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2024/07/29 2024/07/29

Comprehensive SEO content strategy to elevate your rankings

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Ciao, my friend! Let me tell you, a robust SEO content creation process is like the secret sauce in Mamma’s spaghetti. It’s essential for increasing brand visibility, engaging visitors at every stage of their journey, and driving those qualified leads into your sales funnel. But listen, it’s not just about creating great content but mixing those SEO best practices to dominate Google’s SERP rankings. So, grab your espresso, sit back, and let’s craft an SEO content strategy that aligns perfectly with your business objectives and capisce.

 

By: Ryan Walsh

Date: 29/07/2024

 

Content Advice, Keyword Research, Marketing Strategies

 

Introduction to SEO Content Strategy

 

Ah, my dear friend, understanding SEO content goes far beyond producing high-quality content. While quality is crucial, you must invest time in incorporating SEO best practices to improve Google’s SERP rankings. This guide provides an SEO content checklist to help you demonstrate your content’s quality, relevance, and authority, ensuring it reaches your target audience effectively. Andiamo, let’s dive into this beautiful world of SEO and make your content shine!

 

Identifying valuable topics in your niche

Effective topic ideation and validation

 

Selecting suitable topics is the cornerstone of effective SEO content, my friend. It’s essential to understand your audience and what they seek.

Your content should address their needs within your core expertise area. Imagine you’re a chef and need to know what your diners crave to create a menu that keeps them coming back for more.

 

Topic Brainstorming Checklist:

 

To start, identify your audience’s pain points and create content that provides solutions.

Use keyword research tools to explore relevant topics. Consult your customer service teams to understand common inquiries. Analyse web analytics to identify high-performing content.  Stay updated with industry trends. Monitor social media to understand your audience’s concerns. Share case studies and original research to add credibility.

 

Did you know, my friend, that according to HubSpot, businesses that blog generate 67% more monthly leads than those that don’t?

 

Conducting comprehensive keyword research

Building your content around keywords

 

Does SEO content revolve around keywords and capisce? Google uses these keywords to match web pages to user queries. Conducting thorough keyword research is crucial for this process. Think of keywords as the spices in your recipe – without them, your dish would be bland and forgettable.

 

Keyword Research checklist:

 

Generate general topics related to your business (these are your seed keywords).

Use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to find related search terms for each theme. Evaluate keywords for traffic potential and competition. Aim for a mix of short-tail and long-tail keywords with varying volumes of search interest and keyword difficulties. Organise keywords into topic clusters and plan content to meet the search intent behind the keywords.

 

Here’s a spicy fact: 50% of search queries are four words or longer. Long-tail keywords are the linguine to your SEO Alfredo! Those long, specific phrases can help you capture niche markets and highly interested audiences.

In-Depth content research

 

With over 30 billion indexed web pages, matching search intent while creating engaging content is vital.

Research is not just about providing accurate information; it’s about understanding people-first content. Think of it like preparing a dish – you must know the ingredients and the best way to combine them to satisfy your guests.

 

 

Crafting new and engaging content

Strategic Content Creation

 

Understanding why someone might search for your keywords helps determine where they are in the buyer’s journey.

Use this insight to choose the correct content format—articles, FAQs, how-tos, or reviews—and create engaging SEO content. It’s like choosing the suitable dish for the right occasion; you need to know what will delight your guests.

 

Content Creation Checklist:

 

Define your topic and its purpose

Develop an organised outline with SEO-optimised headers and supporting points for each section. Write compelling, focused content using your expertise and authoritative sources. Follow the outline to keep your article focused. Use an appropriate tone for the piece and make the article easy to consume and compelling to read.

SEO content tools can help with readability and flow.

 

Businesses prioritising blogging are 13 times more likely to achieve a positive ROI.

That’s like getting a free dessert with your meal! It’s all about providing value, keeping your audience engaged, and coming back for more.

Prioritising Reader Value

 

Google’s helpful content system prioritises original, valuable content.

Aim to provide information that readers can apply directly to their situations. It’s like giving them a secret family recipe – helpful, something they can use and appreciate.

 

Helpful Content SEO Checklist:

 

Offer comprehensive answers and detailed solutions.

Provide downloadable guides and templates. Share real-life examples, original research, and unique viewpoints. Identify and fill topic gaps in top-ranking pages. Enhance your content with videos, charts, and graphs.

