Aleyda Solis: How to develop actionable and impactful SEO audits

#seoaudits at #searchnorwich by @aleyda from @orainti#seoaudits at #searchnorwich by @aleyda from @orainti
How to Develop Actionable
& Impactful SEO Audits

#seoaudits at #searchnorwich by @aleyda from @orainti
Raise your hand and leave it raised if you have gone
through any of these scenarios…

You have invested weeks developing a huge SEO audit  
going through all optimization challenges…

Search BehaviorContent Relevance
Making sure to not leave anything out from a technical,
content, link perspective…
* 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 …
….

However, the recommendations aren’t implemented since
it wasn’t clear that certain resources were needed…

… the client never finished
implementing the SEO
recommendations

The client started with the less important
recommendations so the results were smaller & slower…

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

YOUR SITE
THE COMPETITION
As a result you end up having a failed SEO process
because of a lack of growth vs. competitors

Are there too many hands up?

#seoaudits at #smxl19 by @aleyda from @orainti
* 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!

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

The actual goal of the SEO
audit is to be the source
and driver of the SEO
process to achieve the
desired results

The way you focus and format your SEO audits can end
up challenging their execution and impact
Not taking
into
consideration the
site business and
technical
context
Not
showing how
the identified
issues impact the
site revenue and
business
goals
Focusing
on the
identified issues
without specifying
their potential
causes and steps
to implement
solutions
Not specifying the
expected resources
to implement the
recommendations
Not
prioritizing the
SEO
recommendations
based on their
expected
implementation
impact and
difficulty
Developing
a too long and
difficult to
understand
document that
takes too long
to finish
Not
establishing
mechanisms to
avoid the
identified issues
to happen
again

To avoid these SEO audit challenges,  
I try to follow a set of principles that I call SP2
Strategic
Prioritized
Solutions focused
Proactive/Preventive

Let’s see how to use these principles to focus and format
the audit for actionable and impactful recommendations
SOLUTIONS FOCUSED
PRIORITIZED
PREVENTIVE
YOUR WEBSITE
LINKS
POPULARITY
TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION
CRAWLABILITY & INDEXABILITY
CONTENT
RELEVANCE
AUDIENCE
BEHAVIOR
WEBSITE
RANKINGS
COMPETITORS
RANKINGS
SERP
CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIFY ACTIONS TO TAKE
PER SCENARIO TO FIX IT
EXPLAIN THE EXPECTED
LEVEL OF
IMPLEMENTATION
DIFFICULTY GIVEN
CONTEXT
INCLUDE EXPECTED
REQUIRED RESOURCES
EXPLAIN EXPECTED SEO
GOAL & BUSINESS IMPACT
DESCRIBE & EXPLAIN
IMPORTANCE OF
IDENTIFIED SEO ISSUE /
OPPORTUNITY
RECOMMEND PREVENTIVE
MEASURES TO AVOID THE
ISSUE TO HAPPEN AGAIN
SHOW SCENARIOS OF
PAGES/QUERIES AFFECTED
(HOW THEY’RE CAUSED &
FOUND)
PRINCIPLES TO DEVELOP AN SEO AUDIT FOR ACTIONABLE & IMPACTFUL SEO RECOMMENDATIONS
SET IDEAL
RECOMMENDATIONS
PRIORITY (BASED ON
IMPACT AND DIFFICULTY)
GOAL ORIENTED
STRATEGIC
CONTEXT AWARE
CONCISE
RESOURCE SPECIFIC

#seoaudits at #searchnorwich by @aleyda from @orainti#seoaudits at #searchnorwich by @aleyda from @orainti#seoaudits at #searchnorwich by @aleyda from @orainti
Take into consideration the site
business and technical
characteristics and restrictions, as
well as the type of SEO project
CONTEXT AWARE

You can’t develop “standardized” SEO audits that address
every scenario of very different types of Websites
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

For example, the SEO audit to be developed in the
following scenarios will tend to be very different
A recently launched,
medium sized,
national news site
that is starting with
its first SEO Process
and therefore, has
very low SEO
maturity but a very
high competition.
A local B2B startup
that has been already
doing SEO for a
while in the past and
is looking for SEO
support for a
platform migration
and redesign.
A well established
big multi-country/
international
marketplace looking
to recover after a
Web migration gone
wrong.

