SEO Audit Workshop: Framework, Techniques And Tools

Digital Marketing Webinar SEO Audit Workshop : Framework ,

Technique and Tools 11th June , 2014 | Mohit Maheshwari

(CEO , NEW MEDIA GURU) www.newmediaguru.co.uk

www.digitalvidya.com

by Mohit Maheshwari

Speaker

•  About Mohit Maheshwari (MD -‐ NEW MEDIA GURU) •  13+ years in the Internet and Technology Industry •  Worked with clients in more than 25+ countries •  Clients range from large established brands to agencies and start ups globally •  Member of TiE , SEMPO , IAMAI •  Member NASSCOM NPC MarkeHng team •  AcHve speaker , consultant and digital enthusiast

•  About NEW MEDIA GURU www.newmediaguru.co.uk

•  Full service Digital markeHng agency which offers Web SoluHons ( CMS , Ecommerce , Custom ApplicaHon Development) , Mobile app development , Search Engine and Social Media MarkeHng services.

•  Team of 85+ digital professionals •  Established in 2007 in London with primarily UK clients to begin with •  Presence in US , UK , Australia and clients in over 30+ countries •  Selected in NASSCOM OrbitshiV program •  Member of IAMAI ,MicrosoV partner network (MPN ) , Amazon ConsulHng

Partner (APN) , Google CerHfied Adwords Partner , SEMPO member, TiE

Agenda

1. SEO Audit Process

2. SEO Audits Tools 3. SEO Audit ReporHng 4. AcHonable steps from SEO audit

Some pointers for Webinar

•  Webinar is being recorded and will be available on Digital Vidya website and NEW MEDIA GURU’s website Newmediaguru.co.uk Recording will be available in 2-‐3 days

•  Slide deck will be uploaded on Slideshare.net/mohiHnhere •  It is impossible to include all tacHcs, factors, scenarios we usually include in our SEO audits in a 30 minute presentaHon.

•  SEO audits usually take 1-‐2 hours for a basic level audit to even 4-‐5 days for Mid level audits.

•  Advanced SEO audits are not part of scope of this webinar. •  So use your own knowledge and do indepth R and D before coming to a conclusion for your website or specific scenario.

•  SEO is a dynamic field , so keep yourself updated with latest news •  Follow up on this presentaHon via twièr @mohiHnhere

The Iceberg

Image credits: Flicker

Surface SEO OR ON Page

Amplified SEO OR Deep SEO

S E O S T R A T E G Y

Technical

Content

Social

Links

•  Keyword Research

•  Site structure •  Site speed •  Browser and

Device •  AnalyMcs •  ANribuMon

Tracking

•  Trends Report •  Content Themes •  Audience Survey •  Blogging •  Survey •  Reports •  Ebooks •  Interviews •  Whitepapers

•  DistribuMon •  AmplificaMon •  Virality •  Influencer •  Outreach •  Contest •  Channels-‐ G+

•  Earned and NOT

Built •  Brand keywords/

anchor text •  Campaign driven •  Votes

SEO above the surface: On Page SEO

•  Site structure •  Content •  Title , Meta etc •  Site speed •  Code cleaning •  Internal linking •  Authorship •  Schemas •  Sitemaps •  Site errors •  Server errors •  URL structure

SEO below the surface: Off Page SEO

•  Link building •  Anchor text •  Keyword density •  Website

neighbourhood •  Guest posMng •  ArMcle •  Directory submissions •  Local submissions •  Press Releases

OversimplificaHon of Modern SEO

The Cute people

Are NOT So Cute if YOU SPAM !!

SEO AUDIT

Philosophy , Framework, Tools , Process , Project management

Why do you need SEO Audit ?

