Do Search Engines Trust your Site? How to Perform an SEO Site Audit

Who is this Casey guy?

• Head of Online Support for Planet Ocean

• Lead SEO Consultant w/ Search Engine News

• President & Owner of SEO Firm Media Wyse

• Author of 200+ Search Engine News Articles

• 12+ Years actual Working SEO Experience

• Klout score of 65! (1000’s of SMO subscribers)

• Dozens of Link Bait Pieces at the Top of Google

• Head of Online Support for Planet Ocean

• Lead SEO Consultant w/ SearchEngineNews.com

• Owner of SEO Consultancy Media Wyse

• Author of 400+ SEO & SMO articles

• 15+ years actual working SEO Experience

• Has conducted 300+ site audits!

• Trained SEO teams on five continents

• Co-Author of the “Unfair Advantage Guide to Winning the Search Engine Wars”

• Contributor to “The Web Untangled: The Handbook for Building an Online Business”

• Rabid KU Jayhawks fan. Rock Chalk!

@MediaWyse + Casey Markee


1. How does Google Grade a Page?“Quality Rater Guidelines”

Google Quality Rater Guidelines – Finding Trust


1. Rater Guidelines are 160 pages. They guide “Quality Raters” (which are private

citizens hired by Google) on how to “rate and provide feedback on websites.”

2. Rater Guidelines are based on user intent and utility. Raters can use five

different scales to classify the average page:

Google Quality Rater Guidelines – Finding Trust


1. Does the website LOOK trustworthy?

2. Does the content appear “expertly” written?

3. Does the website content fulfill a need?

4. Does the website content match the query result which brought you to the page?

5. Do navigational and outbound links work?

6. Does it looks like the site is regularly maintained? Is the information current?

7. Is the site or page user-friendly? (loads fast, little ads, good content, etc.)


2. Why Should you do your own Audit?“Hint: It’s MUCH cheaper!”


3. What does a Site Audit Cover?“More than you think.”


Possible Site Audit Issues & Focus Areas:

Backlink Analysis

Blog Marketing

Site ArchitectureAccessibility

Internal Linking

Keyword Research

Indexing

On-Site Optimization

Structured Data

Heatmap Analysis

Pay-Per-Click Review

Reputation Management

Public Relations

Social Media Outreach

Analytics

EcommerceAudio & Video

Business Strategy

Page Speed

Branding

Conversion

Content

Social Engagement


How to Conduct a Site Audit = KISS Method


How to Conduct a Site Audit = KISS Method


4. Audit Tools and Data Pulls“Where to look is half the battle!”

Audit Tools/Data – Google Webmaster Tools


Audit Tools/Data – Google Analytics


Audit Tools/Data – Screaming Frog

Audit Tools/Data – Moz Site Crawl


Audit Tools/Data – Toolbar Plugins


Audit Tools/Data – Toolbar Plugins


Audit Tools/Data – Free Auditing Tools!



5. Keyword Research“That data is still out there, find it!”

Keyword Research – Solving “Not Provided”

Keyword Research – SEMRush


Keyword Research – Google Webmaster Tools


Keyword Research – Google Adwords Keyword Planner



6. On-Site Optimization“How does your site look to Google?”

On-Site Optimization: Relevance


On-Site Optimization: Relevance


On-Site Optimization: Meta Tags/Data






On-Site Optimization: Image Optimization




1. Title Tags are THE most important SEO Metric: 60-65 Characters Max. Is that Target Keyword in the Page Title? Why not?

2. Fill-out a Custom 155 Max META Description (or use a SERP pixel tool) . Describe your blog post or article. Write for the user, not the search engine!

3. Fill-out both the Alt Tags and Title Tags on all your post images.

4. Each page should have ONE H1 tag. You can have as many H2-H5 tags as you like. But only ONE H1 tag!

5. Keep images below 80KB in size, use Smush.it to optimize before load-in.

6. Automate on-page Blogging SEO with the Yoast SEO plugin.

On-Site Optimization: Site Appearance










On-Site Optimization: Structured Data


+ Casey Markee

On-Site Optimization: Structured Data

@MediaWyse

Detailed Schema.org CHEAT SHEET from Ann Smarty!


On-Site Optimization: Page Speed





Google Page Speed Tool: Go check your Site right now!https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

On-Site Optimization: Mobile Design








7. Content Auditing“Content is the Queen of good rankings!”

Content Auditing


Content Auditing: Export and Grade


Content Auditing: On-Site Duplicate Content


Content Auditing: Off-Site Duplicate Content


Content Auditing: What about “Bad” Content?



8. Backlink Review“Backlinks remain the KING of rankings!”

Backlink Review: Popularity


Backlink Review: Google Webmaster Tools


Backlink Review: Majestic SEO


Backlink Review: Link Toxicity


Remove Disavow Nofollow Noindex

Backlink Review: What about “Bad” Links?




Google Link Building Targets & Victims:

Directory Submissions

Blog Comments

Mass Guest PostingArticle Directories

Advertorials

Reciprocal Links

Social Bookmarking

Widget Links

Spun Content

Paid Links

Anchor Text Rich Links

Design by Links

Press Releases

Web 2.0 Links

Forums

Forum Signatures Blogrolls


Google Link Building Targets & Victims:

Directory Submissions

Blog Comments

Mass Guest PostingArticle Directories

Advertorials

Reciprocal Links

Social Bookmarking

Widget Links

Spun Content

Paid Links

Anchor Text Rich Links

Design by Links

Press Releases

Web 2.0 Links

Forums

Forum Signatures Blogrolls

Backlinks Review: Google?



The 4 Tenants of Google-Friendly Links:

1. Does the link provide clear value to the user?

2. Is the link niche-relevant and worthy of Google consideration?

3. Does the link actually get clicked and send some measureable form of trackable analytics traffic?


The 4 Tenants of Google-Friendly Links:

And most importantly….

4. Was the link given or “earned” freely?

Some Final Thoughts

Save Money & Time by doing your own Audit!

Understand E-A-T & Quality Ratings

Start your Audit w/Google Webmaster Tools.

Page Speed + Mobile SEO = Awesome!

Links are still KING. Implement Google-Friendly Link Building!

Regular Site Reviews Keep you Focused!

Use SiteLiner and Copyscape to Monitor your Content!

And Remember this about Site Auditing…


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Do Search Engines Trust your Site? How to Perform an SEO Site Audit