Make your analysis strategical based on an understanding
of the site business and technical 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

As well as type of the SEO project and stage within the
process, that will define the scope of the SEO audit
…
N
…
IDENTIFY AND FIX
MAIN TECHNICAL
AND CONTENT
CHALLENGES IN
NEW SITE
2
VALIDATE & FIX
WEB MIGRATION
ISSUES & RECOVER
TRAFFIC
1
RECENT MIGRATION WITH
RANKINGS DROP + LACK OF
CONTENT RESOURCES
BASIC CONTENT RESOURCES
IDENTIFY AND
START TACKLING
BIGGER
OPPORTUNITIES IN
MARKET VS
COMPETITORS
3

To do this effectively you will need your on-going client/
stakeholders input, feedback and validation
SEO AUDIT
PRESENTATION
SEO AUDIT  
& RECOS
DEVELOPMENT
SEO PROCESS
DEVELOPMENT
CLIENT INPUT  
AND FEEDBACK
CLIENT VALIDATION
REFINED SEO
RECOMMENDATIONS
VALIDATED SEO
RECOMMENDATIONS

#seoaudits at #searchnorwich by @aleyda from @orainti/ht @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 effectivenes

Validate and show how the issues
impact the site revenue and results
vs competitors
GOAL ORIENTED

Allow you to
better prioritize
the
recommendations
that will have a
higher impact to
achieve results
faster
Show the
business impact
of the
recommendations to
the decision makers
and gain their
support for their
execution
Integrate the rankings, traffic and conversions to validate
and show the recommendations impact to the site business

This is now highly facilitated by the integration  
of third-party rankings & traffic data to SEO tools
Ryte

Show how your top
competition is
outranking you due  
to the identified
issue that you’re
recommending to
fix: from technical,
content or links
YOUR PAGE
Cognitiveseo

You Competitor Competitor Competitor
Targeted Queries by  
Non-optimized Pages
Show all of the
additional ranked
queries -along their
search volume-
being attracted by
your competitors
that you’re not
because of non-
optimized pages
that are ranking
worse
Semrush

#seoaudits at #searchnorwich by @aleyda from @oraintiSemrush
Show how much the
organic traffic
attracted by your
competitor with their
version of the pages
you wish to improve
would cost if you
were running ads to
get it by using
AdWords CPC

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

If you have well optimized pages similar than the ones
you want to improve show their difference in conversions
AREA A
AREA B
VS

Describe the cause of issues, how
they are found and steps to solve
them
SOLUTIONS FOCUSED

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
AFFECTED URLS

Detect how the
identified issues/
opportunities are
generated and
where they exist,  
in which pages
they’re happening
and the scenarios
SPECIFIC AREA PAGES CONTENT SIZE
NON-AREA PAGES CONTENT SIZE
ACTIVE VS. CRAWLED AREA PAGES
VS

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

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

Should 301 Redirect
Links to
Should link instead
Show the ideal state of the identified issues vs. the
existing ones for each scenario with screenshots

Provide examples of how the provided recommendations
are already implemented by competitors successfully
vs

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 the found data segmented by scenario, to facilitate
that the issues are fixed across all of the instances

Include the expected required
resources to implement the
established recommendations
RESOURCE SPECIFIC

Each of the specified SEO recommendations should be
connected with the expected resources for their execution
You’ll be able to
validate each
recommendation
viability with the client/
stakeholders when the
recommendations are
delivered
You’ll facilitate
resource allocation and
planning to implement
each recommendation
through the SEO
process

