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An enterprise SEO audit is essential to find and fix SEO issues.
This is your ultimate guide to understand and perform these audits.
We’ll analyze:
- How enterprise SEO audits differ from regular ones
- The 3 steps to performing an SEO audit for enterprise-level companies
- A full SEO checklist
- Enterprise SEO prices
Bonus: We’ll show you how to implement SEO recommendations to increase your conversion rates using a real enterprise SaaS company as an example.
And as always, we sprinkle plenty of our in-house insider tips and tools.
Let’s begin.
OR get your full enterprise SEO audit checklist here.
What Is an Enterprise SEO Audit?
An enterprise SEO audit evaluates your larger website's search engine optimization.
Any serious SEO agency will do it to pinpoint weaknesses and opportunities.
And since you have an enterprise company, you need a very deep dive into your site's architecture and content strategies.
The data we gather helps us find solutions to fully optimize your online presence for search engines like Google.
This audit looks at key components such as technical issues, content quality, and link integrity.
You'll also check for broken links and duplicate content, which can hurt your search engine rankings.
For example, we can use Ahrefs to look at how the student-first platform Chegg is performing.
Chegg is a great example in the educational enterprise SaaS niche, but you can still see its organic keywords plummeting.
Like so:
Plus, you can use Ahrefs to inspect different pages, site structure, organic pages, your backlink profile and more.
But we’ll discuss those below.
Insider tip: An enterprise SEO audit isn't just about fixing errors.
We want to align your SEO strategies with your business goals to boost organic traffic.
Implementing the insights from an enterprise SEO audit correctly allows you to attract more qualified leads and achieve greater digital success.
Who Needs an Enterprise SEO Audit?
If you manage an enterprise-level website, you need an enterprise SEO audit.
This isn't just a nice-to-have—it's essential for anyone tasked with driving high-stakes SEO for larger websites.
And you need it at least quarterly, if not monthly.
This is especially true for enterprise sites with substantial organic searches that must maintain top search rankings amid competitive pressures.
Insider tip: You need an enterprise SEO audit even more if you notice fluctuations in organic search traffic or if your sales team notices plummeting conversion rates.
At Blue Things, we use solid SEO audit tools to uncover issues like indexability problems or slow load times that directly impact your user experience and, consequently, your SEO performance.
Another insider tip: We advise our clients to have another SEO audit when they’re gearing up for a redesign or significant update.
That’s because an audit gives them actionable insights that guide their strategy.
Basically, you want to ensure every element of your site, from internal linking to search intent, is optimized to meet your enterprise company's digital marketing goals.
Enterprise SEO vs Generic SEO Audits
Enterprise SEO audits differ significantly from generic SEO audits due to the scale and complexity of enterprise websites.
- Enterprise-level audits check hundreds to thousands of pages: This makes continuous monitoring a necessity rather than an option.
- You can’t handle this complexity with basic SEO tools: Remember, you must do thorough investigations, like a top-notch competitive analysis, to understand how your top-ranking competitors harness their own SEO strategies. A thorough analysis can show you the best road to maintaining or improving your position in search engine rankings.
How to Conduct an SEO Audit Step-by-Step
Here’s a page of our playbook in terms of running enterprise SEO audits.
We’ll start by understanding your goals, picking the right type of SEO audit, and choosing the proper tools.
Side note: We’ll also take a detour to offer our CRO suggestions to AI analytics platform Alteryx.
Let’s dive in.
1. Set Your Goals
Before diving into an SEO audit, define what you want to achieve.
Are you aiming to enhance site traffic, improve conversion rates, or maybe identify and solve technical SEO issues?
Clearly defined goals guide the direction and depth of your audit.
That’s how you can address the most critical aspects that align with your business objectives.
Case Study: Alteryx. Increasing Your Conversion Rates by 5% in 6 Months
Let’s set a goal to improve your conversion rates by 5% in 6 months.
This business goal sharpens the focus of your SEO audit toward elements that directly impact user behavior and conversions.
In this case, here are the specific aspects of SEO we would prioritize:
1.1. User Experience Optimization
We would look at loading times, mobile friendliness, and site navigation.
Slow loading times and an unfriendly interface can deter users, increasing bounce rates and reducing the likelihood of conversions.
Conversely, a well-structured website with intuitive navigation helps users find what they need faster, enhancing the chances of conversion.
1.2. Content Optimization
- Call-to-Action placement and effectiveness: Review and test the placement, design, and messaging of CTAs. Effective CTAs guide users toward conversion actions.
- Landing page relevance and optimization: Ensure that landing pages are directly relevant to the keywords they target and the ads or links that lead users there. The content should be engaging, credible, and aligned with user intent.
