1.
How to Perform SEO Audits
Presented by:
Alan Bleiweiss
http://AlanBleiweiss.com
@AlanBleiweiss

2.
Alan Bleiweiss
• Forensic SEO Consultant
• SEO Services Since 2001
• Audit Sites w/up to 150 million pages
@AlanBleiweiss

3.
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
@AlanBleiweiss

4.
Why An Audit Is Vital
• Get Real Results
@AlanBleiweiss

5.
Why An Audit Is Vital
• Become Sustainable
@AlanBleiweiss

6.
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.
@AlanBleiweiss

7.
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
@AlanBleiweiss

8.
Strategic SEO Audits
–
–
–
–
–
High Level / Bigger Picture
Macro View
Sample & Scan
Top Priority Recommendations Only
Don’t Overwhelm the Client
@AlanBleiweiss

9.
Tactical SEO Audits
– One Tactical Audit to address each issue
found in strategic audit
– 1st Step in the implementation Sequence
– Granular Focus
– Details Matter
@AlanBleiweiss

10.
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
@AlanBleiweiss

11.
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

12.
Data to Gather
• Competitive Landscape
– G Pgs Indexed / Inbound Followed Links / Inbound Followed
Roots / LTR Ratio
@AlanBleiweiss

13.
Data to Gather
• SEMRush Top Competitor Visibility Timeline Charts
@AlanBleiweiss

14.
Data to Gather
• SEMRush Rankings sort by highest volume
@AlanBleiweiss

15.
Data to Gather
• SEMRush Ranking Changes
@AlanBleiweiss

16.
Data to Gather
• OSE Followed Links Export
@AlanBleiweiss

17.
Data to Gather
• OSE Followed Link Anchor LTR
@AlanBleiweiss

18.
Data to Gather
• GWT top Linking Domains Export
@AlanBleiweiss

19.
Data to Gather
• GWT Internal Links
@AlanBleiweiss

20.
Data to Gather
• GWT Index Status
@AlanBleiweiss

21.
Data to Gather
• GWT Visibility Timeline
@AlanBleiweiss

22.
Data to Gather
• GWT Site Messages
@AlanBleiweiss

23.
Data to Gather
• Don’t Ignore “Manual Actions” Section
@AlanBleiweiss

24.
Data to Gather
• GA Year Over Year Comparisons If Applicable
@AlanBleiweiss

25.
Data to Gather
• GWT Sitemap Report
@AlanBleiweiss

26.
Data to Gather
• GWT Structured Data Report
@AlanBleiweiss

27.
Data to Gather
• GWT Crawl Error Reports
@AlanBleiweiss

28.
Data to Gather
• Site Processing Speed /CSS/Markup Errors
– – GA / URIValet / WebPageTest /W3C Validators
@AlanBleiweiss

29.
Data to Gather
• GA Slowest Page Processing Speeds
@AlanBleiweiss

30.
Data to Gather
• GA Page Processing Speed Short Term & Historic
@AlanBleiweiss

31.
Data to Gather
• Google Page Speed Insights Grades
@AlanBleiweiss

32.
Data to Gather
• WebPageTest.org Page Grades
@AlanBleiweiss

33.
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
@AlanBleiweiss

34.
Data to Gather
• Screaming Frog Sample Crawl Value
@AlanBleiweiss

35.
Data to Gather
• Social Media Engagement
@AlanBleiweiss

36.
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
@AlanBleiweiss

37.
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
@AlanBleiweiss

38.
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
@AlanBleiweiss

39.
Evaluation Process
• Look for Conflicting Signals
– Topical Dilution
• “Related Content” Widget
• “Also Viewed” Widget
• “Top Articles” Widget
• Not Enough Volume of Unique Content
@AlanBleiweiss

40.
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
@AlanBleiweiss

41.
Action Plan
• Cover Sheet
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
– Overview
– Positive bullet points
– Negative bullet points
@AlanBleiweiss

42.
Action Plan
• PRIORITY ISSUE
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Problem
Why this is important
Example URLs
Data Snippets
Reference to Tab X in accompanying Spreadsheet
Screen-Shots
Conclusion
Recommendation
@AlanBleiweiss

43.
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
@AlanBleiweiss

44.
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
@AlanBleiweiss

45.
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
@AlanBleiweiss

46.
In Conclusion
Be Awesome
Don’t Be An #Asshat
Presented by:
Alan Bleiweiss
http://AlanBleiweiss.com
@AlanBleiweiss