 

Did you know?

Visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media. It’s like the tiramisu of your content strategy—everyone wants a piece! Ensure your content is informative, visually appealing, and shareable.

Adhering to EEAT Principles

 

Google’s human raters assess content based on experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT). It’s like a judge in a cooking competition – they’re looking for the best of the best.

 

EEAT Checklist:

 

Highlight personal knowledge and industry achievements to demonstrate experience. Showcase certifications, accreditations, and relevant credentials to meet the expertise guidelines. Establish your business as a respected source to demonstrate authoritativeness. Ensure your website is secure and professional to build trustworthiness.

 

Remember, 85% of consumers conduct online research before making a purchase.

 

Natural Keyword Integration and Optimisation

 

Search engines now understand the context better, making keyword stuffing unnecessary. Instead, focus on natural keyword integration to enhance readability and SEO performance. It’s like adding just the right amount of seasoning – not too much, not too little.

Here’s a fact:

Websites with robust keyword strategies see a 5.66 times higher conversion rate. That’s like hitting the SEO jackpot! Proper keyword placement can significantly improve your search engine rankings and user experience.

 

Editing, Proofreading, and Internal Linking

 

Before publishing, make sure your content is polished and error-free, like a fine Italian wine. Use internal links to help Google understand your site structure and improve user experience. It’s like organising your ingredients and kitchen tools – everything needs to be in place.

 

Editing Checklist:

 

Check for spelling and grammar mistakes.

Review content for clarity and flow. Ensure formatting and stylistic consistency. Align content with brand voice and tone. Verify facts and statistics.

Optimise for on-page SEO elements like keywords, meta titles, descriptions, and structured data.

 

Internal Link Checklist:

 

Link new content to older articles.

Use primary keywords as anchor text for business-critical pages. Recommend related content to keep users engaged. This helps improve your site’s navigation and keeps visitors exploring your content.

 

Did you know?

Internal linking can boost your page views by 40%. It’s like offering more delicious courses at dinner – people can’t resist! Proper internal linking helps with SEO and enhances the user experience by guiding them through your content.

 

Calls to Action

 

External links to authoritative sources enhance credibility, while clear CTAs can boost engagement and conversions, like the perfect ending to a beautiful meal. It’s all about creating trust and guiding your visitors towards taking action.

 

External Links Checklist:

 

Choose reputable and original research sources. Use descriptive anchor text. Ensure you’re linking to recent studies and articles—open links in new windows. Use external links only when they add value to your content or back up your claims.

 

CTA Checklist:

 

Structuring content effectively

 

A well-structured page aids both readers and search engines.

Use headers, short paragraphs, and lists to make content easily digestible. It’s all about creating a seamless and enjoyable experience for your audience.

 

Content Structuring Checklist:

 

Use H2s, H3s, and H4s to organise content. Keep paragraphs concise for easy skimming. Use bulleted and numbered lists to summarise vital points. Highlight important information with visual elements like bold and italic fonts, pull quotes, and summary boxes.

 

 

Post-Launch Promotion and Maintenance

 

After publishing, promote your content to attract traffic and ensure it stays up to date, like a well-tended vineyard. It’s not enough to create great content; you need to get it in front of the right audience.

 

Post-Launch Checklist:

 

Submit pages through Google Search Console to request indexing.

Distribute content through social media and email marketing. Add internal links to your new content from your older content. Monitor performance using analytics tools like GA4.

 

Content Freshness Checklist:

 

Regularly review and audit your content inventory. Update out-of-date information. Cite newer research and studies if available. Check for broken links.

 

Here’s a spicy statistic: Fresh content can boost organic traffic by 111%. Keep it fresh like basil in your garden! Regular updates ensure that your content remains relevant and valuable to your audience.

 

Partner With an SEO Content Expert

 

Creating top-performing content requires attention to detail, from topic selection to demonstrating quality to Google. Our team can help customise your content strategy, ensuring all SEO checkboxes are ticked. Contact us today for a free consultation to learn how to create content that resonates with your audience, optimises your pages, and achieves your business goals.

 

By following this comprehensive guide, you can create an SEO content strategy that improves your search rankings and effectively engages your audience, driving meaningful results for your business. Buona fortuna, my friend!

