Regularly checking a website for errors is essential for SEO optimization to avoid any unpleasant surprises in indexing.
Even after completing SEO optimization, website SEO audits must be performed regularly. Errors on a website will inevitably occur over time, regardless of the webmaster, and must be detected and eliminated promptly. Otherwise, a decrease in search engine rankings on both Google and Yandex is simply guaranteed.
Differences between a technical site audit and other types of audit.
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) audit examines the content of a website, headers and descriptions of pages, links, images and their attributes, etc. The usability audit helps to understand how user-friendly and understandable the site is. The clearer, simpler, and more convenient the site, the higher the site’s conversion rate.
The marketing audit is a check of effectiveness from a market perspective.
SEO site analysis for errors
The analysis of website pages is performed based on more than 40 evaluation criteria. The main parameters include:
- Internal link analysis (including weight)
- Image verification, attributes, and sizes
- Finding broken links and images
- Identification of duplicate headers and meta tags
- Technical audit of JavaScript and CSS files
- Verification of HTML code and text metrics
- Analysis of HTML site maps and Robots.txt
Checking the internal optimization of the website, discovering broken links and duplicates, and analyzing competitor websites can all be done using various online checking services to simplify the task. These services are convenient for auditing large and medium-sized websites, but are mostly paid. Smaller websites may be easier to check manually.
SEO audit of titles and descriptions of website pages.
Auditing titles and descriptions is very important for promotion and, accordingly, SEO audit of the site. It is this information that users see in the search results and choose your resource for the transition.
What needs to be analyzed:
- H1 required and H2 desirable
- title
- descriptions
What we check for:
- for doubles
- for fullness (fill in all “empty”)
- for a keyword
It is also necessary to double-check and, if necessary, adjust the number of characters for compliance with the requirements of the PS. We recommend using keywords at the beginning of texts for guaranteed display in the minimum, average and maximum length of Title, Description, H1, H2. The importance of titles and descriptions for SEO is of great importance, so they should be used to the maximum.
Image verification
Pay special attention to images, especially when talking about online stores or a catalog. This is a very good way to grab and hold the user’s attention.
A well-designed site page contains 3-5 images and more if the content requires it. You should make sure:
- no broken images
- too heavy (slowing down loading)
- all Alt and Title attributes are filled.
The Alt attribute of an image is a description of the image that becomes visible if the image fails to display. In place of such a picture, the text of the Alt attribute will be shown.
The Title attribute of an image is a description of the image that becomes visible when you hover over the image with the mouse.
From an SEO point of view, it is important not only to fill in all the attributes, but also to use keywords when filling in this data.
Website technical audit
What is a technical SEO website audit?
Technical website audit is a set of activities aimed at assessing the effectiveness of a website’s performance from a technical perspective. Due to the lack of universal standards, specialists propose their own list of services and parameters for conducting the assessment. Regardless of where the audit is performed, the technical audit encompasses the following key elements:
- Audit of the robots.txt file and sitemap.xml site map,
- Identification of broken links and duplicate content,
- Assessment of resource loading speed,
- Analysis of page size,
- Evaluation of the user-friendliness of page URLs,
- Validation of page encoding,
- Audit of text and code on the page,
- Analysis of JavaScript and CSS, along with verification of other technical parameters.
It’s crucial to regularly conduct website audits, regardless of whether you’re making changes to the site or not. Broken links, duplicates, and other issues can arise without your involvement and at inconvenient times. It’s worth noting that technically flawed websites don’t make it to the top 10 search engine results. Only high-quality resources are found there! Consequently, if you’re striving for a top position, regular audits are essential.
Technical audit of the robots.txt file.
The robots.txt file contains instructions for Google, Yandex, and other search engines. Before beginning the scanning of a website, a search robot analyzes the instructions in this file.
The instructions within this file either allow or disallow search engines from indexing specific pages or folders of the website.
Search engines initiate the technical audit of a website with the robots.txt file.
Checking the sitemap.
A sitemap is an XML file containing the addresses of all the web pages of a website that should be crawled by search engines. Currently, among optimizers, there is no unanimous opinion on the importance of this file. Nevertheless, it’s still better to have it.
Sometimes it happens that a webmaster adds a page to the sitemap so that the page is analyzed by search engines, but the robots.txt file disallows the indexing of that page. The website audit begins with robots.txt, then the sitemap is analyzed, and only after that are individual pages examined.
Search for duplicates and broken links.
Broken links and duplicates on a website are a serious issue in SEO promotion. They need to be addressed immediately, and efforts should be made to prevent their occurrence.
