Technical Site Audit

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Quickoverview
Checkindexedpages
Site:SearchinGoogle
Homepageisthefirstresult(ornearthetop)
ReviewnumberoforganiclandingpagesinGoogleanalytics
ThisisoftenthebestmeasureofhowmanypagesareindexedANDGoogle
findsvaluable
Searchforbrandandbrandedterms
Isthehomepageshowingupatthetop,orarecorrectpagesshowingup?
CheckGooglescacheforkeypages
Contentshowsup
Navigationlinksarepresent
Checkforhiddencontent/links
Doamobilesearchforyourbrandandkeylandingpages
Yourlistinghasthemobilefriendlylabel
Landingpagesaremobilefriendly

Notes:

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Onpageoptimization
Titletagsareoptimized
Optimized
Unique
5560characters(512pixels)
Importantpageshaveclickthroughrateoptimizedtitlesandmetadescriptions
Pagesarenotmissingpagetitlesandmetadescriptions
Theonpagecontentincludestheprimarykeywordphrasemultipletimesaswellas
variationsandalternatekeywordphrases
Thereisasignificantamountofoptimized,uniquecontentonkeypages
TheprimarykeywordphraseiscontainedintheH1tag
Images'filenamesandalttextareoptimizedtoincludetheprimarykeywordphrase
associatedwiththepage.
URLsaredescriptiveandoptimized
URLsareclean
Noexcessiveparameters
URLsarestatic
URLsareshort(115charactersorshorter)

Notes:

Content
Homepageisoptimized
Atleastoneparagraphoftext
Enoughcontenttogivesearchenginesanunderstandofwhatthepageisabout
(typicallyatleast150words)
Contentisunique
Landingpagesareoptimized
Atleastacoupleparagraphsofcontentenoughtohelpsearchengines
understandwhatthepageisabout

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Isthetexttemplatedorcompletelyunique
Sitecontainsrealandsubstantialcontent
Isthererealcontentonthesiteoristhecontentsimplyalistoflinks
Properkeywordtargeting
Theintentbehindthekeywordsmatchtheintentofthelandingpage
Pagesexisttotargetheadterms,midtailterms,andlongtailkeywords
KeywordCannibalization
site:searchinGoogleforimportantkeywordphrasesdoesnotrevealasignificant
amountofpagescompetingforthesameterm
Thereisarenoduplicatepagetitlesorduplicatecontent
Contentexiststohelpusersconvertandiseasilyaccessibletousers
Contenttohelpeducateusersabouttheproductorservice
Contentformatting
Contentisformattedwellandiseasytoreadquickly
Htagsareused
Imagesareused
Textisbrokendownintoeasytoreadparagraphs
Goodheadlinesonblogposts
Headlinesarewellwrittenanddrawusersin.
Amountofcontentversusads
Thereissignificantuniquecontentabovethefold
Therearenotanexcessiveamountofadsabovethefold

Notes:

DuplicateContent
ThereshouldbeoneURLforeachpieceofcontent
URLparametersarenotused,orareotherwisedealtwith
ThesamecontentdoesntexistondifferentURLs(oftenproduct/category
related)
Doaninquotessearchtocheckforduplicatecontent
Contentdoesnotshowupelsewhereonthedomain

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Contenthasnotbeenscraped
IfscrapedfileacontentremovalrequestwithGoogle.
Thesamecontentdoesnotexistondifferentsubdomains
Thesamecontentdoesnotexistonasecureversionofthesite
Thesamecontentisnotreplicatedonotherdomainsownedbythecompany
Printerfriendlypagesarenotcausingduplicatecontent

Notes:

Accessibility & Indexation

Entiresite,orkeypages,havenotbeenblockedintherobots.txtfile
ContentdisplayscorrectlywhenJavaScript,cookies,andCSSareturnedoff
Navigation&InternallinksdisplaycorrectlywhenJavaScript,cookies,andCSSare
turnedoff
ContentisthesamewhenyousettheuseragenttoGooglebot
Therearenotexcessive4xxor5xxerrorsinacrawlreport(Moz,ScreamingFrog,etc)
XMLsitemapsarelistedintherobots.txtfile
XMLsitemapsaresubmittedtoGoogle/BingWebmasterTools
Importantpagesdonotcontainthemetarobotsnoindextag(Moz,ScreamingFrog,etc)
Duplicate/thincontenthasthenoindexcommandorisdisallowedinrobots.txt
Goalpagesarepreventedfromreceivingorganicvisits

