Automated SEO audits from tools like Ahrefs or Semrush are a bane of the SEO industry.
While an SEO audit may be useful, it won’t help build your SEO strategies, achieve your KPIs and grow your business.
Your entire SEO strategy might become misdirected.
Why most SEO audits are inherently flawed
There are three big core flaws with SEO audits:
1. Limited value for decisionmakers
An audit is filled with data that’s hard to understand for anyone without an SEO background.
2. It’s often detached from the overall marketing strategy
Most automated suggestions are based on a quasi-scientific SEO score that may mean nothing for your business KPIs.
This is in addition to the typical myopia in the management ranks (e.g., if graphs show growth, we’re doing well).
Traffic growth doesn’t always benefit the business.
For example, a B2B SaaS company could waste thousands on ranking pages with poor conversion potential. Sure, the company would have lots of organic visits, but this effort is largely misplaced if those visitors don’t convert.
3. It’s static by nature
An audit merely reflects the website’s performance at a given point in time.
It’s not embedded in the dynamics of your competitive landscape and offers little value for long-term planning.
What should you do instead?
To address these issues, Crowdo came up with a tangible new format, one based on your business goals and easily digestible for non-SEO people.
Your SEO strategy needs a business foundation – cutting-edge but not overly technical. In other words, a clear and tailor-made roadmap.
Crowdo has had great success with this new format and the feedback from clients has been overwhelmingly positive.
How our SEO roadmap beats a typical SEO audit
1. It’s focused on your business priorities, not SEO metrics.
An average manager brushes off the “Domain Authority” or “organic CTR” of a specific article on your blog, and that’s OK.
Ultimately, SEO is judged based on its ROI, like any other marketing activity.
Based on your company’s maturity, you probably have a North Star metric (e.g., acquiring leads, expanding into new locations).