Technical SEO Audit

A technical SEO audit is just that—very technical in nature. Bill recommends that a technical SEO audit be performed before ongoing SEO services begin. Technical SEO audits leave no stone unturned. Bill Hartzer uses tools such as web crawlers and a multitude of other tools to review the website’s pages—both how they are loading and performing, and how the site’s visitors are interacting with those pages.

Google provides webmasters and website owners many tools to help review the website, and Bill Hartzer has his own set of proprietary tools in order to pull the proper data from the website and it’s web analytics. When it comes to an SEO audit service, however, one can pull a lot of data—but it’s extremely important to make sure that the person review that data knows what it means. There are issues that Bill Hartzer can spot that can lead to a quick recovery of website traffic—and then there are issues that Bill Hartzer may spot that issues that will cause problems in the future. During the SEO audit, all of the issues are uncovered and identified, and Bill makes a list of these issues.

More About Technical SEO Audits

A technical SEO audit is an evaluation of a website’s technical components and infrastructure to identify any issues that may be impacting its search engine rankings. A technical SEO audit typically includes a review of the website’s metadata, structure, content, backlinks, speed, mobile-friendliness, and more. The goal of a technical SEO audit is to identify and address any technical issues that may be hindering the website’s ability to rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs), and to ensure the website is optimized for search engines and provides a good user experience.

Technical SEO audits take time—and can take anywhere from 10 hours to 60 hours to complete.

Why Technical SEO Is Important

Technical SEO is important because it helps ensure that a website is optimized for search engines and provides a good user experience. Technical SEO involves evaluating and improving a website’s technical components and infrastructure, such as its structure, navigation, metadata, content, and performance. By addressing any technical issues that may be impacting the website’s search engine rankings, technical SEO can help improve a website’s visibility and traffic in search engine results pages (SERPs). Technical SEO is also important because it can help improve the overall user experience of a website, which can help increase engagement and conversion rates.

Technical SEO Best Practices

There is a huge amount of technical SEO best practices, but here are a few that you should consider:

  1. Use an XML sitemap to help search engines crawl and index your website.
  2. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and responsive so it works well on all devices.
  3. Use descriptive, keyword-rich title tags and meta descriptions to help search engines understand the content of your pages.
  4. Use heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to organize and structure your content for both users and search engines.
  5. Use alt text for images to describe their content, which can help search engines understand the images on your website.
  6. Use clean, descriptive URLs that include your target keywords and make it easy for users and search engines to understand the content of the page.
  7. Use canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues and help search engines understand the preferred version of a page.
  8. Use redirects properly to ensure that users and search engines are directed to the correct page when a URL changes or a page is removed.
  9. Use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, as well as analytics, to monitor and track the technical performance of your website.

How Can You Improve Technical SEO on Your Website?

There are several steps that you can do right now to improve the technical SEO on your website. These are typically in addition to having a technical SEO audit done on your website, or if you don’t have the budget right now to have a technical SEO audit done.

  1. Start by conducting a technical SEO audit to identify any technical issues that may be impacting your website’s search engine rankings. Use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your website and generate a report on any issues it finds. You can also use tools such as Sitebulb or SEMrush’s audit tool to find some issues impacting your website.
  2. Review and optimize your website’s metadata, including the title tags and meta descriptions, to ensure they are descriptive and keyword-rich.
  3. Create and submit an up-to-date XML sitemap to help search engines crawl and index your website’s pages.
  4. Organize and structure your website’s content using header tags and a clear hierarchy, to make it easy for both users and search engines to understand.
  5. Use alt text for images to describe their content and make it easier for search engines to understand them.
  6. Use clean, descriptive URLs that include your target keywords and make it easy for users and search engines to understand the content of the page
  7. Use canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues and help search engines understand the preferred version of a page.
  8. Use redirects properly to ensure that users and search engines are directed to the correct page when a URL changes or a page is remo
  9. Monitor and track the technical performance of your website using Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console and analytics.

Technical SEO Audit Deliverables

There are several SEO Deliverables. The Technical SEO audit is done, and a written document is provided. Typically this will also include several spreadsheets, as well. A written list of tasks to implement the audit’s findings is provided. A timeline for implementation may be provided, depending on who is implementing any changes and recommendations provided.

