What is holding your website back?
Why are your competitors outranking you?
A website audit will find this out, plus:
- What your competitors are doing?
- What improvements your website needs?
The report will then identify specific actions and priorities.
Blueprint
Not just a report, but your blueprint for search engine results
Testimonials
Feedback from recent clients
Uncovered a number of things that had not been raised by previous 'SEO experts'!
We've worked with Jon for a number of years as the supplier of quality loans leads, so it was logical to ask him how we could improve the SEO of our website.
The audit he did was very comprehensive, and uncovered a number of things that had not been raised by previous 'SEO experts"!
Particularly useful was Google Doc the action list he created, which made implementing the recommendations so much easier.
We will now be working with Jon to oversee the implementation of the audit - highly recommended.
See Review on UpWork
Impressive, I would highly recommend
Jon headed a team that produced an extremely comprehensive SEO analysis report for one of my corporate clients, including a technical audit, competitor analysis, and CRO audit.
The reports were thorough, well written, and very useful to the client as included very clear action points.
An impressive piece of work and I would highly recommend Jon.
Dramatic impact on Google organic traffic
Jon was brought in to help one of our e-commerce clients who was having some difficulties with their Google rankings.
He did a technical SEO audit on the site and made many recommendations.
These were implemented by the client over the next 6-months which had a dramatic impact on their Google organic traffic.
We will be recommending Jon to our clients again. He definitely knows his stuff!
Review from UpworkExpert in getting the right visitors and conversions
I’ve worked with Jon on a number of projects now, the last one when he was doing the on-page SEO for an online training company.
He has very extensive expertise in both SEO and marketing, how to get the right website visitors, and then the right conversions.
Very happy to recommend Jon to any business that is thinking of hiring him, either big or small.
Recommendations were practical and very effective
After working with Jon at Artemis we’ve kept in regular contact. Jon recently did us an SEO Audit for one of our clients who was experiencing some concerning drops in website traffic. His audit was very comprehensive and focused, and offered some key areas of improvement. He has great insights into websites, and his recommendations were both practical as well as very effective. Jon really knows SEO, will definitely use him again. Review from UpworkGreatly helped conversion rates
Jon and I worked together on an extensive SEO audit for a client in a very competitive niche.
Jon concentrated on the conversion optimisation side of the work, which included a lot of competitor analysis.
His reports and proposals were very insightful and resulted in the client site being re-designed (which greatly helped their conversion rates).
Jon is thorough, always over-delivers, and makes practical suggestions. Recommended! "
Significant improvements in website traffic
Jon and I worked together at Artemis on multiple client accounts together.
Jon’s specialty is the SEO Audit, producing a very in-depth analysis of what’s holding a client site back, and what can be done to get better results.
The client that comes to mind was a business service company specialising in document scanning and archiving that had a very poor website.
Not only did Jon provide very clear instructions as to what needed to be optimised on their new site moving forward, but his recommendations were the basis of a complete reorganisation, and re-design of the site, which resulted in significant improvements on website traffic.
The man to go to for your SEO and CRO audits!
Dramatically improved site sales
I've known Jon for a number of years now and we have worked on many SEO projects together.
Jon is very strong commercially and has a particular eye for getting websites to drive more leads and income.
In particular, we worked on a fashion eCommerce site together (an extremely competitive online market); his insights around improving conversion rates were second to none and dramatically improved site sales.
I have no hesitation in recommending Jon. He is a pleasure to work with and a valued partner to my business.
If You're Looking for Someone To Kick-Start Your Business Jon Is Your Man
From the get-go, Jon was on board with our vision and understood what we needed, and was quickly forthcoming with suggestions and ideas for driving our sales.
He delivered a structured plan of action for his working schedule and clearly set out what he would be doing along with clear reasons for why he would be doing each job. He met all our criteria and delivered on time.
In addition to this Jon set up regular Zoom calls so we could talk through the work in progress, allowing us to follow each step and make any necessary changes along the way.
We have begun to put his suggestions for immediate changes into place and are following his guidance for more long-term changes too.
All in all, if you're looking for someone to kick-start your business and create a step by step guide to implement further growth in the future then Jon is your man! We will 100% be happy to use Jon's expertise again in the future if we need further expert help.
Included
All audits are bespoke and tailored to your priorities, though typically include:
Keyword Research
Definition: finding the queries people type into search engines to find your product or services.
This research: will find your most commercially viable keyword targets and inform your website structure.