Many webmasters underestimate the impact of duplicates and broken links on the positions of a website in the search results of Google and Yandex. Regular scanning is necessary to avoid having to search for the reasons behind the drop in rankings.
A little bit about broken links and duplicates.
The issue of broken links is perhaps one of the most common. Even authoritative websites encounter them. It’s important to try to identify and fix them in a timely manner, otherwise, reaching the top 10 becomes unlikely.
Duplicates, much like broken links, can significantly impact a site’s positions. By duplicates, we mean pages on the website that have identical or very similar content.
Why are duplicates on the site dangerous?
One of the potential reasons for losing positions in search results is duplicate content on the website. This issue can affect both small websites and large web portals. Two types of duplicates can be distinguished:
- Exact duplicates: These are pages on the site that have different addresses but identical content.
- Partial duplicates: These are pages on the site that have different addresses but partially repeated content.
Duplicates on a website can arise due to the actions of the webmaster or other reasons, such as peculiarities of the content management system (CMS). In any case, combating duplicates is necessary. Exact duplicates are entirely unacceptable, as they can lead to penalties from search engines (Google, Yandex). Partial duplicates can result in penalties as well as internal competition among the site’s pages in search results.
Checking broken links on a website
Broken links on a website, or in other words, non-functional links, are highly detrimental to the site. They are detrimental both from a user perspective and from the viewpoint of search engines like Google and Yandex. When a user clicks on a broken link, they end up on a 404 error page. Such behavior of the website is displeasing to users. Moreover, a significant number of broken links can lead to annoyance and mistrust towards the site.
Search engines also disfavor websites with broken links. The presence of such links indicates neglect of the website. Search engines lower the rankings of such websites in search results. If there are broken links on a site, they need to be fixed. Otherwise, it will inevitably impact the positions in search results on platforms like Google and Yandex.
Regular checking for broken links is essential!
Finding Broken Links with SEO Auditors
Launch the program, enter the website address in the top part, and click the ‘Start Analysis’ button. Next, navigate to the ‘Broken Links’ tab. Searching for broken links is probably one of the most valuable features of the program.
On this tab, at the top, you’ll find a table displaying non-functional links (broken links on the website). This table includes the URL of the broken link, its anchor, title, server response, link type, and the number of pages on which the link was found.
If you select one of the broken links in the upper table, a list of pages where this broken link was found will appear in the lower table. At the very bottom, you’ll see the count of broken internal and external links. A high number of broken external links suggests that the site likely refers to lower quality resources. As for a high number of broken internal links, it might indicate problems with the website’s management system or negligence on the part of the webmaster. The number of broken external links is not within the webmaster’s control, but broken internal links are the responsibility of the webmaster.
Broken links on a site can appear over time.
The website needs to be regularly checked using SEO programs and analyzers. The reason being that every website has the property of “rotting” over time. What does that mean? For example, there was a link on your website page to another website page. Over time, the page on the other website may be removed and as a result, there will be a broken link on your website. Other problems may also arise over time that are beyond your control. Therefore, checking the website for broken links should be performed at least once a month. This will prevent loss of users and positions in search results.
Free site analysis, checking the site for errors is it possible?
Yes, SEO Audit services can help you identify internal optimization errors, check page indexing, analyze robots.txt files and sitemaps, and show how effectively your website is configured for Google, Yandex, and other search engines. While these services are limited in functionality, they are sufficient at the beginning stages of promotion. Once you have made changes, you can check again using the same service or find another analyzer. They may not be able to identify many errors, but they can show the most important ones.
Perform an analysis of a competitor's website pages.
Analyzing competitors, their actions, and strategies is an integral part of internet marketing. It’s important to always keep an eye on them. With SEO, you can analyze competitors’ websites that rank higher on Google or Yandex search results. This way, you’ll be able to see the differences between your website and the “race leaders” in terms of internal optimization. After fixing flaws, be sure to recheck your website for errors. It’s analyzing a competitor’s website and continuously improving your resources that will allow you to break into the lead!
Regular website SEO analysis is necessary to be carried out.
Simply analyzing a website’s pages for errors once is not enough. Errors on a website can appear on their own, for example, a link to another site is no longer valid and points to a nonexistent page, or one of the site’s pages has become unavailable due to an internal error in the site management system.
There can be many cases, and the appearance of errors will be immediately noticed by search engines, resulting in the website’s positions in search results decreasing. Therefore, SEO analysis should be regularly carried out by both SEO specialists and website owners. Regularly checking a site for errors is the key to stable search positions. There are many online services that are ready to perform a website SEO analysis, but their free functionality is limited.
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