60 Site SEO Audit Checklist

Reviewing SEO in an audit sometimes can be overwhelming. We all want to make a systematic approach so we are able to address two important issues: a) Make use of time efficiently and b) Ensure we don’t miss any relevant SEO issue. Hence this SEO audit checklist for webmasters who don’t want to engaged with a consultant and learn more about SEO at their own pace.

1 Indexed pages
Use the “site:” operator in Google search (for example enter “site:seo-hongkong.com“) and verify how many pages are indexed in Google.

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Google Webmaster Reports in Google Analytics

When Google Webmaster Tools was introduced, its purpose was distinctive from other notable tools such as Google Analytics, provided by Google for free. It helps webmasters diagnose accessibility problems, view search engine activity statistics and set preferences such as preferred domain or crawl rates.

As Google Analytics and Google Webmasters started to introduce more tools, it has become evident that certain functions and reports are better utilized without switching over to another account. For example, while Google Analytics tells me which keyword referred traffic into my client’s website, it doesn’t tell me what is the click-through percentage is the site getting relative to number of times the website appears on search engine results. The latter can be answered by reports generated by Google Webmaster tools. Although this tool has been with Google Webmaster tools for quite some time, it was not introduced until 2007, at the time when Google Analytics and its keyword referral reports was roughly a year and half years old.

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How to Add User Access to Google Webmaster Tools Accounts

When working with clients, it is common to access various Google reports using different accounts.

For example, if the client has already set up Google Analytics tracking for his website prior to working with me, he may grant me access using my Google Account. Doing so offers me convenience in using my account to log in without offering complications. That’s because an account used to access Google Analytics may also be used to access other applications such as email, photos, blogs and documents which client obviously doesn’t want me to access.

With that in mind, Google Analytics made it easier for us to add someone else’s account or our accounts be added by administrators who manage our sites. In the same light, Google Webmaster tools also offer a similar way of adding access to the diagnostic tools it offers to websites.

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Google Webmaster Reports + Google Analytics = Awesomeness

Search Engine Roundtable has released screenshots of an apparent update in Google Analytics. The new addition to the ever-growing arsenal of Google Analytics reporting tools is similar to those we see at Google Webmaster Tools. Without switching from one application to another, the screen grab below shows a Google Analytics report similar to Search Queries report found at Google Webmaster Tools.

This report indicates how many times a website appears as search result within a specific country and how many percent of total impressions came from a certain country. Number of impressions could be influenced by volume of relevant queries or visibility of website within search results in a country via local search. All the other screen grabs represent a similar idea of that found in Google Webmaster Tools. It doesn’t present a new set of reports other than what we’ve seen in GWT. However, one power of Google Analytics is the ability to use dimensions to slice and dice data presented as impressions or clicks per country, query or landing page.

Analytics Tip: Setting Goals for Self-Loading ‘Contact Us’ Pages

Setting up goals is one way to objectively measure engagement level of a website over time, while serving as a diagnostic tool to identify areas of concern. One common goal to measure is the ‘contact us’ form. This is a form where visitors can send inquiries, complaints, or any message to stake holders of the website.

Setting up goals in Google Analytics is relatively easy: identify the URLs of pages where visitors must access to complete a transaction. It may be three or four steps for a shopping cart or a click away if you’re measuring whitepaper downloads or newsletter subscriptions. Going back to the ‘contact us’ page, it is also pretty straightforward, just fill up the form and press the submit button, you have one website engagement waiting to be measured.

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