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Are automated website audits accurate?
Are automated website audits accurate?

Learn what factors effect your website's score on page speed and SEO audit tests, and why those tests may be misleading.

Emmanuelle Raymond avatar
Written by Emmanuelle Raymond
Updated over 3 months ago

Automated website audits can provide valuable insights but aren't always 100% accurate. Many are designed more as lead generation tools than to provide a full and accurate picture of your site's SEO. They can catch some issues but often miss the mark on what matters.

Automated tools are a great starting point, but combining them with expert review ensures a more comprehensive and accurate assessment of your website’s performance.

Simply put, automated tests don't tell the whole story.

What do search engines care about?

Search engines like Google aim to rank websites that offer users the most value and the best experience. That’s why, at NiceJob, we don’t optimize your site just to score well on tests—we optimize it to delight your visitors.

Common audit mistakes:

  • Compression: Audits often flag images, CSS, or JavaScript for insufficient compressing. But what really matters is how fast your page loads, not whether it’s heavily compressed. Some sites with minimal compression load faster than those with high compression.

  • Keyword Analysis: Stuffing content with exact match keywords isn’t necessary anymore. Search engines now understand natural language and word variations. Overloading your content with keywords can hurt your rankings and conversions.

  • Meta Tags, Titles, and Alt Tags: Meta tags have lost most of their SEO value. While titles and alt tags still matter, their impact is declining. Automated audits may penalize your site for multiple title tags, but these are often perfectly fine when used for different screen sizes.

  • Mobile Friendliness: Google values mobile-friendly websites highly. Automated audits might not fully capture how well your site performs on mobile.

We focus on what truly matters:

  • Content: We write content that ranks well for specific services and locations while converting visitors into customers. Your site is regularly updated with local, keyword-rich content, like customer reviews, which search engines love.

  • Technical Aspects: Our sites use structured data, markup, and title tags to help search engines understand your site’s intent. We also use internal linking strategies and schema.org markup to boost your rankings.

  • Mobile First: We design fully responsive and mobile-first websites, improving your rankings.

  • Speed: Our platform optimizes page load times with compression, caching, and a nationwide CDN service.

  • Security: Every NiceJob site has strong security features, including SSL certificates, which also help with rankings.

  • Engagement: High engagement rates signal to search engines that your content is valuable. NiceJob websites are built to keep visitors engaged, which can lead to better rankings.

NiceJob websites generally rank well because of the on-page SEO factors we build and the off-page factors supported by the NiceJob platform. While we don’t guarantee rankings, we focus on what truly drives success, not on scoring high on external tests.

If you have any questions about your SEO, our strategists are here to help. Contact us anytime at support@nicejob.com.

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