Reports Analysis
When we take up the discussion with the client of the subtleties and conditions of work on the promotion of his project on the Internet, we must first carry out a detailed analysis (audit) of the site itself .
Very often we come across such projects, when we cannot announce even the cost of our services without a proper analysis (audit) of the site .
The above is due to three reasons:
1. Every website is unique.
2. We have no idea what we will deal with, superficially looking at the customer’s site.
3. The most important thing is that we spend a large amount of time on conducting a thorough and thorough analysis (audit) of the site, since This is a very important process from which a site optimization (SEO) plan is subsequently formed.
Summary of the article:
1. What should include analysis (audit) of the site
2. What should not include the analysis (audit) of the site
3. Tools for self-analysis (audit) site
Of course, the foregoing is far from new to me, but it surprises me that all the so-called “experts” of search engine optimization (SEO) do not conduct an appropriate analysis (audit), probably not knowing at all about its existence. Another thing that surprises Me again and again is the use of SEO GURU of a simple page with statistics as a result of the analysis (audit) of the site.
In this article I am going to share with you several professional secrets that reveal the main components of the site analysis (audit) process.
But first, I would like to show you an example of such an “analysis” of the site using the example of an SEO company.
Let’s face it – there is no magic formula for website optimization (SEO) for search engines; absolutely no secret combinations for getting into the top search engines. There are only fundamental aspects of search engine optimization (SEO).
In order to reduce efforts to analyze (audit) sites, I conducted my own research and after a few months summarized the results. Below are some of them.
What should include the analysis (audit) of the site:
1) Statistical data:
The main focus in the process of analysis (audit) of the site is on research. The results of these studies are just statistics. This includes not only the information that your statistics collection package provides, but also other information to which you do not have access, for example, how often the representatives of your target audience request this or that specific keyword, what are your competitors doing and how .
A search engine optimization (SEO) specialist can provide you with dimensionless reports and data, when you see that, you will be shocked by the numbers you see. Also, a search engine optimization (SEO) expert could perform an analysis (audit) of the site in the form of an overview with statistical data in applications or reports.
2) Explanation of terminology:
You can finish the process of analysis (audit) of the site, the result of which can be a huge amount of data, reports, but if you cannot explain any of this, then the price is worthless. Some SEO companies provide the results of their work on analyzing the site in paper form, and then offer free consultations, within which they will explain to you all the points that you do not understand in detail. This is an excellent solution for those who do not give any explanations in the reports provided to the client.
3) Identification
The most relevant to the site as a whole and each page of each separate keywords and key phrases. I hate general keywords. But most of all I hate those “experts” of search engine optimization (SEO) who recommend using them at every opportunity. Naturally, what I said a little earlier is true for ordinary sites, but by no means for the most popular portals.
Simply put, an ordinary site is not a competitor to the most popular portal in search results for common keywords or phrases. A qualitatively executed analysis (audit) of the site reveals those keywords and key phrases that most closely correspond to the site as a whole and each page individually. It is under these keywords and key phrases that each of the pages of the site should be optimized.
4) Screenshots (screenshots) or other confirmations.
If you get the results of a site analysis with recommendations or percentages, keyword density, or any other statistics without clear evidence, evidence, it is likely that the person providing you the results of the analysis took these figures from the ceiling. as it should be in the report. Conscientiously and qualitatively performed analysis (audit) will provide you with all the necessary statistical data with visual confirmation.
5) A detailed presentation of the data:
It is not enough to provide you with only superficial data, you can get it yourself. You need to conduct an in-depth study of your site. In it, you should see the “simulation” of the search engine (how the search engine “sees” your site by hitting it), “broken” (broken) links, site structure, accessibility of the navigation bar for search robots, which pages and all pages were indexed when the search robot last visited your site, etc.
6) The current position
The search results of search engines (SERP). I do not specify in the TOP-10 or TOP-40 results your site is included, because it depends entirely on the promoter. Look for a company or person who has or can access 500 – 1000 or more results (site positions) in the main search engines.
7) Recommendations on the site.
If you pay for the analysis of your site, you should be able to make changes to its various elements in accordance with the results of the analysis performed. After completing the work on the analysis of your site, the SEO specialist will expect you to offer further cooperation. For this reason, he does not want to disclose to you all his professional secrets and plans that he has for your website. But still he is obliged to instruct you in the course of work. If the SEO specialist also provides advice, then this is generally great!
What should not include the analysis (audit) of the site:
1) A huge number of company advertising in the reports provided to the client:
The search engine optimization specialist wants his analysis (audit) to serve as a reason for further cooperation with him. But if the analysis performed (audit) is stuffed with sponsored links or a huge amount of advertising materials of the company, then you should think about reconsidering your choice regarding your chosen company or specialist. For example, one client showed me an analysis (audit) of a site, done by an SEO company.