Consider the existing resources characteristics &
restrictions, that you should ask to the client/stakeholders
What’s the
platform used for
the site? Is there a
CMS used?
What
configurations can
be changed through
the platform CMS and
what needs
development
support?
What’s the
flexibility of the
configurations?
What can be
done in bulk?
Are there any
types of restrictions
whether technical,
content, business or
legal wise to take
into consideration?
Are the technical/
content/marketing/
PR/etc. resources in-
house or through an
agency?
…

Include and describe the expected types of resources for
the implementation of each of the recommended actions
1. RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE X
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE SITE RANKINGS?
WHERE HAS BEEN FOUND AND IS GENERATED?
Screenshot
SCENARIO 1
HOW CAN IT BE FIXED?
Screenshot
SCENARIO 1
Screenshot
WHAT ARE THE EXPECTED RESOURCES TO FIX IT?
PR/Outreach
Content development
Development

YOUR SITE
CONTENT
RELEVANCE
LINKS
POPULARITYHIGH
MEDIUM
LOW
PR
COPYWRITING
DEVELOPMENT
If you know that there are resources restrictions for
important identified recommendations, highlight it

For known complex to implement recommendations,
mention potential alternatives and connected resources
HREFLANG IMPLEMENTATION
SMALL NUMBER
OF PAGES
ALTERNATES?
CAN EDIT HTML
HEAD?
YES
YES
NO
CAN GENERATE/
EDIT XML
SITEMAPS?
YES
IMPLEMENT
VIA XML
SITEMAP
NO
IMPLEMENT
VIA HTML
HEAD
NO
YES
IMPLEMENT
VIA HTTP
HEADERS
CAN MODIFY
HTTP HEADERS?
NO
VIA GTM OR
CDN
WORKERS

Focus the SEO recommendations
based on their impact towards
goals and difficulty to implement
PRIORITIZED

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
Prioritize the recommendations to start with those  
with higher potential impact & lower difficulty

The impact and difficulty will be relative, connected to the
site goals achievement and complexity of implementation
The affected areas
The SEO effect
The business importance
Current optimization
Required resources
Known restrictions
Scope
IMPACT DIFFICULTY

Start by setting an "ideal priority” recommendations
matrix using only their potential impact towards goals
RECOMMENDATIONS AFFECTED AREAS SEO EFFECT
BUSINESS
IMPORTANCE
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATION
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH SUPPORT
LINK BUILDING
SUPPORT
IDEAL PRIORITY
SEO ITERATION
TO INCLUDE IT
NOINDEX (AND BLOCK THE
CRAWLING AFTER G HAS STOP
INDEXING THEM)) INTERNAL SEARCH
RESULT PAGES THAT GENERATE
CANNIBALIZATION ISSUES WITH
MAIN CATEGORIES/SUBCATEGORIES
PAGES
INTERNAL SEARCH
RESULT PAGES
HIGH HIGH LOW NO YES NO 2 1ST
INDEX THE PAGES OF COLORED
FILTERS THAT TARGET QUERIES WITH
SEARCH VOLUME HIGHER THAN 100
COLORED FILTERED
PAGES OF SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH MEDIUM LOW YES YES NO 1 1ST
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 2ND
DIFFERENTIATE INDEXABLE SUB-
CATEGORIES PAGES TITLES
INCLUDING ONLY THE CATEGORY
NAME IN THEM
SUB-CATEGORY PAGES MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4 2ND
CATEGORIES PAGES META
DESCRIPTIONS INCLUDING ONLY THE
CATEGORY NAME IN THEM
SUB-CATEGORY PAGES LOW MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO TBD TBD

