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People often associate search engine optimization (SEO) with website content. Writing good content, however, is not the only element of SEO.

Search engine optimization techniques such as technical SEO are aimed at making your website crawlable and indexed so that it appears in relevant search engine results. Learn the essential steps to conduct a successful SEO audit and optimize your website for better search engine performance through insights from the SEO team at Vistas – the leading SEO company in Bangalore.

A Guide to Choosing the Right SEO Company for Your Business in 2023

TABLE OF CONTENT

Why Should You Conduct a Technical SEO Audit?
An overview of why technical SEO audits are so important
A step-by-step guide to performing a technical SEO audit
Determine the structure of the website
Analysis of crawled content
Conduct a performance check on the server
Evaluate your sitemaps and robots
Analyze keyword rankings and keywords
Verify HTML markup and title
Keep track of inbound and outbound links
Evaluate the quality of content and the SEO features
Act on the findings

Why Should You Conduct a Technical SEO Audit?

To ensure search engines are able to index your website appropriately, a technical SEO audit analyzes your website's on-page elements and behind-the-scenes code. Furthermore, it ensures that your website follows best practices and optimization guidelines.

Some of these include:

Structure and organization of the website
Optimizing the page speed
The use of canonicalization
Usability on mobile devices
Markup for structured data
Indexing and crawling issues

Technical SEO performance reports focus more on your website's technical aspects than on-page optimization. The time it takes to load a page, the response time of the server, and the speed at which the site loads are included here.

An overview of why technical SEO audits are so important

Technical SEO focuses on technical aspects to ensure your content is discovered, understood and properly indexed by search engines despite keywords, backlinks and great content.

Vistas AD Media Communications' SEO team advises companies to audit their technical SEO regularly so they can flag errors as soon as possible.

Using these tactics correctly can result in higher search engine rankings (SERPs) for targeted keywords.

However, this doesn't mean you should neglect everything else. An SEO performance measurement must consider multiple aspects of a website. You can also reinforce your technical SEO with the following solutions:

On-page SEO services: Optimizing page titles, meta descriptions and content maximizes visibility for relevant keywords.

Local SEO: Optimizing for local searches sets you apart from competitors and attracts potential customers in the area.

Link building: This means creating content that is link-worthy and engaging in outreach to get your page mentioned on other sites.

Learn more about: link building

Content creation: To build your expertise and drive organic traffic, create valuable content people want to read, share, and link to.

As mentioned above, technical SEO audits always come with complementary solutions. A SEO audit will only identify opportunities - implementing those recommendations is what drives real results.

Vistas SEO experts recommend tiers of frequency for technical SEO audits

General site maintenance: once a week
Designing and migrating the site on a daily basis
Designing and migrating the site on a daily basis

The Vistas SEO team "generally crawls the client's site on a weekly basis" and overlays this crawl data with "technical information from Google Search Console."

Technical SEO consultants help you improve your ranking sustainably by offering complementary services, including link building and content creation.

Learn all about: A guide to choosing the right SEO Company for your business

A step-by-step guide to performing a technical SEO audit

What is the process of conducting a technical site audit? A self-audit is more challenging since these audits are typically done by teams. It is not impossible, however.

To conduct a comprehensive technical site audit, follow these nine steps:

Step 1: Determine the structure of the website

Ensure your website is easy to navigate for users and search engines by understanding how it is organized. Visitors and search bots can easily explore your site if you create a clear roadmap for them.

The process involves the following:

URL Structure: The structure of your URLs impacts user experience and SEO. It is easy to understand and reflects the hierarchy of your content when your URL structure is well-organized.

Navigation and breadcrumbs: Visitors can navigate your site using navigation menus and breadcrumbs. It is important that the navigation structure is logical and intuitive in order to keep users engaged and help search engines understand the content's organization.

Internal Linking: Make sure your site's categories and tags are meaningful and relevant. Organizing content and exploring the site is made easier with them.

Categories and Tags: Linking to other relevant pages on your site within your content is called internal linking. Your website's authority is spread throughout its pages as a result of these links.

Hierarchy and Siloing: Create a hierarchy of related content by grouping it into main categories. By siloing content, you establish a clear topical relevance by organizing it into thematic groups.

An optimized website not only boosts SEO, but also improves the user experience, encouraging visitors to explore more and spend longer on the site. A neatly organized store makes it easier for customers to find what they want.

The second step is to analyze the crawled content

It would be chaotic if there were missing or duplicate books in a library, wouldn't it? The content of your website should also be reviewed.

SEO specialists at Vistas AD Media Communications said crawling your site includes all pages, indexed and non-indexed, as well as images and JavaScript if necessary.To truly understand your website's content landscape, you need the right tools. Some of the best SEO audit tools include:

Screaming Frog SEO Spider: The Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a tool that crawls websites like search engines, allowing you to identify broken links, duplicate content, and URL structures.

Ahrefs: In addition to backlink checking, Ahrefs has a robust site audit feature that helps you identify and resolve technical issues that affect your site's performance.

Semrush: With its Site Audit tool, Semrush provides detailed reports on crawlability, indexability, and on-page SEO.

