{"id":581,"date":"2019-09-12T23:11:21","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T23:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marketiqmedia.com\/?p=581"},"modified":"2019-09-27T17:29:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T17:29:42","slug":"where-the-wild-things-grow-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketiqmedia.com\/?p=581","title":{"rendered":"You Should Do This Helpful SEO Audit At Least Once a Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Editor\u2019s note: Given SEO\u2019s role in content marketing and its rapid evolution, we updated this post on auditing your site.<\/em><\/p>\n

Website content audits for SEO purposes have had a negative stigma associated with them for some time. They can be tedious, time consuming, and it can take time to see results, but they are necessary for driving website success.<\/p>\n

Because of\u00a0Google\u2019s frequent algorithm updates<\/a>\u00a0and improvements, SEO rules and best practices are constantly changing. Reevaluating your SEO and your strategies is one of the only ways to stay on top of these changes and continue to move your website content forward.<\/p>\n

An SEO website audit doesn\u2019t have to be stressful or difficult, but it helps to have a plan before you and your team dive into this type of analysis. You need to know what you\u2019re looking for, who is going to make what changes, and what\u00a0tools<\/a>\u00a0are available to help you implement those changes.<\/p>\n

An #SEO site audit doesn\u2019t have to be stressful or difficult if you have a plan, says @ADiSilvestro.<\/a><\/span>CLICK TO TWEET<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:\u00a0How to Do a Helpful SEO Audit in a Few Hours<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

Steps, tools, and what to look for in an SEO audit<\/h2>\n

Before diving into an audit, know what you\u2019re looking to learn from the analysis of your SEO performance data and what\u00a0website content<\/a>\u00a0goals this information will help you accomplish. Once you have a list of your goals, you can create a checklist of items to identify and evaluate.<\/p>\n

Collect your website content analytics<\/h3>\n

Going through and gathering all the data and analytics for your website content (traffic, keywords, referral traffic for each landing page, etc.) is key. Given that this data changes frequently, set up dashboards that make it easier to track it accurately for every audit you perform.<\/p>\n

Below is an example of a custom dashboard I built for my company Discover Corps (learn how here<\/a>) and the kind of SEO information you should add:<\/p>\n

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Once you have this report, you can slice and dice the data to find trends and areas that need help (more on that later).<\/p>\n

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:\u00a0How to Use the 4 Most Helpful Reports in Google Analytics<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

Analyze your targeted keywords<\/h3>\n

Review the keywords you\u2019re targeting and using most frequently in your content to identify any changes in their performance. You also should analyze them for relative value to your business compared to your competition. Conduct research on overall keyword performance trends to stay on top of the terms worth pursuing in the immediate future.<\/p>\n

I recommended using the\u00a0Google Keyword Planner<\/a>\u00a0to make this happen. Below is a screenshot that shows the type of information you can get from a tool like this. Because this data comes from your competitors, the competition is particularly interesting:<\/p>\n

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Click to enlarge<\/p>\n

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:\u00a02019 SEO Keywords and Google: What\u2019s in Your Poker Hand?<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

Track potential sitemap concerns (and make sure they are set up correctly and completely).<\/p>\n

Creating an XML sitemap can help you make sure search engine bots are seeing what they should be and indexing and caching your pages quickly. As you want to make sure users see the most updated version of your pages, check your sitemaps regularly.<\/p>\n

Create an XML sitemap to make sure search engines are indexing & caching your pages quickly, says @ADiSilvestro.<\/a><\/span>CLICK TO TWEET<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Below is a screenshot of a Google Search Console. In this case, I set up different sitemaps based on the areas of my website (landing pages, product \u201ctrip\u201d pages, pages on site, and blog categories):<\/p>\n

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Click to enlarge<\/p>\n

Unsure how to check your sitemaps or set a sitemap up correctly? Visit\u00a0this article<\/a>. You typically handle this through your web hosting company, such as\u00a0GoDaddy<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0WP Engine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Use a web hosting company such as @godaddy or @wpengine to set up or check a sitemap, says @ADiSilvestro. #tools<\/a><\/span>CLICK TO TWEET<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Look for your indexed pages<\/h3>\n

Make sure all the pages are being indexed correctly and your best content is making the cut. Check this by typing\u00a0site:www.domain.com<\/em>\u00a0into the search engine. You can see what content appears in the list of indexed content. This can be harder on a large website, but it\u2019s healthy to check once per week.<\/p>\n

TIP:<\/strong>\u00a0You also can see indexed pages in\u00a0Google Search Console<\/a>\u00a0where your sitemaps are housed.<\/p>\n

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:\u00a0Oops! 17 SEO Misfires to Avoid With Website Content Marketing<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

Check for linking concerns on site<\/h3>\n

Obviously, make sure you don\u2019t have any broken links on your website. Routinely go through and spot check\u00a0internal links<\/a>\u00a0to make sure everything still works, especially on pages where your older content resides. It\u2019s also important to have at least one or two internal links within all your content. This is good practice for creating a quality user experience, as well as for SEO.<\/p>\n

A lot of free tools check for broken links on your site. I use\u00a0Broken Link Check<\/a>\u00a0each quarter. It\u2019s an easy tool that spits out the broken link and the page where it appears. Then I manually fix the link.<\/p>\n

Check for linking concerns off site<\/h3>\n

A great way forward with this step is to use an SEO tool to help identify links on other sites pointing to your site. External sites using poor or broken links to your site can significantly impact your SEO. If you find this problem, ask the sites to remove or update them by contacting the publisher or using the Google\u00a0disavow tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n

External sites using poor or broken links to your site can significantly impact your #SEO, says @ADiSilvestro.<\/a><\/span>CLICK TO TWEET<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

As far as tools go, I use\u00a0Ahrefs<\/a>\u00a0and have used\u00a0SEMRush<\/a>. However, tons are on the market. I recommend signing up for a few free trials, locking your price point down, and going from there.<\/p>\n

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