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SEO Bootcamp: Technical SEO AuditPart 2 of 2: Local level

25 July 2013

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What’s on the docket?

I. Revisit: Why we audit sites

II. Revisit: Our two types of audits

III. The pillars we look at - and how we score each

IV. Off- and on-page SEO: you can’t excel with one but not the other

V. The 13 audit checkpoints

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Revisit: Why we audit sitesWithout audits, we’d be unable to:

• Know what’s going on “under the hood”

• Identify site strengths and weaknesses

• Discover areas to focus on to optimise SEO efforts

• Answer these questions, among others:

• Is my site indexed?

• How does Google see my site?

• Why am I not ranking?

• Is my content optimised?

• Why is my site so slow?

• Are Analytics and Webmaster Tools set up correctly?

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Revisit: Our two types of auditsTemplate level – Particular focus on visibility, design and global site elements that are duplicated across many markets. These include:

• Indexation, sitemaps, 404s, server errors, as well as programmatic optimisation, URL structure, page speed, Analytics and Webmaster Tools setup, and design (e.g. conversion points)

Part I of Technical SEO Audit Bootcamp (June 2013) focused primarily on the template level audit.

Local level – Particular focus on links, keyword use and content in a local market. These include:

• Inbound link quality and quantity, internal linking, linkable assets, targeted keyword analysis, content to image ratio, image optimisation, PageRank and social media presence

For this session, we’re talking about the local level audit.Yeah, that one.

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Revisit: Template level audit

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The pillars we look at – and how we score each

CONTENT OPTIMISATIONKeyword relevancy drives high performance. Focus on driving qualified traffic to your site.

Go beyond your native site to achieve maximum visibility. Increase exposure and dominate the Search Engine Results Page.

Links help the engines determine content importance. Optimise internal and external links to help boost rankings.

DISTRIBUTIONLINK BUILDING

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Off- and on-page SEO: you can’t excel with one but not the other

There are many factors that allow SEO to work. Some, like content and

links, are considered old-school; others like social are still being explored.

http://searchengineland.com/seotable

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Before we start, get that SEO toolkit out!

The 13 audit checkpoints

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Content Optimisation

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I. Duplicate contentAnswers the client questions: Why aren’t my pages being indexed? Why are there too many pages being indexed? What do I do with my content if I have hundreds of products, many of which are similar?Why it’s important: Duplicate content has long been an SEO issue as it can waste crawler resources, affect rank and devalue inbound links.Tools used for this checkpoint: Screaming Frog; Google Webmaster Tools; manual SERP review; “site:” operator.

Also…

• The rel=“canonical” tag can be used to help identify to search engines what your preferred page is among a duplicate/similar set.

• Duplicate home page URLs are commonplace and can be fixed with a rel=“canonical” or 301 redirect.

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II. Targeted keyword analysisAnswers the client questions: Am I using the right keywords? Are my pages optimised enough? Why aren’t my pages ranking?Why it’s important: If you don’t use targeted keywords, either you’ll attract the wrong searchers or searchers will struggle to find your content.Tools used for this checkpoint: Manual site review; Screaming Frog; keyword density tools.

Also…

• Try to optimise pages using the 3-8 percent rule (as in use your targeted keywords 3-8 percent of the time).

• Targeted keywords should be included in all on- and off-page SEO elements.

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III. Content to image ratioAnswers the client questions: Am I using too many images on my pages? Are my pages code heavy? Do I have enough content? Why are my pages taking so long to load?Why it’s important: Not only is content as important as ever, but the longer your pages take to load, the better the chances that search engines and searchers will give up and go elsewhere.Tools used for this checkpoint: MozBar text to code ratio; text to code ratio tools (very unreliable); manual review.

Gross!

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IV. Images and ALT attributesAnswers the client questions: Are my images optimised? Why aren’t my images showing up in Google?Why it’s important: Images have become more visible in SERPs in recent years and can be a viable source of traffic to a website if optimised.Tools used for this checkpoint: Web Developer Toolbar; MozBar; manual site perusal.

Also…

• ALT attributes and image file names should always be optimised.

• When missing ALT attributes is a huge issue for a site, it’s likely due to the CMS.

Link Building

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V. Inbound link qualityAnswers the client questions: How good are the link origination sites in our link portfolio? How do our links compare to our competitors’ links?Why it’s important: No matter how good your content is, if you don’t have quality links pointing to it, you won’t be considered an authority to search engines. As a result, visibility and rank will suffer.Tools used for this checkpoint: Open Site Explorer; Majestic SEO; Link Research Tools.

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• One way to measure quality is to average the “Page Authority” and “Domain Authority” scores and compare vs. the competition.