2024/07/18 2024/07/18

Understanding and addressing crawlability issues with your website is crucial for unleashing the full potential of your SEO strategy.

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If not resolved, indexation issues can significantly hinder Google’s (Googlebot’s) ability to crawl your pages, negatively impacting your business’s organic SEO, potentially across a few pages or even the entire website!

 

Technical SEO

Some businesses only focus on writing content marketing and building backlinks until they are blue in the face.
Now, don’t get us wrong—these are still some of the most important ranking factors out there today; however, sometimes businesses overlook the importance of their website’s crawlability.

This article will explain why Google must be able to crawl your website and address any indexation problems you may encounter.

First things first, what are crawlability problems?

Your main pages or your blog posts, which you have been writing diligently for the last day or two that appear in Google’s results, must be able to get indexed.

It’s a bit like a large store that, let’s say, that is selling furniture. For that business to sell the item to you, it must first be scanned into the warehouse and tell the infantry control software to show that item is in stock.

This is similar to how Google’s algorithm works, once the page is indexed, Googlebot displays the page within the SERP’s.

For that, the Googlebot needs to crawl the page, and there are many ways to send a page for indexation: either manually submitting it via Google Search Console or by leaving Googlebot to find it.

However, if there are indexation issues, Googlebot will not be able to crawl and index the page blog post.

Googlebot can usually crawl and index pages on its own accord

Often, you don’t need to do anything to get a page indexed; you just need to simply add a site map and submit this to Google.

Often, it’s a Googlebot that can crawl and index the page without you having to do anything.

However, indexation problems can occur because of a no-index tab being left on or the page possibly sometimes being too slow for the Googlebot to index it. For instance, if the ‘no index’ tag is mistakenly applied to a page, it will not be indexed. Similarly, if a page takes too long to load, Googlebot may not index it.

 

No index tabs being left on incorrectly

Sometimes, no index tab can be left on, so “no-index” code might be written in the website’s header section, preventing the Googlebot from crawling that page. If this occurs, that page will never appear in Google’s results.

 

Incomplete indexing

incomplete indexing is when some pages are indexed, and others are not. This can occur for a range of different reasons. However, the web developers and your SEO team must use various tools, such as Screaming Frog to find which pages are getting indexed and which are not. Then, it’s a matter of correcting the problems; it could be that they are “orphan pages”, that is, pages with no links leading to it. There can be a considerable amount of 404 errors, and there could not possibly be no-index code written into the website’s header section within the robot.txt document.

 

Unreliable hosting

It can sometimes be the case that you employ an absolutely fantastic SEO team that got that business on the first page of Google.co.uk, possibly even in the number one position. However, if the hosting is unreliable, and the website is down for a long time regularly, perhaps due to server maintenance, probably because the hosting company is unreliable, or because the server is so slow, then Google might decide to drop that page out of its index.

 

No index code is written in the robots.txt document

The robots.txt provides instructions for the Googlebot on whether to crawl and index that page. However, if you get these instructions wrong, for example you tell Google to “no-index” a critical page, such as the homepage, then can’t get indexed, massively hampering your business’s organic SEO performance.

Do use of the Google Search Console it is brilliant. It is free and can show you some of your websites indexation issues.

 

Google Search Console and indexing errors

Your SEO consultant or in-house marketing team should routinely check for any indexing errors within your Google Search Console account.

For example, it could be the case that all the pages were getting indexed up until one week ago.

Yet the website might have gone through a redesign process recently. and your web designers have written in the code which now means some pages can’t get indexed, so this needs to be fixed if you want those pages to be indexed later.

 

Many SEO agencies use Screaming Frog

A lot of SEO agencies across the globe use Screaming Frog to find things like 404-page errors, for example.
An increase number of 404-pages and 404-page errors can massively impact your business’s SEO.

For example, your SEO consultant might have spent hundreds of hours building high-quality do follow links to send link equity link juice to that specific page. Then, if you decide to delete that page all of that link, equity can be lost overnight.

There’s also the matter of creating a poor user experience.

Shoppers will likely bounce off the website immediately if a custom 404 page greets them. Therefore, you should work closely with your web design and SEO teams to correct 404-page errors.