Keeping only those to be ideally included in the  
initial SEO iterations due to their high impact
BUSINESS
IMPORTANCE
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATION
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH SUPPORT
LINK BUILDING
SUPPORT
IDEAL PRIORITY
SEO ITERATION
TO INCLUDE IT
INDEXING THEM)) INTERNAL SEARCH
RESULT PAGES THAT GENERATE
CANNIBALIZATION ISSUES WITH
MAIN CATEGORIES/SUBCATEGORIES
PAGES
INTERNAL SEARCH
RESULT PAGES
HIGH HIGH LOW NO YES NO 2 1ST
FILTERS THAT TARGET QUERIES WITH
SEARCH VOLUME HIGHER THAN 100
COLORED FILTERED
PAGES OF SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH MEDIUM LOW YES YES NO 1 1ST
EXTERNAL LINKS
OLD BLOG POSTS FROM
PREVIOUS BLOG
VERSION
MEDIUM MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO 3 2ND
NAME IN THEM
SUB-CATEGORY PAGES MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4 2ND
CATEGORIES PAGES META
DESCRIPTIONS INCLUDING ONLY THE
SUB-CATEGORY PAGES LOW MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO TBD TBD

Establish then an "expected priority” by also taking the
recommendations difficulty into consideration
RECOMMENDATIONS
AFFECTED
AREAS
SEO
EFFECT
BUSINESS
IMPORTANCE
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATION
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH
SUPPORT
LINK
BUILDING
SUPPORT
IDEAL
PRIORITY
IDEAL SEO
ITERATION TO
INCLUDE IT
EXPECTED
IMPLEMENTATIO
N DIFFICULTY
EXPECTED
PRIORITY
EXPECTED SEO
ITERATION TO
INCLUDE IT
INDEXING THEM)) INTERNAL
SEARCH RESULT PAGES THAT
GENERATE CANNIBALIZATION
ISSUES WITH MAIN CATEGORIES/
SUBCATEGORIES PAGES
INTERNAL
SEARCH RESULT
PAGES
HIGH HIGH LOW NO YES NO 1 1ST LOW 1 1ST
FILTERS THAT TARGET QUERIES
WITH SEARCH VOLUME HIGHER
THAN 100
COLORED
FILTERED PAGES
OF SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH MEDIUM LOW YES YES NO 2 1ST MEDIUM 3 2ND
EXTERNAL LINKS
OLD BLOG
POSTS FROM
PREVIOUS BLOG
VERSION
HIGH MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO 3 2ND LOW 2 1ST
NAME IN THEM
SUB-CATEGORY
PAGES
MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4 2ND LOW 4 2ND
DIFFERENTIATE CANONICALIZED
SUB-CATEGORIES PAGES META
DESCRIPTIONS INCLUDING ONLY
THE CATEGORY NAME IN THEM
SUB-CATEGORY
PAGES
LOW MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO TBD TBD TBD TBD TBD

You can then validate the "expected priority” with the
client/stakeholders when sharing the recommendations
RECOMMENDATIONS
AFFECTED
AREAS
SEO
EFFECT
BUSINESS
IMPORTANCE
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATION
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH
SUPPORT
LINK
BUILDING
SUPPORT
IDEAL
PRIORITY
IDEAL SEO
ITERATION TO
INCLUDE IT
EXPECTED
IMPLEMENTATIO
N DIFFICULTY
EXPECTED
PRIORITY
EXPECTED SEO
ITERATION TO
INCLUDE IT
PAGE NO.
ISSUES WITH MAIN CATEGORIES/
SUBCATEGORIES PAGES
INTERNAL
SEARCH
RESULT PAGES
HIGH HIGH LOW NO YES NO 1 1ST LOW 1 1ST 1
THAN 100
COLORED
FILTERED
PAGES OF SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH MEDIUM LOW YES YES NO 2 1ST MEDIUM 3 2ND 5
301 REDIRECT OLD PAGES WITH
404 HTTP STATUS PAGES
ATTRACTING EXTERNAL LINKS
OLD BLOG
POSTS FROM
PREVIOUS
BLOG VERSION
HIGH MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO 3 2ND LOW 2 1ST 10
NAME IN THEM
SUB-CATEGORY
PAGES
MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4 2ND LOW 4 2ND 15
DIFFERENTIATE CANONICALIZED
SUB-CATEGORIES PAGES META
DESCRIPTIONS INCLUDING ONLY
THE CATEGORY NAME IN THEM
SUB-CATEGORY
PAGES
LOW MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO TBD TBD TBD TBD TBD -

