Digital Marketing - Study Notes:
Function of a search audit
What is the function of a search audit? Search audits allow you to establish the current standing of your search marketing activity.
Search factors
You can audit the status of your search marketing channels by analyzing several factors.
Technical SEO
For example, an analysis of your technical SEO will establish how well your site is adhering to Google’s best practices. Is it accessible for crawlers? And does it provide an optimal user experience across devices?
SEO ranking
Auditing your SEO rankings performance will establish how frequently your site ranks on local search engines, and in what order. Consider if it ranks via text, image, video, or news results.
Google Ads best practices
A search audit also analyzes your adherence to Google Ads best practices, like ensuring your paid search account follows all best practices, and that you are making the most of the targeting capabilities available.
Content marketing and display
Auditing your content marketing performance looks at how effective your content is at driving brand awareness and consumer acquisition.
Display and video
While an analysis of your display and video ad performance establishes the role and effectiveness of these channels, while an analysis of your display and video ad performance establishes the role and effectiveness of these channels.
Ecommerce
An ecommerce audit analyzes your performance in the major shopping platforms. This audit will assess your user experience, the customer journey, and sales against key ecommerce metrics. As a result, you can remove any barriers that are restricting your current performance.
Example: SeatGeek
A search audit is particularly useful if your website has many pages to analyze.
For example, a search audit allowed SeatGeek, the largest event ticket search engine on the web, to conduct a technical SEO audit of more than 1 million pages. This enabled them to identify high and low-performing content, and then restructure the website based on the insights gained. The outcome of this process led to a 20% increase in traffic, which was achieved without changing any of the on-page content.
Benchmarking
A search audit allows you to benchmark your current performance against the competition and provides insight into how much investment will be required to succeed.
Metrics
Key metrics to look at when planning your search audit include:
- Paid search spend
- Average conversion rate
- Clickthrough-rate
- Cost-per-click
- Impression share
Clark Boyd
Clark Boyd is CEO and founder of marketing simulations company Novela. He is also a digital strategy consultant, author, and trainer. Over the last 12 years, he has devised and implemented international marketing strategies for brands including American Express, Adidas, and General Motors.
Today, Clark works with business schools at the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and Columbia University to design and deliver their executive-education courses on data analytics and digital marketing.
Clark is a certified Google trainer and runs Google workshops across Europe and the Middle East. This year, he has delivered keynote speeches at leadership events in Latin America, Europe, and the US. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Slideshare. He writes regularly on Medium and you can subscribe to his email newsletter, hi, tech.
Neil Patel
Neil Patel is the co-founder of NP Digital. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations.
