SEO Audits that Maximize Growth #SMXL19

#seoaudits at #smxl19 by @aleyda from @orainti#seoaudits at #smxl19 by @aleyda from @orainti
SEO AUDITS THAT
MAXIMIZE GROWTH

Raise your hand and leave it raised if you have gone
through any of these scenarios…

#seoaudits at #smxl19 by @aleyda from @orainti
You have invested weeks developing an SEO audit  
going through all optimization challenges…

From a technical, content, link popularity perspective,
using many data sources to validate the outcome
Crawling & Indexing Content Quality Link Popularity Rankings & Traffic Audience & Competition

Search BehaviorContent Relevance
Making sure you haven’t left anything out from your
checklists of the different areas to be validated…
* Effective crawling (linked errors, redirects, etc.)
* Canonicalization configuration
* Internal linking & navigation configuration
* Facets, filters & paginations configuration
* JavaScript reliance and rendering
* Robots.txt configuration
* XML Sitemaps usage
* Web hierarchy & URL structure
Crawling & Indexing
* HTTPS Usage and Configuration
* Website Speed Optimization
* Structured Data Configuration
* Mobile First Optimization
* International Configuration (hreflang, geolocation)
* AMP Configuration (for informational content)
* URLs publishing, changes & elimination rules
Link Popularity …
….

… but the client
never finished
implementing the
SEO
recommendations

The client started with the less
important recommendations and took too
much to implement so the results were
seen too late…

The
recommendations
were implemented
but in the
erroneous pages…

The recommendations weren’t
implemented since it wasn’t clear that
certain resources were needed…

The issues were fixed based on what was
recommended but they were undone in a
subsequent update…

The
recommendations
were not executed
until the traffic started
to decline due to a
search update…

YOUR SITE
THE COMPETITION
As a result we have a failed SEO process because  
the lack of growth vs. the competition

Are there too many hands up?

* SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti
* SEO Speaker at +100 Events in +20 countries
* Crawling Mondays YouTube SEO Series Host
* Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.”
* Blogger in Search Engine Land & Search Engine Journal
* European Search Personality of the Year in 2018
I’m Aleyda Solis, International SEO Consultant &
Founder... and I've been there too!

How can you develop SEO audits that achieve organic
search traffic and conversion growth?

It's about making your analysis strategical based on an
understanding of the site business and context
Areas and
pages to
prioritize based
on their role
within the
business
Core
queries to
rank for based
on business
impact
USP
Required
configurations
that are needed
to take into
consideration
Previous SEO
results and
challenges
Business
Model and
goals
Platform
restrictions
Industry
challenges and
requirements

Not showing
how the issues
impact the site
results
Too long and
difficult to read
document
Not
prioritizing
based on the
impact and
criticality
Focusing on
the issues
without
specifying cause
and solutions
Not
establishing
mechanisms to
avoid the issues
to happen
again
Not
specifying the
expected
required
resources to
fix
Taking
too long to
develop since
you try to include
every single
problem
While avoiding these main SEO audit challenges

Taking too long to develop a full
SEO audit since you try to include
every single SEO problem

Doing a full SEO audit can take long and might not be
always needed or efficient at the start… context matters!
Recovery from
rankings loss after
Web migration
SEO support for a
change of Web
platform or design
New SEO proceses
for a recently
launched site
Project Type Business Type
Local B2B Startup
National  
News Site
International
Marketplace
Website Size
Medium
Big
Small
….
….
SEO Maturity
Medium
High
Low

The SEO audit focus will change based on the project
goal, business, Website size and SEO maturity
Recovery from
rankings loss after
Web migration
SEO support for a
change of Web
platform or design
New SEO proceses
for a recently
launched site
Project Type Business Type
Local B2B Startup
National  
News Site
International
Marketplace
Website Size
Medium
Big
Small
….
….
SEO Maturity
Medium
High
Low

YOUR SITE
LINKS
POPULARITY
TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION
CRAWLABILITY & INDEXABILITY
CONTENT
RELEVANCE
WEBSITE TYPE  
(SIZE, BUSINESS MODEL, ETC.)
AUDIENCE
BEHAVIOR
SITE
RANKINGS
COMPETITORS
RANKINGS
GOALS
RESOURCES & RESTRICTIONS
SEO AREAS WITH DIRECT/
HIGHER INFLUENCE
CRITICAL CONFIGURATIONS  
TO CHECK
WEBSITE AREAS  
AND PAGES TYPES
FOCUS ONCRITERIA
TO PRIORITIZE
It should be targeted and prioritized for efficiency based
on the site and project characteristics and goals
SERP
BEHAVIOR
SEO EXPERIENCE