RECOMMENDATIONS
AFFECTED
AREAS
SEO
EFFECT
BUSINESS
IMPORTANCE
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATIO
N
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH
SUPPORT
LINK
BUILDING
SUPPORT
IDEAL
PRIORITY
IDEAL SEO
ITERATION
TO INCLUDE
IT
EXPECTED
IMPLEMENTATI
ON
DIFFICULTY
EXPECTE
D
PRIORITY
EXPECTED
SEO
ITERATION TO
INCLUDE IT
PAGE
NO.
VALIDATED
IMPLEMENTATI
ON DIFFICULTY
VALIDATE
D
PRIORITY
ISSUES WITH MAIN
CATEGORIES/SUBCATEGORIES
PAGES
INTERNAL
SEARCH
RESULT
PAGES
HIGH HIGH LOW NO YES NO 1 1ST LOW 1 1ST 1 LOW 1
INDEX THE PAGES OF
COLORED FILTERS THAT
TARGET QUERIES WITH
SEARCH VOLUME HIGHER
THAN 100
COLORED
FILTERED
PAGES OF
SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH MEDIUM LOW YES YES NO 2 1ST MEDIUM 3 2ND 5 MEDIUM 2
301 REDIRECT OLD PAGES
WITH 404 HTTP STATUS PAGES
OLD BLOG
POSTS FROM
PREVIOUS
BLOG
VERSION
HIGH MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO 3 2ND LOW 2 1ST 10 HIGH TBD
DIFFERENTIATE INDEXABLE
SUB-CATEGORIES PAGES
TITLES INCLUDING ONLY THE
SUB-
CATEGORY
PAGES
MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4 2ND LOW 4 2ND 15 LOW 3
To establish the final “validated priority” along them, which
will be used to schedule and coordinate their execution

RECOMMENDATIONS
AFFECTED
AREAS
SEO
EFFECT
BUSINESS
IMPORTANCE
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATIO
N
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH
SUPPORT
LINK
BUILDING
SUPPORT
IDEAL
PRIORITY
IDEAL SEO
ITERATION
TO INCLUDE
IT
EXPECTED
IMPLEMENTATI
ON
DIFFICULTY
EXPECTE
D
PRIORITY
EXPECTED
SEO
ITERATION TO
INCLUDE IT
PAGE
NO.
VALIDATED
IMPLEMENTATI
ON DIFFICULTY
VALIDATE
D
PRIORITY
ISSUES WITH MAIN
PAGES
INTERNAL
SEARCH
RESULT
PAGES
HIGH HIGH LOW NO YES NO 1 1ST LOW 1 1ST 1 LOW 1
INDEX THE PAGES OF
COLORED FILTERS THAT
TARGET QUERIES WITH
SEARCH VOLUME HIGHER
THAN 100
COLORED
FILTERED
PAGES OF
SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH MEDIUM LOW YES YES NO 2 1ST MEDIUM 3 2ND 5 MEDIUM 2
301 REDIRECT OLD PAGES
WITH 404 HTTP STATUS PAGES
OLD BLOG
POSTS FROM
PREVIOUS
BLOG
VERSION
HIGH MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO 3 2ND LOW 2 1ST 10 HIGH TBD
SUB-CATEGORIES PAGES
TITLES INCLUDING ONLY THE
SUB-
CATEGORY
PAGES
MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4 2ND LOW 4 2ND 15 LOW 3
Compare the ideal & expected vs the validated priorities
to show the impact gap to client/stakeholders

Fast development and delivery of
an easy to understand document
CONCISE

The SEO recommendations document should be concise,
self-explanatory & actionable
Screen
shot
SCENARIO 1
Screen
shot
SCENARIO 1
Screen
shot
SEO
Effect
Affected
Areas
Business
Importance
Optimization
Status
Execution
Difficulty
Required
resources
Priority
High Paginations Medium Low Low Technical High
WHAT ARE THE EXPECTED RESOURCES?

