Internet is one of the marvels of the modern world. It has changed the way more than 2.26 billion people deal with their lives. The number of internet users is increasing at a rapid pace.
This is the reason why individuals and organizations are investing time and money to expand their presence in the online world. Most of the internet users start browsing with the help of a search engine.
Google, Bing and Yahoo are popular search engines; however, Google has the lion’s share in the search engine market. To succeed on the internet it is not enough to create a website. You need to optimize your website to search engines.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the key to success in the online world. SEO brings visitors to your website. If you have a website and are not sure if it is optimized for the search engines, it is a good idea to conduct an SEO audit.
Before getting into analysis, it is advisable to prepare a plan. It helps you to understand what you are dealing with and also ensures that you do not miss out on anything. Internet marketing expert recommend that you crawl the entire website.
Many crawling tools are available online. It is important to decide how you would want the crawler to handle different web technologies. Disable CSS, cookies and JavaScript while crawling.
The crawling activity gives you enormous amount of information. The next step is to use webmaster tools. Search engines like Google offer many diagnostic tools for webmasters. Internet marketing experts recommend that you register with these services.
Now how do we get inputs regarding site’s visitors? The answer is with the help of site’s analytics. Many analytics packages are available online. Go for that package which allows you to investigate your site’s traffic patterns.
With the above-mentioned preparations, you are all set to dive into analysis.
It is always advisable to begin by checking your site’s accessibility. If search engines cannot find your website, you may as well not have your website on the internet. It is vital to ensure that your website is accessible by search engines.
As a first step, ensure that robots.txt file is not restricting access to important sections of your site. Google webmaster tools are useful in identifying URLs that are blocked by the file. Check for pages that are blocking crawlers. Robots meta tags may prevent crawlers from indexing a page.
Check for HTTP status codes (like 4xx and 5xx). This is usually accomplished during the site crawl. It is advisable to use 301 HTTP redirects. Ensure that your site’s XML sitemap is a well-formed XML document, as per the sitemap protocol. The sitemap has to be submitted to your webmaster tools accounts. Check for pages in the sitemap that do not appear in the site crawl.
While evaluating your site architecture, check for the number of clicks to navigate through the site. It is very important to ensure that important pages are prioritized in the architecture. Check for the quality of each and every link. It is always advisable to go for flat site architecture.
Internet marketing experts recommend that you avoid Flash and JavaScript navigation. Your site’s usage of JavaScript navigation can be determined by performing site crawl by enabling the script and then by disabling the script.
Check for your site’s loading time. Sites that load quickly get more visitors and are more thoroughly and consistently by search engine spiders. Google Page Speed is the best tool to analyze your site’s performance.
After identifying the pages that search engines are allowed to access, you need to check their indexability. “site:” command enables you to check the number of pages that are indexed by a search engine. But you will only get a rough estimate. Search for your brand name on a search engine. If your website is ranked first, everything is fine. If your site is penalized, fix the error and request reconsideration.
While checking for your site’s on-page ranking factors, it is advisable to begin with the URL. It is advisable to keep the URL short. Ensure that it includes the keyword. Check if the URL is using subfolders instead of subdomains. Use hyphens and avoid underscores.
Content continues to be the king in internet marketing. This will be so in the future irrespective of Google’s algorithm changes. Many tools are available online which help in investigating your content.
It is advisable to view the text-only version of Google’s cached copy of the page. Ensure that the page contains at least 300 words. The content should be informative and entertaining.
Check for keyword usage in the content. It is advisable to use the keywords in the first paragraph. It is very important to avoid excessive use of keyword in the content. It goes without saying that the content should be free of spelling and grammar errors. Minimize the use of complex JavaScript, images and Flash.
W3C offers markup validator which helps in identifying standards violations in your HTML markup. Their CSS validator helps you to check the site’s CSS. Ensure that the page title is succinct and describes the page’s content. It should contain the keyword.
While analyzing images, ensure that the alt text and the filename have keywords. It is important to ensure that your site links to websites with high ranking. These sites have to be relevant.
There are many ways of increasing your site’s popularity. Check how popular your site is which compared with that of your competitors. Tools like Alexa will help you in this endeavor. Social networking sites help in increasing the popularity of your website.
SEO is definitely not a rocket science. By implementing the above-mentioned tips while conducting SEO audit on your site, you are sure to stay ahead of your competitors.
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