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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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In Conclusion

Be AwesomeDon’t Be An #Asshat

Presented by:Alan Bleiweiss

http://AlanBleiweiss.com

@AlanBleiweiss