The following is a detail of the actual deliverables. These will include a combination of documents, spreadsheets, and at least one follow-up phone call to go over the delivered documents and spreadsheets, and answer questions.

Below is a preliminary outline (Table of Contents) of the document that will be delivered, in the form of a Microsoft Word document or PDF. Typically, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are included, as well, which includes all of the gathered data.

Overview
Current Rankings And Analysis
Website Crawlability
404 Errors, 301 Redirects other server issues
Keyword Strategy
Content Strategy
On-Page Factors
Title Tag Issues
Meta Description Tags
Heading Tags
Image Alt Attributes
Miscellaneous Issues
Linking
Internal Links
External Links
Overall Recommendations
Strategy Going Forward

How to Conduct a Technical SEO Audit

Conducting a technical SEO audit involves evaluating a website’s technical components and infrastructure to identify any issues that may be impacting its search engine rankings. Here are the steps to conduct a technical SEO audit. This is a basic overview:

  1. Start by crawling the website to identify any technical issues or errors. Use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl the website and generate a report on any issues it finds.
  2. Review the website’s metadata, including the title tags and meta descriptions, to ensure they are optimized for search engines.
  3. Check the website’s XML sitemap to make sure it is up-to-date and includes all important pages on the website.
  4. Evaluate the website’s structure and organization, including the navigation and hierarchy, to ensure it is easy for search engines to crawl and index.
  5. Check the website’s content to ensure it is high-quality and relevant to the target keywords and audience.
  6. Analyze the website’s backlink profile to identify any toxic or low-quality links that may be harming its rankings.
  7. Test the website’s speed and performance to ensure it is fast and efficient.
  8. Review the website’s mobile-friendliness and responsiveness to ensure it is optimized for mobile devices.
  9. Identify any technical issues that may be impacting the website’s search engine rankings, and develop a plan to address them.

What is a Technical SEO Audit and Why is it Necessary?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing a website so that it can rank high on search engine result pages. SEO involves a variety of different strategies and tactics that are used to improve a website’s visibility, including on-page, off-page and technical SEO. Technical SEO is a subset of SEO that focuses on optimizing a website for the technical aspects of search engine optimization. A technical SEO audit is a comprehensive review of a website’s technical SEO performance, which can help identify potential issues, opportunities, and recommendations for improvements. This article will discuss the importance of a technical SEO audit and how it can help your website succeed in the competitive world of search engine optimization.

A technical SEO audit is an in-depth analysis of a website’s technical SEO performance, which includes an evaluation of the website’s structure, content, usability, and other technical factors that can affect its ranking on Google and other search engines.

A technical SEO audit is an invaluable tool for any website. It helps identify any on-page and off-page obstacles that may be preventing your site from ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERP) such as Google. An audit not only evaluates the technical aspects of your site, such as HTML code and page load speed, but also assesses the quality of your content and user experience to ensure that your site is optimized for search engine algorithms. In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of conducting a technical SEO audit for your site, the key elements to consider, and the best practices for improving your site’s performance.

Technical: SEO and Google Audit

When it comes to website optimization, SEO and Google audits are essential. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or web page in a search engine’s unpaid results. Google audits are also important in optimizing websites for Google’s algorithms, which can help your page or site rank higher in search engine results. A comprehensive SEO and Google audit can help make sure that your page or site is optimized for the best possible performance.

Site Structure and Google Crawling

Search engine robots, or “bots”, are automated programs that crawl websites and index the content on pages. By crawling a website, Google is able to build an understanding of the structure of the site and the pages within it.

A website’s structure includes the hierarchy of the pages, the navigation menu, and the internal links that connect the pages. A well-structured website will make it easier for Google to crawl and index the content on each page. This will help the website to rank higher in search engine results pages.

When building a website, it is important to ensure that the structure is logical and easy for Google to crawl. This means that pages should be linked in a way that makes sense for human visitors as well as for search engine robots.

Optimizing a Site for Search Engines

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important part of any website’s success. SEO is the process of making sure that your website is ranked highly in search engine results. SEO can help your website get more visitors, as well as improve its ranking on search engine results pages.

