seo audits: internal auditing processes for your own search - smx melbourne
TRANSCRIPT
Internal Auditing Processes for your OWN Search
Jeff Ferguson CEO, Fang Digital Marketing
Board Member, SEMPO LA
Writer, DeadTreeMedia.com
mobro.co/JeffFerguson
A Better Exit Strategy
A Better Exit Strategy
SEO Isn’t Rocket Science
THE END (Not That End… What You’ll End Up With)
The End
• A framework for a report
– The SEO Audit is an outline
– Fill it in as you go
– Attack it in parts
– Assign it to different members of your team (if you
have one)
• Don’t make SEO changes while you’re
performing the audit
THE THREE PILLARS OF SEO
Or, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff (Yet)”
3 Pillars of SEO
3 Pillars of SEO
CONTENT The Real Reason People Search
Content
• The first rule of content:
Content
• Content – Keyword Coverage Analysis
• Basically, ensure that the keywords you are targeting, are actually found within the content
– Keyword Mix – Brand vs. Non-Brand • Pull a keyword list from Analytics or Webmaster Tools, drop it into Excel
• Use “Insert Table” to sort the brand terms from non-brand terms
• Graph the results as a pie chart to see the split
– Word Phrases • Tools such as Webmaster Tools will show the phrases you are being found on
during searches, are they what you want to be found for?
• Bruce Clay’s Site Tools can analyze a page to show most often found phrases
– Linear Keyword Distribution • Where are your most important keywords showing up on the page?
Effective Copywriting
• In general, you want to match content messaging to frequently used search terms
– Be warned, simply populating pages with terms can get your site penalized by search engines and get your site knocked back several pages in ranking
• Write for both the consumer and the search engine
– Avoid “Caveman Speak”
– Create full sentences that are both search term rich and descriptively detailed
– What is really relevant to the common consumer? That they have a ballroom or its size?
– Don’t forget the easy stuff • Lead with the important information
• e.g. you know it’s a hotel, but does the search engine?
• What attractions is the hotel close to?
SITE ARCHITECTURE Ain’t No School Like the Old School SEO
Site Architecture The Back of the House
Site Architecture
• Site Architecture
– Page Layout
• Navigation (Location, Breadcrumbs, Flash/JavaScript)
• Site Depth
• Taxonomies
• HTML Structure (Flash, Frames, Etc.)
• W3C Compliance
– Tag Review
• TITLE
• META Description
• META Keyword
• Headlines
• Bold & Italic
• Image ALT
• Microformats
– Internal Linking
• URL Structure (Length, Depth, Content)
• Anchor Text
• Link Hierarchy
• Canonical Issues
• Redirect Issues
• Broken Links
– Page Load Speed
– Site History and Domain Age & Expiration
– CMS Evaluation
– META Robots & Robots.txt
Site Architecture
• Site Architecture
– Page Layout
• Navigation
– Location, Breadcrumbs, Flash/JavaScript
• Site Depth
– Shallow sites are best, don’t make the spiders work
• Taxonomies
– Keyword/Topic grouping
• HTML Structure
– Flash, Frames, Etc.
• W3C Compliance
– http://validator.w3.org/
Site Architecture
• Site Architecture
– Tag Review
• TITLE
• META Description
• META Keyword
• Headlines
• Image ALT
• Bold & Italic
– Use when appropriate, don’t abuse
• Microformats, Rich Snipets, RDF, etc.
