Archive for January 2015
Site Audit Checklist for 2015
Performing a website audit is important for a number of reasons. By doing so, you can evaluate the healthiness of a web site in various aspects. You can then identify the problematic areas that need to be improved and come up with an action plan to correct them. It is also a way to see if your website is up-to-date with the latest developments and trends in search marketing.
Nowadays, there are various tools that you can use
to audit a particular website. However, the best approach is to do the audit
using a guide. By having a checklist, you can come up with recommendations of
what needs to be done so that the performance of the website in search engines
is improved. Below is a site audit checklist
that covers almost all aspects of a website.
Quick
overview
·
Check indexed pages
·
Review the number of organic landing pages
in Google Analytics
·
Search for the brand and branded terms
·
Check Google's cache for key pages
·
Do a mobile search for your brand and key
landing pages
On-page
optimization
·
Title tags are optimized
·
Important pages have click-through rate
optimized titles and meta descriptions
·
Check for pages missing page titles and meta
descriptions
·
The on-page content includes the primary
keyword phrase multiple times as well as variations and alternate keyword
phrases
·
There is a significant amount of optimized,
unique content on key pages
·
The primary keyword phrase is contained in
the H1 tag
·
Images' file names and alt text are
optimized to include the primary keyword phrase associated with the page.
·
URLs are descriptive and optimized
·
Clean URLs
·
Short URLs
Content
·
Homepage content is optimized
·
Landing pages are optimized
·
Site contains real and substantial content
·
Proper keyword targeting
·
Keyword cannibalization
·
Content to help users convert exists and is
easily accessible to users
·
Content formatting
·
Good headlines on blog posts
·
Amount of content versus ads
Duplicate
content
·
There should be one URL for each piece of
content
·
Do a search to check for duplicate content
·
Sub-domain duplicate content
·
Check for a secure version of the site
·
Check other sites owned by the company
·
Check for "print" pages
Accessibility
& Indexation
·
Check the robots.txt
·
Turn off JavaScript, cookies, and CSS
·
Now change your user agent to Googlebot
·
Check the SEOmoz PRO Campaign
·
XML sitemaps are listed in the robots.txt
file
·
XML sitemaps are submitted to Google/Bing
Webmaster Tools
·
Check pages for meta robots noindex tag
·
Do goal pages have the noindex command
applied?
Site
architecture and internal linking
·
Number of links on a page
·
Vertical linking structures are in place
·
Horizontal linking structures are in place
·
Links are in content
·
Footer links
·
Good internal anchor text
·
Check for broken links
Technical
issues
·
Proper use of 301s
·
"Bad" redirects are avoided
·
Redirects point directly to the final URL
and do not leverage redirect chains
·
Use of JavaScript
·
Use of iFrames
·
Use of Flash
·
Check for errors in Google Webmaster Tools
·
XML Sitemaps
·
Canonical version of the site established
through 301s
·
Canonical version of site is specified in
Google Webmaster Tools
·
Rel canonical link tag is properly
implemented across the site
·
Uses absolute URLs instead of relative URLs
Site speed
·
Review page load time for key pages
·
Make sure compression is enabled
·
Enable caching
·
Optimize your images for the web
·
Minify your CSS/JS/HTML
·
Use a good, fast host
·
Optimize your images for the web
Mobile
·
Review the mobile experience
·
Make sure analytics are set up if separate
mobile content exists
·
If dynamic serving is being used, make sure
the Vary HTTP header is being used
·
Review how the mobile experience matches up
with the intent of mobile visitors
·
Ensure faulty mobile redirects do not exist
·
Ensure that the relationship between the
mobile site and desktop site is established with proper markup
International
·
Review international versions indicated in
the URL
·
Enable country based targeting in webmaster
tools
·
Implement hreflang / rel alternate if
relevant
·
If there are multiple versions of a site in
the same language (such as /us/ and /uk/, both in English), update the copy
been updated so that they are both unique
·
Make sure the currency reflects the country
targeted
·
Ensure the URL structure is in the native
language
Analytics
·
Analytics tracking code is on every page
·
There is only one instance of a GA property
on a page
·
Analytics is properly tracking and capturing
internal searches
·
Demographics tracking is set up
·
Adwords and Adsense are properly linked if
you are using these platforms
·
Internal IP addresses are excluded
·
UTM Campaign Parameters are used for other
marketing efforts
·
Meta refresh and JavaScript redirects are
avoided
·
Event tracking is set up for key user
interactions
A Basic Guide on When to Post Your Social Media Updates
One of the keys to improving your social media
presence is to post your updates strategically. Take note that different social
networks have different kind of users with varying daily activities. Thus, posting
your social media update at the right time will help you attain maximum
engagement from your targeted audience. It is then your duty to find out what
these times are as well as the best days to publish your social media post.
Below is a basic guide to the best times and days to post your social media updates on Facebook,
Google+, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and Tumblr.
Click to enlarge the image
Note: The above infographic is originally from www.socialmarketingwriting.com
Posts