5xx Errors

A 5xx error signals that the server couldn’t carry out a request. Googlebot must be able to crawl and index the page, so the 5xx error could prevent . Googlebot from doing its work. If this happens that page might be removed and ranked lower in Google’s index.

 

504 Gateway Timeout:

504 Gateway Timeout: if your website is timing out, then this again can cause indexation issues, as again, the bot can’t access that page to crawl and index it.

Broken internal links

Internal links are a bit like a spider’s cobweb; you can follow them, and everything is interlinked.
However, if the links become broken, that’s to say a page that links directly to a different blog post which you have just written, if that link becomes a broken internal link. This will prevent Googlebot from following the link and then crawling that page, so broken internal links can waste your business’s crawl budget.

2024/07/10 2024/07/10

What does Google E-EAT mean, and how has it changed search engine optimisation (SEO)?

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If your business wants to get onto the first page of Google.co.uk, you must understand the principles of Google E-EAT.

This is paramount because it’s what Google’s algorithms use to assess how well-written the content marketing is on your website.

So, before putting your hands on the keyboard and writing your first blog post, you must understand the acronym Google E-EAT and its meaning. This will help you to write better quality content marketing, which can help your business to rank higher in Google’s search engine results pages.

 

Written by: Ryan Walsh
Date: 10/07/2024
Topic: On-page SEO

 

Introduction

In a nutshell, Google E-EAT stands for “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness”.

Google introduced this into the “Search Quality Rater guidelines” back in 2014. So it’s nothing new, but something all copywriters, businesses, and SEO agencies need to know about. Then, in 2022, Google added Experience to the acronym. We will discuss how this changed how companies should implement organic search engine optimisation.

We must consider the Google E-EAT signals as a significant factor Google uses to determine where a page should rank in the search results. This is not a minor ranking factor, like alt text, which is entirely different. E-EAT is used to evaluate the whole page’s quality to assess where it should rank in the search results.

 

Achieving and maintaining high search rankings

Getting to the top of Google is not straightforward; it’s like climbing Mount Everest. It’s a lot of work, yet we must persevere with grit and determination. It would be best if you had a good understanding of how Google’s algorithm works; therefore, as E-EAT is an integral part of that, you need to understand what the E-EAT acronym means, what the Google Helpful Content Update is, and why Google is now looking at every single page on a granular basis to assess is a good quality or not.

If your pages are generally of good quality, you can see an organic uplift in your business rankings, but if the quality is not good, this can mean your business is moved back down to the organic results.

 

What Does E-EAT Mean?

Can you tell us precisely what Google E-EAT means? What are the means, and how should they be introduced into SEO marketing strategy?

 

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

Google wants to serve the best possible answer to a question

It doesn’t matter if it’s finding a local dog walking company or you’re looking for a divorce solicitor- Google (Alphabet) wants to present the best, most comprehensive answer to any query.
Google will want to use proven businesses where the pages have a meagre bounce rate, high dwell time, and a lot of (do-follow and no-follow) backlinks leading to them.

You also need to assess whether the text on the page is written by somebody who understands what they’re talking about or if it’s just a marketing waffle. This is where Google E-EAT comes in a framework Google uses to scan over the page and determine whether it is good quality information. For example, Google E-EAT will ask questions such as, who’s the author? Have they got a good understanding of what they are talking about? How many good-quality links lead to that page?

 

Google’s Knowledge Vault and Entity-Building

Essential things are interconnected; for example, celebrities will be interconnected with films they’ve made, who they have married, where they live, and significant life effects, such as if they won the BAFTA awards.
The significant things are known as “entities.” They are people, events, and products, and they will be interconnected to other things. Google understands these entities well, which is why Google’s Knowledge Vault and GoogleBot constantly crawl and index new information.

Therefore, the point we’re trying to make here is that if a page offers excellent information, contains mentions about entities, and shows that the person knows what they’re talking about because they’ve gone in-depth, really pushed the boat out and made an effort to offer a good quality answer to a question, and followed the advice in Google’s E-EAT, then Google rewards these pages with higher rankings; therefore, Google’s E-EAT is simply a framework evaluating whether that page is good quality or not.