SEO AUDIT
PRESENTATION
SEO AUDIT
DEVELOPMENT
SEO PROCESS
DEVELOPMENT
CLIENT INPUT  
AND FEEDBACK
CLIENT VALIDATION
The SEO audit should be refined & prioritized w/ your client
feedback and validation to make it relevant & feasible too
REFINED SEO
RECOMMENDATIONS
VALIDATED SEO
RECOMMENDATIONS

#seoaudits at #smxl19 by @aleyda from @oraintiThanks @izzieonfire! https://twitter.com/izzionfire/status/1160920277703897092
We can't expect to have
"standardized" answers
that will be suitable for
every scenario, validation
is necessary for
effectiveness and viability

IDENTIFY AND FIX
MAIN TECHNICAL
AND CONTENT
CHALLENGES IN
NEW SITE
2
FIX WEB MIGRATION
ISSUES & RECOVER
TRAFFIC
1
Your SEO analysis should be continuous and developed
incrementally and iteratively to drive the SEO process too
LACK OF CONTENT
RESOURCES
BASIC CONTENT
RESOURCES
IDENTIFY AND
START TACKLING
BIGGER
OPPORTUNITIES IN
MARKET VS
COMPETITORS
3
…
N
…

Remember that the goal of an
SEO audit is not to deliver a
document with all of the SEO
issues and opportunities…

The goal of the audit is to
be the source and driver  
of the SEO process to
achieve growth

Focusing on the issues without
specifying the cause and solutions

It’s critical to understand what causes and how issues  
are found, to tackle both in the recommendations
Errors URLs 
(4xx, 5xx)
Redirected URLs 
(301s, 302s)
Canonicalized URLs
Noindexed URLs
… …
WHAT
CAUSE
THEM?
HOW
THEY’RE
FOUND?
PLATFORM BUG
NOT SET RULES
…
LINKING PAGES
XML SITEMAPS
…
HOW TO
FIX THEM

Identify how each of the core issues are generated,  
in which pages they’re happening and the scenarios
RYTE

Segment the analysis by area and type, to identify its role
on the site and assess the required action to fix it

Describe how each issue is generated and found across  
the different areas of the site with screenshots
Type A
Type B
Scenario 1

Should 301 Redirect
Links to
Should link instead
Feature examples of how each of the identified scenarios
should be fixed based on their role on the site

PAGES OF X TYPES THAT ARE
CANONICALIZED TO OTHERS
TO WHAT PAGES DO
THEY
CANONICALIZE?
FROM WHAT PAGES
ARE THEY LINKED?
Do these URLs need to be
canonicalized to others?
Do these canonicalized URLs need to be linked
from these pages? If so, do these links need to be
crawlable?
Are they canonicalizing to the
relevant indexable URLs?
Are the links
followed?
Attach all the relevant data to facilitate that  
the issues are fixed across all of the instances

Not showing how the issues
impact the site results

Integrate rankings, traffic and conversions data
sources to identify and show the issues impact
RYTE

Show the traffic and
conversions that the
pages with issues
used to get before
and you’re missing
now

Show how the
competition is
outranking you due  
to the identified
issue, from technical,
content or links
YOUR PAGE
COGNITIVESEO

You Competitor Competitor Competitor
Targeted Queries by  
Non-optimized Pages
Show how these
issues are
impacting your
search potential
vs. your
competitors
SEMRUSH

The traffic
they're already
attracting with
these pages that
outrank you due
to the identified
issues

Show also how the issues harm not only SEO but  
the relevant pages conversions and revenue too

Not prioritizing
based on the impact
and criticality
Too long and
difficult to read
document
Not specifying the
expected required
resources to fix

1. RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE X
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE SITE RANKINGS?
WHERE HAS BEEN FOUND AND IS GENERATED?
Scree
nshot
SCENARIO 1
HOW CAN IT BE FIXED?
Scree
nshot
SCENARIO 1
Scree
nshot
SEO EFFECT
OPTIMIZATION STATUS
IMPLEMENTATION DIFFICULTY
IMPLEMENTATION RESOURCES
BUSINESS IMPORTANCE
1. RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE X
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE SITE RANKINGS?
WHERE HAS BEEN FOUND AND IS GENERATED?
Scree
nshot
SCENARIO 1
HOW CAN IT BE FIXED?
Scree
nshot
SCENARIO 1
Scree
nshot
SEO
Effect
Affected
Areas
Business
Importance
Optimization
Status
Execution
Difficulty
Required
resources
Priority
High Paginations Medium Low Low Technical High
For each identified issue specify actions to take w/
importance, difficulty, resources, showing how to fix it

Type A
Type B
Scenario 1: Update the canonicalization tag to self-refer to URLs without /us/
Make them easy to follow with examples,  
screenshots and actionable instructions

HIGH PRIORITY  
HIGH IMPACT WITH LOW DIFFICULTY
MEDIUM PRIORITY 
HIGH IMPACT WITH MEDIUM DIFFICULTY 
MEDIUM IMPACT WITH LOW DIFFICULTY
LOW PRIORITY
MEDIUM IMPACT WITH MEDIUM DIFFICULTY
HIGH IMPACT WITH HIGH DIFFICULTY
DON’T PRIORITIZE
MEDIUM IMPACT WITH HIGH DIFFICULTY
LOW IMPACT
IMPACT
1
3
2
+ DIFFICULTY
+
-
2
3
Establish an implementation priority based on the  
impact and difficulty of each recommendation

RECOMMENDATIONS AFFECTED AREAS SEO EFFECT
BUSINESS
IMPORTANCE
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATION
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH
SUPPORT
LINKBUILDING
SUPPORT
IDEAL
PRIORITY
NOINDEX AND BLOCK
CRAWLING OF INTERNAL
SEARCH RESULT PAGES THAT
GENERATE CONTENT
DUPLICATION
INTERNAL SEARCH
RESULT PAGES
HIGH LOW LOW NO YES NO 2
INDEX THE PAGES OF
COLORED FILTERS WITH
SEARCH VOLUME HIGHER
THAN 100
COLORED
FILTERED PAGES
OF SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH HIGH LOW YES YES NO 1
301 REDIRECT OLD PAGES
WITH 404 HTTP STATUS
PAGES ATTRACTING
EXTERNAL LINKS
OLD BLOG POSTS
FROM PREVIOUS
BLOG VERSION
MEDIUM MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO 3
DIFFERENTIATE SUB-
CATEGORIES pages TITLES
INCLUDING THE SUB-
CATEGORY NAME IN THEM
SUB-CATEGORY
PAGES
MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4
X Page A LOW MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO TBD
Y Page B MEDIUM LOW MEDIUM YES YES NO TBD
Z Page C LOW LOW MEDIUM YES YES NO TBD
Put them in context in a recommendations matrix
documenting their characteristics and priority

RECOMMENDATIONS AFFECTED AREAS SEO EFFECT
BUSINESS
IMPORTANCE
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATION
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH
SUPPORT
LINKBUILDING
SUPPORT
IDEAL
PRIORITY
SEO
ITERATION
TO INCLUDE
IT
NOINDEX AND BLOCK
GENERATE CONTENT
DUPLICATION
INTERNAL SEARCH
RESULT PAGES
HIGH LOW LOW NO YES NO 2 1ST
INDEX THE PAGES OF
THAN 100
COLORED
FILTERED PAGES
OF SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH HIGH LOW YES YES NO 1 1ST
PAGES ATTRACTING
EXTERNAL LINKS
OLD BLOG POSTS
FROM PREVIOUS
BLOG VERSION
MEDIUM MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO 3 2ND
DIFFERENTIATE SUB-
INCLUDING THE SUB-
SUB-CATEGORY
PAGES
MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4 2ND
X Page A LOW MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO TBD NONE
Y Page B MEDIUM LOW MEDIUM YES YES NO TBD NONE
Z Page C LOW LOW MEDIUM YES YES NO TBD NONE
Keeping only those to be ideally included in the  
initial SEO iterations due to their high priority