•  SEO audit is a health check of your

website •  It allows you to discover criHcal

issues you might be ignoring or not aware off

•  It helps in managing potenHal risks and threats

•  It helps in creaHng an acHon plan for SEO , Risk MiHgaHon and tweaks in strategy

•  Helps in sehng priority •  Creates roadmap for Web

development teams , SEO , Content team , Social team

Some Recommended tools for Site Audit Purpose Tool Site crawling Screaming Frog SEO Spider ( Free and paid)

Xenu’s Link Sleuth ( Free -‐Only good for broken links reporHng)

Webmaster , Keywords and AnalyHcs

Google AnalyHcs , Google Websmaster , Bing webmaster Google Adwords Keyword planner

Local SEO Audits Getlisted / Moz Local ( CitaHons) Whitespark ( CitaHons) Brightlocal ( CitaHons)

Site Performance check

Pingdom , Gtmetrix , Yslow , New Relic

SEO On page Audits Raven Tools , Moz

Link profile Audits Moz , MajesHc SEO , Raventools

CompeHtor Audits Moz , MajesHc SEO , Raventools

Checklist template Anne Cushings Site Audit Check list ( make your own custom version on case basis)

Tools for ReporHng Excel , Word , Powerpoint Screenshots -‐ Jing – Free , SnagIt( Paid)

Audit Philosophy

•  Importance of check lists in our work

•  How to create check lists ( one pager for each theme)

•  How to ensure check list cross link and co relate to the broader objecHve

•  Process to creaHng checklist •  For improving what you learn

•  For teaching team members, educaHng clients , other partners

Checklist in acHon via PM Tools

Anee Cushing’s -‐ Biggest Site Audit Checklist

Create your own version – based on case by case needs h`p://goo.gl/5HCxJK

SEO Audit Reports

•  SEO Audit report preparaHon Tips •  Use Screenshots tools -‐ Jing ( Free) , Snagit( paid) , Videos recording if

explaining complicated material to developer sihng outside your office or remotely with agency

•  Audit items should be grouped themaHcally for easy understanding •  Technical •  Link Analysis •  Content and Social Analysis •  CompeHtor Analysis

•  Ensure you add table of content •  Interlink the document and cross refer with the excel sheets to be precise •  Don’t leave things open to interpretaHon. Give specific examples to the

developer where need be •  Add Excel docs as SupporHng document with the main report •  Based on your audit outcome ,Create a Todo list sorted by priority A , B ,

C for the developer and Digital MarkeHng team ( SEO , Content , Link building , CitaHon etc)

SEO Audit report resources

Template Website Audit

Books Danny Dovers SEO book – SEO secrets h`p://goo.gl/m6e3LK

Checklist template

1.  Anne Cushings Site Audit Check list ( make your own custom version on case by case basis) h`p://goo.gl/ULIq3b

2.  Technical Site Audit checklist h`p://goo.gl/sE8ywV 3.  Danny Dovers 15 minutes Audit check list

h`p://goo.gl/DhZ0zv 4.  60 minute SEO checklist h`p://goo.gl/O2Dt0b

SEO audit Case study

AJ Kohns case study h`p://goo.gl/08NfMu

Main document template

Neil Patel’s Quicksprout version h`p://goo.gl/jBV8sd

NMG Audit report templates

SEO Audit Report : Master Document


SEO ImplementaHon schedule : PrioriHzed


Analysis Sheet : SupporHng documents

SEO AUDIT

ExecuHng the Audit

Technical Audit Accessibility, Indexability,

On page Factors , Penalty check

Link Profile Audit Off page Factors

Content + Social Audit CompeHtor Audit

SEO AUDIT

Technical Audit

Technical Audit Checkpoints

Areas Website Audit

Technical Audit •  Accessibility •  Site Performance

•  Index ability •  Search Engine Penalty

SemanHc Audit •  Content Analysis •  Link Analysis

CompeHtor Audit

•  Link Graph •  Type and No. of links •  Link Authority •  Nature of links (Built or Earned)

Ensuring Site Accessibility

•  Robots.txt •  Check if it’s there ? •  Is it opHmized ?

For more info: robotstxt .org Google Robots.txt Guide What is Robots.txt?


•  Robots Meta tags •  Check if it’s there ? •  Is it placed properly ?


•  H`p Status Code Always inventory site’s redirecHon techniques. Use 301 ONLY -‐ NO 302 HTTP Redirects 5 Common HTTP ERRORS

•  HTTP ERROR 500 (Internal Server Error) •  HTTP ERROR 403 (Forbidden) •  HTTP ERROR 404 ( Not Found) •  HTTP ERROR 400 (Bad Request) •  HTTP ERROR 401 (Unauthorized)

Tools: Google Webmaster, Screaming frog, Xenu


•  Sitemap •  Is the Sitemap a well-‐formed XML document? Does it follow the

Sitemap protocol? •  Has the Sitemap been submièd to your webmaster tools accounts? •  Did you find pages in the site crawl that do not appear in the

Sitemap? •  Are there pages listed in the Sitemap that do not appear in the site

crawl?