 

Google’s Rank Brain

Google uses Google E-EAT to evaluate whether the content marketing on the page is good quality. It is written by somebody who doesn’t know how to engage the reader, or if it’s a boring read. It’s a bit like reading a book written by a professor at a University, it might be written to offer an in-depth answer, but it’s not that interesting to read; a lot of technical language is used, which alienates the reader, and they don’t know what the page is talking about, and the reader loses interest in reading any more, because the work is tedious, or overly technical, well this page will have a low dwell time a high bounce rate.

 

Google RankBrain and Google E-EAT.

This is why this SEO agency firmly believes that Google E-EAT is using the framework to evaluate whether the information is of good quality and how interested the reader is in reading the work through Google RankBrain.
For example, Google RankBrain will want to know what the bounce rate is for that page and how high dwell time is. These are all critical factors that Google’s algorithm uses to determine whether a page is of good quality or not.

 

Here’s what you need to know about Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and
Trustworthiness:

 

Experience

 

Does the person show in-depth experience of that particular product or service?

For example, a builder describes their services, explaining how they add property extensions to a house have they explain the construction process in an in-depth way.

When the copywriters work with a builder; they will be able to clearly show in-depth knowledge of the process, explaining step-by-step how the extension is built from the ground works through to writing about the roofing tiles being added.

Google’s algorithm can examine the page, use semantic SEO, examine the keywords on the page, and clearly ascertain whether or not the person knows what they are talking about. For example, if the author when they are writing about the construction process, of a new property extention if they mention breeze blocks, certain tiles, electrics first fixing, and plasterboard. All of these things are interconnected with making a property extension and the construction process, so it shows to Google’s algorithm that the person know to some level, what they are talking about.

You also need to write in such a way that engages the reader. Say if the reader spends over three minutes on average reading each page, so it’s clear to Googles algorithms the dwell time is high, Google’s Rank brain shows that you have engaged the reader. As of this page, it moves up the SERPs.

 

Expertise

Does the text show that the person clearly knows what they are talking about, and it is effortless for them to explain something to a customer. For example when you sit in front of a highly qualified barrister or solicitor; they should be able to convey complicated areas of law simply.

On the other hand, if the website is content-thin, has a small amount of text, then you cant expect to rank well in the SERPs. So you need to work with expert in their related field, who really know your stuff, and use their knowledge, expertise, advice and make sure that this is placed into the article.

 

Google’s Helpful Content Update

Google’s Helpful Content Update clearly shows that Google prioritises content marketing that will be helpful to the customer, that’s gone to the extra mile, to offer useful information that the customer will want.

Therefore, gone are the days of trying to push a product down a customer neck; instead, you have to walk in the customers’ shoes and help make their buying decision- by offering helpful and useful information . Content marketing must be helpful, insightful, and written by an expert.

If it’s not helpful, and you keep mentioning keywords all the time in a feeble attempt to try and get the business onto the first page of Google though black hat methods of SEO; well this attempt will not work- it will most likely result in the business incurring a big fat, Google penalty.

 

Authoritativeness

If your website offers high-quality information, such as excellent and well-written blog posts, you could attract many do-follow and no-follow backlinks to your company’s website.

Your website’s authority can improve as you accumulate more good-quality links.
As any good SEO consultant will tell you, links, also referred to as backlinks, are still one of the most important ranking factors.

This means Google deems links necessary when determining where to rank your business in the SERPs.
So, if you want your business to appear on page one of Google, you often need quality links.

 

Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness is an arbitrary factor but an important aspect of Google’s E-EAT.
Therefore, Google will be trying to decipher whether a company’s website can be trusted.
For example, are you happy to include credit card details on the website?

 

  • Does a show company address?
  • Is the website secure in terms of having a padlock within the browser?
  • Is it clear if there is contact information, such as a company phone number?
  • How many positive reviews are there on the likes of Trust Pilot, for example?
  • Is there a Google Business profile, and if so, how many positive reviews does it have?

 

Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines

The Google E-EAT framework initially came from this: “the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines”.

The Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, published by Google, is a comprehensive document that provides detailed insight into how Google evaluates a page’s quality. It covers various aspects, such as content relevance, user experience, and trustworthiness, which are crucial for SEO. So, before you go burning the midnight oil writing a very long article, we highly recommend reading this document, “The Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines”.