Many websites do not perform well in the search engines because they do not target the right keywords, for example:
- Too competitive– keywords with a large number of monthly queries, with large companies actively competing for top rankings, therefore requiring an SEO investment over and above the budget and resources available.
- Not commercially viable– keywords that attract people who are not interested in your product or service, meaning you will not financially benefit from top rankings.
- No search volume– there are not enough people searching for these targets to drive suitable levels of traffic.
For more information see Research.
Competitor Analysis
This analysis: will help inform what it will take to 'beat' your competition.
Your top online competitors give clues into what it will take to perform well for your chosen keywords, including:
- Content: the type of pages that will achieve top rankings in search results, such as articles, product pages; plus, the quality and quantity of content required.
- Authority: the type of links you will need; plus, the level of industry expertise required from your authors.
For more information see Research.
Technical SEO Audit
This audit: will identify the issues that are currently holding your site back and the required fixes.
The technical performance of a website site can have a make-or-break impact on its usability and search engine performance, including:
- Speed: your site needs to be fast and responsive for users.
- Search Engine Visibility: the site must be easily crawlable by the search engines, and only have the right URLs available for their indexes.
- Structure: the URL setup of the site should be logical for users and search engines.
For more information see Audit's.
Content Review
This review: will highlight how well you are doing compared to your market, what updates are required, and provide a template for new content moving forward.
Content is the most important asset of your website, and to perform well you need to provide what your visitor is looking for:
- Type: are you displaying information the way people want to see it (e-commerce page for a purchase query; an article for an informational query)?
- Quality: is your page well written with the supporting images, videos, or audio people expect?
- Format: are your pages well laid out and easy to read?
- Gaps: are there any subject areas where competitors have quality content that you do not?
For more information see Audit's.
Conversion Rate Audit
This audit: will make recommendations on how your website can start driving more purchases, enquiries, and other key actions.
If your website is not optimised for conversions, many of your visitors may leavetaking no action when otherwise they may have made an enquiry or purchase.
To stop this from happening, this audit will review:
- Contact Options: do you make it easy for people to get in contact and provide different methods (phone, email, forms, chat, etc.)
- Calls to Action: do you provide clear calls to action, and a/b test these for top performance?
- Sales funnel: is your shopping cart or online sales process working optimally, or are too many people failing to complete?
For more information see Audit's.
Link & Authority Audit
This audit: will determine the quality and quantity of links pointing to your website, and your top competitors. The report will recommend what you need to do for top rankings.
In some markets, irrespective of how good your own website is, without good enough backlinks you will not beat your competitors? This audit will review:
- Competitors: how strong are your competitors and what type of links do they have?
- Link quality: are your backlinks from good enough websites?
- Toxic links: do you have any links that may be causing your website a problem, and need 'cleaning up'?
- Authority: overall does your website have the 'authority' that will enable it to rank for your target keywords?
For more information see Audit's.
Research
Competitor and keyword research in more detail
Keyword Research Explained
Identifying the right keywords for your website to target is the cornerstone of SEO success.
Too often I see not enough time spent on this research, so those targeted are either (1) too competitive, (2) not commercially viable, or (3) drive the wrong visitors.
Targeting the wrong keywords can result in wasted time, effort, and sub-standard results.
HOW TO MAKE SURE YOU TARGET THE RIGHT ONES
I typically follow this process:
- Client Brief- detailed discussion to identify your business targets, ambitions, primary products, services, and business resources.
- Brainstorm– list all the possible words that your customers may use when searching for your products and services.
- Competitors – review of all top online competitors and the search terms they are targeting and driving results from.
- Combine – combine all keyword ideas from steps 1-3, sometimes generating thousands.
- Volume & Value – get monthly volume and cost per click value search engine data for all and filter out terms without volume or value.
- Sorting – arrange similar keywords into logical groups to start informing site categories and pages.
- Site plan – propose a site structure that organises your website into logical themes.
- Targets – highlight the primary keyword targets for both short-term, and longer-term results.
Competitor Research Explained
Find out from your competitors what works, what does not, and what is required to rank above them in the SERPs.
The search engine's job is to try and present the very best results for every search query. By analysing the top competitors for your top keywords, you learn a great deal about what search engines are looking for in top websites.
Competitor research includes:
- Finding the Competition– based on your target keywords, firstly identifying the top websites that target broadly the same keywords as you.
