from older pages to the more relevant pages of your site.

Scrutinize incoming links

More about links. Incoming links also called backlinks or inbound links must be part of your SEO strategy if you want it to work hard for you. The more natural they are, the better for your site. In a nutshell, incoming links are hyperlinks to your site from another website. Having backlinks from trusted sources is a good indication to Google that your site is also trustworthy.

Analyze your SEO strategy now

While SEO analysis is a complex and somewhat painstaking process, it’s imperative for all websites who want to take the lead in search results. No matter what business you’re in, your website is the face of your brand. You should be analyzing your SEO performance regularly and if you’re not – the best time to start doing it is right now. Don’t worry if you don’t have the time or expertise, our team of experts is here to help. Check out some of our works here or contact us for a chat about how we can improve your SEO results today.