Understanding the SEO Audit for Websites – Part 3
Page Ranking Optimisation
The on-page content features which can establish the ranking of your website on the search engines are
what provide the search engines with the most accurate information about how your website content most closely matches a search query.
The content within the page and URLs offer guidance to search engines and offer users an insight into what your website can offer them so it should be a primary concern for any website designer and content creator.
URL Optimisation
The URL is the first contact that a user or search engine will have with your website content so it needs to be as informative and easy to navigate as possible. Ensure that your URLs are descriptive of the page content that they correspond to, not excessively long and include relevant keywords.
URLs that work the most effectively use subfolders rather than subdomains, avoid using excessive parameters and use hyphens rather than underscores to separate words.
A further problem which may need to be addressed regarding your URL is ensuring that they don’t duplicate your website content. Each URL is seen by search engines as a unique point of entry to your website. If two or more URLs point into the same content and have not used redirection, the content will be counted multiple times and appear on the search engine index as many duplicated pages.
Page Content Optimisation
To view your page as a search engine will see it, you should examine the cashed text-only version on your page. Google allow you to view their cashed version of your webpage and other tools can allow you to view the content in the logical way that it is read by search crawls.
Evaluating your page content means assessing whether specific elements included in the page are helping your reader get the best value from it. Valuable content provides readers with relevant information about the products or services that you can offer.
You will need to ensure that all content on your page is readable by the search engine. Content within complex Javascript, Flash, or images will not get read, and consequently not indexed as part of your website content.
Content needs to be of a significant length to be indexed as useful. Usually a minimum of 300 words. You will also need to discover how valuable the content is to visitors of your website. The value of content to users can be assessed by viewing time spent on the webpage and bounce rates.
Your content will require keywords to be inserted within headers and body text that help match your page to a search query. Keywords need to be placed naturally within the content and not over used. Keyword stuffing looks like spam to search engines and a balance needs to be reached for ensuring your keywords are prominent but not excessive.
The content on your web pages needs to be easily readable and can be assessed for how readable it is by using tools such as Fog Index, Flesch Reading Ease, etc. You will also need to pay attention to spelling and grammar. A professional page of content will be free from errors of spelling and grammar.
Website Content Optimisation
Website Architecture: The architecture of your website needs to present information in a way which is easy for users and search engines to understand and consume. Each page needs to be defined as serving a particular purpose and should be represented by one of your targeted keywords.
Keyword Targeting: When a keyword targets multiple pages, it caused confusion for users and for search engine indexing. Try to assign a unique keyword to each webpage and avoid several pages competing for the same key terms.
Duplicated Content: If several areas of your website use the same, or similar content, it will be identified as duplicate content by the search engines. Once duplicate content is identified within your website or across multiple websites, you will need to designate one page as the original source and identify the others as duplicates by using tools such as 404 (Not Found), 301 Redirect, Robots.txt, Meta Robots, Rel=Canonical or requesting that your Webmaster tools remove a URL from the index.
HTML Validation: Your HTML markup includes some of the most significant factors that effect page rankings. Validating your HTML and CSS will ensure that is complies to web standards. You can use the W3C validation tools to check the quality of your sites mark up code.
Page Titles: The single most important element of your web page for identifying it’s content is the page title. The page title is the first thing read by search engines and also the bait to attract potential readers towards your website.
A page title needs to provide a succinct, descriptive and captivating description of the content that it links into. Titles should not be longer than 70 characters and include a keyword which is relevant to the page. Whilst it is important to include a targeted keyword within your title, you should be careful of over-optimising your page title.
Each title page must be unique across your website and duplicate titles should be addressed.
Meta Descriptions: The meta descriptions included in your web page are no longer used as ranking factors by the search engines but they do have a profound impact on your click-through rate from search results.
Meta decriptions need to be relevent, engaging and no longer than 155 characters. Each meta description should be unique and you should avoid over optimising them.
Meta Tags: Other meta tags which should be used correctly include meta keywords, rel=”canonical” and paginated pages. Meta tags have become synonymous with spam and are usually avoided. rel=”canonical” links are used to adress issues of duplicate content within your website. rel=”next” and rel=”prev” offer information about paginated pages on your site.
Google Explains the rel=”canonical” Link
Google Explains the rel=”next” and rel=”prev” Links
Images: The images that you include on your website are valuable for the user as a way to describe your product, keep their attention or to make your page visually more appealing. Images, however are not readable by a search engine crawl. To provide information to the search engine about what is contained within an image, it is important to ensure that you include a descriptive alt text and filename which should also include a targeted keyword.
Linking Out: Each outward link that you create from your webpage is signalled as an endorsement of the page that it links into. Linking to low quality sites or pages which are not related to the link description can harm your websites ranking. Ensure that no links are broken, that they are relevant to your website content and that they do not link to spammy sites.
Content Features: Try to use your H1 and other heading tags to their advantage. Heading tags do not influence search results as prominently as titles but they should include keywords as part of your keyword targeting strategy.
If your webpage includes advertising, you should ensure that the content included in the adverts do not outweigh the actual page content.
Including iframes and frames to embed content from other websites will not credit you as that content provider. The source associated with the frame content will get the credit.