2025 has been full of changes so far, and it feels almost impossible to keep up. Despite all the changes happening in the marketing world, SEO remains a major part of a company’s overall marketing efforts. The biggest reason is that consumers are relying more heavily on Google to find information quickly. By performing a comprehensive SEO audit of your website, you can identify areas for improvement and determine whether your website is fit for today’s SEO landscape.
Here are the top 6 reasons why your website needs an SEO audit.
Google is still the number one search engine in Canada
In Canada, Google dominates approximately 89% of the search engine market, with Bing trailing at around 6.7%. This clearly shows that Google is the most dominant search engine by a wide margin, and ranking well on Google is critical to a business’s success.
Earlier this year, Google announced it now processes around 5 trillion searches annually — up from 2 trillion in 2016. This growth highlights just how essential Google has become, and why ranking highly in search results is vital for a company’s digital success.
Users also turn to Google for the most up-to-date information. While tools like ChatGPT have seen a rise in usage, they aren’t typically used as search engines, mainly because they don’t always have the latest data. For example, as of late April 2025, ChatGPT’s most recent database update was April 2024. This means it can only provide information up to that point. This lag can make it unreliable for time-sensitive searches, such as checking a restaurant’s or coffee shop’s current hours of operation.
Algorithm Updates Are Coming More Frequently
In the past year alone, Google has rolled out several major updates, often with little warning. These updates can significantly impact your website’s search rankings and the weight of various SEO elements. For example, Google may place more importance on SEO Element A and lessen the weight of SEO Element B after an algorithm update. An SEO audit can assess whether your website is more heavily optimized for SEO Element A following the update.
Many high-value products or services are still purchased on a website
Many high-value purchases, such as property or vehicles, often begin online. When shoppers are looking for a new home, for instance, they typically search on Google and visit company websites to gather details like location, neighborhood insights, and the year the property was built. From an SEO perspective, it’s critical to optimize your website so potential buyers can easily find it through search engines. Equally important is optimizing for conversion—making sure users can quickly access the information they need and easily reach out to your business. An in-depth SEO audit can help uncover opportunities to better serve your online visitors and drive more leads.
Optimize for Google AI Overviews
Google AI Overviews provide summaries based on search queries. For example, if you search for “What’s Google Market Share,” AI Overviews will display a summary about Google’s market share along with links to relevant sources.
AI Overviews don’t appear for every search. According to studies, they show up in roughly 30% of all queries and in about 75% of problem-solving queries.
To improve your chances of being featured in an AI Overview, focus on creating website content—such as blog posts—that clearly addresses users’ questions. This builds on SEO best practices businesses have followed for years: writing authentic, informative content that meets users’ needs. After publishing helpful content, the next step is to strengthen your website’s authority by earning high-quality backlinks, which can further boost the likelihood of your content appearing in AI Overviews.
Backlinks Are More Important Than Ever
In 2025, quality backlinks are still one of the most important factors in SEO rankings. However, the nature of backlinks is evolving. Search engines now prioritize backlinks from authoritative, relevant sources. Spammy link-building practices can lead to penalties such as causing a website to drop in search rankings or even de-indexed by Google. An SEO audit will assess your backlink profile, identifying harmful links that should be disavowed and highlighting opportunities to gain valuable, high-quality links.
Content Quality and Relevance Are Key to Ranking
Content is still the foundation of SEO and its importance is only growing.
Google places even more emphasis on the quality, relevance, and authority of website content. It’s not enough to produce generic, AI-generated material. Google wants businesses to create original, authentic content that addresses users’ questions and needs.
An SEO audit can help by reviewing your current content and ensuring it’s aligned with today’s best practices, giving your website a better chance to rank, engage visitors, and convert them into customers.
An SEO audit is more than just a routine check-up. It’s a vital tool for ensuring your website fits current SEO best practices in 2025. With changing algorithms, new search behaviors, and rising user expectations, staying on top of your website’s SEO performance is imperative for maintaining visibility, improving user experience, and driving traffic. If you want help with performing a comprehensive, technical SEO audit for your website, please contact us today!