One of the most important aspects of SEO is making sure that your website is properly indexed by search engines. This means that search engine crawlers can easily find, crawl, and index your pages. Search Console is a tool that allows you to monitor and optimize your website’s indexing. It can help you identify any potential issues with your website’s indexing, and it also provides data about how your website is performing in terms of search engine rankings.

Another important part of SEO is making sure that your website contains quality content. Quality content can help your website rank higher in search engine results, so it is important to make sure that your website is regularly updated with relevant, high-quality content. Additionally, you should make sure that your website is properly optimized for both desktop and mobile devices. This will help users find the information they need quickly and easily.

By following these SEO guidelines, you can help ensure that your website is properly optimized for search engines and that it is ranking highly on search engine results pages.

Checklist for Search Optimization Audit and Website Ranking Issues

When it comes to optimizing a website for search engine ranking, there are a variety of factors to consider. To ensure that all necessary steps are taken, it is important to have a checklist that covers the most important elements. This checklist should include the following:

  1. Keyword Research: Identify which keywords and phrases are most relevant to the website and its content.
  2. On-Page SEO: Ensure that the website has properly optimized titles, meta descriptions, headings, content, and URLs.
  3. Technical SEO: Check for issues such as page speed, crawlability, and indexing.
  4. Mobile Optimization: Ensure that the website is optimized for mobile devices.
  5. Backlinks: Check for any broken links or outdated backlinks that may be negatively affecting the website’s ranking.
  6. Social Media: Check for any inconsistencies in the website’s social media profiles.
  7. Analytics: Monitor and analyze the website’s traffic and performance.

By following this checklist, website owners can ensure that they are taking the necessary steps to optimize their website for search engine ranking.

Understanding Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool from Google that allows website owners to better understand how their website is being crawled and indexed by the search engine. It provides valuable information and insights into how Google views a website, such as any errors encountered when crawling a URL, the most popular terms used to find the website, and analytics data on the website’s performance. With this tool, website owners can identify and address any issues that may be preventing their website from being visible in Google’s search engine results.

Crawl Auditing and Site Indexing with Tools

Crawl auditing and site indexing can be important for any website or online store. Crawl auditing is the process of using tools to analyze a website and its content to determine if it can be indexed or not. The goal of crawl auditing is to ensure that all pages are indexed so they can be found by search engines and users. Site indexing is the process of adding pages to an index, which allows search engines to find them. Crawl auditing and site indexing can be done manually or with the help of tools.

Tools for Optimizing Your Site for SEO

Google offers a number of helpful tools to help with optimizing sites for SEO. These tools allow users to track how their site is performing, analyze data to make better decisions, and identify areas of improvement.

Google Search Console: Google’s Search Console allows users to monitor and maintain their site’s presence in Google Search results. It includes reports on how your site is performing, and allows you to submit sitemaps and robots.txt files so Google can better understand and index your content.

Google Crawl: Google Crawl is a tool that helps users to identify and fix website issues that may be preventing Google from properly indexing their content. It shows the most recent time Google indexed a page, and can also highlight technical issues like redirects, duplicate content, and blocked pages.

Tools such as Google Search Console, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Sitebulb, OnCrawl, and Deep Crawl can be used to audit a website and generate reports. SEMrush also had an SEO Audit tool. These tools can check for broken links, duplicate content, and missing metadata, among other issues. They can also detect whether pages are blocked from being indexed by robots.txt, or if the page is not properly indexed by the search engine.

With the help of these tools, website owners can make sure their pages are properly indexed and crawled by search engines. This will help them to rank higher in search results and drive more organic traffic to their website. Additionally, these tools can help website owners to identify potential issues that could affect their website’s performance.

Marketing: Achieving Results with Online Ranking and Links

Online marketing is an essential part of any business’s success, but it can be difficult to determine which strategies will be most effective. Ranking and link building are two important elements of online marketing that, when used correctly, can result in a higher visibility in search engine results, more website traffic and an increase in sales. With the right ranking strategies and link building techniques, businesses can increase their online presence and ultimately improve their bottom line.

Content Audit

A content audit is a process where websites are analyzed for the content that is present on the site and its performance. Through a content audit, webmasters and SEO professionals can gain insight into how Google and other search engines view the content on their site. This helps them to understand how their pages are performing and what areas need to be improved. Content audits can also be used to identify content that is outdated or irrelevant, allowing webmasters to update and replace it with content that is more likely to be found by Google and other search engines.