• You can also look at the PageRank of the top links pointing to a domain to see how valuable they are.

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VI. Inbound link anchor text qualityAnswers the client questions: How good is the anchor text in our link portfolio? Is our link portfolio diverse enough?Why it’s important: Targeted keyword anchor text like “washing machines” is much more valuable to search engines than “click here” or “more.” The former can help boost the value of the link pointing to your site.Tools used for this checkpoint: Open Site Explorer; Majestic SEO; Link Research Tools.

Also…

• Branded anchor text will dominate a link portfolio by nature, but it’s still important to attract unique anchor text.

• Don’t forget internal links! These give site owners the ability to diversify anchor text.

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VII. Internal linking structureAnswers the client questions: Are my pages appropriately linked to each other? Is the site easy to navigate, especially at a deep level? What’s breadcrumb navigation?Why it’s important: The better your pages are linked to each other, the better the experience for search engines and visitors. Effective linking can also make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content.Tools used for this checkpoint: Manual site perusal.

Also…

• Internal linking can help search engines understand the value of one of your pages compared to another.

• The way a site is linked internally could have an influence on what search engines display in sitelinks.

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VIII. Inbound link quantityAnswers the client questions: How many links are pointing to my website? How many links are my competitors’ sites attracting?Why it’s important: Link quantity is meaningless without quality, but obviously it’s important to attract as many relevant links to your site as possible. The quantity of backlinks a site has should be digested in a relative manner.Tools used for this checkpoint: Open Site Explorer; Majestic SEO; Link Research Tools.

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• Keep an eye on the total number of linking root domains pointing links to a site. It’s better to have 1,000 links from 1,000 domains than it is to have 1,000 links from 10 domains.

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IX. Inbound link relevanceAnswers the client questions: Who is linking to me? Are we getting links from the right sites? Why is it that we have so many links in our portfolio but still find visibility a challenge?Why it’s important: Search engines look at quality, quantity, anchor text and relevance when evaluating links, so it’s of utmost importance to attract links to your site that are contextual and in line with your content.Tools used for this checkpoint: Open Site Explorer; Majestic SEO; Link Research Tools.

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• When analysing a link portfolio, think about this: Is the backlink adding any value? If a profile is filled with links that don’t add value to a site, chances are it won’t help move the SEO needle.

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X. PageRankAnswers the client questions: What is PageRank? What’s my PageRank? Why doesn’t this page have any PageRank?Why it’s important: PageRank, which measures the quantity and quality of links pointing to a page, is most important because it’s a Google computation that’s still in use today. A low PageRank is an indicator that a page does not have much – if any – of a link portfolio. A high PageRank, meanwhile, indicates the opposite.Tools used for this checkpoint: Google Toolbar; a slew of other PageRank tools (e.g. SEO Tools For Excel).

Also…

• PageRank is based on a log scale, not linear. This means that a move from a 4 to a 5 is not a 25 percent increase; instead, it’s up to 5x more of an increase for every integer.

• The PageRank toolbar is updated about every three months and therefore doesn’t provide an accurate snapshot.

Distribution

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XI. Linkable assetsAnswers the client questions: Do we have enough great content or should we create more? What do we do with our content? Are videos and images important?Why it’s important: Yes, they are important! The more fresh, relevant content you can create, the better the chance that people will see it, talk about it and share it. Great content doesn’t need a lot of help once it’s pushed live, as the buzz it generates can spread the word naturally.Tools used for this checkpoint: Manual site and SERPs perusal; Screaming Frog; social networks, etc.

Also…

• Ideally a site should host its assets (e.g. videos) on its own domain and not just sites like YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. This way, the brand site benefits from backlinks, traffic, visibility, etc.

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XII. SyndicationAnswers the client questions: Are press releases and company news articles important? Where should these content pieces reside? Should I pay to have our articles distributed?Why it’s important: The more people you can share your content with, the more traffic and links you can garner, along with buzz around your brand, products and services.Tools used for this checkpoint: Manual site and SERPs perusal; Screaming Frog.

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• Unique content should always be hosted on the primary domain in order to take advantage of backlinks, traffic, visibility, etc.

• RSS feeds are helpful in distributing your content.

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XIII. Social media presenceAnswers the client questions: Are we doing enough in the social space? Is social even relevant? Which channels are most important for us?Why it’s important: Social is everywhere and apparently is here to stay. Your current (and potential) customers are using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and the like, and you have the chance to be relevant and share great content and engage in conversations with them. Tools used for this checkpoint: Manual site perusal of social networks; social listening tools.

Also…

• We may not know the value that social provides to SEO, but the reach that social has is undeniable.

http://visual.ly/how-social-media-influence-businesses

Questions?

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Thank you!

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