Why choose the actionable audit?
The Actionable Audit Solves Common "SEO Audit" Problems
There are no shortage of automated tools or SEO companies out there willing to audit your site and make recommendations for improving organic visibility, and rightfully so, as auditing a website should be the first step in any organic search campaign.
However, we weren't happy with the status quo of SEO audits and identified a few issues that we wanted to solve.
Problem #1: Too many "free seo audits"
It's fairly industry standard to offer a free seo audit. We did it for years. But we noticed two major issues with the free seo audits that we saw the industry.
Firstly, far too many of them were push-button automated reports without any manual insight. Can't blame them - they are free after all - but this doesn't paint a holistic picture needed to improve visibility.
Secondly, the rest of them were simply sales pitches in disguise as an SEO audit. The majority of these audits were simply a high level list of things that can be improved on a website in general, without specific details on the website in question. This isn't an audit, it's a proposal that's not based on research. If you have an SEO budget and would like a proposal, we're happy to provide one, but lets not call that an audit. Our audits are created to help you choose the right path forward and to educate you should you want to go about it alone.
Problem #2: Most audits aren't delivered well
There are many different ways to deliver an audit - from word docs to videos and everything in between. Most SEO consultants and agencies deliver an audit in one of two ways:
I'm not against presenting an audit to a client. In fact I think given certain budgets and expectations a nice presentation that paints a picture of how a client performs compared to competitors, along with easy wins, technical issues, and a strategy for improvement is a great way to wrap up the work that you did.
Where I do have a problem with delivering an SEO audit via a slide deck is if that's the only thing provided. If you simply breeze through a handful of issues or opportunities on a slide, that's probably not enough.
It is important to note that this type of audit presentation is typically used for higher-budget campaigns. We understand that there are many businesses out there without a large budget that would rather us spend time doing the audit, rather than preparing the slide deck.
Delivering an audit via video can be a great way to save time by explaining issues in real-time or prior to a client meeting. However, if the only thing you deliver is a video of you auditing the website, it's difficult for the client to refer back for specific information.
Pairing a video explaining your findings with a well laid out audit deliverable is a great way to add to the audit experience, but it shouldn't be the only thing that gets sent.
Our audit has a focus on providing actionable insight - issues or opportunities that can be executed on right away - in order to improve your organic visibility.