Issues with Audit, Page, Site, SEO, and Google

When optimizing a website for search engines, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed to ensure that the site is running optimally and that it is visible to Google and other search engines. These issues include audits of the website’s content, pages, and structure to ensure they are optimized for search engine algorithms. Additionally, SEO techniques need to be employed to ensure that the website is properly indexed by search engine spiders, and that it ranks well in organic search engine results. Finally, Google needs to be monitored to ensure that the website is following the company’s best practices, as well as to ensure that the website is not being penalized for any violations of Google’s guidelines.

Duplicate Content and Its Impact on SEO

Duplicate content can have a negative impact on a website’s SEO efforts. Duplicate content occurs when the same content appears on multiple pages on a website, or when there is substantial similarity between pages on different websites. When a search engine crawls the web, it has difficulty distinguishing between the original content and the duplicate content. As a result, the search engine may not index or rank the pages appropriately, leading to a decrease in organic traffic to the website. To prevent this from happening, it is important to ensure that all content on the website is unique and that any duplicate content is avoided.

Impact of Page on Site SEO and Technical Ranking

Having well-structured pages is a key factor in improving the SEO and technical ranking of a website. Google looks for many indicators when determining the ranking of a website, and pages are a crucial element. Pages need to be properly designed and organized in order to maximize SEO performance. This includes optimizing page titles and meta descriptions, using headings and subheadings, and including relevant keywords. Additionally, page loading speed and technical elements such as page redirects and broken links can negatively affect SEO and ranking. By optimizing the structure of each page, a website can improve its ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Understanding Google Search

Google is one of the most popular search engines on the web. It uses a complex algorithm to crawl the web and index its content. Through this process, Google is able to provide users with relevant results for their search queries. A critical aspect of using Google for SEO is understanding how it works and how to optimize for it.

Google Search Audit

Optimizing for Google requires a thorough audit of a website. This includes inspecting the architecture of the site, analyzing content, and researching relevant keywords. Additionally, it is important to ensure that the site is search engine friendly and free of any technical issues that may prevent it from being indexed.

By understanding how Google works and optimizing for it, a website can gain significant visibility and organic search engine traffic. Regularly auditing a website and optimizing for Google can help ensure that the site is being properly indexed and displayed in search results.

Meta: Crawling, Indexing, and Robot Tags

Meta is a broad term that encompasses a variety of topics related to webpages and websites. It includes crawling, indexing, and robot tags, which are used to help search engines navigate and understand websites better.

Crawling is the process by which search engines such as Google and Bing explore websites, indexing the content for future searches. This is done by bots, or “spiders,” which are automated pieces of software that follow links from one page to another, collecting information.

Indexing is the process of taking the information gathered by the search engine’s crawler and organizing it so it can be retrieved quickly in response to a query. This is done by assigning keywords and other metadata to each page, which helps the search engine determine what the page is about.

Robot tags are special instructions that can be added to a webpage to tell search engine crawlers what to do. For example, a tag can be used to tell the crawler to ignore certain parts of the page or to not index the page at all. Robot tags are also used to prevent pages from being indexed multiple times, which can lead to duplicate content.

Speed: Optimizing Your Page for Maximum Performance

The speed of a website is an important factor in how well it ranks in search engine results, how content is consumed, and how quickly users can access the desired URL. It is essential to optimize your page by reducing the loading time of web assets such as images, scripts, and styles. Additionally, consider minifying your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to reduce the size of the pages being served. This will ensure content is delivered quickly and efficiently, providing a better user experience.

hat Is Technical SEO? A Comprehensive Guide to Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines

What is Technical SEO? Learn more about Technical SEO from our comprehensive technical SEO guide.

 

Ongoing Monthly SEO Services and SEO Consulting

While Hartzer Consulting specializes in technical SEO audits of websites, we also provide SEO consulting services, on a retainer basis. We always prefer to begin all new projects with a technical SEO audit to find out the issues that need to be addressed. Contact us today to find out more about our monthly SEO services and how we can help you reach the goals for your website.

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