Date post: | 26-Aug-2014 |
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Self Improvement |
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How to Perform SEO Audits
Presented by:Alan Bleiweiss
http://AlanBleiweiss.com
@AlanBleiweiss
Alan Bleiweiss• Forensic SEO Consultant• SEO Services Since 2001• Audit Sites w/up to 150 million
pages
@AlanBleiweiss
Why An Audit Is Vital• Discover Issues You Weren’t Even Aware Of
• Know Where To Prioritize Efforts
• Establish a Step by Step Action Plan
• Everyone Works From The Same Roadmap
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Why An Audit Is Vital• Get Real Results
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Why An Audit Is Vital• Become Sustainable
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Caveats• It’s impossible to include every factor,
every tactic, and every consideration I include in my audits in a 20 minute presentation.
• Every situation is unique, so take what works for you from this presentation, and leave the rest.
@AlanBleiweiss
How To Perform SEO Audits
• Strategic Vs. Tactical• Pre-Contract Questions• Info Needed To Get Started• Data To Gather• Evaluation Process• The Action Plan - What To Include
@AlanBleiweiss
Strategic SEO Audits– High Level / Bigger Picture– Macro View– Sample & Scan– Top Priority Recommendations Only– Don’t Overwhelm the Client
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Tactical SEO Audits– One Tactical Audit to address each issue
found in strategic audit
– 1st Step in the implementation Sequence
– Granular Focus
– Details Matter
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Pre-Contract Questions• What is the domain you want
audited?
• Why do you think you need an audit?
• What are your goals?– Short / mid-term / long term
@AlanBleiweiss
Info to Get Started• List all the sites, domains, sub-domains
you own– Check with site:domain.com –www– site:domain.com –www –subd –subd2 etc.
• Have you received a manual penalty notice?
• What SEO have you done since January 1?• Provide admin access to
Analytics/GWT/BWT@AlanBleiweiss
Data to Gather• Competitive Landscape
– G Pgs Indexed / Inbound Followed Links / Inbound Followed Roots / LTR Ratio
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Data to Gather• SEMRush Top Competitor Visibility Timeline
Charts
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Data to Gather• SEMRush Rankings sort by highest volume
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Data to Gather• SEMRush Ranking Changes
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Data to Gather• OSE Followed Links Export
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Data to Gather• OSE Followed Link Anchor LTR
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Data to Gather• GWT top Linking Domains Export
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Data to Gather• GWT Internal Links
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Data to Gather• GWT Index Status
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Data to Gather• GWT Visibility Timeline
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Data to Gather• GWT Site Messages
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Data to Gather• Don’t Ignore “Manual Actions” Section
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Data to Gather• GA Year Over Year Comparisons If Applicable
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Data to Gather• GWT Sitemap Report
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Data to Gather• GWT Structured Data Report
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Data to Gather• GWT Crawl Error Reports
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Data to Gather• Site Processing Speed /CSS/Markup Errors
– – GA / URIValet / WebPageTest /W3C Validators
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Data to Gather• GA Slowest Page Processing Speeds
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Data to Gather• GA Page Processing Speed Short Term &
Historic
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Data to Gather• Google Page Speed Insights Grades
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Data to Gather• WebPageTest.org Page Grades
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Data to Gather• Screaming Frog Sample Crawl
– 10,000 pages max for a strategic audit– Export Important Data
• Redirected Links• Dead End Links• Page Titles• H1 tags• HTML Page WordCounts (on 200 status pages only)• Meta Descriptions• Meta Keywords• Meta Robots
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Data to Gather• Screaming Frog Sample Crawl Value
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Data to Gather• Social Media Engagement
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Other Data To Gather• When Appropriate Also Include
– Local Directory Listing Report– City Specific Keyword Rankings– Panguin Tool Timeline Report– eCommerce Trends Report– Indexation & Inbound Link Report for SubDomains– Indexation & Inbound Link Report for Niche Domains
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Evaluation Process• Look for Patterns that cause you to scratch you
head
• Look for Obvious Outliers
• Ask – Does this signal confirm QUART?– Quality– Uniqueness– Authority– Relevance– Trust
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Evaluation Process• Look for Conflicting Signals
– Robots.txt vs. Canonical vs. Meta Robots vs. Nofollow– Topical Focus
• Page Title – Phrase 1 & Phrase 2• URL – Phrase 3 • Breadcrumb – Phrase 4• H1 Phrase 5• Content Phrases 1, 3, 4, 6, 11• Inbound Links Phrases 7 through 55
@AlanBleiweiss
Evaluation Process• Look for Conflicting Signals
– Topical Dilution• “Related Content” Widget• “Also Viewed” Widget• “Top Articles” Widget• Not Enough Volume of Unique Content
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Evaluation Process• Duplicate Content Issues
– www vs. non-www vs. https vs numeric IP– On-site search– Faceted navigation
• Most Popular / Highest to Lowest / Red / Newest / On Sale– Too many pages with extremely thin content – Multi-Site Duplication
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Action Plan• Cover Sheet
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary– Overview– Positive bullet points– Negative bullet points
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Action Plan• PRIORITY ISSUE
– Problem– Why this is important– Example URLs– Data Snippets– Reference to Tab X in accompanying Spreadsheet– Screen-Shots– Conclusion– Recommendation
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Action Plan• PRIORITY ISSUE
– Problem– Why this is important– Sub-Issue 1
• Example URLs• Reference to Tab X in accompanying Spreadsheet• Screen-Shots• Data Snippets
– Sub-Issue 2• Example URLs• Reference to Tab X in accompanying Spreadsheet• Screen-Shots• Data Snippets
– Conclusion– Recommendation
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Action Plan• Don’t Forget Disclaimers
– Can’t know which links are passing false positive signals– May see short term drop in organics during transition– Can’t guarantee when stability will occur
• Acknowledge that other non-SEO business cases may override recommendations
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SEO Audit Tools & Resources
• http://OpenSiteExplorer.org• http://URIValet.com• http://WebPageTest.org• http://AuthorityLabs.com• http://SEMRush.com• http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ • http://validator.w3.org/ • http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets • https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/• http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/ • http://barracuda-digital.co.uk/panguintool/ • http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
@AlanBleiweiss
In Conclusion
Be AwesomeDon’t Be An #Asshat
Presented by:Alan Bleiweiss
http://AlanBleiweiss.com
@AlanBleiweiss