When we audit a website for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) there are some basic things that we always look for. The following components must be taken into consideration: URL Structure, Site Map, Title Tags, Site Code, Content, and Back Links. All of these are interrelated and should be optimized together.

1. URL Structure: URLs are an excellent way to leverage keywords for SEO. URLs should be structured properly with targeted key phrases. It would make sense to ensure that these URLs are in alignment with your keyword strategy to make sure the right words are being optimized. There should also be no more than 2 parameters, and no more than 3 folders (or directories) in the URL. Another thing we take into consideration is the use of dashes (or hyphens) as word separators instead of grouping words or using underscores. Google prefers “keyword1-keyword2” and treats them as separate words, which can improve your visibility.

-          Bad Examples:

• http://www.mysite.com/brands.php?object=1&type=2&kind=3&node=5&arg=6
• http://www.mysite.com/people/places/things/noun/car/dannyboy

-          Good Examples:

• http://www.mysite.com/brands.php?nike
• http://www.mysite.com/people/danny-boy/

2. Site Map: Ideally, the website should include a site map that is also in alignment with one or two key phrases per page chosen for the keyword strategy based on relevance, current rank, probability of success and traffic. The links on the site map should be current, and regularly updated. To ensure that the crawlers reach all of your pages you want each page no more than two clicks away from the home page. Making sure all of your pages are on the sitemap makes this possible.
3. Title Tags: Title tags are the words written in the upper left corner of the frame at the top of the browser. This is a critical area for SEO, in that keywords can be used to optimize each page and greater optimize presence in searches. Like URLs, these would be derived from your keyword strategy and would follow a consistent approach site-wide. Title Tags should be written to include one or two key phrases as well as the site brand. It should also be noted that staying within 70 characters ensures that the full title appears in Google searches. A useful tool to quickly check the amount of characters you have is: http://www.wordcountertool.com/

-          Bad Example: Yoursite.com – keyword1, keyword2, keyword3, keyword4

-          Good Example: Key phrase1 | YourSite.com

4. Site Code: If your site contains excessive code then the search engine crawlers could timeout before they read through everything on the page.  This can be avoided by using a style sheet file for CSS and java script include files to reduce the code. The reduction in code would allow the search engines to read and index the site quicker and ensure that they do not timeout before crawling it in its entirety.

Flash is useful and appealing from a visual design perspective, but it is much tougher for the search engines to index. Using optimized text descriptors on the flash code is necessary so that the search engines can index the message being presented. It is also recommended that text copy is included on the site with Flash to allow for the message being communicated to be indexed.

If a customer clicks a broken link or misspells the URL to a page on your site they will be redirected to a 404 page indicating that the page does not exist. Your site should have a custom 404 page that drives the user back to your sitemap so they can find what they were originally looking for. Otherwise they will see a default page that has no useful information, and because they have left your site your bounce rate will increase too. You can check what your error page looks like by typing in random text after your main URL (www.yoursite.com/xyz123). Bruce Clay’s blog also has more useful tips on improving your 404 page.

URL canonicalization is the process of choosing the best URL when there are several options. To a search engine, “www.yoursite.com” and “yoursite.com” are different URLs. This means your traffic can be divided between both sites, and this can hurt your rankings. To find out if this is going to cause problems for you, type in your URL with and without the “www” in the address bar. If the “www” does not appear automatically before “yoursite.com” that means multiple versions of your site are accessible by potential customers and search engines. You should code the site to always redirect to either www.yoursite.com or “yoursite.com,” whichever you prefer.  You can read more about canonicalization in one of our earlier posts if you want to learn more about this topic.

5. Content: The content of a page should have copy that can be optimized for specific keywords that naturally blends in. Typically 1 to 2 keywords per page is ideal, and those words should be consistent with the page title and URL (when appropriate). When we’re conducting an audit, we’re going to look to see if your keywords appear in the body of copy multiple times. For a more tips on writing good copy for SEO you can see: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-to-write-an-seo-article-part-1/

6. Back Links: These are links that are directed to your page from anywhere else on the Web. Having more links is almost always a good thing, but it is not the only thing that matters. Search engines also look at the quality of the website that is linking back to yours. If Microsoft or Apple has a link to your site it will matter a lot more than if your neighbor’s personal website links to you. You can find out how many back links you have by doing the following:

1. Go to www.yahoo.com

2.    In the search field type in: “linkdomain:yoursite.com –sitedomain:yoursite.com”

3.    Under the Yahoo! logo on the left side you will see “### results for….” This is the number of back links you have.

4.    Next you can check your competitors’ back links the same way and compare. Even though quantity isn’t the only thing that is important, it will give you a good idea of where you stand.

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• Six Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Page

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Tags: Search Engine Optimization Audit, SEO audit

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 10:28 am and is filed under Rise Interactive, SEM Tutorial, SEO Friendly Web Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Site Architecture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.