How to do a SEO Site Audit
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Transcript of How to do a SEO Site Audit
HOW TO DO A SEO SITE AUDIT
Kathy Alice Brown
About these slides
These slides are from my online course: How to do a SEO Site Audit For Access & Discounted Price ! http://webenso.com/ssas The course also has demos and me lecturing on video, so not
everything is covered in these slides. But dont worry, there is still a lot of great information here!
Course Agenda
Introduction Make sure to download the checklist and tools list!
Initial Technical Checks What Google Sees Traffic and Site Speed Google Search Console Advanced Technical Section Authority Checks
Thank you!
Big Thanks to
Mirror-Engraving.com
FOUR TIERS OF SEO Defining SEO
What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the art and science to having your site rank well in Google as well as increasing your sites organic traffic.
The Four Tiers of SEO
ACCESSIBILITY
ON PAGE
AUTHORITY
ENGAGEMENT
Accessibility
Can the Search Engines Crawl and Understand Your Site?
Problems: Blocked from Crawling Poorly Structured Site Orphaned Pages Duplicate Content Poor use of Redirects
ACCESSIBILITY
On Page
Is the page providing clear signals about its content? Problems:
Tags on page not optimized for keywords Title tag Meta Description Header Tags Alt tags
ON PAGE
Engagement
Is the page/site useful and engaging with users? Problems:
Slow loading Not mobile friendly Content not written well Not visually appealing
ENGAGEMENT
Authority
Is the site a recognized authority in its niche? Problems:
No relevant backlinks OR too many spammy backlinks No social activity
AUTHORITY
GOAL OF THE AUDIT How to do a SEO Site Audit
Why are you doing the audit?
To make sure everything is Ok with my site. To reassess my SEO approach and make sure Im in
compliance with Google guidelines. Because my organic traffic has been going down. To see if there is any opportunity to increase my organic
traffic. To deliver a more complete service to my client.
The different types of audits
General Health Audit
Competitive Review
Forensic
Content Quality Review
Backlink Audit
Local SEO
Problems .. and Opportunities
Approach audit with an open mind
You are looking for problems
And you are also looking for opportunities
GETTING STARTED How to do a SEO Site Audit
Getting Started
MUST have Google Analytics
Google Search Console
Understand the history of the Site
Download the Checklist attached to this lecture
Questions
How many domains Recent changes (migrations, redesign ) Any deliberate link building Business Goals
How is it monetization?
Competitors Top Keywords
TECHNICAL CHECKS Quick checks to find major SEO problems
REDIRECTS and HTTP Status Codes
What is a HTTP Status Code?
HTML
HTTP (HTTPS)
200 - Ok 301/302 - Moved 404 - Not Found
HTTP Status Codes
200 Heres your page, everything is great!
301 The page you requested has moved, Heres where it moved to
302 The page you requested has temporarily moved
404 I cant find the page
5xx Something went wrong
Why Redirects Matter
Make sure Google has your forwarding address
Use a 301 Redirect if the move is permanent.
302 Redirect for temporary moves Best for SEO to use 301 redirects
Top Level Redirects
Check that there is a 301 Canonical Redirect The site should have one canonical location Either www or non-www but NOT both
Check for other redirects as appropriate Other domains http -> https
ROBOTS.TXT Dont block Googlebot and friends
About robots.txt
No crawling allowed here
Dont Block Your Entire Site
Make sure you dont check this box in WordPress
Settings -> Reading
Dont Block Your Entire Site
The slash tells Googlebot to NOT visit any pages on the site
www.yoursite.com/robots.txt
User-agent: * Disallow: /
When Spiders are Blocked
IMPORTANT: Does not necessarily keep pages out of the Google index!! A description for this result is not available because of this sites robots.txt file
When Spiders are Blocked
Dont block JavaScript and CSS files
MOBILE FRIENDLY A great user experience across all devices
Is the Site Mobile Friendly?
Mobile Friendly 3 Approaches
Responsive Web Design (RWD) Site adjusts to different screen sizes
Separate URLs Redirects to a separate URL (m dot site) based on a mobile User
Agent
Dynamic Serving Same URL but serves different HTML based on User Agent
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/
and AMP
Accelerated Mobile Pages Subset of HTML Performance Improvements of
15% - 85%
https://www.ampproject.org/
Google Mobile Friendly Test
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
WHAT GOOGLE SEES How to crawl a site and what to look for
Why we crawl
To see what Googlebot (other) sees, we crawl the site.
Uncover problems with accessibility as well as on page optimization opportunities.
Lectures in priority order Screaming Frog, BrowseSEO.net (free)
SEARCH SNIPPETS Where the search snippet gets its info
Laser Engraved Mirrors | Etched
Meta Data and Search Snippets
The Title Tag
Important Ranking Factor Get the Click Front load keyword Ideal length 55 57 characters Check for:
Missing title tags Duplicates Length Informative, Has Keywords, Clickability
The Meta Description
Not a Ranking Factor Get the Click Ideal length 150-160 characters Check for:
Missing meta descriptions Duplicates Length Informative, Has Keywords, Clickability
PAGE BY PAGE REVIEW What Google Sees
Page by Page
Browse the site page by page as a search bot would
Set up a browser to mimic a search bot
Review the source code
Fetch page as Google bot (in Google Search Console) or use the
cache: command
Use browseo.net
Identify page archetypes and browse representative
pages
Page by Page
What are you looking for?
Text is really text
Avoid really thin pages
Missing or Hidden Elements
Links are not obfuscated, with descriptive anchors
Proper use of tags
TRAFFIC The Lifeblood of a Website
The Different Types of Traffic
Organic
Referral
Direct
Paid
Google Analytics
Not only a measure of Organic Traffic but useful for: Tracking Conversions Engagement Metrics
Time On Site, Bounce Rate, Pages per Visit Content Performance Demographics and Interests (if enabled) % mobile Location Social Referrals
The Different Types of Traffic
Is Organic Traffic rising? Falling? Or Flat?
What are the top Landing Pages?
How is the site performing with Users?
How well is the site optimized for Speed?
GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
Googles Communication Channel to Webmasters
Google Search Console
Formerly known as Google Webmasters Tools
www.google.com/webmasters/tools
Site needs to be verified, admin access not absolutely required
Google Search Console
Messages
Search Appearance
Search Traffic
Google Index
Crawl
Structured Data
Gives meaning to the words on the page
Example: Recipe, Review
MAY result in rich snippets
More Info: http://schema.org
DOMAIN AUTHORITY Authority Checks
Why Backlinks Matter
The Accessibility and On Page Checks help fine tune the engine
Backlinks are what makes the car go!
Think of a Backlink as a vote for your site
Domain Authority
Not all backlinks are the same
You want links from high authority, relevant sites
Domain Authority
Third party metric from Moz.com
Not perfect
Moz Bar Plugin
BACKLINKS Authority Checks
Backlinks
Note # of backlinks and # of referring domains
Note any high DA links
Flag any links that look suspicious
Check anchor text
A good portion should be branded links
Backlinks - Tools
Google Search Console Links to Your Site
Mozs OpenSiteExplorer
Ahrefs
MajesticSEO
CONTENT QUALITY and User Experience
CONTENT QUALITY
Length: in most cases the longer the better
Readable
At least one image
Scannable lots of white space
Better than the competition
User Experience
Look at the site from the perspective of a new site visitor
Is it . Easy to navigate?
Is what it is offering clear?
Looks professional and credible?
QDF and Content Scraping Check