 

SEO strategists

If your business is based in Cardiff, what’s to improve your organic search engine optimisation, then do call us today:
We can help improve the following aspects of your company’s SEO:

– Backlinks
– Content marketing
– Technical SEO
Call us today, and we can offer you a free, no-obligation quotation.

 

2024/05/24 2024/05/24

Effective paid search strategies for E-commerce Websites in 2024

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Maximising paid search advertising for E-commerce Success

E-commerce websites are thriving like never before, with payment processors such as Visa handling over 29 million online transactions daily.

The landscape of consumer behaviour has shifted significantly, and the internet offers a faster, more convenient way to shop.

However, with thousands of e-commerce sites vying for consumer attention, how can you ensure your site stands out?

The answer lies in a robust e-commerce digital marketing strategy.

By leveraging various paid search advertising options, you can effectively promote your products.

This guide will explore several powerful strategies to kickstart your e-commerce digital marketing efforts:

 

Leveraging Social Media for E-commerce Digital Marketing

In today’s digital age, social media is a powerful tool for e-commerce marketing.

With billions of users globally, social media platforms offer unparalleled opportunities for reaching potential customers.

On average, users spend about two hours daily on social media, making it a fertile ground for advertising.

Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer highly effective paid advertising options.

Facebook ads, for instance, allow e-commerce businesses to create custom call-to-action buttons and target specific demographics, driving traffic to their stores.

However, to maximise the benefits of social media marketing, your efforts need to be organic.

This means regularly posting high-quality content that resonates with your audience.

For example, if your product is locally made, consider creating engaging videos showcasing the production process.

This not only draws attention but also builds a connection with your audience. While the cost of ads on platforms like Instagram and Facebook can offer great value, success hinges on understanding your audience and crafting content marketing that appeals to them.

 

Google Ads: elevating your ecommerce presence

 Google Ads also offers an excellent solution.

Google Ads ensures that your ecommerce website appears at the top of search results relevant to your business, driving essential traffic to your site.

Integrating Google Ads with Shopify can enhance your site’s SEO-friendliness and overall functionality.

Shopify simplifies the process of building your site from scratch and ensures it is mobile-ready, a crucial factor given the increasing volume of mobile transactions.

By utilising Google Ads, you can significantly improve your e-commerce site’s visibility, and attract a targeted audience actively searching for products like yours.

 

Harnessing the power of digital display advertising

Digital display advertising is another effective strategy for e-commerce businesses.

This approach involves placing ads on various websites, either by renting ad space directly or through services that distribute your ads across targeted sites for a monthly fee.

To maximise the impact of digital display advertising, focus on targeting websites with content related to your offerings.

Additionally, these ads can be customised based on user profiles, ensuring your ads are shown to individuals who have expressed interest in similar products or services.

By going the extra mile to target your ads effectively, you can drive significant traffic and boost your sales.

 

Exploring additional advertising options for E-commerce

Beyond social media and Google Ads, there are numerous other advertising options available for e-commerce websites.

Each strategy has its unique advantages, and the right choice depends on your specific business needs. Companies like Ryan C Walsh, offer personalised marketing strategies tailored to your business, helping you navigate the complex world of digital advertising.

 

Key Facts and statistics in E-commerce Digital Marketing

To underscore the effectiveness of these strategies, consider some relevant statistics:

 

Social Media Influence:

According to Statista, social media ad spending is projected to reach $229.5 billion by 2024, reflecting its growing influence in digital marketing .

Mobile Ecommerce Growth:

EMarketer reports that mobile ecommerce sales are expected to account for 72.9% of total ecommerce sales by 2021 .

Google Ads Efficiency:

A study by Google revealed that businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 spent on Google Ads .

 

Conclusion: Achieving Ecommerce success with Paid Search Advertising

Implementing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy is essential for the success of your e-commerce business.

By leveraging social media advertising, Google Ads, and digital display advertising, you can significantly enhance your online presence and drive sales.

Understanding your audience and crafting targeted, engaging content will help you maximise the return on your advertising investment.

With the right approach, you can make your ecommerce site stand out in the crowded digital marketplace.

By incorporating these advanced strategies and understanding the dynamics of digital marketing, your ecommerce business can achieve remarkable growth and success.

2024/03/15 2024/03/15

A beginner’s guide as to how to carry out an SEO audit

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Written by: Ryan Christopher Walsh
Date: 15th/03/2024

 

Just as you wouldn’t embark upon a major construction project without first creating some architect plans, neither should you start to improve your business search engine optimisation without first carrying out an SEO audit.

