If you are just starting your digital marketing journey or you are wondering why your current strategy isn't working, then you need to perform an SEO analysis on your website.
This is sometimes referred to as an audit.
This article will teach you step-by-step how to run an SEO analysis by yourself - which will lead you to finding better conversion optimization techniques.
Step 1: Check for Software Glitches
No one is running SEO analytics by hand. There is always some sort of software involved. That means it could have a few glitches or bugs that are showing your results inaccurately. Whether you use Search Console, Google Analytics, or another third-party system, problems can arise every now and then.
There are four main issues that can occur with SEO analytics programs.
1. It is not installed properly on the page.
2. The analytics code has been altered. 3. There is a virus in the code.
4. It is in conflict with another code on your website.
Most of these issues can be resolved in a timely manner by simply contacting customer service.
Step 2: Check the URL in Google Search Console
Sometimes problems can arise with SEO analytics if the URL is removed. This causes the website to be de-indexed - which means that no one will be able to find it in a Google search. To check on your URL, follow these steps on Google Search Console:
Log in and choose your desired site.
Click on "Google Index" on the left side.
Select "Remove URLs" on the menu
This will show you any URLs that have been removed over the previous six months.
If the URLs are there, then another possibility is that someone changed the parameters. You can double-check these by clicking "Crawl" on the left. Then choose "URL Parameter" from the menu.
Step 3: Look for Updates to the Algorithm
Google periodically makes changes to the algorithm - which can skew your SEO results. The algorithm is the program that decides how to tank results for keywords. For example, if you search for "senior cat food" on Google, the algorithm is what chooses which websites appear first on the results page.
Changes to the Google algorithm happen often. This is to promote a healthy and positive user experience. To find out if an algorithm update has occurred recently, you can check out the data at Search Engine Roundtable and Search Engine Journal.
Step 4: Look for Penalties
Did you know that Google can penalize your website? If you break the rules, Google can hit you with a manual action. This can get your entire site removed from the search results. It is, essentially, like being blacklisted.
You can check to see if this happening to your website by following these steps:
Log in to Search Console and select your website.
Click on "Search Traffic" on the left.
Select "Manual Actions".
What you want to see here is "No manual webspam actions found". This means that there are no penalties.
Step 5: Check for Malfunctions on Your Site
Another reason why your SEO tactics aren't working well might be that your website is malfunctioning.
Here are some of the most common reasons why that could be happening:
1. Problems with the robots.txt file. 2. Broken redirects.
3. Duplicate content or rel=canonical tags.
4. 404 Errors
Step 5: Use Google Analytics
The best platform for running an SEO analytics report is Google Analytics. It will run an in-depth report to check for noticeable patterns.
Step 6: Use Search Console
You can also use Search Console to assist in SEO analytics. There, you will receive messages from Googlebot if there is something wrong with your website.
Step 7: Look at Your Heatmaps
A heatmap showcases hotspots on your website. These are places where your visitors are spending more time. Having this information will enable you to take advantage of those areas to transform the leads into conversions. Adding a CTA (Call-To-Action) button can work wonders.
SEO Analytics Tools
Here is a quick list of the most popular tools you can get for SEO analytics.
Free Tools:
Check My Links Found’s SEO Audit Tool
Varvy’s SEO Overview Tool
Hubspot’s Website Grader
Semi-Free Tools:
SEO Report Card
Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider (LITE)
Woorank (free 14-day trial)
Buzzstream (free 14-day trial)
Paid Tools:
Moz Pro Tools
Remove’em
Ahrefs
Linkody
Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider
Getting a Grip on SEO
If you need more help developing better SEO tactics and expanding your brand's online presence, get in touch with Clever Girl Copywriting!
Thk you. Great information