When a company is interested in our SEO services, we first perform an in-depth SEO analysis of their website. We analyze their code, their architecture, navigation, keywords and more. I’ve seen some critical SEO mistakes, but majority of the sites I’ve analyzed are in need of a combination of on-page elements and off-page strategies.
The five most common on-page SEO mistakes I find regularly.
1. Duplicate content issues. More often than not, I find that www, non-www and /index.aspx (or another extension) deliver the same home page but with three different URLs- just one example of duplicate content on the same domain.
How to check: Type www.sitename.com into your browser, and make note of the final URL. Now type in sitename.com and see if the non-www version of the domain redirected to another URL. If neither URL redirected, then you have duplicate content. If you type in the non-www version, and it brings up the www-version, then you have a successful redirect implemented on your site to prevent home page duplication.
To see a redirect happen (and to help you recognize other 301s), type in www.jcpenney.com or jcpenney.com. You will be brought to www.jcpenny.com/jcp/default.aspx (not a very friendly URL, but it’s a 301 redirect none-the-less!).
2. Poor internal link architecture. Not only does internal linking help search value, but it helps create a more overall positive user-experience. Most websites I analyze don’t have any internal links, even when there are perfect opportunities.
How to check: Scan the content and look for internal link opportunities. I usually find a lot of opportunities on the home page and contact us pages.
3. No XML sitemap or robots.txt file. I see this all the time. Not a dire SEO issue, but nice to have both just so all your bases are covered.
How to check: Type www.sitename.com/sitemap.xml into your browser. If you get a 404 error, then the website doesn’t have an XML sitemap. Now type www.sitename.com/robots.txt into your browser. Again, if you get an error, the site don’t have a robots.txt file. Google says if you’re not blocking anything within your site then a robots.txt file isn’t necessary. But I like to put one in and referencing the sitemap just incase!
4. No analytics or access to their analytics. This, to me, is just crazy. In order to effectively run a business, you need to understand and dig deep into your analytics- especially if you want to start an SEO campaign.
How to check: First, I would recommend checking with your webmaster to see if any analytics have been implemented. If not, set up a Google Analytics account, (stat!) and have your webmaster or developer place the code into your site. If you would rather manually check to see if the code is implemented follow these steps:
- Right click on the webpage. Choose “View Page Source.”
- Now, you will see the source code for the webpage. On your keyboard, click “Ctrl” “F” to use the find feature. To search for Google Analytics on your web page, then type in “google.” The find feature will bring up your code if you have it.
5. Poor use of targeted keywords. In general, most sites I analyze don’t use keywords in the necessaryMeta fields, H1 tags, body content, URLs, etc. SEO copyrighting is tough, but when done eloquently, can really pay off.
How to check: There isn’t one right way to check this. If you know the keywords the site is targeting, then scan for them in all areas of the website. To check the Meta fields, I use a couple of various tools. If you’re only checking a couple pages, “View Page Source” (above example) works just fine. Use the find feature to search for “title” and “meta” and look for keywords in those fields.
These are definitely the most common mistakes I find regularly- but definitely not the craziest and critical. I’ll save those for another post. I would bet that every website I analyze has at least 2 of these errors- which can significantly impact your overall SEO efforts.
Have questions or better solutions? Let me know by commenting below!
About the Author: Courtney Petty
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2 Comments
Oh man.. I don’t understand advise #1!! Can someone explain this to me more fully? I can’t tell the difference when a redirected url happens and if its a bad thing? *confused*
Hi Ardham, I’ll send you an email!
Thanks
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