The 30 Minute SEO Checkup

| 30 Minute SEO Check up 1

The 30 Minute SEO Checkup


Nate Plaunt

Sr. SEO Strategist@NatePlaunt

bit.ly/1LoDdWN

Today’s PresentersTaylor Pettis

Sr. Marketing Manager@tpettis

linkd.in/1dsZJAa


Today’s Agenda:

• What to expect today

• Why should you check your SEO health?

• Tools run-through

• How-to steps

• Questions


1. How SEO health impacts your business

2. A 30 minute process to inspect common SEO issues

3. How to use tools to identify problems

4. How to build a workflow and checklist to repair problems

What to expect today

WHAT IS SEO?


SEO is Two Things: SEO? (Simplified)

1. The practice of making your website as accessible as possible to search engines.

2. Ensuring your website is as useful and relevant as possible to your current and prospective customers.


Think of Your Website as a House


Ensure your site is accessible to humans and search engines.



Ensure your site is relevant and useful to your visitors.


WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT MY SEO HEALTH?


• Organic traffic accounts for anywhere between 47% and 64% of all website traffic*

• Roughly 52,000 search queries happen on Google - every SECOND!

• This translates into about 4.5 billion searches every day**

Organic Search Stats

* Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2355020/organic-search-accounts-for-up-to-64-of-website-traffic-study ** Source: http://www.internetlivestats.com/one-second/#google-band

http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2355020/organic-search-accounts-for-up-to-64-of-website-traffic-study

http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2355020/organic-search-accounts-for-up-to-64-of-website-traffic-study

http://www.internetlivestats.com/one-second/#google-band

http://www.internetlivestats.com/one-second/#google-band

BEING PRESENT IN THESE SEARCH RESULTS IS THE FIRST STEP IN DRIVING

QUALITY TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE.

IN ORDER TO BE PRESENT IN THESE RESULTS YOU MUST TO HAVE A SOLID

SEO FOUNDATION.

30 MINUTE SEO CHECK UP:THE TOOLS


1. Analytics Platform (Google Analytics)2. Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster

Tools)3. Bing Webmaster Tools4. Google5. Screaming Frog Spider6. Crawl Data Visualization Spreadsheet7. Panguin Tool – by Barracuda Digital8. Word, Excel, Google Docs, pen and paper, or

anything else you want to use to make a checklist

Here’s What You’re Going to Need


1. Google Analytics - https://www.google.com/analytics/ 2. Google Search Console - https://

www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home 3. Bing Webmaster Tools - http://

www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster 4. Google - https://www.google.com/ 5. Screaming Frog Spider - http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/ 6. Crawl Data Visualization Spreadsheet - http://

bit.ly/1npByIE 7. Panguin Tool - http://barracuda.digital/panguin-tool/

Here’s What You’re Going to Need

https://www.google.com/analytics/

https://www.google.com/analytics/

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home


http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

https://www.google.com/

https://www.google.com/

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/

http://bit.ly/1npByIE

http://bit.ly/1npByIE

http://barracuda.digital/panguin-tool/


30 MINUTE SEO CHECK UP:STEPS

STEP #1: CRAWL YOUR SITE WITH SCREAMING

FROG


• Download Screaming Frog Spider• http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

• Enter your domain into the box at the top and hit Start

*Pro Tip: exclude the “www” to capture info on all subdomains

Step 1: Crawl Your Site

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/


• Download the Crawl Data Visualization Worksheet• http://

www.threedeepmarketing.com/blog/visualizing-website-data-with-screaming-frog

• Save your crawl once it’s complete• Export the Crawl Overview Report as a .csv file

• Copy and Paste into the “Data” tab of the Crawl Data Visualization Worksheet


http://www.threedeepmarketing.com/blog/visualizing-website-data-with-screaming-frog






SEO Challenges - On-Page Elements

Title Tag: Should be descriptive and unique to each pageURL: Accurate and descriptive, should clearly show page taxonomy

H1 heading: Calls out main topic of the on-page content – only one per pageH2 headings: Further describe sub-sections of the page – each page can have manyAlternative image text: Accurately describes image and is in line with page themePage Copy: Unique, descriptive, robust, keyword rich

Meta Description: The elevator pitch for your page displayed in search results


Take note of:• Any redirection (3xx), broken links (4xx), and

server error (5xx) status codes• URL Issues• Page Title Issues• Meta Description Issues• Missing Heading Tags (H1, H2)

Mark any issues down on your checklist

Step 1: Crawl Your Site – Output

STEP #2: GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE


If you haven’t already, go verify your site in Google Search Console – https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home • Once verified, click on your site to access the

Dashboard

Step 2: Google Search Console




First stop here is to check out your crawl errors report.• Click on the section banner to access the report• This will bring you to a different screen



Here you will see the graph on each type of error encountered over time. • Clicking on the individual error URLs will show you

exactly where that URL is linked from (internal or external too!)



