The SEOFOMO SEO Auditing Survey – 2023 Edition

Survey 2023 EDITION

Aleyda Solis - SEOFOMO Wrapper The results of the SEOFOMO SEO Auditing Survey 2023 are here!

The survey received 373 responses after a week of publication, revealing key insights into the current challenges, trends, and ways of working when doing SEO audits. It’s now time to review the SEO auditing survey results.

What’s your SEO Role?

Most of those who took the SEO Auditing survey were technical SEOs:

49 %

Technical SEO

181 answers

37 %

SEO Lead / Head of Area

137 answers

33 %

SEO Generalist

123 answers

32 %

SEO Manager / Coordinator

121 answers

27 %

Content Focused SEO

101 answers

7 %

Link Builder

27 answers

What is the typical size of the websites you usually audit?

Which types of SEO audits do you typically work on?

What format do you use to share your SEO audit recommendations with stakeholders or clients?

How often do you present or explain your SEO audit recommendations to stakeholders or clients?

How often do you prioritize your SEO audit recommendations?

What criteria do you use to prioritize SEO audits recommendations?

The consolidated and grouped answers provided by SEO specialists regarding the main criteria used to prioritize their SEO audit recommendations are:

A. Balancing Impact vs Effort:

Prioritizing recommendations based on their potential impact on search engine rankings, organic traffic, conversions, and business goals.
Balancing the impact of changes with the level of effort required for implementation.
Focusing on quick wins, low-hanging fruits, and recommendations with a high impact but low effort.
Considering the impact on website performance, user experience, and search visibility.
Assessing the potential impact on revenue, traffic growth, and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Evaluating the impact of recommendations on crawlability, indexation, and site architecture.
Giving priority to recommendations that can be easily implemented and have a quick impact on website performance.
Considering the impact of technical SEO issues, on-page optimizations, and backlink profiles on search rankings.
Balancing the impact of recommendations with the limitations of the platform used.
Balancing the importance of technical improvements with the potential impact on search visibility.
Evaluating the cost-benefit ratio of recommendations and the potential return on investment (ROI).
Balancing the impact of changes with the ease of implementation and the client’s ability to make changes.
Giving priority to recommendations that require minimal effort but can have a significant impact on results.
Assessing the impact of recommendations on development time, costs, and the level of stakeholder approval required.

B. Focus on Business Goals and Objectives Achievement:

Aligning recommendations with client objectives, business goals, and strategic initiatives.
Prioritizing recommendations based on the importance and impact they have on the client’s business.
Balancing the urgency of tasks with the overall impact on the client’s website performance.
Prioritizing tasks that directly impact revenue generation, conversions, and business success.
Considering the importance of recommendations for achieving short-term and long-term objectives.
Evaluating the impact of changes on the overall success of the website and the business.
Assessing the potential impact on key markets, user behavior, and target audience satisfaction.
Prioritizing actions that contribute to improving results and generating additional revenue.
Giving priority to recommendations that address critical issues affecting the website’s performance.
Prioritizing tasks that have the potential to generate significant improvements and positive outcomes.
Considering the impact of recommendations on website visibility, search engine rankings, and user satisfaction.
Assessing the potential impact of recommendations on the client’s revenue, visibility, and goals.
Considering the perceived value of recommendations from the client’s perspective.

C. Setting an Optimized Web base:

Prioritizing technical SEO tasks that improve crawlability, indexation, and website performance.
Focusing on fixing indexing and crawlability issues, including technical errors and omissions.
Giving priority to recommendations that optimize on-page elements, such as content, headings, and metadata.
Assessing the impact of recommendations on site speed, mobile-friendliness, and user experience.
Prioritizing tasks related to content optimizations, keyword research, and interlinking strategies.

D. Balancing Resources and Feasibility:

Considering the availability of resources, team capacity, and development capabilities.
Balancing the effort required for implementation with the available resources and time constraints.
Assessing the feasibility of implementing recommendations based on the client’s platform and limitations.
Prioritizing tasks that can be easily implemented without extensive developer support or additional resources.

How often are your most important or key SEO audits recommendations implemented?

What’s the level of difficulty in implementing SEO recommendations compared to a couple of years ago?

What is the main reason that the key or most important recommendations from your SEO audits are not implemented?

The consolidated and grouped answers provided by SEO specialists regarding the main reasons why the key or most important recommendations from SEO audits are not implemented are:

A. Decision Maker Priorities, Understanding and Expectations:

Clients prioritize other tasks or channels over SEO and fail to understand the impact of recommendations.
Lack of client buy-in, education, or understanding of SEO and its importance.
Client’s focus on other areas or lack of awareness about the value of implementing SEO recommendations.
Clients not willing to invest in SEO-related work or not perceiving the value of changes.
Lack of time, delays, or impatience from clients expecting immediate results.
Cost estimation, budget constraints, or inability to allocate resources for implementation.
Prioritization of tasks or projects that show quicker results or higher ROI.