Why is important?
How does it affect the site rankings?
Where it has been found and how is generated?
Screensh
ot
Scenario 1
How can it be fixed?
Screensh
ot
Scenario 1
Screensh
ot
Efecto SEO
Areas
Afectadas
Importancia
Negocio
Estado
Optimización
Dificultad
Ejecución
Recursos
Ejecución
Prioridad
ALTO
PAGINACIONE
S
MEDIO BAJO NA TECNICO 1
1. Recommendation to improve X
Screensh
ot
Why is important?
Screensho
t
Scenario 1
Screensho
t
Scenario 1
Screensho
t
Efecto SEO
Areas
Afectadas
Importancia
Negocio
Estado
Optimización
Dificultad
Ejecución
Recursos
Ejecución
Prioridad
ALTO PAGINACIONES MEDIO BAJO NA TECNICO 2
2. Recommendation to fix Y
Screensho
t
Why is important?
Screensh
ot
Scenario 1
Screensh
ot
Scenario 1
Screensh
ot
Efecto SEO
Areas
Afectadas
Importancia
Negocio
Estado
Optimización
Dificultad
Ejecución
Recursos
Ejecución
Prioridad
ALTO PAGINACIONES MEDIO BAJO NA TECNICO 3
3. Recommendation to improve Z
Screensh
ot
START
WITH
HIGHEST
PRIORITY
Organizing your SEO recommendations starting with  
the highest priority one so they can be read first

RECOMMENDATIONS
AFFECTED
AREAS
SEO EFFECT
BUSINESS
IMPORTANC
E
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATI
ON
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH
SUPPORT
LINKBUILDIN
G SUPPORT
IDEAL
PRIORITY
PAGE
NOINDEX AND BLOCK
GENERATE CONTENT
DUPLICATION
INTERNAL
SEARCH RESULT
PAGES
HIGH LOW LOW NO YES NO 2 1
INDEX THE PAGES OF
THAN 100
COLORED
FILTERED
PAGES OF SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH HIGH LOW YES YES NO 1 5
PAGES ATTRACTING
EXTERNAL LINKS
OLD BLOG
POSTS FROM
PREVIOUS
BLOG VERSION
MEDIUM MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO 3 10
DIFFERENTIATE SUB-
INCLUDING THE SUB-
SUB-CATEGORY
PAGES
MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4 15
Using the recommendations matrix as an audit summary  
and index to facilitate going through them

RECOMMENDATIONS
AFFECTED
AREAS
SEO EFFECT
BUSINESS
IMPORTANC
E
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATI
ON
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH
SUPPORT
LINKBUILDIN
G SUPPORT
IDEAL
PRIORITY
IMPLEMENTAT
ION
DIFFICULTY
VALIDATE
D
PRIORITY
PAGE
NOINDEX AND BLOCK
GENERATE CONTENT
DUPLICATION
INTERNAL
SEARCH RESULT
PAGES
HIGH LOW LOW NO YES NO 2 LOW 1 1
INDEX THE PAGES OF
THAN 100
COLORED
FILTERED
PAGES OF SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH HIGH LOW YES YES NO 1 MEDIUM 2 5
PAGES ATTRACTING
EXTERNAL LINKS
OLD BLOG
POSTS FROM
PREVIOUS
BLOG VERSION
MEDIUM MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO 3 MEDIUM 4 10
DIFFERENTIATE SUB-
INCLUDING THE SUB-
SUB-CATEGORY
PAGES
MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4 MEDIUM 3 15
Presenting the recommendations, while validating their
difficulty, feasibility & priority w/ stakeholders

YOUR SITE
CONTENT
RELEVANCE
LINKS
POPULARITYHIGH
MEDIUM
TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION
CRAWLABILITY & INDEXABILITY
LOW
PR
COPYWRITING
DEVELOPMENT
Verifying together the availability of the connected
resources that will be required in each SEO area

VIA XML
SITEMAP?
VIA HTTP
HEADER?
VIA GTM?
VIA EDGE
SEO / CDN?
HTML HEAD CAN’T
BE EDITED TO
IMPLEMENT
HREFLANG
Is there anything critical not doable to execute? Why?
Find alternatives with similar outcomes!