Next, from the left-hand navigation, head to the HTML improvements area• Here you’ll find a listing of

issues with various on-page elements such as:

• Meta descriptions• Title tags• Non-indexable content

• Take note of any issues reported here and mark them in your checklist.



Finally, make sure you do not have any manual actions from Google.• These can be

extremely time consuming and costly to clear up.

• If you see something here, consult an experienced partner.


• Pro Tip: for a detailed walk-through on how to recover from a link based manual penalty, see my instructions here:

http://www.threedeepmarketing.com/blog/complete-guide-google-manual-penalty-removal/





STEP #3: BING WEBMASTER TOOLS


If you haven’t already, go verify your site in Google Search Console – https://www.bing.com/webmaster • Once verified, click on your site to access the

Dashboard

Step 3: Bing Webmaster Tools

https://www.bing.com/webmaster

https://www.bing.com/webmaster


From the left-hand dropdown menu, select “SEO Reports”• Although there is a lot of great information here,

we’re only going to check out this section.



Here you’ll find a list of “SEO Suggestions” • Clickable links to lists of URLs on which the issue

occurs.• Prioritize the most severe issues and mark them

down in your workflow checklist.


STEP #4: CHECK YOUR ANALYTICS


Log into your analytics tool and access your website profile• For this example we are going to look at Google

Analytics as it is one of the most popular and powerful website analytics tools on the market…and it’s “free”

Step 4: Check Your Analytics


Choose a period of time you want to analyze and compare it to the previous year. • Drill down into the

Channels report• Here you’ll see a

listing of traffic by channel

• Next step is to click on “Organic Search”



Now change the Primary Dimension to “Landing Page”• Here you can see the year over year difference in

entrances per page from organic search• Mark down any pages with drastic drops in your

checklist


STEP #5: THE PANGUIN TOOL


The Panguin Tool is a tool developed by a company called Barracuda Digital• It pulls in your organic data and overlays when

major updates to the Google algorithm have occurred

• This is SUPER helpful when trying to diagnose whether or not your site took a hit

While you are logged into Google Analytics, head over to http://barracuda.digital/panguin-tool/ and follow the instructions to connect your sites analytics to the tool

Step 5: The Panguin Tool




Once connected you will see something like this:


Color-coded lines represent updates to the Google algorithm

Toggle switches allow you to turn off update types


Mark down major traffic correlations.Read up on the provided information about the update.List out possible solutions in your checklist.


STEP #6: GOOGLE YOURSELF (BUT NOT LIKE

THAT)


Pull up google.com in your browser and use the “site:” advanced search operator to check your indexation• Example: “site:domain.com”• How many pages are indexed?• How does this compare to your actual page

count?• If it differs greatly, mark it down in your checklist.

Step 6: Google Yourself (Like This)

NEXT STEPS:


• High priority issues include:• Internal redirection – 301 and 302 status codes• Broken links – 404 status codes• Page Title issues• Uncrawlable website• Manual actions

• Medium priority issues include:• H1 and H2 issues• Pages with traffic loss YoY

• Low priority issues include:• Meta Description issues• Alt image text

Prioritize your checklist


1. Launch a crawl on your site with Screaming Frog2. Download the Crawl Data Visualization

spreadsheet3. While crawl is running, log into Google Search

Console 4. After that, log into Bing Webmaster Tools5. Check your crawl, if it’s done export the crawl

overview and load data into the Crawl Data Visualization spreadsheet

6. Log into Google Analytics7. While logged into GA, head over to the Panguin

Tool8. Check your indexation in Google9. Mark down issues as you go

Workflow and Timeline Review – Total Time: 30 Minutes

30 MINUTE SEO CHECK UP:

QUESTIONS?