Tools of the Trade for Running SEO Audits - SMX East 2015: Essential Steps for Performing an Effective SEO Audit

#SMX #24A @BenjArriola

Benj Arriola Technical SEO Director, The Control Group

Tools of the Tradefor Running SEO Audits


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Benj Arriola

Technical SEO DirectorThe Control Group


SEO Breakdown

SEOOn-Page

Server Settings& Code

Web Designers, Web Developers,

Network Administrators

Content Writers

Off-Page LinksBuzz Makers,

Viral Marketers,

Content Promotion

SEO Diagnostics

Content Marketing

Foundational

Continuous

Content Marketing

SEO Diagnostics


SEO BreakdownSEO Diagnostics

Content Marketing

Foundational

Continuous

Technical SEO Diagnostic Objective Crawlable, Indexable Information Architecture Optimized HTML code Page Speed



SEO Issue Crawler Data What Crawling Tools Can Do

Broken Links Missing pages Identify all links leading to missing pages

Bad HTTP Status Headers HTTP Headers List all 4xx, 5xx, non-301 redirects

No XML Sitemap Full URL List Generate XML Sitemaps

Blocked URLs Robots.txt or Noindex Meta Tag

List all pages block

AJAX Usage HTML code crawl Identify all pages using AJAX

OpenGraph Tags HTML code crawl Identify all pages with missing OpenGraph Tags

Thin Content Word Count Identify pages with thin content

Duplicate Content URL list, Titles and Meta Descriptions

Identify duplicate titles and meta descriptions. List down URL patterns that may contain duplicate content.

SEO Issue Crawler Data What Crawling Tools Can Do

Broken Links Missing pages Identify all links leading to missing pages

Bad HTTP Status Headers HTTP Headers List all 4xx, 5xx, non-301 redirects

No XML Sitemap Full URL List Generate XML Sitemaps

Blocked URLs Robots.txt or Noindex Meta Tag

List all pages block

AJAX Usage HTML code crawl Identify all pages using AJAX

OpenGraph Tags HTML code crawl Identify all pages with missing OpenGraph Tags

Thin Content Word Count Identify pages with thin content

Duplicate Content URL list, Titles and Meta Descriptions

Identify duplicate titles and meta descriptions. List down URL patterns that may contain duplicate content.

• www/no-www• Trailing slash• Folder index/default page• Empty/Default/Zero Variables• Dynamic Parameter Order• Tracking IDs/Session ID’s• Page 1 Pagination• Print Version• Faceted Navigation• Infinite Loop/Recursive Folders• Mobile Site• Secure & Non-Secure

example.com & www.example.comexample.com & example.com//index.html, /default.htm, /index.php?x=&y=1, ?x=0&y=1, ?y=1?x=1&y=1, ?y=1&x=1?utm_source=social, ?sid=ncKFUECak/products/, /products/page1/faqs/, /faqs/print, /faqs/?print=1/shoes/men/running/nike, /shoes/running/men//new/prod-x/, /new/new/prod-x/, /new/new/new/prod-x/mobile.example.com, /m, /mobile, /mobihttp://example.com & https://example.com



• Free• Uses local memory• Can export tab

delimited files• Very large sites can

be challenging• Scripting tools help

• Inexpensive• Uses local memory• PC & Mac• Many other SEO

factors checked, existence of duplicate titles, audit of heading tags, etc.

• Inexpensive• SaaS, runs in the cloud

• Not OS dependent• Not memory dependent• Can run with your computer off.

• Tracks more SEO factors.


• Free• Uses local memory• Can export tab

delimited files• Very large sites can

be challenging• Scripting tools help

• Inexpensive• Uses local memory• PC & Mac• Many other SEO

factors checked, existence of duplicate titles, audit of heading tags, etc.

• Inexpensive• SaaS, runs in the cloud

• Not OS dependent• Not memory dependent• Can run with your computer off.

• Tracks more SEO factors.



Diagnostics- Crawlable- Indexable- Visible- Keywords- Taxonomies- Microformats- Page SpeedContent

Marketing- Informative- Valuable- Interesting- Resource- Intriguing- Inspiring- Up-To-Date- Useful- Funny- Controversial

Linkable A

ssets

Passes Link Juice Improves Ranking

Site Architecture & SEO

Passes Domain Authority It is important to have everything under the same domain to maximize domain authority.


