The work of a digital marketer is never finished, even when it comes to developing a strategy. If it’s been a while since you first launched your digital marketing strategy, it’s likely that the choices you made then may no longer be relevant or effective today.
To make sure you’re still meeting key objectives and moving the needle, it’s important to conduct a digital marketing audit each year. This allows you to polish and refine your strategy so that it can continue working for you to its fullest potential and make sure you’re not leaving low-hanging fruit on the tree.
Here’s how to get started with a digital marketing audit based on specific areas of your strategy:
1. On-Page SEO Audit
On-page SEO refers to optimization efforts on your own blog and website. Use free tools like SEO Site Checkup or Site Checker to crawl your website and identify opportunities for improvement. Some of the elements to look for include:
- Page title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Keyword usage and density
- Use of H2s and H3s
- Mobile responsiveness (I’ll cover this in its own section in a moment)
- Thin content
- Page load time
- Broken links or buttons
- Canonicalization issues
- Meta descriptions
- Keyword usage and density
- Use of H2s and H3s
- Mobile responsiveness (I’ll cover this in its own section in a moment)
- Thin content
- Page load time
- Broken links or buttons
- Canonicalization issues
If on-page SEO is missing opportunities, it can affect your other organic marketing efforts.
2. Off-Page SEO Audit
Off-page SEO refers to SEO objectives outside of your own website. This includes your backlink profile, general reputation, and social media presence (which I’ll cover on its own).
To do an off-page SEO audit, you’ll want to review your backlink profile to see if your backlinks are coming from high-authority, reputable sources. You have the option of disavowing links that come from spam sites or sources that aren’t high quality and could be bringing down your SEO.
3. Content Audit
There’s no doubt that content is king in digital marketing. A whopping 42% of marketers say they’re effective at content marketing, while 72% of marketers say their content increases engagement.
Take inventory of your blog and other content to see which topics you’ve covered and make sure you’re not repeating too much content.
It’s also a good idea to check your analytics to see which posts are bringing in the most traffic and sales. This way, you can double down on content you know is working well and stop pouring as much into underperforming content. Look to see where your best traffic sources are so you’ll know how to better allocate your marketing budget.
Another step to include here is to analyze your audience. Can you find any shared characteristics? Some common denominators to look for include:
- Geographic location
- Interests
- Behaviors
- Product purchase history
Finally, you’ll want to do an optimization analysis of your content to make sure you’re not missing any opportunities to improve organic rankings. Some questions to ask:
- Does each piece of content focus on at least one keyword?
- Is that keyword high performing?
- Are you using proper formatting (H2s, H3s, short paragraphs, etc.)?
- Does each piece of content include links and images?
- Do all of the links still work?
- Do images have alt image tags?
- Could stats or sources be updated?
- Is there anything we can expand or improve on?
Improving on existing content can help you avoid reinventing the wheel and get more mileage out of the resources you already have.
4. Social Media Audit
Search engines help your audience learn about your blog and content, but social media helps them discover more about your reputation. For this reason alone, you’ll want to include your social media profiles in your marketing audit.
Start with the social networks where you maintain an active presence. Go to each one and look at what users have commented about you or your content, along with any ratings and recommendations. It’s important to look at both positive and negative remarks — positive comments will tell you what your audience loves about you so you can keep doing those things, while negative comments can help you find ways to improve.
Also, review your posting frequency. If you’re not regularly posting on your social channels, you might examine ways that you can post more consistently to keep your audience engaged.
Another thing to audit is your audience size and engagement. If you’re posting often but not getting much response or growth, consider whether you’re using the right platforms to grow your audience. You can use analytics to see how much of your blog or website traffic is coming from your social sites before you decide to branch out.
Keep in mind that adding another social platform to your marketing mix can take up a lot of extra time and resources. If you’re not getting the response you want from your current channels, it’s usually better to try to improve what you already have first before starting something new.
5. Mobile Responsiveness Audit
Mobile has become a huge factor in SEO, and Google even admitted it’s favoring websites that are optimized for mobile viewing. In fact, more than half of website traffic happens on mobile devices these days, and your website needs to be prepared for an on-the-go audience.
To start your mobile responsiveness audit, simply visit your website on your own mobile device and check out the user experience:
- Do pages load quickly?
- Is the content readable?
- Are buttons easy to tap?
- How much scrolling do you have to do to find content?
- Do you have to pinch and zoom a lot?
Your on-page audit can also reveal potential issues with mobile-friendliness.
6. Paid Advertising Audit
Last but not least, you’ll want to review how well your paid ads are performing. Review the keywords you’re using in your ads to make sure they’re still effective and affordable. A high cost per click indicates your ad isn’t as effective as it should be.
You can also do a little recon to see what others in your niche are targeting. Use keyword tools like Ahrefs to see exactly what keywords other sites are ranking for, the difficulty level, and the average cost per click to inspire your own strategy.
If you’re looking for more information about increasing your digital marketing opportunities, check out my related blogs: How to SEO Your Blog for Organic Growth or How to Make Sure Your Digital Marketing Efforts Drive Results.