- Quality and engagement: Audit content for quality and engagement. High-quality, engaging content tailored to meet user needs can increase time on-site and reduce bounce rates, positively impacting conversions.
1.3. Conversion Path Analysis
- Conversion funnel optimization: Analyze the steps users take from entering your website to completing a conversion. Look for drop-off points and test changes to streamline the process.
- User behavior analysis: Use tools like Google Analytics to study how users interact with your website. Look for patterns that lead to conversions and areas where users seem to falter or exit.
1.4. Technical SEO
- Crawlability and indexability: Ensure that search engines can easily crawl and index your website. Issues here can prevent users from finding the site via search, thus reducing potential conversions.
- Structured data: Implement structured data to help search engines understand the content of your pages better and potentially increase the visibility of your listings, which could lead to higher conversion rates.
Take, for example, Alteryx, an enterprise SaaS platform that offers advanced analytics automation solutions.
We ran an SEO audit for Alteryx and discovered the following issues that hinder its conversion rate optimization:
Our Message to Alteryx
If you’re reading this, here’s a breakdown of the main issues and what they imply about your site:
1. Reduce your total page file size and optimize your images to reduce their file size
These recommendations suggest that your website's loading speed may be hindered by large file sizes.
This can negatively affect user experience and your rankings on search engines, as slow sites lead to higher bounce rates.
2. Optimize for Core Web Vitals
This indicates that there are issues with your site's user experience metrics, such as loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability, which are critical for good SEO and user retention.
3. Shorten meta description (to between 70 and 160 characters)
Meta descriptions that are too long may be truncated in search results.
That means your snippet is less effective, so you get lower click-through rates.
4. Add Alt attributes to all images
Missing Alt attributes can affect your website's accessibility and SEO because search engines use them to understand images better.
Besides, you’re not as visible as you could be in image search rankings.
5. Update link URLs to be more human and search engine readable
URLs that are not clear or readable can affect both user experience and how search engines interpret the relevance and structure of your website.
As a result, you won’t be ranked as high as you could be.
6. Optimize your page for PageSpeed Insights
These suggest that specific issues might affect how your website performs on different devices, which is crucial since mobile-friendliness is a significant ranking factor.
7. Remove inline styles
Inline styles can slow down your page, make it harder to maintain consistent styling across the site, and affect your CSS performance.
2. Pick The SEO Audit You Need
Depending on your goals, select the type of SEO audit that suits your needs:
2.1. General SEO Audit
This is a broad overview, examining all elements of your SEO, including keyword usage, content relevance, and backlink quality.
When it’s best: We typically do this for new clients to get a comprehensive picture of your SEO health.
2.2. Content SEO Audit
This audit focuses specifically on content quality, relevance, keyword optimization, and how well your content meets user intent. It evaluates factors like keyword stuffing, primary and relevant keywords, and how your content compares to that of your top-ranking competitors.
When it’s best: We recommend this audit when we notice discrepancies between the content's performance and the expected outcomes, such as lower engagement rates, decreased page views, or failure to rank for targeted keywords.
This audit is also essential when pivoting content strategies, entering new markets, or after significant algorithm updates from search engines.
2.3. Technical SEO Audit
A technical audit explores the backend elements of your SEO strategy.
You’ll basically examine site architecture, load speed, indexing issues, and technical SEO issues such as broken links and duplicate content. It's crucial to ensure that search engine crawlers can effectively navigate and index your site.
When it’s best: Do a technical SEO audit if you're planning major site updates, migrating to a new platform, or implementing significant changes to your site structure.
We also like to conduct technical audits regularly to catch and resolve new technical issues as they arise. This approach ensures consistent site performance and visibility in search engine results.
3. Choose the Right Enterprise SEO Audit Tools
Selecting the right SEO tools is critical for a successful enterprise SEO audit.
Here are five excellent SEO tools we use for enterprise-level analysis:
- Google Search Console: GSC gives solid insights into how Google views your site, tracks search rankings, and identifies issues like indexing problems or security concerns.
- SEMrush: We like it because it offers a slew of functions that include keyword research, competitor analysis, and site audits. SEMrush is particularly useful for tracking keyword rankings and understanding the landscape of organic searches.
- Ahrefs: We love this for its powerful backlink analysis, keyword research, and organic page analysis. Ahrefs also offers a comprehensive site audit tool that helps detect technical SEO issues and optimize internal and external linking practices.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider: Ideal for technical audits, this desktop tool crawls websites to collect essential data on every URL. Useful for identifying broken links, auditing redirects, and analyzing page titles and metadata.
- Moz Pro: Provides tools for SEO auditing, keyword research, and competitor analysis. Moz Pro's audit feature highlights issues like poor user experience and helps optimize page content for better engagement and search engine visibility.
