Our guide provides a complete overview of the significance and benefits of conducting a B2B SEO audit, guidelines on how to perform it, the tools that assist in the process, and recommendations on the frequency of conducting an audit.
B2B SEO Audit
What is a B2B SEO Audit?
It is a business-to-business (B2B) website’s search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to uncover strengths and weaknesses that need attention to improve organic visits and search engine rankings.
The process encompasses an analysis of the following key elements:
- Keyword research: Assessing the relevance and competitiveness of the keywords targeted by the website. Understanding the search volume and intent of key terms specific to the B2B industry is for optimizing content.
- Backlink analysis: Examining the quality and quantity of external websites linking to the website to evaluate its authority and credibility. Includes scrutinizing the quality of individual backlinks and the distribution of different backlinks to pinpoint areas for enhancement.
- Metadata analysis: The evaluation and optimization of meta tags and descriptions affect a website’s performance in search engine results pages (SERPs).
- Content quality evaluation: Determining content’s relevance, uniqueness, and engagement metrics with the target audience. Emphasizing the importance of creating valuable, informative, and search-intent-aligned content.
Why is B2B SEO Audit Important?
Conducting an audit is for any business-to-business entity as it increases website performance, boosts organic traffic, and improves search engine rankings. The outcomes result in increased visibility and higher conversion rates.
What Are the Benefits of Conducting a B2B SEO Audit?
Performing this type of audit offers the advantages of boosting organic traffic, ROI, and increasing conversion rates, all of which contribute to a more effective digital marketing strategy.
One key benefit of a B2B SEO audit is improved keyword targeting. For instance, a software company conducting an SEO audit might focus on long-tail keywords such as cloud-based CRM solutions for enterprises to attract B2B clients seeking software customized for enterprise use.
How to Perform a B2B SEO Audit?
❗Conduct an audit following these steps:
- Identifying your target audience
- Analyzing your current SEO strategy
- Conducting keyword research
- Evaluating on-page and technical SEO factors
- Reviewing your backlink profile
- Analyzing competitors’ strategies
Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience
- The first step in conducting an audit is to identify and understand the target audience’s search behavior, preferences, and needs.
- It becomes possible to pinpoint the audience segments most likely to convert by examining metrics such as website traffic, keyword performance, and social media engagement.
- While understanding the search behavior of the target audience is, recognizing their intent is equally important.
Step 2: Analyze Your Current SEO Strategy
When analyzing your current SEO strategy, it is important to review and assess the performance of keyword usage, content quality, and backlink strength, among other factors. Key metrics such as keyword rankings are examined to evaluate how well a website ranks in search engine results for specific search terms.
Organic traffic analysis assesses the quantity and quality of visitors arriving at a website through non-paid search. Backlink profile analysis gauges a website’s authority and credibility in search engines.
SEO auditing tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, and others aid in collecting data, generating reports, visualizing insights, and identifying areas for optimization.
Step 3: Conduct Keyword Research
Conducting keyword research is a major component of a B2B SEO audit. It identifies the terms and phrases potential customers use to discover products or services similar to yours. Tools such as SEMrush or Ahrefs provide marketers with insights into search trends, competitor strategies, and potential market opportunities.
Long-tail keywords, which are more specific and longer search queries, drive organic traffic and reach niche audiences. Integrating keywords into your content strategy improves search visibility and attracts qualified leads.
Step 4: Evaluate On-Page SEO Factors
Elements such as meta tags, content quality, keyword density, and internal linking are considered on-page SEO factors that are evaluated to adhere to best SEO practices.
One aspect of assessing and optimizing on-page SEO includes optimizing meta tags with relevant and keyword-rich title tags and meta descriptions. Well-structured headers, such as H1 and H2 tags, aid in organizing content for better search engine indexing and user readability.
Alt text for images provides accessibility for visually impaired users and provides search engines with additional context. Using structured data markup also facilitates the assessment and indexing of content via search engines.
Step 5: Check for Technical SEO Issues
Technical SEO issues always pop up, influencing processes such as site speed, crawlability, indexability, and mobile optimization to website accessibility and efficiency. Google Search Console is commonly used to pinpoint and resolve technical SEO problems. Data from Google Search Console identifies and rectifies issues such as slow page load times, mobile-friendliness concerns, broken links, and more.
Slow page load times and inadequate mobile optimization lead to subpar user experiences and negatively impact search rankings. Therefore, actively monitor and address issues.
Step 6: Review Your Backlink Profile
Analyzing the backlink profile is an aspect of conducting a B2B SEO audit, as it aids in assessing both the quality and quantity of inbound links directed toward a website.
Tools such as Ahrefs or Moz allow you to view your backlink profile and scrutinize metrics such as referring domains, anchor text distribution, and link quality. Recognize that, for backlinks, quality holds more weight than quantity. A few high-quality backlinks are more advantageous for SEO than numerous low-value ones.