Including for each specific action its importance, impact,
how it was found, the resources and priority
ITS IMPORTANCE
HOW IS IT FOUND & GENERATED
ACTIONS TO FIX IT
PRIORITY IN SEO PROCESS
IMPACT ON SITE RESULTS/GOALS
EXPECTED RESOURCES
PRIORITY IN SEO PROCESS
Screen
shot
SCENARIO 1
Screen
shot
SCENARIO 1
Screen
shot
SEO
Effect
Affected
Areas
Business
Importance
Optimization
Status
Execution
Difficulty
Required
resources
Priority
High Paginations Medium Low Low Technical High
WHAT ARE THE EXPECTED RESOURCES?
Add a summary of each
recommendation
characteristics & resources
at the start

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
3. Recommendation to improve Z
Screensh
ot
START
WITH
HIGHEST
PRIORITY
The document organization should be prioritized,  
starting with the highest priority recommendations

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
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
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
3. Recommendation to improve Z
Screensh
ot
It's critical to present and go through them with clients/
stakeholders to clarify and establish validated priorities
VIABILITY AND
RESOURCES
ASSESSMENT
ALONG CLIENT TO
ESTABLISH THE
“VALIDATED
PRIORITIES”

You can use the recommendations matrix as an index of
the document including each recommendation page
BUSINESS
IMPORTANCE
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATION
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH
SUPPORT
LINK BUILDING
SUPPORT
IDEAL
PRIORITY
IDEAL SEO
ITERATION TO
INCLUDE IT
EXPECTED
IMPLEMENTATION
DIFFICULTY
EXPECTED
PRIORITY
EXPECTED SEO
ITERATION TO
INCLUDE IT
PAGE NO.
NOINDEX (AND BLOCK THE CRAWLING
AFTER G HAS STOP INDEXING THEM))
INTERNAL SEARCH RESULT PAGES THAT
GENERATE CANNIBALIZATION ISSUES
WITH MAIN CATEGORIES/SUBCATEGORIES
PAGES
INTERNAL SEARCH
RESULT PAGES
HIGH HIGH LOW NO YES NO 1 1ST LOW 1 1ST 1
INDEX THE PAGES OF COLORED FILTERS
THAT TARGET QUERIES WITH SEARCH
VOLUME HIGHER THAN 100
COLORED
FILTERED PAGES
OF SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH MEDIUM LOW YES YES NO 2 1ST MEDIUM 3 2ND 5
301 REDIRECT OLD PAGES WITH 404 HTTP
STATUS PAGES ATTRACTING EXTERNAL
LINKS
OLD BLOG POSTS
FROM PREVIOUS
BLOG VERSION
HIGH MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO 3 2ND LOW 2 1ST 10
CATEGORIES PAGES TITLES INCLUDING
ONLY THE CATEGORY NAME IN THEM
SUB-CATEGORY
PAGES
MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4 2ND LOW 4 2ND 15

The recommendations matrix along the page number, can
also be used to coordinate their execution too
RECOMMENDATIONS
AFFECTED
AREAS
SEO
EFFECT
BUSINESS
IMPORTANCE
CURRENT
OPTIMIZATIO
N
CONTENT
SUPPORT
TECH
SUPPORT
LINK
BUILDING
SUPPORT
IDEAL
PRIORITY
IDEAL SEO
ITERATION
TO INCLUDE
IT
EXPECTED
IMPLEMENTATI
ON DIFFICULTY
EXPECTE
D
PRIORITY
EXPECTED
SEO
ITERATION TO
INCLUDE IT
PAGE
NO.
VALIDATED
IMPLEMENTATI
ON DIFFICULTY
VALIDATE
D
PRIORITY
VALIDATED
SEO
ITERATION
TO
INCLUDE IT
PERSON
IN
CHARGE
IMPLEMENTATI
ON DATE IN
TEST
LAUNCHIN
G DATE
ISSUES WITH MAIN
PAGES
INTERNAL
SEARCH
RESULT PAGES
HIGH HIGH LOW NO YES NO 1 1ST LOW 1 1ST 1 LOW 1 1ST
ELLIOT
ALDERSO
N
01-01-20 15-01-20
THAN 100
COLORED
FILTERED
PAGES OF
SUB-
CATEGORIES
HIGH MEDIUM LOW YES YES NO 2 1ST MEDIUM 3 2ND 5 MEDIUM 2 1ST
ELLIOT
ALDERSO
N
01-01-20 15-01-20
301 REDIRECT OLD PAGES WITH
404 HTTP STATUS PAGES
OLD BLOG
POSTS FROM
PREVIOUS
BLOG
VERSION
HIGH MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO 3 2ND LOW 2 1ST 10 HIGH TBD TBD TBD TBD TBD
SUB-CATEGORIES PAGES TITLES
INCLUDING ONLY THE
SUB-
CATEGORY
PAGES
MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO 4 2ND LOW 4 2ND 15 LOW 3 2ND
DIANE
NGUYEN
15-01-20 01-02-20
WHAT WHYWHERE WHO WHENHOW

