What are the most effective ways to present SEO audit findings to clients?

It will depend on the "SEO maturity" of the organization you're working with, but more often than not just try not to overwhelm them with your findings. Starting and ending the audit by listing the 3-5 most important issues to work on will make it far more likely that the most important things get fixed. And if you are not handling the implementation, be very, very detailed about how it needs to be done, and do not assume the client's web dev team also knows SEO. They might, but they also might not.

he first step to presenting SEO audit findings is to organize your information in a clear and structured manner. Start with an executive summary that provides a high-level overview of your findings, highlighting key areas of improvement and success. -Audit Objectives: The first step is to outline the objectives of your SEO audit. What are you trying to achieve? Common objectives include: Identify SEO Opportunities: Address Technical Issues: Competitor Analysis: Content Evaluation: User Experience (UX): Crawling Tools Keyword Research: Analytics Review: Competitor Analysis Tools: Strengths and Weaknesses: High-Quality Content: Strong Backlink Profile: Weaknesses: Technical Issues: Keyword Gaps: Low-Quality Backlinks:

Screaming frog has visual representations for crawl tree, and for directory tree, so it's possible to identify gaps in the website's structure that must be fixed. Looker (Google Data Studio) gives the possibility to transform data into visuals, for example, list errors by categories and then transform this data in a bubble graph to show which categories have the majority of errors. Visuals helps us to identify pain points and take action quickly.

In my experience, the impact of effort matrix is always effective in the decision-making assessment. After a website audit, clients or stakeholders always want to see a roadmap, or the plan to put all the tasks into action. This matrix help us identify quick wins, that are tasks with hight impact and low effort.

Oftentimes, clients are looking to understand and learn more about SEO but don't know where to start. Providing real life examples or historical data can help show them what certain strategies will look like for them. For example, if we wanted to prioritize heirarchy on an ecommerce website, I would first show what this means on other websites such as Amazon or their competitors in screenshots or recorded interactions with breadcrumbs or a main naviagtion. Being able to visualize parts of a strategy will help educate and get them onboard with future strategies.

When I'm doing an audit presentation, I always reinforce my findings and statements by showing official documentation. For example, the page load is slow, and there are many improvements that must be done. In this kind of situation, I always attach links of documentation best practices to the presentation.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, can yield a variety of benefits and outcomes for a website or online business. Here are some key advantages: 1. Increased Visibility: 2. Organic Traffic Growth: 3. Credibility and Trust: 4. Better User Experience: 5. Cost-Effectiveness: 6. Competitive Advantage: 7. Targeted Traffic: 8. Insight into Customer Behavior: 9. Adaptation to Algorithm Changes: 10. Local Search Optimization: 11. Long-Term Strategy: 12. Data-Driven Decision Making: 13. Mobile Optimization:

Start by breaking down complex terms and findings into layman's language; simplicity can often prompt more in-depth queries. Use visual aids like charts, graphs, or infographics to illustrate points, as visuals can often spark curiosity and discussion. Schedule pauses throughout your presentation to field questions, emphasizing that no query is too basic. Encourage them to relate the findings to their business goals, which can lead to more contextual feedback. Additionally, provide a feedback form or survey post-presentation, allowing clients a secondary platform to voice thoughts or concerns. Importantly, end by reiterating your openness to further discussion and emphasizing collaboration as the path to success.

It is necessary to get to know the stack and or the platform the website is running on. The approaches to audits vary. There is a huge difference in what can realistically be implemented on custom-made website vs. ready-made like WP, Shopify, Webflow, etc.. It is essential to clearly state not only what needs to be fixed and why but how. Last but not least prioritization matters. Critical stuff like noindex, denied access, etc should always be fixed. But there will be less critical recommendations and for those client and dev team should always take into consideration time invested (=money) vs. impact it may bring.