Thankfully there are many SEO tools, such as Moz Pro, Ahrefs and Google Search Console that make this work a piece of cake. The hard part is then finding a highly experienced SEO consultant to interpret the information and come up with a plan of action as to how they plan on improving your company website.

 

For example, depending on what the SEO audit report says, they may recommend:

– Removing duplicated content marketing
– If there are toxic backlinks the marketing consultant may recommend disavowing them
– If the content marketing is “content thin” then improvements will need to be made to this work
– If there are indexation issues, these will also need to be rectified, such as “no-index” code left on pages for example
– And there are thousands of other areas which could also be improved as well

You’ve come to the right place to find out how carrying out an SEO audit could help your business, as we have been helping businesses now for more than ten years to improve their search engine optimisation in Wales.
So, before we do start any SEO work, one of the first places we start to carry out an SEO audit.

 

Off-Page SEO, On-Page SEO, Technical SEO

Just as a car’s engine can go into “limp home mode”, drastically reducing the car’s performance, something similar could happen to your company’s website if it were to incur let’s say a manual action penalty, imposed by Google.

It’s also perfectly possible that a technical issue, stopping the pages from being crawled and indexed, such as robots.txt full of “no-index” code, could be holding your business’s search engine optimisation back. Therefore, these technical issues, as well as other on-site issues and web design issues, need to be fixed to get some businesses onto page one of Google.co.uk.

Indexation issues start with these, because if these are not fixed then the business won’t appear on Google
In a nutshell, if the pages can’t be indexed by Googlebot, that is, if they can’t be crawled and indexed by Googlebot on a regular basis, this means that those pages will blog post and have no chance of ever appearing in Google’s results. So, one of the first things an SEO consultant must do is see if there are any indexation issues. You can often use the Google Search Console to do this, as this tool should tell you if there are any indexation issues.

 

Toxic backlinks

The business might have a website, but it’s not even ranking on the first ten pages of Google and sometimes this is because of “toxic backlinks”. The business owners might think, well we’ve sacked our previous SEO company, we’ve got rid of them, and that’s the end. However, if the previous company has completed low-quality work, for example, if they’ve built low-quality toxic backlinks, this can have a lasting effect on the website.

The business can, therefore, incur a Google Penguin penalty- a business incurs this if it has a lot of low-quality spam links. The effect of such a penalty can be long-lasting, a business can rank much lower in Google’s organic SERPs after this penalty, and it can sometimes take some businesses years to recover from such a penalty.

So often, the SEO consultant needs to see if there are any significant problems, such as duplicated content causing an algorithmic penalty or perhaps, as we mentioned earlier if there are any toxic backlinks.

Toxic backlinks can be disavowed, however, this work should be carried out by an SEO expert.

 

Why do we need an SEO audit?

The long and short of the matter is, sure there are millions of companies which offer free SEO audit reports.
But as the old saying goes, nothing comes for free in life.

So, often instead of just an SEO report that’s offered for free, you need a comprehensive report, which is then interpreted by a highly experienced SEO consultant who sits down and digests the report to see which areas need to be improved.

So, is it worth paying for an SEO audit report?

Well, we would say most definitely, however, an SEO report is only useful if the person interpreting the data is highly experienced, highly knowledgeable and understands what areas need to then be improved.

Therefore after reading say the Moz Pro report, the SEO consultant should then be able to come back with a series of recommendations on how they would like to improve your business’s organic search engine optimisation.

 

How frequently should you carry out a website audit?

Well, you should most definitely be carried out when the company changes SEO company that’s for sure. However, the frequency of how often you should carry out an audit does depend on the size of the website, for example, a multi-million-pound business, that owns an e-commerce website is obviously going to be carrying out SEO reports more regularly than a sole trader, with a 7-page website.

Yet regardless of the size of the business, the SEO consultant should always be looking at whether there are any toxic links, or duplicated content marketing, and even if there a lot of content marketing generated by AI, then this could damage the businesses organic SEO.

 

How long does it take to undertake an SEO audit?

Well, there are various SEO tools that are extremely good, we recommend MOZ Pro, it’s brilliant tool that can be used on any company website.