RECOMMENDATIONS
AFFECTED
AREAS
SEO
EFFECT
BUSINESS
IMPORTANCE
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATION
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH
SUPPORT
LINKBUILDING
SUPPORT
IMPLEMENTATION
DIFFICULTY
VALIDATED
PRIORITY
PAGE
PERSON IN
CHARGE
IMPLEMENTA
TION DATE
LAUNCHING
DATE
NOINDEX AND BLOCK
SEARCH RESULT PAGES
THAT GENERATE CONTENT
DUPLICATION
INTERNAL
SEARCH RESULT
PAGES
HIGH LOW LOW NO YES NO LOW 1 1 MARIA 01/08/2019 15/08/2019
INDEX THE PAGES OF
THAN 100
COLORED
FILTERED PAGES
OF SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH HIGH LOW YES YES NO MEDIUM 2 5 MARIA 15/08/2019 30/08/2019
PAGES ATTRACTING
EXTERNAL LINKS
OLD BLOG
POSTS FROM
PREVIOUS BLOG
VERSION
MEDIUM MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO MEDIUM 4 10 JAVIER 30/08/2019 15/09/2019
DIFFERENTIATE SUB-
INCLUDING THE SUB-
SUB-CATEGORY
PAGES
MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO MEDIUM 3 15 JAVIER 15/09/2019 30/09/2019
WHAT WHYWHERE WHO WHEN
Use the matrix to set a feasible execution calendar
validated with stakeholders

Not establishing mechanisms to
avoid the issues to happen again

PRE-LAUNCH
VALIDATION: OK?
IMPLEMENTATION
YES
NO
YES
CONTINOUS
VALIDATION
LAUNCH
NO
FIX
POST-
LAUNCHING
VALIDATION:
OK?
YES
NO
FIXFIX
CONTINOUS
VALIDATION: OK?
EVERY TUESDAY EVERY THURSDAY CONTINUOUS
Define a validation process to follow when implementing
recommendations and doing any site releases

You can schedule your continuous SEO crawls and
validations to run and be delivered automatically
#seoaudits at #smxl19 by @aleyda from @oraintiRYTE

Set rules to tackle
the identified issues
systemically within
the platform

For example, for the
different scenarios
of pages with thin
content
INDEXABLE CATEGORY PAGES WITH <3 INVENTORY & NO SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION
HAS > N
TRAFFIC
OBFUSCATE LINKS,
ELIMINATE FROM XML
SITEMAPS AND
CANONICALIZE PARENT
CATEGORY
TARGETS
QUERY > Y
SEARCH
VOLUME
HAS
FEATURED >3
PRODUCTS IN
LAST X
MONTHS
NO
YES
NO YES
YESNO
KEEP INDEXED AND ADD
SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION

Set real time SEO
monitoring and
alerts systems, to
be warned if
anything changes
unexpectedly
CONTENTKING & LITTLE WARDEN

Like missed or changed hreflang tags in indexable
pages from specific site sections or pages types

Applying also Web
traffic and rankings
data, to prioritize the
alerts of those pages
with certain minimum
value, like those that
become non-
indexable that have
any former activity

Setting the alerts to be
directly delivered to
your communication or
PM systems, whether
with a built-in
integration…

… or configuring
your own
integrations that also
allow you to further
set tasks and assign
them already using
third-party systems,
like Integromat
INTEGROMAT

#seoaudits at #smxl19 by @aleyda from @oraintiThanks @Chrisgreen87! https://twitter.com/chrisgreen87/status/1157019788729827333
It’s about simplifying and prioritizing to facilitate your
SEO audit execution without overwhelming stakeholders

Following these principles to make your SEO audits  
more agile and cost-effective
Strategical
Contextual
Segmented
Prioritized
Actionable
Incremental
Iterative

Not showing
how the issues
impact the site
results
Too long and
difficult to read
document
Not
prioritizing
based on the
impact and
criticality
Focusing on
the issues
without
specifying cause
and solutions
Not
establishing
mechanisms to
avoid the issues
to happen
again
Not
specifying the
expected
required
resources to
fix
Taking
too long to
develop since
you try to include
every single
problem
While avoiding these SEO audits main challenges

… It's time to maximize your SEO audits results!
THIS YEAR
LAST YEAR

* SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti
* SEO Speaker at +100 Events in +20 countries
* Crawling Mondays YouTube SEO Series Host
* Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.”
* Blogger in Search Engine Land & Search Engine Journal
* European Search Personality of the Year in 2018
Thank you! Questions?

SEO Audits that Maximize Growth #SMXL19

SEO Audits that Maximize Growth #SMXL19

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