Technical SEO audit procedures can not only boost your traffic and improve your rankings and conversions but can also tell you how ‘healthy’ your website is.
An SEO audit allows you to spot faults that you can act upon to make improvements to your site. Many marketers think of technical SEO auditing as a challenging procedure; however, that doesn’t have to be true!
Here are 9 simple SEO audit fundamentals that can be
used as an easy guide to optimising your website.
- Start by running a crawl report
- Indexation issues
- HTTPS
- XML sitemap status
- Site speed
- Mobile friendly
- Duplicate metadata and content
- Meta title and description length
- Broken links
1) Start by running a crawl report:
This crawl report, (also referred to as a site audit), will inform you about any errors that exist in your site. It will provide you with insights regarding issues such as slow page speed, no HTTPS security, site indexed incorrectly, duplicate content, broken links, and more.
We recommend doing this monthly to keep your site free of errors.
2) Indexation issues
If your site is not indexed, then it is not visible to search engines such as Google and Bing, which means no other SEO technique can help improve your web page rankings.
There are various tools to see if your site is being indexed. A quick way to do this is by using the sites: search operator.
Example: sites:https://www.extradigital.co.uk/services/seo.html
You can also use Google console to review your index status.
3) HTTPS
Switching from HTTP to HTTPS can make a significant impact on your rankings. HTTPS is known as being more advanced and much more secure.
HTTPS gives your site the safety lock favicon in the URL – without this, users are warned the site is not secure. This is especially important for eCommerce websites, as users will be more likely to enter personal and payment information on a site that is secure which has a positive knock-on effect for SEO.
If users trust your site more, they are going to spend more time on the site (helping your rankings). Google also takes the ‘HTTPS’ as a nod towards your site’s authority - another factor that will help you rank higher!
4) XML sitemap status
An XML sitemap helps search engine crawlers find your website and rank it. You can consider this the road map for your website, so it is essential that you format them correctly. Similarly, you need to follow the sitemap protocols, update site pages in the sitemap, and submit them in your Google Search Console account.
Unsure how XML sitemap works? Contact our technical SEO experts to find out more.
5) Site speed
A slow site load time can negatively impact your user experience leading to a high bounce rate and low average time on page. Additionally, Google looks at site speed when ranking pages - hence it is a vital element to optimising your webpages.
6) Mobile friendly
With its increased ownership, users are now using mobile phones more and more to visit websites and make purchases, so you must ensure that your sites are mobile-friendly.
7) Duplicate metadata and content
If you own an eCommerce site or a large site with hundreds of pages, you need to make sure you are regularly scanning for duplicate or even missing data.
Creating a new and unique meta description and content may take time, but it will ensure that you acquire high-quality, valuable traffic.
8) Meta title and description length
Checking your metadata length is not a major issue; however, it is one of the commonly used SEO tactics to ensure your click-through rates do not suffer.
9) Broken links
Broken links can be quite costly; ignoring them can lead to bad user experience and lower your rankings. It is vital to carry out regular checks to identify and fix them quickly.
Unsure about any of the points mentioned above? Our SEO experts at ExtraDigital are here to guide you. We provide a range of technical SEO services, including consultancy, audits, monthly optimisation, and checks.
Get in touch with our team to learn about our cost-effective SEO packages and discover the numerous benefits SEO can bring to your business.
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