There is a lot BS out there about how SEO doesn't work for a small business or a startup, and having been in the space for almost 20 years I can say it's all crap.

What a lot of people don't realize is that how your website is set-up makes a HUGE difference with how well you rank with the search engines.

Think about it this way. If you go to sell your house and it's a MESS, it doesn't matter how pretty the outside is, how great of a location it is, or how well priced it is people are going to run screaming. If your website isn't clean on the code level Google runs away screaming.

So a simple SEO Audit that tells you what fixes need to happen can make a HUGE impact on your sales. Full disclosure I also helped them make those tech fixes and monitored them for 6 months after.

Also, the fixes deployed to get this success didn't involve a lot of content optimization, zero link building and no social promotion. This was almost 100% tech fixes.

What Success Did a Regional Brick and Mortar Biz with an eCommerce Site Get 3 Months After a SEO Audit & Clean Up?

The company I helped was a regional powersports retailer. Their website didn't just talk about what brands they sold and what services they provided to maintain these machines, but also sold all the powersport equipment on their to.

Over the years they sold on places like AutoTrader, et. al, but they didn't want to be at the mercy of the fees so they tried their own hand a it. They did a great job on the site despite it not being their full time job, but they wanted to take it to the next level.

Here's what they were able to achieve in 3 months:

ALL Traffic Sources:

• 78% increase in users
• 87% increase in new users
• 45% increase in Contact Submissions (which was their overall goal) - Their close rate is 95%.

JUST Organic Traffic:

• 75% increase in users
• 88% increase in new users
• 57% increase in Contact Submissions (which was their overall goal) - Their close rate is 95%.

So, if you break that down. Let's say an average month of sales is $100K (which it isn't) and you increase your monthly contacts by 45%. With a 95% close rate you are looking at adding 50% more in sales a month, which would equate to $150K in sales.

That doesn't suck. You spent $750 on an audit and 1-2K to make the fixes. So, for less than 3K (one time cost) you are making $47K more the first month and $50K every month moving forward.

What is a SEO Tech Audit?

A BASIC SEO Audit includes checking the following:

• URL Structure
• Meta Titles & Descriptions
• Image Optimization
• H1 & H2 Tag Usage
• Duplicate Content
• Site Speed
• Schema
• Broken Links
• Domain Authority
• Indexing Status
• 404s & 410s
• 301 & 302 Redirects
• Links (Inbound & External)
• Plugin Evaluation

The next level of an Audit includes everything above +:

• Local SEO Evaluation
• Content Optimization
• Keyword Ranking
• UX Recommendations
• Visitor Traffic Evaluation
• 2 Social Media Account Evaluation
• 1-2 Competitor’s Analysis

Then the report takes that info, shows you what needs to be fixed and recommendations on how to phase yourself into more growth with the other on-page SEO techniques.

Why the Hell Does it Work?

So, let's be honest. I hate the "I went from 0 sales to a millionaire in 6 months" post. This is NOT that. It's actually pretty simple. In addition to thinking about the selling your house when it's a mess analogy above there is also a key factor called: all you have to do is be slightly better than your competition. It's not sexy, but it's true.

If you have a website that is over 6 months old you have issues that you have developed, simply by just not having time to constantly look and update shit. If your competition has been in business for years you can add on legacy systems and internal politics and a whole bunch of other crap that makes their website a mess on the technical level. (That is part of the reason why we do a competitor analysis.)

If your site is in-order and clean as whistle on a technical level you will easily and quickly beat out your competition that isn't taking care of their yard as well as you are. You don't have to beat all the websites on the internet, you just need to beat your closest competitors.

The best part, that is just the tech. If you add on all the other SEO techniques, within a year you will outrank your competition for the long-term and you will have the $ to be able to do it.

I'd love to hear if you have had similar success from an SEO Audit.