More Info: What is Sitemap Sitemap Tools: Xenu, Screaming frog, www.xml-‐sitemaps.com

Ensuring Site Accessibility •  Website Architecture

•  Is it user friendly? •  No. of clicks to reach important pages ? •  Are NavigaHonal links are easily accessible to user ? •  Is site navigaHon built using flash or Javascript ? More Info: Importance of link architecture Tools: *GA: Behavior > Site Content > Content Drilldown **BWT: Reports & Data > Index Explorer

*Google AnalyHcs, ** Bing Webmaster Tool

Ensuring Site Accessibility •  Site Performance

•  Google Page Speed •  Pingdom •  Gtmetrix

•  Advanced Tool: •  New Relic

Checking Indexability •  Site:command •  Index Sanity check •  Page Searches •  Brand Searches •  Search Engine Penalty

Checking Indexability •  Site:Command ( 1000 Z view)

•  It is a rough esHmate •  EsHmated index count can help idenHfy one of three scenarios:

•  The index and actual counts are roughly equivalent •  The index count is significantly smaller than the actual count •  The index count is significantly larger than the actual count

•  If you suspect a duplicate content issue, append "&start=990" to the end of the URL in your

browser and then, look for Google's duplicate content warning at the boòm of the page. The warning message will look similar to this:

.

Checking Indexability •  Index Sanity check (100 Ft view)

•  We need to make sure the search engines are indexing the site's most important pages.

•  Page searches •  search for a specific page's URL to check if it is indexed:

•  If you don't find the page, double check its accessibility. If the page is accessible, you should check if the page has been penalized.

•  Brand Searches

Check and Resolve Search Engine Penalty (if any)

•  Check for search engine penalHes •  On Page Ranking Factors •  Off Page Ranking Factors

Check for Penalty If your site is penalized don’t be scared

Check for Penalty Fix the Site's Penalized Behavior

Check for Search Engine Penalty

1. Make Sure You've Actually Been Penalized

2. IdenHfy the Reason(s) for the Penalty

3. Fix the Site's Penalized Behavior 4. Request ReconsideraHon

Check for Penalty

• Make Sure You've Actually Been Penalized •  Google AnalyMcs:

•  Google Webmaster: If you see something likewise this, there is some issue.

•  Also check webmaster message as well.

Check for Penalty

•  IdenHfy the Reason(s) for the Penalty

Helpful Tool : Panguin Tool 2.0 by Barracuda Digital hFp://goo.gl/10BL1i

Check for Penalty

•  Take a deep dive on what type of penalty is applied on your website

(Check On page + Offpage factor)

•  Few Usual Suspects •  Unnatural Links – Penguin •  Panda •  User Generated Content spam •  Paid links in advertorials and perhaps elsewhere •  Paid links in the form of discount offers •  Selling links to other websites •  Cloaking •  Doorway pages

Check for Penalty •  Request ReconsideraHon “Google wants to see you have made genuine efforts to liS penalty!”

Google doc tracking all efforts and giving report to Google at ReconsideraHon stage

Submit your case with proper explanaHon: (Example email)

On Page Ranking Factors

•  URLs •  URL based duplicate content •  Content ( plus check for)

•  InformaHon Architecture •  Keyword Cannibalism •  Duplicate Content

•  HTML Markup •  Titles •  Meta DescripHons •  Other <head> Tags •  Images – should contain descripHve name along with Alt and Htle tag.

•  Outlinks – No. of outbond links to other website •  Other <body> Tags – like Heading tag

On Page Ranking Factors •  Tools to check and resolve on page issues

Name Website

MOZ Moz.com

Screaming Frog

www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-‐spider/

Google Webmaster tool h`ps://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Site Liner siteliner.com

Google Page Speed h`ps://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights

MajesHc SEO majesHcseo.com

Google AnalyHcs h`p://www.google.com/analyHcs/

Schema Validator Schema Validator

Raven tools raventools.com

On Page Ranking Factors

•  Resolving issues and tracking : MOZ , GWT ,Raven

Other Pro Tips ( General) •  Check domain expiry and if it’s <1 year, we recommend it to book for next 10 years

•  Check what sort of plugins are there, if some important plugins are missing recommend those to developer

•  Check what backup plan is there in case of virus aàck or hacking aèmpt, in case it’s not available recommend it to developer

•  Check website hosHng and recommend some beèr hosHng soluHons like AWS or some other cloud hosHng provider

•  In Ecommerce recommend a cart abandonment email soluHon.

