The 30 Minute SEO Audit

Portent, Inc. Your Name Presentation Name Month XX, 20XX The 30 Minute SEO Audit Ken Colborn Technical SEO Strategist

October 30, 2014 Version 1.0

About Portent We are a leading integrated internet marketing agency set in Seattle, serving world-wide clients We are 55+ strong Founded in 1996 (pre-Google) We rally around the definition of “Portent”: the forecast of something big on the horizon Admittedly, we are total nerds

With 19 years in the industry, you can trust our expertise.

Gree$ngs from the #smithtower

Our Approach It’s All Integrated

Infrastructure, analytics, and content are the foundation for your integrated marketing effort. These elements ensure the user experience is as close to perfect as possible. The channels are where their eyeballs and your content come together. We help brands reach their desired audiences through paid methods and also use technical and creative mastery to earn organic visits. We fully believe in nurturing your owned audience with killer content to keep them coming back.

PPC DISPLAY SOCIAL BLOG SEO CREATIVE

OWNED PAID EARNED

CONTENT

ANALYTICS

INFRASTRUCTURE

Channels

Elements

5+ Years of SEO 15+ Working on Websites Loves all things Analytics Rides a Unicycle

Ken Colborn

(illustration by @flashmurphy)

@kejaco

What this is

Portent Webinar The 30 Minute SEO Audit

High level review to help diagnose some

common SEO problems


What this is

This will NOT


Make you an SEO Expert


This will NOT

Show you how to fix everything


This will NOT

Replace an SEO expert


This will NOT

What’s in an SEO Audit?


What’s SEO


Technical


Technical +

Content


Technical +

Content +

Offsite


Technical Review


What is Technical SEO?




Making sure that

NOTHING on your site blocks search engines



Don’t

CONFUSE the search engines

z Crawl the site

z Export it to Excel

Look at the HTTP Status codes

HTTP Status codes


200 Everything’s Good

HTTP Status codes


301 Permanent Redirect

HTTP Status codes


302 Temporary Redirect •  Not Good •  Usually the default redirect •  Change to 301 Redirect

HTTP Status codes


404 Page Not Found •  Usually Not Good •  Redirect to the new version •  Fix any links to these pages

HTTP Status codes


500 Internal Server Error •  Not Good •  Alert Programmers

z Look at the Meta Robots field

Meta Robots Tag


noindex Disallow search engines from showing this page in results •  Don’t use unless there is

a good reason

<meta name=“robots” content=“noindex”>

Meta Robots Tag


nofollow Don’t follow any of the links on the page •  Don’t use unless there is a

good reason

<meta name=“robots” content=“noindex,nofollow”>

Meta Robots Tag


noodp noydir Don’t use description from DMOZ or Yahoo! directory •  Not needed in most

instances

<meta name=“robots” content=“noodp,noydir”>

z Look at the Robots.txt file

Robots.txt File


Disallow Disallow search engines from showing this page in results •  Pop-up Pages •  Cart •  Checkout •  PPC Landing Pages

Disallow: /cgi-bin/

Robots.txt File


Don’t Block: •  CSS •  JavaScript •  Images

Disallow: /css/ Disallow: /js/ Disallow: /img/

Google renders your page


Panda Penalty


Beware

z Look for Canonical Issues (Duplicate Content)

z First, look for duplicate title tags

z Then, check for different URLs

z Same content, different URLs

http://www.rei.com/ http://www.rei.com/index.html http://www.rei.com/default.aspx http://www.rei.com/home

Duplicate Content

z How do you fix this?

Duplicate Content •  Remove the pages


Duplicate Content •  Remove the pages •  Block the pages


Duplicate Content •  Remove the pages •  Block the pages •  Suggest a default page


Duplicate Content •  Remove the pages •  Block the pages •  Suggest a default page

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.rei.com/" />

Heading Hierarchy H1 – There can be only one

H2 – Multiple, Related to H1

H3 – Multiple, Related to H2


Headings Example


<h1>Cars</h1> <h2>American Cars</h2> <h3>Ford</h3> <h3>Chevrolet</h3> <h2>Japanese Cars</h2> <h3>Toyota</h3> <h3>Honda</h3>

Look for Different Subdomains


Site:portent.com

Look for Different Subdomains


Site:portent.com

Content Review


Crawl the Site

Look at: •  Title Tags •  Meta Descriptions •  Headings


Crawl the Site

Are there any: •  Duplicates •  Missing Fields •  Using the same

keywords


Look at the top 3 pages


z Look at the Title Tag

Title Tag: Bike Repairs, Bike Maintenance, Tune-Ups, Overhauls, Bike Shop Services at REI.

z Look at the Meta Description


Meta Description: Get bike tune-ups, repairs and fitting services at REI bike shops. From maintenance to major overhauls, our seasoned bike techs do it all.

z Look at the page content



Is the messaging consistent?



Are the keywords consistent?



UX Review


•  Clear headings •  Easy to read •  Clear user

pathways

Offsite Review


z Compare your authority to competitors

You don’t have to beat everyone online,

just your competitors


z Review your backlink history

z Review your backlink history

Look for: sharp increases in backlinks

Check for Manual Penalties


If you have Google Webmaster Tools:

Review Social Media Accounts




Is the profile completely filled out?



Is the profile completely filled out?

Are they actively posting?

That’s All Prioritize your findings


Prepared by

Ken Colborn Technical SEO Strategist @kejaco bit.ly/precor-local

Thank Portent, Inc. 506 2nd Ave. Suite 1700 Seattle. WA 98104-2354 | Tel: 206.576.3740

YOU.



Prepared by

Ken Colborn Technical SEO Strategist @kejaco bit.ly/precor-local

Q&A

Marketing

The 30 Minute SEO Audit