Diagnostics- Crawlable- Indexable- Visible- Keywords- Taxonomies- Microformats- Page SpeedContent

Marketing- Informative- Valuable- Interesting- Resource- Intriguing- Inspiring- Up-To-Date- Useful- Funny- Controversial

Link B

ait

Passes Link Juice Improves Ranking

Passes Domain Authority It is important to have everything under the same domain to maximize domain authority.

Targets related keywordsBranded Search

Targets more specific long tails

Targets more general fat heads



Helps in the planning of the generation of XML sitemaps

Should be in a similar structure as the breadcrumb navigation

Reflects a similar topic hierarchy

• Topic Hierarchy

• Taxonomy• Folksonomy• Keyword

Research• Categorization• Grouping by

Tags

Planningthe site architecture leads to many other things


Site Architecture

Topic Buckets

Breadcrumb Navigation

URL Structure

XML Sitemap


Information Architecture Tools for SEO All indexed

subdomains

Topic Hierarchy

Taxonomy / Folksonomy

…and a gazillion more out there…



Objective Crawlable, Indexable Information Architecture Optimized HTML code Page Speed


HTML, JS, CSS, Etc. Woorank Website Grader SEO Site checkup Iwebchk W3C HTML Validator

Schema / Microformats

Code Audit Tools



Objective Crawlable, Indexable Information Architecture Optimized HTML code Page Speed


Page Speed Tools

YSlow


Technical SEO DiagnosticSEO Content Audit Objective Readable by Users &

Search Engines Duplicate Content Thin Content Linkable Assets Panda Competitor Content


SEO Content Audit Objective Readable by Users &



Readable by Users Free Readability Scores Clarity Grader Mobile Phone Emulator

Readable by Search Engines

Web Developer Toolbar User Agent Switcher Google Cache Mobile Sites

Readability


Objective Readable by Users &




SEO Content Audit Internal

External




SEO Content Audit

Can run a mass check on all pages for a word count.

More of a manual check to see if there is some type of content that is desirable to link to.

Connect you Google Analytics account to overlay your site’s historical timeline to mark algorithm update dates.




SEO Content Audit

More of a manual check to see what type of content your competitors have to offer.

Research on competitor keywords


SEO Content AuditBacklink Profile Analysis Objective Link Quantity Link Quality

Bad Links Penguin


The SearchEngines

SEO Content Audit Objective Link Quantity Link Quality

Bad Links Penguin

The Crawlers

The toolsthat connect to thetools above

Backlink Profile Analysis

and a lot more…


Backlink Factor Metrics

Quantity Quality


Quantity Quality

Quantity Google Webmaster Tools Bing Webmaster Tools Majestic Moz OpenSiteExplorer aHrefs Sistrix Link Research Tools CognitiveSEO SEMRush

Backlink Factor Metrics

Cemper Power*Trust

Quality (Power) Google PageRank # of Backlinks of the

Backlink Total Backlinks of the

Domain Keyword Focused Majestic Citation Flow Follow or No Follow Hosting Country Site Wide vs. Single

Page Cemper PowerTM

Quality (Authority & Trust) TrustRank Google Indexed Moz Page Authority Moz Domain Authority IP Diversity Anchor Text Diversity Majestic Trust Flow Deep Linking Domain Age Domain Name Extensions

.gov/.edu/.org ccTLD

Cemper TrustTM


SEO Content AuditBacklink Profile Analysis Objective Link Quantity Link Quality

Bad Links Penguin

Objective Link Quantity Link Quality

Bad Links Penguin

Unnatural Link Detection


Enterprise SEO Platforms


Enterprise SEO PlatformsIn alphabetical order…

Enterprise SEO Platforms They are not just reporting tools, they are analysis tools to help make better SEO decisions. Data from multiple sources are not just displayed together, but also correlated to each other. Saves tons of man hours in producing reports from pulling data manually from various sources and

putting them together using spreadsheets like MS Excel, Google Spreadsheets, etc. Spend more time analyzing and optimizing than generating report views.


SEO Content AuditTechnical SEO Diagnostic

SummaryBacklink Profile Analysis

Enterprise SEO Platform

YSlow

Links to all tools will be available on: http://bit.ly/smx24a

http://bit.ly/smx24a

http://bit.ly/smx24a


THANK YOU!

SEE YOU @SMX WEST

SAN JOSE, CAMARCH 1-3, 2016

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Includes Links ToAll Tools Mentioned

Benj ArriolaTechnical SEO DirectorThe Control Group