- Traffic Sources– find out where they get their website traffic, such as organic search, PPC ads, email, referrals and social.
- Speed & Performance– find out how the speed of their webpages, and how well they perform on mobile.
- Content – determine the quantity and quality content on their websites, and what type of pages target each search query (product page, article, etc).
- Conversions – find out how well they are set up for conversations, and best practices that can be learned.
- Links – identify the quality and quantity of their back-link profile.
- Authority – establish how authoritative they are in the market, such as high-profile authors, and citations in highly respected publications.
Research is collated into a professional, easy-to-read document, which should be regularly referred to when designing the SEO campaign.
Audit's
The different audits in more detail
Technical SEO Audit
The purpose of the audit is to highlight issues and problems with your website, plus identifying opportunities.
There are a huge number of checks that can be carried out, but not all are relevant to all websites.
Only the relevant checks will be carried out for your site, concentrating on the areas that will have the most beneficial impact on you.
Content Review Explained
The purpose of the review is to find out how your content is performing, identify any problems, and suggest practical improvements that can be made.
The review can include:
- Top Ranking Content – find out the type and quality of content found on the top-ranking pages. For example, some SERP results may be predominantly e-commerce type pages, or articles, or videos. The review will identify how your pages compare with these and make recommendations.
- Duplicate Content Checks (on-site and off-site)– find content that is duplicated within your own website, or online. If you have duplicate content this can reduce site search engine performance, no matter how 'good’ the original is. The review will identify any problems, and the required action.
- Low-Quality Content Checks– find any content that does not add value to the visitor or has low engagement. This will dilute the value of your good-quality pages. The review will identify problems and what needs doing, such as increase text quality, or delete pages.
- Content Gap – find relevant subject areas that are not covered on your website. For example, maybe your competitors have comprehensive FAQ sections. The review will identify these areas where your website may be lacking.
Conversion Rate Explained
This review will find opportunities for your website to convert more visitors into customers.
Several elements will be reviewed:
- Competitors – how your website compares with the top competitors in your market, and related fields. Much can be learnt by analysing other websites in detail. Elements of good practice will be highlighted, with comments on how this can be implemented on your site.
- Forms of Contact– a manually review to establish how easy it is for people to get in touch and ask questions. People have different preferences when it comes to contacting an organisation, some prefer email, others telephone, some online chat etc. How your business compares with competitors and proposals will be presented.
- Page Design– how a page is laid out can make a big difference in whether calls to action are effective. For example, a ‘visually busy’ design may stop the visitor seeing the ‘buy button’. The key pages on your site will be manually reviewed and recommendations made.
- Calls to Action– key elements where you are asking visitors to take a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter, requesting a demo, or buying a product. The calls to action (CTA) you decide to use (text and button colour etc.) make large differences to results. Your CTA’s on key pages will be manually reviewed and recommendations made.
- Sales Funnels– if your website has a sales funnel such as a shopping cart, or loan application form, then its design and set up can greatly affect successful completions. Opportunities for improvements.
- A/B Testing– with tools such as Google Optimize, it is possible to A/B test specific elements on your page to gather data on what works best for driving conversions. This will enable analysis of the effectiveness of call-to-action messages, button colours and much more. Tests will be recommended within the report.
Link and Authority Analysis
Backlinks remain one of the most important ranking factors for your pages. The analysis will include:
Your links and authority
- Do your links look natural or manufactured?
- Do you have any toxic links that may be causing a problem?
- Are you using internal linking to complement inbound links?
- Do you have any low-quality links that are not causing a problem, but are not cost-effective to keep building?
Competitor analysis
- What links do your top-ranking competitors have?
- Do they have any authority within a field, for example, are their authors cited, or featured in highly respected publications?
- Is there anything that your competitors are doing to get links or online exposure that you could learn from?
Link Plan
Based on results from the analysis, a plan will be drawn up to propose:
- 'Quick win' links that you could get easily.
- New link-building strategies.
- Action to remove toxic links.
- How you can start building authority, by getting cited highly respected publications, and increasing the profile of your website’s authors.
Action Plan
What needs to get done and when!
This plan will identify your primary SEO actions, who should do these, and when.
Your SEO audit has less value if findings are not converted into practical actions, each with a priority. Without this, the audit has no clear outcome and can become overwhelming.
I have worked with clients who have had good audits written, but nothing was actioned due to this section being omitted.
