Many website owners have dabbled in SEO: perhaps a blog post here and a few meta tags there. Yet, these same owners are operating in the dark. SEO is often treated as a black box, with Google and Bing offering only vague guidance through acronyms like E-E-A-T, content guidelines, and “best practices.”
But without understanding the actual algorithm (which no one outside Google and Bing truly does), success comes down to experience and analysis. That’s where an SEO audit comes in and can help uncover what you’re doing right and wrong with SEO.
At Uplancer, we’ve recently audited a website after a long stretch of neglect. What we uncovered was surprising, even to us. They not only restored their rankings but also boosted their local SEO and site visibility by over 300%.
Let’s break it down.
Maximize SEO by Learning Google Search Console / Bing Webmaster Tools / Other Search Consoles (Collectively, SC)
The first step in any SEO audit is to benchmark your current performance. Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and other search console tools (collectively, SC) are your best friends here.
Ask yourself:
- Are we gaining impressions and clicks?
- Is our visibility increasing over time?
- Are we ranking for high-intent, commercial keywords?
In the above audit, one overlooked area was 404 errors. After a major redesign, they failed to assign proper redirects to maintain existing SEO. As a result, many important pages were broken, and their search performance plummeted. Once we fixed these issues, they saw a 150% increase in local search impressions in just a matter of weeks!
What we learned: Site navigation and link structure have a direct impact on SEO. Broken links harm both crawlability and user experience, two major ranking factors.
Validate Fixes in SC to Capture SEO Gains
Fixing SEO errors is only half the battle; you must know how to validate and interpret them on SC.
Our client made the mistake of assuming fixed pages were automatically re-crawled. They weren’t. Despite putting in the work, their changes weren’t reflected in rankings until they manually requested indexing.
Once they validated all the fixes, local impressions doubled (100% increase) almost immediately.
What we learned: After resolving SEO issues, always request re-indexing of the new pages. Otherwise, your updates may never be seen by search engines, and customers will see outdated web content..
Ramp Up Content to Boost Rankings
It’s no secret that content marketing is a powerhouse for SEO, but the degree to which it helped our client was eye-opening.
They originally published 2 blog articles per month. After moving to 4 per month, their rankings improved modestly by about 25%. But when they pushed to 2 articles per week, they saw a 300% increase in organic and local search visibility.
According to HubSpot, companies that publish 16 or more blog posts per month get 3.5x more traffic than those that post four or fewer.
What we learned: For meaningful SEO gains, especially in local SEO, consistent, high-quality content is your best investment.
Index More Pages, and Yes, Even the Weird Ones
You might be tempted to exclude certain pages from indexing, such as pagination, author pages, or category archives. But if those pages contain unique content or help link to newer and older posts, they can speed up how quickly search engines find and rank your local content.
We actually tested this by expanding our indexable pages and saw new local content indexed up to 3 days faster.
What we learned: Don’t hide relevant, unique pages from search engines. More indexed content = more entry points to your site = more customers.
Bonus: The ROI of SEO Audits
If you need more convincing around the importance of an SEO audit, here’s what the data says:
- 67.6% of all clicks go to the first five organic results.
- Businesses that implement regular SEO audits see up to 45% improvement in organic traffic over 6 months.
The Bottom Line
A thorough SEO audit isn’t a one-time fix; it’s a critical part of ongoing success. By fixing technical issues, writing consistently, indexing more content, and using tools like Google Search Console, you can turn your site into a lead-generating machine.
Whether you’re a local business or a national brand, this guide still applies to you. If your SEO isn’t delivering the results you want, it’s time to stop guessing and start your audit today.
Ready to Level Up?
Uplancer is a digital marketing agency that offers SEO audits, local SEO optimization, and ongoing strategy support. Contact us for your free SEO audit and consultation today!
