A while back, we wrote about how to conduct a basic website SEO analysis in 5 minutes.
Times and algorithms have changed, so an update is in order.
Doing an SEO analysis of a website should be done before embarking on any SEO campaign. You need to know your strengths & weaknesses before you can make a plan to improve and rock the search engines.
Conduct a Basic Website SEO Analysis in Five Minutes
Content
I know this is a very generic category- but look for the following.
- Sources of frequently updated content: blogs, newsletters, articles, message boards, forums, etc.
- Thin content or indexed pages with no content (a.k.a. abandoned pages).
- Duplicate content across pages (example: using the same header paragraph for every page, etc.)
Title Tags & Meta Descriptions
All pages should have unique title tags & meta descriptions. Look for keywords within these tags (and the more important keywords towards the beginning, the better!).
URL Structure
I look to make sure that their URL structure is following best practices. Look for keywords, dashes instead of underscores and a clean structure to match navigation.
Duplicate Content
This is usually one of the first things I notice. Check for duplicate content by typing in various forms of the domain name. Home page duplication is just one example- but if you’re not looking at an ecommerce site, than there shouldn’t be many other duplicate content issues.
Sitemaps and Robots.txt files
Look to see if either has been uploaded to the root domain of the site. Having a properly configured sitemap and robots file is important.
You’re finished with your basic analysis!
You now know what to look for in evaluating overall “SEO Health” for a website. I do encourage you to perform a more in-depth analysis, analyzing code, structure, link architecture, link strategies and more when beginning an SEO campaign. SEO analysis’s that I do for clients usually take several hours.
As always, if you have any questions- drop a comment in the comment box below and I’ll address it!
About the Author: Courtney Petty
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2 Comments
Simple easy steps. If I may point out an additional area to check for SEO. Content quality. Make sure your sites content has value and engages your visitors. Search engines gauge so many different parameters, and if you have high page bounce rates or low average page view times, it’s going to hurt your seo. So write great content and you’ll get better results! (:
I couldn’t agree more, Kyle! You can have tons of content on a page, but if it’s not quality and users bounce, then those usage metrics can affect SEO. Thanks for pointing that out!
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