The action plan will include:
- List of Precise Actions- presented within a Google Sheet, these can be copy and pasted into a project management system such as Basecamp, Monday.com, etc. Reference is made to the relevant report page where more information on the task can be found.
- Priority– a priority will be given to each action, so they can be sorted accordingly. This is done on a monthly scale, so a Priority 1 should be done in month 1, and so on.
- Who– the responsible person will also be added to each task, such as SEO, Developer, Client, Designer, etc.
With this information, you are now fully armed to start making improvements to your website.
FAQs
It is the detailed analysis of many aspects of a website that impacts its performance in search engine organic search rankings.
It will cover elements such as technical SEO, conversion rates, content, and back-links. The output should be:
- A professional report presenting all findings.
- Specific actions required and their priority.
The purpose of an audit is to find out what can be improved to increase results from search engine optimisation:
- What is holding your website back?
- What is required to beat your online competitors?
If you do not start an SEO campaign with an audit, you may spend time and effort on areas that are a low priority and be disappointed with the results.
A good SEO audit will start your campaign with the knowledge of the key priorities for your website and business.
There are many potential uses:
- Task List – to simply provide you with a list of priority tasks, which can be useful for your own team, or when employing an SEO agency, or freelancer.
- Evaluate Process – maybe you are part way through an SEO campaign, and you want to see in detail what has been done, and what has been effective.
- Re-evaluate Targets & Competitors – markets are constantly changing; over time the search queries change, and the results displayed do too. An audit a year or so after your previous one will identify if you need to change keyword targets, the type of content you are producing, or the links you are building.
There are typically a few types of SEO audit:
- Keyword Research – a review of the most valuable keywords for your website to target.
- Technical Audit - looks at the technical aspects of a website, such as making it faster, plus easier to crawl, and understandable for search engines.
- Conversion Rate Review – checks how well the website is set up to convert traffic to enquiries or sales.
- Content Review – reviews the quality and quantity of content, especially in relation to top-ranking competitors.
- Link Audit – reviews the quality and quantity of your back-links, especially in relation to your top-ranking competitors.
Typically, an SEO audit will include all aspects, including technical, conversions, content, and links.
However, if you specifically do not need one aspect that is fine, the audit is designed to just provide you with the information you need.
I charge a daily rate of £440.
The cost depends on the time required for detailed analysis and writing a report that gives you genuinely value.
Audit’s typically range from 1 to 6 days, see below.
This depends on the size of your website and the level of competition in your market.
I do not do standard packages, as no two clients, markets, or websites are the same. However, some examples:
- Regional business: typically, 2 to 4 days
With a website of say 500 pages and average online competition.
- National business: typically, 3 to 6 days
With a website of say 2,000 pages and average online competition.
- Corporate businesses: 4 days upwards
As there is such a large variety of potential business sizes and industry competition, please contact me for a quote.
- E-commerce business 2 days upwards
As there is such a large variety of potential business sizes and industry competition, please contact me for a quote.
- Local business: typically, 1 to 2 days
For a small local business with say 100 pages and below-average online competition.
The more information that is given beforehand, the less time I will spend trying to find this during the audit.
It is possible for me to provide a useful analysis without prior information, though this approach is not recommended as the output is based on more assumptions and less targeted to your business.
Typically, I request:
- Analytics– access to for example Google Analytics.
- Webmaster– access to Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Other Tracking or Monitoring –access to SEMrush, Hotjar, MS Clarity, etc.
- Keywords– any previous list of keywords, or keyword research you have done in the past.
- Previous SEO– details of any SEO work previously done.
- Other Marketing – details of other marketing campaigns you have running or planned.
- Business Goals– details of your goals for the website and business.
- Business resources– such as copywriters, PR team, etc that will be able to help with the SEO campaign.
Typically, I am not offering SEO implementation services, as I am doing this for my own websites. However, some options:
1. Your Own Team
Your existing team members (if they have knowledge gaps, I also provide SEO training).
2. SEO Freelancers
The precise action list makes it easier for you to hire freelancers to undertake specific actions, such as re-write all meta titles and descriptions. Many companies are put off hiring freelancers as they do not have specific tasks for people to do; instead, they request “improve website rankings”, which is too broad.
I can help write a job spec for a freelancer and help monitor their activities.
3. SEO Agency
The most hands-off option but also the most expensive. A good SEO agency is worth its weight in gold, however, at times they can be hard to find.
As the previous Head of SEO at an Agency, I can provide support with selecting and managing the agency (I know some of their tricks!).