Establishing mechanisms to avoid
the identified issues to happen in
the future
PREVENTIVE

Establish mechanisms to prevent the identified  
(and to be fixed) issues to happen again
Education
within the
organization
among the
involved
teams Automated
platform
validations for the
viable scenarios
Best
practices/
checklists to use as
a reference
whenever changing
relevant areas
manually
SEO validation
before and after
releases
SEO monitoring
and alerts via
tools

Use the SEO recommendations to establish best practices
& validations to do whenever the Website is updated

Set rules to tackle
the recommended
issues automatically
within the platform,
to avoid them from
happening again

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

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 an SEO validation process to follow when
implementing recommendations and doing site releases

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

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
Integromat

Do you think is too
much work?

Don’t worry! You don't start from scratch, here are
resources that you can use as a reference to copy/paste
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZl4DdSpTmpcSS4Dfc4zueEaOUkT82YgkGUDa1zT_YU/copy

#seoaudits at #searchnorwich by @aleyda from @oraintiThanks @Chrisgreen87! https://twitter.com/chrisgreen87/status/1157019788729827333
It’s about focusing and formatting your SEO audit  
in a way that facilitates its implementation

Because the SEO audit goal is to drive the SEO process to
achieve the desired results, not to deliver a document
THIS YEAR
LAST YEAR

And this can be highly facilitated by following  
the SP2 principles when developing it
SOLUTIONS FOCUSED
PRIORITIZED
PREVENTIVE
YOUR WEBSITE
LINKS
POPULARITY
CONTENT
RELEVANCE
AUDIENCE
BEHAVIOR
WEBSITE
RANKINGS
COMPETITORS
RANKINGS
SERP
CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIFY ACTIONS TO TAKE
PER SCENARIO TO FIX IT
EXPLAIN THE EXPECTED
LEVEL OF
IMPLEMENTATION
DIFFICULTY GIVEN
CONTEXT
INCLUDE EXPECTED
REQUIRED RESOURCES
EXPLAIN EXPECTED SEO
GOAL & BUSINESS IMPACT
DESCRIBE & EXPLAIN
IMPORTANCE OF
IDENTIFIED SEO ISSUE /
OPPORTUNITY
RECOMMEND PREVENTIVE
MEASURES TO AVOID THE
ISSUE TO HAPPEN AGAIN
SHOW SCENARIOS OF
PAGES/QUERIES AFFECTED
(HOW THEY’RE CAUSED &
FOUND)
PRINCIPLES TO DEVELOP AN SEO AUDIT FOR ACTIONABLE & IMPACTFUL SEO RECOMMENDATIONS
SET IDEAL
RECOMMENDATIONS
PRIORITY (BASED ON
IMPACT AND DIFFICULTY)
GOAL ORIENTED
STRATEGIC
CONTEXT AWARE
CONCISE
RESOURCE SPECIFIC

* 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?

Aleyda Solis: How to develop actionable and impactful SEO audits

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