B. Organizational Factors:

Organizational resistance to change or lack of prioritization for SEO.
Bureaucratic processes, approval delays, or challenges in communication across stakeholders.
Misalignment with business goals or conflicting priorities from stakeholders..
Political issues, top management vetoes, or internal conflicts affecting implementation.

C. Technical Challenges and Limitations:

Technical complexities, limitations, or difficulties in implementing recommendations.
Technical barriers, limitations, or constraints on the client side.
Legacy systems, technical debt, or platform constraints affecting implementation.
CMS limitations, custom coding, or technical issues related to the website’s infrastructure.

D. Overall Resources Constraints:

Insufficient resources, including human resources, budget, or development capacity.
Overworked developers, competing priorities, or resistance from development teams.
Lack of internal resources, knowledge, or competency in implementing SEO recommendations

Overall, the main reasons for not implementing key recommendations from SEO audits can be attributed to client priorities and understanding, lack of resources and development constraints, technical challenges and limitations, organizational factors, and considerations of time and cost.

How frequently do the key recommendations from your SEO audits achieve the expected goals?

What’s the level of difficulty in achieving the expected goals from SEO recommendations compared to a couple of years ago?

What are the top 3 SEO tools you use when conducting audits?

Have you incorporated the use of AI tools or functionalities when developing SEO audits?

How are you using AI tools or functionalities or plan to do it when developing SEO audits?

The consolidated and grouped answers provided by SEO professionals regarding the use of AI tools and functionalities for SEO audits are:

A. Not Used or Not Planning to Use:

Not using AI tools for SEO audits.
No plans or intention to use AI tools.
Not planning to use AI tools due to language limitations.
Not using AI tools because they are not 100% reliable.
Perceiving AI tools as less proficient than seasoned professionals.

B. Exploring and Learning Options to Use:

Researching and exploring options for using AI tools.
Planning to learn and investigate the capabilities of AI tools.
Keeping a lookout for ideas and reading up on AI tools.
Uncertain about using AI tools and planning to research more.
Exploring AI tools and learning about their potential use.

C. Leveraging AI for Data Analysis and Visualization:

Using AI to sort and analyze data, including topic clustering and funnel segmentation.
Using AI for data analysis and understanding drops and patterns.
Interested in using AI tools to visualize raw crawl data and provide insights.
Utilizing AI for content optimization and finding ideas to improve pages.
Using AI to classify URLs and conduct analysis across a data set.

D. Language and Content Assistance:

Using AI tools to explain technical issues to non-technical stakeholders.
Using AI tools for rephrasing content, articulating impact, and extracting topics.
Rephrasing content and providing relevant titles and meta descriptions.
Using generative text AI to help write audit recommendations.
Adding a touch of human feeling to AI-generated content.
Automating repetitive processes and using AI tools to write audit recommendations.

E. Technical SEO support:

Using AI tools like Similar.ai and MerchStack for e-commerce.
Using AI in technical SEO audits and business intelligence.

F. Content Audits and Analysis:

Using AI for content audits, page template audits, and keyword research.
Analyzing patterns, evaluating content quality, and optimizing titles, meta descriptions, schema, and href lang tags.
Experimenting with AI tools for content improvement and generating micro-copy.
Performing clustering and using checklists.
Utilizing AI tools for specific tasks such as identifying near-duplicated URLs and classifying/cluster keywords.

G. Automation and Efficiency:

Using AI for automation, streamlining workflows, and gaining insights.
Seeking ways to improve efficiency, speed up audits, and avoid manual mistakes.
Automating tasks related to organization, meta data creation, and content SEO checks.
Using AI tools to automate processes, analyze websites, and surface issues.
Using ChatGPT to automate certain tasks and enhance communication.

H. Research and Competitive Analysis:

Using AI tools for research, analysis, and topic extraction.
Conducting competitive analysis using AI tools.
AI tools for analyzing user behavior and improving website design and user experience.
Using AI for brainstorming, generating content, and summarizing findings.
Using AI tools for keyword categorization, content ideas, and analyzing websites.

I. Reporting Automation:

Automating reports and showcasing the ROI of tasks.
Using AI tools for automating reporting and generating insights.

J. Link Building and Backlinks:

Using AI tools for identifying link opportunities and analyzing backlink quality.

K. User Experience and Rank Tracking:

AI-powered tools for tracking search engine rankings and identifying changes in ranking positions.

AUTHOR Aleyda Solís

Aleyda Solis is an SEO and AI Search consultant and the founder of Orainti, a boutique consultancy advising some of the world's leading brands on organic growth. One of the most followed organic search specialists and most sought-after SEO and AI Search Optimization speakers, she's the maker behind SEOFOMO, the weekly newsletter read across the SEO industry, and its sister publications AI Marketers and MarketingFOMO, plus the free Learning SEO and Learning AI Search roadmaps that have helped thousands break into the field. She also runs SEOFOMO News, the SEOFOMO Meetups, and the Crawling Mondays video series and is the co-founder of Finchling, a PR story opportunities platform.