You can use these tools to conduct a technical audit of your website to identify duplicate content, for example:

Duplicates
Content that is thin
Errors 404
The use of redirects

It is crucial for your ranking that your content is indexed and understood by search engines. Your site can be quickly scanned and identified with the best SEO audit tools. They can also be used to compare content on other sites.

Step 3: Conduct a performance check on the server

Speed and efficiency are expected when users visit your website. It's not worth their time to wait for a page to load. Websites that provide exceptional user experiences are rewarded by search engines because they understand this user behavior.

A server going down, a website being marked as 'no-index' for search engines, or an entire section of a website not accessible to visitors are all examples of [performance] issues.

You should run comprehensive tests to gauge the performance of your server. The purpose of these tests is to measure the SEO performance of your website. You need to assess the following:

Server Response Time: A server's response time is the time it takes to respond to a request. A quick response time is essential for a smooth user experience.

Downtime and Uptime: A server that is frequently down can lead to a poor user experience and missed opportunities.

Caching and Compression: Implementing browser caching and file compression techniques can significantly improve loading times.

Performance tests aren't just run mindlessly by a technical SEO expert. Data is analyzed, bottlenecks are identified, and strategies are implemented to optimize server performance. In order to do this, hosting plans may need to be upgraded, CDNs may need to be leveraged, images may need to be optimized, and server settings may need to be adjusted.

Step Evaluate your sitemaps and robots

Your robots.txt and sitemaps are like the GPS and road signs that guide bots through your website’s intricate maze.

When optimizing these elements, a technical SEO expert or even a technical SEO consultant provides the bots with a well-lit path to uncover the content treasure trove.

Using a robots.txt file, you can perform the following technical audit activities:

Access and Examine:Locate and open your robots.txt file. Be aware of its directives, which tell search engines which parts of your site to access and which to ignore.

Balanced Permissions: Ensure crucial pages are accessible and private sections, like admin areas, are disallowed by reviewing the permissions file. Don't accidentally disallow important pages.

To optimize your sitemap:

Generate XML Sitemap: Generate an XML sitemap using available tools or plugins tailored to your CMS. Make sure you include all the pages you want search engines to index.

Submission and Updates: The sitemap should be registered with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Keep your sitemap updated as your content changes, reflecting additions and removals.

Despite their small size, robots and sitemaps play a crucial role in SEO.

Step 5: Analyze keyword rankings and keywords

What are the best ways to measure the success of your website? One look at the SERPs and your keywords should give you an idea, in addition to working with a technical SEO company.

It is crucial for technical SEO audits to monitor keyword rankings on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.

Here are some of the best SEO audit tools you can use:

The Ahrefs tool
The SEMrush tool
The Moz Pro tool

For those who are unfamiliar with these tools, a technical SEO audit service can be helpful. As part of their service offering, they provide audits, on-page SEO services, and other solutions that utilize technology stacks to identify and quantify the technical performance of your website.

Step 6: Verify HTML markup and title

The two elements also have an impact on your crawlability. Search engine crawlers will be able to understand and index the content better with the right headers and content structure.

Technical SEO audits check your HTML markup for compliance with best practices, just like your content.

Use headlines, subheadings, and body text to nest and structure your page content.
Each page should have a description and keywords in the meta tags.
Titles should be relevant, concise, and keyword-rich.

An SEO expert will suggest ways to optimize your HTML markup if they find any issues. These changes can be made yourself or by your technical SEO consultants.

Step 7: Keep track of inbound and outbound links

Link analysis is offered by many website SEO audit services today.

Your links will be examined to see if they're dead or broken, and your inbound links and outbound links will be reviewed.

Users are directed to your website via inbound links from other websites. A link on your website that directs visitors to another website is called an outbound link.

Whether you do it yourself or with a technical SEO audit company, checking the quality of your links is vital for both SEO and user experience.

Step 8: Evaluate the quality of content and the SEO features

While speed and structure are important aspects of SEO, quality content should also be measured. Google's guidelines state that relevant and helpful content helps you rank higher.

An SEO audit should verify the quality of your content and ensure it adds value.

Here are some criteria to consider:

The quality of the writing
Copywriting style and readability
Word choice, tone of voice, and branding
Optimization of SEO keywords according to organic search trends

A technical SEO audit also checks for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors in your content. In the eyes of your readers, this part contributes to the authority and trust of your brand.

Know more about: specialized SEO copywriting

Step 9: Act on the findings

Having discovered the good and bad of your website's technical SEO, it's time to get down to business.

Here are some questions to ask if you're not sure where to begin:

Are these actions aligned with your website's goals and the needs of your audience? Consider what your users want from your website.

Will this be a long-term solution, or just a short-term fix? Prioritize the sections of your website you want to focus on.

What are the risks associated with this action? Users' experiences and security concerns may be affected by the change.

Conclusion

By implementing technical SEO audit recommendations, website owners can enhance their website's performance, improve user experience, and increase its visibility in search engine results.

You can simplify this process by hiring website SEO audit services. You can choose from a variety of standard SEO protocols and solutions tailored to your needs. Vista's SEO team says issues are found and resolved faster than usual as a result of this.

A How to Perform a Successful SEO Audit: A Comprehensive Guide