Enterprise SEO Audit Checklist
Now that you have the right enterprise SEO tools, it’s time to start your SEO audit.
1. Keyword Targeting
Focus on aligning your content with target keywords that your desired audience is using in Google searches.
Analyze search volume, keyword opportunities, and relevance to ensure your content meets current market demands and drives organic traffic.
Pro tip: Avoid keyword stuffing your pages to maintain content quality and relevance.
2. Duplicate Content
Check your enterprise sites for duplicate content, which can dilute your SEO effectiveness and cause search engine crawlers to penalize your site. Detect redundant pages and ensure unique content across all platforms.
This step is crucial for maintaining a strong online presence.
3. Crawlability and Indexability
Ensure that your site is easily navigable by search engines.
Issues like poor site structure or faulty robots.txt can hinder indexability.
Use Google Search Console to identify and fix crawlability blockers so that every valuable page is accessible and indexed properly.
4. URLs
Evaluate the structure and clarity of your URLs.
URLs should be concise, include relevant keywords, and reflect site hierarchy to improve search engine rankings and user experience.
Address any URL issues that could confuse search engines or visitors.
5. Canonical Tags
Implement canonical tags to guide search engines toward the primary version of your content, avoiding problems with duplicate content across multiple URLs.
This helps maintain the integrity of your search rankings by clarifying which pages should be indexed and ranked.
6. Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions act as compelling briefs for your pages.
These snippets should use relevant keywords effectively to improve click-through rates from search results.
Each description must uniquely reflect the page content to enhance search engine rankings and user experience.
7. Heading Tags
Optimize heading tags (H1 to H6) to structure content clearly and enhance readability.
Headers should include primary and secondary keywords where appropriate to support organic search rankings.
This hierarchical use of heading tags also helps search engine crawlers understand the content's context and relevance.
8. Internal Links
Review and optimize the architecture of internal links to ensure they distribute page authority and guide users effectively through your website.
Check for broken links and ensure that internal linking supports a logical flow of information, enhancing the user experience and SEO performance.
9. Mobile-Friendliness
Ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices.
Mobile-friendliness is a critical ranking factor and impacts user experience significantly.
The site should display correctly on all devices, with touch-friendly navigation and readable content to meet Google’s mobile-first indexing requirements.
10. Page Speed
Focus on optimizing page speed, as it’s crucial for both ranking and user retention.
Fast load times improve user experience and maintain competitive search engine rankings.
Use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to identify and rectify any factors slowing down your site.
11. Sitemap
Ensure your sitemap is up-to-date and correctly formatted.
A sitemap helps search engines crawl and index your site more efficiently.
And that’s essential for large enterprise sites with numerous pages.
Regular audits of your sitemap verify that all valuable content is included and accessible to search engine crawlers.
12. Backlinks
Assess the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to your site.
High-quality, relevant backlinks from authoritative sources can significantly boost your search engine rankings.
Use tools to identify and disavow spammy links that could harm your site's credibility.
13. Content Quality
Evaluate the quality of the content across your site.
High-quality content should be engaging, informative, and aligned with user intent.
It should also be free from errors and optimized for search engines without keyword stuffing.
Pro tip: Update your content regularly to ensure it meets your audience's needs.
14. Images
Check that all images on your site have relevant and accurate Alt text.
Alt text improves accessibility and SEO, helping search engines understand the content of the images and how they relate to the surrounding text.
This is particularly important for image-driven search results and users with visual impairments.
15. 4XX Status Codes
Identify and correct any 4XX status errors, which indicate pages inaccessible by users or search engine crawlers.
These errors can negatively impact user experience and SEO as they suggest broken links or non-existent pages.
Fixing these issues helps ensure a smoother, more effective navigation experience for users and search engines alike.
16. Structured Data
Implement structured data to enhance your site’s visibility and indexing.
Structured data helps search engines understand the context of your content, enabling rich results like featured snippets and ratings. R
egularly validate your structured data using tools like Google's Structured Data Testing Tool to ensure it's correctly implemented and error-free.
17. International Factors
If you're targeting audiences in multiple countries or languages, consider international SEO factors.
This includes implementing hreflang tags for language targeting and ensuring proper content localization.
Optimize for regional search engine preferences and cultural nuances to improve your site's relevance and performance in international markets.
18. Competitor Analysis
Conduct a thorough competitor analysis to understand the SEO strategies of your top-ranking competitors.
Evaluate their keyword usage, content strategy, backlink profile, and user experience.
Use this information to identify strengths to emulate and weaknesses to exploit, positioning your enterprise to better compete in the digital landscape.
19. Core Web Vitals
Focus on Google's Core Web Vitals, which are crucial metrics for assessing user experience on your website.