Notes:

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Site architecture and internal linking

Numberoflinksonapageisreasonable(100200typically)
Verticallinkingstructuresareinplace
Homepagelinkstocategorypages.
Categorypageslinktosubcategoryandproductpagesasappropriate
Productpageslinktorelevantcategorypages.
Horizontallinkingstructuresareinplace
Categorypageslinktootherrelevantcategorypages.
Productpageslinktootherrelevantproductpages.
Linksareincontent
Doesnotutilizemassiveblocksoflinksstuckinthecontenttocreateinternal
links
Footerdoesnotuseablockoflinksinsteadofpropernavigation.
Footerdoesnotlinktolandingpageswithoptimizedanchors.
Internalanchortextisusedappropriately
No/minimalbrokenlinks

Notes:

Technical issues
301redirectsarebeingusedforallredirects
302,307,metarefresh,andJavaScriptredirectsarenotused
astheypasslittletono
value.
Redirectchainsarenotused
ContentisnotservedusingJavaScript
LinksarenotservedinJavaScript(unlessintentionallydoneso)
ContentisnotpulledinviaiFrames
Flashisnotusedtodelivercontent
NoerrorsinGoogleWebmasterTools

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XMLsitemapsinplace
XMLsitemapsarenotbandaidsforpoorsitearchitecture
XMLsitemapsarestructuredtoshowindexationproblems
XMLsitemapsfollowproperXMLprotocols
Canonicalversionofthesiteestablishedthrough301s
CanonicalversionofsiteisspecifiedinGoogleWebmasterTools
Relcanonicallinktagisproperlyimplementedacrossthesite
UsesabsoluteURLsinsteadofrelativeURLs

Notes:

Site speed

Pagesloadinareasonableamountoftime
Makesurecompressionisenabled
Cachingisenabled
Imagesareoptimizedfortheweb
CSS/JS/HTMLisminified
TherearenotexcessivenumberofHTTPrequests
Siteishostedonafastserver

Notes:

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Mobile
Siterendersproperlyformobileandtabletvisitors
Amobileexperienceissetup(responsivedesign,dynamicserving,dedicatedmobile
site)
Analyticsissetupproperlyifseparatemobilecontentexists
Mobileconfigurationisspecified
ResponsiveTheviewportmetatagisused
DynamicservingTheVaryHTTPheaderisused
MobilesiteMobilecontentusesthecanonicaltagtopointtothedesktopversion
MobilesiteDesktopcontentusestherelalternatetagtopointtothemobile
version
Buttonsarenottooclosetogetherformobilevisitors
Themobileexperiencematchesupwiththeintentofmobilevisitors
Ensurefaultymobileredirectsdonotexist

Notes:

International
InternationalversionofcontentisindicatedintheURL
Subdomain
ccTLD
Directory
Countrybasedtargetingisenabledinwebmastertools
Hreflang/relalternateisproperlyimplementedifrelevant
Iftherearemultipleversionsofasiteinthesamelanguage(suchas/us/and/uk/,both
inEnglish),thecopyhasbeenupdatedsothattheyareunique
Makesurethecurrencyreflectsthecountrytargeted
URLstructureisinthenativelanguage

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Notes:

Analytics

Analyticstrackingcodeisoneverypage
ThereisonlyoneinstanceofaGApropertyonapage
Analyticsisproperlytrackingandcapturinginternalsearches
Demographicstrackingissetup
AdwordsandAdsenseareproperlylinkedifyouareusingtheseplatforms
InternalIPaddressesareexcluded
UTMCampaignParametersareusedforothermarketingefforts
MetarefreshandJavaScriptredirectsareavoided
Eventtrackingissetupforkeyuserinteractions

Notes:

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