Step 7: Analyze Your Competitors’ SEO Strategies
Analyzing your competitors’ SEO strategies enables you to understand their keyword usage, backlink sources, and content strategies, giving you insights to adjust your SEO strategy for greater success and a competitive edge.
Tools such as SEMrush and Ahrefs make conducting a thorough competitor analysis relatively simple.
What Tools Can Help with B2B SEO Audit?
Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz are the tools that assist you in conducting the audit. Each tool offers unique benefits and advantages for analyzing various aspects of your SEO strategy.
1. Google Analytics
Google Analytics offers insights into SEO performance and user engagement by providing data on traffic sources, user behavior, and conversion rates. Businesses use Google Analytics to measure various SEO metrics, such as assessing organic search traffic, tracking keyword performance, monitoring page views, and tracking bounce rates.
User behavior data enables marketers to observe how users interact with their site, identify areas for enhancement, and adjust their SEO strategy accordingly.
2. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a web service by Google that enables webmasters to monitor and maintain a site’s presence in Google Search results. It provides data and configuration control for indexing, crawling, and search performance issues. The tools include analyzing crawl errors, reviewing HTML improvements, and submitting sitemaps for improved indexation.
3. SEMrush
SEMrush is a powerful tool for keyword research and competitor analysis, offering features to track keyword rankings, analyze backlinks, and uncover competitor strategies. Detailed insights into competitor keywords provided by SEMrush aid users in identifying content gaps.
Through SEMrush’s competitive analysis tools, you can uncover opportunities to promote your website’s search engine ranking. The platform’s keyword research tool enables users to identify relevant keywords with high search volumes and low competition. Additionally, SEMrush’s backlink analysis feature assists users in identifying quality backlink opportunities for website authority and visibility.
4. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is considered the best tool for backlink analysis. It offers extensive features for keyword research, site audits, and competitor analysis, making it highly valuable for B2B SEO audits. Ahrefs backlink analysis provides useful insights into a website’s link profile, allowing users to examine the number of new and lost backlinks, anchor text distribution, and linking site domain authority.
.With its capability to assess link quality, Ahrefs enables users to evaluate the credibility and relevance of incoming links, leading to a more effective link-building strategy.
5. Moz
Moz is renowned as one of the top SEO tools for tracking domain authority and page authority, providing a total suite of robust SEO features related to metrics. The domain and page authority tracking capabilities offered by Moz are for gaining insights into how your site stacks up against others and identifying areas for improvement.
In addition, Moz provides an array of features for keyword research, enabling you to discover new keywords to target and evaluate their potential performance. Through site audits, Moz assists in uncovering technical SEO issues that may be impeding your site’s performance, while its link-building features aid in cultivating a strong backlink profile to your site’s domain and page authority.
All of the tools we have mentioned take some time to get mastered. SEO experts are proficient users and are able to teach you how to use them. But, finding an expert is a worthwhile endeavor, as case studies show that companies getting advice from one have a much larger user traffic rate that the ones that do not.
The button will redirect you to the Upwork freelance platform, where you can schedule 30-minute consultations for $30 or 1-hour consultations for $60.
How Often Should You Conduct a B2B SEO Audit?
To maintain competitiveness and continuous online visibility, conduct audits at regular intervals, ideally once every quarter. Changes in algorithms, user behavior, and competitive environments impact the effectiveness of your current strategy.
Monitoring and analyzing SEO performance regularly simplifies the identification of areas for improvement, exploitation of new SEO prospects, and resolution of issues promptly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a B2B SEO audit?
It is a total analysis of a business-to-business (B2B) website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies and techniques. It identifies areas for improvement and provides recommendations for optimizing the website’s online presence to attract and convert more B2B leads.
Why is a B2B SEO audit important?
It is important because it aids businesses in identifying and fixing any issues that may be hindering their website’s performance in search engine rankings.
What does a B2B SEO audit involve?
A B2B SEO audit typically involves a thorough analysis of the website’s technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO. Includes evaluating factors such as website structure, keyword usage, backlinks, content quality, and overall user experience.
How often should a B2B SEO audit be conducted?
It is recommended to conduct an audit at least once a year so that the website is continuously optimized and meets the latest SEO standards. However, it may also be necessary to conduct an audit after major website updates or changes in SEO algorithms.
Can a B2B SEO audit benefit my business?
A B2B SEO audit greatly benefits your business by improving your website’s visibility and driving targeted traffic to your website. Ultimately leads to higher conversion rates and increased revenue for your B2B business.
Is a B2B SEO audit a one-time process?
No, the audit should be an ongoing process so that your website is continuously optimized and performing at its best. With the constantly evolving nature of SEO, it is important to regularly review and update your strategies to stay ahead of the competition.