Though a little confusing at first, on-page SEO refers to the strategies used to optimize individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic from search engines. On-page refers to both the content on a website and HTML code of each page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external factors.
As Google has regular updates and changes to it’s important to do a website content audit.
What is the purpose of a content audit?
A content audit can have many purposes and desired outcomes. In terms of SEO, they are often used to determine the following:
- How to escape a content-related search engine ranking filter or penalty
- Content that requires copywriting/editing for improved quality
- Content that needs to be updated and made more current
- Content that should be consolidated due to overlapping topics
- Content that should be removed from the site
- The best way to prioritize the editing or removal of content
- Content gap opportunities
- Which content is ranking for which keywords
- Which content should be ranking for which keywords
- The strongest pages on a domain and how to leverage them
- Undiscovered content marketing opportunities
- Due diligence when buying/selling websites or onboarding new clients
While each of these desired outcomes and insights are valuable results of a content audit, I would define the overall “purpose” of one as:
The purpose of a content audit for SEO is to improve the perceived trust and quality of a domain, to optimize the ranking signals throughout the site.
Content audits start with taking an inventory of all content available for indexation by search engines. This content is then analyzed against a variety of metrics and given one of three “Action” determinations namely; improve, remove and keep.
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