Despite the fact that the analysis (audit) was performed free of charge, it consisted of approximately four pages; of these, only half a page was devoted to the so-called analysis itself (audit). In addition, it was so general that it could be called an exceptionally useless transfer of paper, and the results of this “analysis” itself could be applied to literally every site on the Internet. The remaining three and a half pages were devoted to the company itself. It goes without saying that for the client this was the main reason for breaking off further negotiations with this company.
2) Inconsistent statistics:
At first glance this may seem absurd, but let me explain what I mean. I’m talking about a situation where a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist provides you with an analysis (audit) not of your site , but of your competitor’s site .
If this data does not help you understand how to improve the position of your site in the results of search results (SERP) or improve your site as a whole, then you will not need such an analysis (audit).
3) Reports that have no visual confirmation:
You probably already know about this, and also could see examples of this in the face of some of your colleagues – SEO companies that provide their customers with TOP-10 search results (SERP) without any confirmation of this data. You should always be ready to provide visual evidence to confirm the data in the report. Screenshots are a great visual confirmation tool, but they cannot hold a large amount of data. Moreover, if you are told that your site is falling in search engine results (SERP) for one reason or another, then the SEO company promoting it should immediately clarify this drop, and accordingly provide new evidence of the data provided to you.
4) Forecasts for the future:
Absolutely no one can predict that search engines will or will not change in their algorithms, respectively, no SEO company in the world can predict the location of your site in them. This is a very unpleasant and painful question, because it is directly related to the niche in which companies guarantee the result of getting into a certain TOP search engines. I have seen countless SEO companies guaranteeing that the site being promoted is in the TOP-10, or at all in 1st place in the search engines.
Recently, I did a site analysis for my future client – a small company opened by two programmers who have an excellent beauty travel site. According to statistics, the tourism industry ranks 2nd in popularity among Internet users.
While my clients enjoyed the results of the analysis I performed, we tried to agree directly on further cooperation, but there were some difficulties. The reason for these difficulties was that they wanted their website to be guaranteed to be on the first lines in the search results of search engines (SERP) for common keywords.
I am very careful with similar offers, because while I can guarantee a certain increase in the percentage of traffic or position in search engines (SERP), recommend appropriate keywords for certain pages of the site or offer better content, they want to pay , by what keywords their site will be in the top 10 Google; Moreover, such general keywords were chosen that competition on them is simply unthinkable.
It goes without saying that I refused to provide the guarantees they required, and I am sure that since I have not heard a word about them, they have found another specialist. This is good, because I can in no way predict the TOP-10 results for such general keywords. Nobody can. For the money, I’m not going to risk my reputation! It is not worth it.
5) General data, lack of specifics:
Each site is as unique as the person who created it. Every SEO analysis of a website is exactly the same as every SEO project must be oriented and adapted to the specific needs of a particular company.
Examples of general data include the following: “For this keyword, your website is not in the TOP-10 search engine.”
Tools for self-analysis (audit) site
It is very difficult to imagine how you can personally translate all the above described actions into reality, especially if you like to do everything yourself. In fact, it would be funny to try to do some of these actions, such as determining the position of a site in a search engine search result (SERP), manually. Therefore, SEO-specialists in their work use various tools – scripts or programs . It will be important to note that the lion’s share of these tools is freely available.
You will also need a good program to collect statistics . Most hosters already have a pre-installed and free program of this kind, for example AWStats , Analog , or Webalizer . There are several points that you should see in your statistics in order to benefit. You should know more than how many hits were on one of the web pages. You need to know the number of hosts, hits, pages of entry and exit, and more.
Also, in order to gain access to more search engine results (SERP) of the Google search engine, you will first have to get a free API key . You can get a free API key by clicking this link . You will also need a tool that allows you to view the position of your site in the search results (SERP) of the main search engines.
You will need to test the functionality of the site navigation bar, hyperlinks, and also check the site for “friendliness” with search engines. If the search robot will not be able to index your site, be sure to find out the reason for this. Look for the necessary paid or free tools that will help her find out. We also offer several similar tools on our own FirstClass-SEO.com website (To access these tools, you need to login first).
The very first step in the process of search engine optimization site (SEO) – analysis (audit) of the site ; It is also useful throughout the entire process of search engine optimization (SEO). Without conducting a proper analysis of the site, you will never succeed. If you want to analyze (audit) the site yourself, go for it. Analysis (audit) of a site is sometimes the best of everything that you have ever done for your site, because no one knows your site better than you do. If you cannot do the analysis (audit) yourself, you can find an SEO company that provides this service for free. But, most likely, to get really worthwhile results you will have to purchase this service.