Off Page Ranking Factors

•  Popularity •  Trustworthiness •  Backlink Profile •  Authority •  Social Engagement •  CitaHon – Local SEO

Off Page Ranking Factors •  Analyze Links : MOZ , GWT , Ahrefs , Raven Tools

Off Page Ranking Factors •  Anchor text distribuHon : Tool Ahrefs

•  Keep Dollar keyword % age less and brand keyword significantly higher in Anchor text. Use Co CitaHon

•  Ensure the link profile has no follow links and not just do follow

CompeHHve Analysis

•  Compare your link profile with CompeHtors Link Profile

Complete details on this method on this post : Link Profile Tool

CompeHtor link analysis : OSE

CitaHon Building and Tracking

CitaHon Building and Tracking

CONTENT AUDIT

Why Do You Need Content Audit?

A content audit will help you collect informaHon you need to: •  Review current

informaHon architecture (site structure, navigaHon systems)

•  Website InformaHon architecture for new design

•  Develop your content matrix

Image courtesy : DisHlled

How to Perform a Content Audit Step 1 -‐ Get list of your webpages Extract a report from your CMS ( if feature available). You may be able to collect extra informaHon about each page, like the metadata (page Htle, keywords), Heading tags, Image alt tag, canonical url etc.

If CMS does not support , you could use one of these free tools to crawl your site ( limitaHons apply) : Screaming Frog ( Paid) Xenu Link Sleuth (Windows)

How to Perform a Content Audit

Step – 2 Create a spreadsheet with all of your data. A few good things to add to your spreadsheet include: •  Date of the audit •  Title of the content •  Category •  Keywords and audience •  Timely or evergreen •  Needs changing •  Traffic •  Social popularity •  URL •  Author

How to Perform a Content Audit Step 3: Collect Traffic and Conversion Data Add a few extra columns at the end to accommodate the following ( from GWT) : 1.  Impressions 2.  Clicks 3.  Click-‐Through Rate 4.  If available, Average rank. Bonus Metrics ( from GWT and GA) : •  Top 3 referring (non branded) keywords for each page •  Bounce Rate, Exit Rate, or Time on Page. •  Unique Page Views – With this, you’ll idenHfy pages

which visitors are acHvely consuming, regardless of source.

Tools used – Google AnalyMcs, Google Webmaster

How to Perform a Content Audit Step 4 – Detect Duplicate content (internal)

Tool Name Website

SEOmoz Crawl Test Moz.com

Screaming Frog: Hash (Apply condiHonal formahng to column to catch duplicates)

www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-‐spider/

GWT For HTML improvement – Duplicate Htles , Long Htles etc

DMCA , Copyscape DMCA, Copyscape -‐ Content protecHon ( external)

Siteliner Detects internal duplicate content

How to Perform a Content Audit Step 5 -‐ Study CompeMtors Take a deep dive into your compeHtors' content assets to do a side-‐by-‐side comparison. •  Where are the content gaps? •  Which content assets are they targeHng the same audience with?

•  How is their content beèr ? Tools used -‐ MajesHcSEO, Ahrefs, or Open Site Explorer

Ways to Get More From Your Top Content

•  Repurpose top content -‐ –  Ebook to Blog , Blog to ebook –  Blog to Info graphic – Whitepaper to Videos –  Videos to blogpost

•  Update top content – Make it latest , fresh , integrate social interacHon / chaèr

•  SEO opHmize top content •  Conversion opHmize

–  Call to acHon , forms , Phone no. , email newsleèr subscripHon

+ The Iceberg

Check out Slides hNp://goo.gl/yXrjsh Video -‐ hNp://goo.gl/7xmgkR

Thank You Mohit Maheshwari [email protected] www.facebook.com/newmediaguru @new_media_guru @mohiHnhere h`p://in.linkedin.com/in/mohiHnhere www.newmediaguru.co.uk

www.digitalvidya.com

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SEO Audit Workshop: Framework, Techniques And Tools