The world of SEO is ever-changing and there are more and more new things to look out for. At times it can become quite overwhelming to keep control of everything. However, you cannot deny the powerful effects that good SEO can offer. Good marketers recognize the value of SEO as it allows them to directly publish content directly on the front of the search engine results page (SERP).
To achieve this there is a comprehensive list of things to go over. A good way to visualize the scope of these things is to simply consider the fact that there are on-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO, and copy content. Each layer is crucial for your marketing success, and this requires an SEO audit. This is a process of evaluating a website to see how it performs in search engines. Here is a deeper look at how you can audit your SEO using this powerful checklist.
Check the site’s speed
Before everything, your page should be able to load quickly. Google uses this as one of the more important ranking parameters. Your page might not load optimally because your HTML markup is not efficient. A good thing to remember here is to not only test your homepage but also analyze all other popular pages including blog posts, category pages, service pages, etc.
Google yourself
In order to start, it is important to know where you stand. You can simply perform this check manually using a simple Google search. You can search and see how many of your pages appear in search results. Ideally, it should appear first when you search for it by name. Where does your site appear generally? These are all good things to consider. In addition, you should check which pages are actually being crawled, which is a way to check how search engines index your pages.
In order to manually check this, you can perform a search using the “site:rootdomain” format. This shows you only the pages from a given site. Suppose any of these steps indicate that something is wrong. In that case, you definitely benefit from a white label SEO reporting, which will give you all the necessary information to improve your SEO. You will also be able to gain more conversion by showing useful data to your customers. In addition, this will give you a way to boost your credibility and transparency.
Take a mobile-first approach
More than half of all website searches are actually happening on mobile. This is a clear indication that it is important to take a mobile-first approach. However, since there are many differences between desktop and mobile versions in terms of scalability, responsiveness, and layout, it is important to take the right steps. Luckily, Google has updated its Search Console which allows simplified testing of whether your website is mobile-friendly or not.
To do this you can easily navigate to the Search Console account section and sign in, where you can click on Mobile Usability. This works much like debugging software, and it offers you an overview of all your pages and how they handle mobile responsiveness. If there are any problems, you will be notified. From there you can browse through all of the problems and also see possible fixes. There are useful details that will give you a clear understanding of what the main culprit is.
For instance, it will output problem types such as “viewport not set”, “text too small to read” and “content wider than screen”. The problems usually come from bad coding that neglects responsive web design and all JavaScript, HTML, and CSS compatibility standards. You might need to consult a developer in this case. Once you are all done fixing the problems, you can check again and validate the pages yourself.
Optimize your content
Apart from the technical details, it is always important to analyze the content itself. This is often times overlooked. After all the nuanced algorithms and technical complexities of search engines comes the content, which is intended for people. An average page visitor won’t be able to tell whether your HTML code is optimal or if your backlinks are working perfectly, but they will be able to recognize quality content.
There is too much emphasis placed on the quantity of the content when there are a lot of factors that can improve its quality as well. Firstly, make sure to use short intros. This is because no one has that much time to read unnecessary details. Secondly, make your paragraphs short and on-point in order to grab attention. This is because people skim and don’t actually read thoroughly. Lastly, make sure to include plenty of visuals and images. This is for the exact same reason as the previous step.
Use analytics
In order to provide actual data on the growth of your page, you will want to implement analytics services such as Google Analytics. Your code should be fixed if it isn’t registering analytics. You can install tracker code above the header of a web page. You will then be able to compare this data to the one acquired by performing “site:rootdomain” search.
SEO is packed with a lot of technical details. However, these details are really helpful and they are not necessarily too complicated if you follow the right steps; manually search your pages, make them mobile-responsive, check your speed, optimize your content and use analytics.