– Stand out from the crowd if you have appropriate content
– Ratings, People, Products, Events, Businessess and Organizations,
Video
Site Architecture The Back of the House
• <TITLE> Tags
– Syntax:
• <TITLE>How to set up proper meta tags up to 50 characters </TITLE>
– Rules:
• 50 characters, including spaces and punctuation
• Be specific:
– BAD: “Hilton San Francisco”
– GOOD: “Hilton San Francisco Hotel…”
Site Architecture The Back of the House
• <META> Tags
– Two Types:
• “Description” – – Syntax:
» <META NAME="description“ CONTENTS=“…“>
– Rules:
» 233 characters, including spaces and punctuation
• “Keywords” – – Syntax:
» <META NAME=“keywords“ CONTENTS=“…“>
– Rules:
» 233 – 250 characters, including spaces and punctuation
Site Architecture The Back of the House • Headlines:
– <H1>, <H2> tags around what is usually the title of a paragraph or section
• e.g. “Welcome to Hilton San Francisco”
– Spiders look to information enclosed in these tags as an important source of content for a given page
– Syntax
• <H1>Headline</H1> or <H2> or <H3>
– Rules
• Never use an image as a headline, spiders and bots cannot read them
Site Architecture
• Site Architecture
– Internal Linking
• URL Structure
– Length, Depth, Content
• Anchor Text
– Keyword rich
• Canonical Issues
– Nobody likes an ugly URL
• Redirect Issues
• Broken Links
Site Architecture The Back of the House • Domain, Image, and File Names
– Three important types
• Domain names – www.hilton.com
• Image names – “lobby.gif”
• File names – “meetings.html”
– Be descriptive, spiders and bots consider these during their calculations of relevancy
• GOOD: “hilton_san_francisco_lobby.gif”
• BAD: “lobby.gif”
• REALLY BAD: “image1.gif”
– USE <ALT> tags on image and anchor tags to provide more detail
• <IMG SRC=“hilton_san_francisco_lobby.gif " ALT=“Hilton San Francisco Lobby">
Site Architecture
• Site Architecture
– Page Load Speed • Part of the mix, Google hates slow sites
• Webmaster Tools provides this information
– Site History and Domain Age & Expiration • Older sites appear to have some extra chutzpa
– CMS Evaluation • Don’t make your life difficult by using a weird CMS
– META Robots & Robots.txt • How to shoot yourself in the foot without trying
• The deadly “Disallow: /”
Site Architecture The Back of the House
• Internal and External Links
– Both internal and external links are used by the spiders to rank your pages’ relevancy
– The words within the anchor text are used as search terms by the spiders and bots
• <A HREF="http://URL">Hilton San Francisco Hotel’s Spa Fusion & Health Club</A>
Site Architecture The Back of the House
• Other Important Dos and Don’ts
– Avoid sites composed entirely of Flash or images • Spiders and bots cannot read or describe their contents
– Avoid HTML <FRAMES> • Spiders and bots can get confused and index the wrong page
– Avoid common SEO SPAM techniques • Cloaking – dynamic pages just for search engines
• META and JAVA refresh – pages that automatically send you somewhere else upon arrival
• “Doorway Pages” – over optimized pages that have no use as real, readable content
INBOUND LINKS The Only Time You Enjoy Everybody Pointing At You
Inbound Links
• External Linking/Off-Page
– Link Coverage • Check webmaster tools to discover what sites are linking to your site
• Link: colon hasn’t provided an accurate measurement in years, use only if
you can’t get into WMT
• Are the links spread out across a variety of sites, or just one?
– Social Signals • Most social sites are nofollow’d, but still good for discovery
– Anchor Text Analysis • Keyword rich
• Webmaster Tools can provide great insight
Inbound Links
• Internal and External Links
– Both internal and external links are used by the spiders to rank your pages’ relevancy
– The words within the anchor text are used as search terms by the spiders and bots
• <A HREF="http://URL">Hilton San Francisco Hotel’s Spa Fusion & Health Club</A>
FINAL STEPS How to Show Off To Your Boss
Final Steps
• To Do List
– Don’t try and use your notes in the outline
– Create an actual to do list as you go
• Appendices
– Hold on to all the data you’ve obtained
– Reports, keyword data, etc.
– Good for comparison later on
Final Steps
• Lather, Rinse, & Repeat
– Audits are not a one time thing
– Revisit the process at least once a year to track
progress
TOOLS OF THE TRADE No, I Don’t Mean Black Hat SEOs
Tools of the Trade
• Google Analytics – Keyword data
– Page traffic
• Google Webmaster Tools – Myriad of info
• W3C – http://validator.w3.org/
• Page Analyzers – Bruce Clay’s SEO ToolSet
– WebSEOAnalytics.com/Free