Moz Pro can then generate a report often in the blink of an eye, however as you would expect, this data needs to be interpreted by an expert.

Otherwise, if you don’t hire an SEO company to interpret the data, well you’re just having, let’s say, a 25-page document that doesn’t mean anything to the business owner. However, a highly experienced agency will be able to interpret all of the information outlined in the SEO report quickly and then recommend which areas need improving.

 

Which SEO tools would you recommend using?

Well, there are some that require a monthly subscription, and we would highly recommend Moz Pro, we think this is a really good SEO tool. We think it’s absolutely fantastic, and in our 10 years of experience, we think it’s one of the best tools out there.
Then, you also have a Google Search Console our SEO agency uses Google Search Console on a daily basis for our clients. This, again, is a fabulous tool and it’s free, so all businesses should have it.

It’s brilliant because it’s made by Google (Alphabet), so the information it provides is reliable and also very up-to-date. You can check things like website backlinks and see if there are indexation issues and see if any manual actions may hold your website back.

 

With Google Search Console you can find the following information relating to your business SEO:

 

Are there any Google Manual Actions in place?

 

You can use Google Search Console to see if any manual actions could hold a website back.

If there are any Google Manual Actions, then do consult with an SEO expert on how you can get these issues fixed.

 

Does your website have any indexation issues?

 

You can use the Google Search Console, as well as many other SEO tools, to check for possible indexation issues that may hold your business’s search engine optimisation back. For example, a “no-index” tab being left on the homepage, will mean that the homepage will never ever appear within Google’s SERP’s.

So, if you want a page or blog post to appear in Google’s SERPs, you need to make sure the page can get indexed by Googlebot.

 

Keywords

You can also track where your businesses keywords are ranking, using Google Search Console- simply click “Performance” button and then select “Average Position” you will then instantly see where your business ranks in Google’s SERP’s.

 

Duplicated content and why it needs to be removed

There are various tools that you can use as plagiarism checkers, to see if there is an duplicated content marketing on your website. And our SEO agency would urge you to use them because if there is duplicated blog posts, this could mean the business gets a Google Penalty, which can sometimes mean the whole website is removed from Google.

We recommend using Copyscape to see if there are any duplicated pages or blog posts on your website.

 

Add a sitemap and a robot.txt file

We highly recommend having both a Robot.txt and also adding your company’s site map to Google Search Console, this will help Googlebot to find all of the pages and blog posts on your company website.

It’s a bit like giving someone trying to find a location a sat-nav unit, obviously, then they will find their destination much easier.

This is the same as when you give Googlebot a sitemap, you are giving Google a list of all the pages, and blog posts on your website, so they can be much more easily indexed.

 

You can use “Screaming Frog” or “Moz Pro” to find  any 404-page errors on your website

You can use various SEO tools, such as Screaming Frog, to look for 404-page errors.

You do need to rectify and fix any 404-page errors, because having 404-page errors, causes a bad user experience for your customers. It’s a bit like, going to a shop, that should be open, yet the shutters are down, you will be disappointed because you wanted to buy something.

This is a bit the same, when someone clicks on your business in Google’s SERPs, and then they instead of seeing the product they wanted, lets say it was a Bosch dishwasher, instead, they see a 404-page error instead. Most likely what will happen, is they leave your website, causing the bounce rate to increase, which is not good for your business’s search engine optimisation.

 

Mobile Responsiveness- Does your website work on a smartphone?

 

Before you agree with your web designers that the website is finished and you are happy with the website they have made for you, you must ensure it works perfectly on smartphones and tablets.

Does the website work well on say an Android smartphone? Does the website work well, on an iPhone?

You need to check to see if everything works correctly. If things don’t work efficiently for the customer, it will likely cause a high bounce rate- which will negatively impact your business’s search engine optimisation.

As any good marketing agency will tell you, they need to work hard to reduce the company’s bounce rate as far as possible.

 

 

We have over ten years of experience helping businesses to improve their SEO

Many marketing agencies come and go. However, ours has stood the test of time. We’ve worked with some fantastic businesses in the Cardiff area to help ramp up their sales. While we are not the cheapest marketing agency by a country mile, we can guarantee that every aspect of our work is white hat, and top quality.

 

If you would like a free quote, why not call us?