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Ultimate SEM Audit Guide - Katava Marketing
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Ultimate SEM Audit Guide

Katava Marketing / Digital Marketing  / Ultimate SEM Audit Guide
Ultimate SEM Audit Guide
Jul 29

Ultimate SEM Audit Guide

What is a Digital Marketing Strategy?

A digital marketing strategy is a plan on how to use digital channels in a way that aligns with your business goals and brand message. Each digital channel — such as search engine marketing (SEM), social media and video marketing — could have their own schedule, goals and tone of voice. However, the overall digital marketing strategy creates a seamless experience for your customers.

Search engine marketing refers to the combination of search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search engine advertising. With a staggering 92% of internet traffic coming from Google, search results are the most important digital channel for businesses of all sizes and industries. With a lot on your plate, it’s hard to prioritize your business’s long-term search engine marketing (SEM) strategy. If you haven’t changed your strategy in a while, it could be time to revisit your strategy based on recent digital marketing trends and algorithm changes by search engines. Every digital marketing strategy should begin with an analysis of your current digital marketing efforts. 

 

How to Conduct an SEM Audit

An SEO & SEM audit evaluates how well your website is performing in search results by exposing the strengths and weaknesses of your business website’s organic and paid optimization efforts. The results of a full in-depth SEM audit will help you understand what you should focus on to help increase visibility in search results — ultimately driving more traffic and sales to your website. Katava Marketing has built a step-by-step process to help you conduct an audit:

  1. Technical SEO

Technical SEO analysis takes a deep dive into the backend of your business website and determines if how the website was built follows best practices. No matter how keyword-rich your content is, there are many other behind-the-scenes factors that contribute to search result rankings. If your website pages are not accessible to search engines, they won’t appear in search results. If your competitors have a better mobile experience or a faster load time, they will out-rank your business in search results. The technical SEO portion of the audit will deliver action items that focus on improving the back end of your website for better visibility. 

  1. Website Structure & Usability

Website structure and usability audit focuses on the front-end experience your website offers customers. Search engines are looking to provide the most relevant and reliable results as possible. Users have certain expectations on how websites are structured, how they function and how they look. Easy usability across all devices increases the time users will spend on your website which boosts your credibility with search engines. 

  1. Competitor Analysis

It’s always important to look at where your competitors appear in search results. Knowing what keywords your competitors are ranking for helps your business determine a strong content plan going forward that focuses on the gaps your business can begin to dominate. 

  1. Backlink Profile

Backlinks refer to outside websites that link back to your business’s website. Backlinks help build domain authority with search engines. If other businesses trust your information, why shouldn’t Google searchers? Tied together with a strong content strategy, backlinks will help your website rank higher in search results.

  1. Google Core Web Vitals

Introduced in 2020, Google Core Web Vitals are the latest signals that teach the Google algorithm which website should rank high in search results. These signals do not completely replace keyword rankings. However, they go hand-in-hand with keywords rankings to deliver the most relevant and reliable results to users. These signals include page speed, device responsiveness, stability and security. 

  1. Paid Search Analysis

Organic, meaning unpaid, search results are only one part of search engine marketing. Paid search advertising allows businesses to pay for prime real estate on search results pages. If your business is currently running paid search advertising, it’s time to review their performance and determine new short-term and long-term goals. If your business is currently not running paid search ads, it’s time to evaluate just how valuable paid search ads could be.

 

Download Our EBook!

Whether Google releases a new update, smartphones add new features or a new social media platform emerges, the digital landscape is always changing. Businesses don’t always have the time to keep up. Download our SEM Marketing ebook to learn everything you need to run a successful SEM strategy in 2024.