These include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
Improving these metrics is vital for maintaining high search rankings and ensuring a positive user experience, as they directly impact your site’s performance in search results.
Custom Enterprise SEO Metrics and Reporting
Great, so now you have the checklist you need.
Let’s now make sure you’re looking at the right metrics.
Your enterprise SEO agency should include the variables below in their audit reports because they provide a lens through which to view and refine your enterprise SEO strategy.
Regular reporting on these metrics will guide your strategic decisions and maximize the impact of your SEO investments.
1. Organic Traffic Growth
Regardless of your SEO goals, follow the volume of organic traffic your site receives.
This metric directly reflects how effective your SEO strategies are and if you have a solid online presence.
Monitor changes and trends in traffic to understand how well your site attracts and retains visitors.
Insider tip: Apart from assessing search volume, look at search intent alignment, seasonal fluctuations, and the impact of your SEO changes over time.
2. Keyword Performance
Evaluate the performance of target keywords and relevant keywords, particularly how they rank in search engine rankings.
Analyze keyword opportunities, shifts in keyword rankings, and the emergence of new relevant terms.
This metric helps you adjust content strategies to optimize for high-performing keywords and to phase out underperforming ones.
3. Conversion Rates
Conversion goals are arguably the backdrop for every company.
So, measure how effectively your organic search traffic converts into defined actions, like sales, sign-ups, or other business goals.
This metric helps you understand the ROI of your SEO efforts.
Besides, it guides any adjustments you make in user experience and content optimization to boost conversions.
4. Backlink Quality and Quantity
Assess the strength and relevance of inbound links, meaning links you get from other websites to yours.
Inbound links from authoritative websites increase your site’s authority and search engine rankings.
Conversely, toxic links can do you more harm than good, attracting Google penalties.
Insider tip: Monitor the growth and health of your backlink profile, including identifying and addressing any spammy links.
5. Core Web Vitals
Track your site’s performance against Google’s Core Web Vitals discussed above.
These metrics are essential for gauging user experience, which directly impacts your site’s ability to maintain its ranking positions. Monitoring and optimizing CWV is key to meeting search engine standards and user expectations.
How Often Should You Conduct Enterprise SEO Audits?
Ideally, a comprehensive enterprise-level SEO audit should be done at least once a year. However, given the dynamic nature of SEO and digital marketing, you may need more frequent audits.
Quarterly audits allow you to respond proactively to changes in search engine algorithms, digital success trends, and competitive dynamics.
Each audit should include a review of SEO audit services, updates from search console insights, and adjustments based on the latest SEO agency recommendations.
Insider tip: Use your SEO tool to set alarms for specific issues, such as brand mentions or keyword tracking.
How Much Does an Enterprise SEO Audit Cost?
An enterprise audit costs between $500 and $14,000.
Basic audits cost less, while advanced audits are more expensive. You can also opt for a custom audit.
Here’s a breakdown below.
Basic Audit
A basic audit might range from $500 to $3,000.
This audit covers essential aspects like keyword rankings, basic technical SEO issues, and overall content quality. It’s an entry point that provides actionable insights without a deep dive into more complex analytics.
Standard Audit
A standard audit typically ranges between $3,000 and $8,000.
This level of audit is more comprehensive, including detailed analyses of search engine rankings, organic search traffic, and user experience.
It's tailored for enterprise sites that need a thorough review of their SEO strategies to identify areas needing improvement for sustained organic search performance.
Advanced Audit
For large enterprise companies requiring detailed and strategic insights, the cost can range from $8,000 to $14,000 or more.
This audit includes everything from in-depth technical SEO audits, competitor analysis, and conversion rates to continuous monitoring and advanced content optimization.
It addresses complex issues like indexability issues, in-depth audit of backlink profiles, and optimization of site architecture.
Custom Audit
Larger or more complex enterprise sites might need a custom audit, the price of which depends on specific requirements. Depending on the scope, this audit could exceed $14,000.
A custom audit involves bespoke analyses such as international SEO strategies, full enterprise-level audits, and integrating digital marketing goals.
This audit provides a comprehensive blueprint for ongoing SEO success integrated with your business’s broader digital strategy.
Choose Fair Enterprise SEO Audit Services
If you’ve been patient enough to read so far, you now know what an enterprise SEO audit is and what it should include.
You also know it’s not cheap – but, to be fair, nothing worth having in this life is.
Each pricing tier reflects the depth of the audit and the potential ROI through improved SEO performance and better alignment with business goals.
Choose the tier that matches the complexity of your site and your specific needs to ensure that the investment aligns with the expected benefits.
And if you want to get a solid audit, book a free strategy call with us.
We’ll conduct the right SEO analysis according to your business goals so you can dominate SERPs in no time.
