"SEO Audits: Internal auditing processes for your own search" provides a simple framework for discovering and solving common SEO issues on your site. Originally presented by Jeff Ferguson, CEO & Lead Consultant of Fang Digital Marketing (www.FangDigital.com) at SMX Melbourne 2011. Still need help with SEO audits or SEO in general? Contact Fang Digital Marketing and we'll do the heavy lifting and put you on a path to SEO greatness.

1. Internal Auditing Processes for
your OWN Search
Jeff Ferguson
CEO, Fang Digital Marketing
Board Member, SEMPO LA
Writer, DeadTreeMedia.com

2. mobro.co/JeffFerguson

3. A Better Exit Strategy

4. A Better Exit Strategy

5. SEO Isn’t Rocket Science

6. THE END
(Not That End… What You’ll End Up With)

7. The End
• A framework for a report
– The SEO Audit is an outline
– Fill it in as you go
– Attack it in parts
– Assign it to different members of your team (if you
have one)
• Don’t make SEO changes while you’re
performing the audit

8. THE THREE PILLARS OF SEO
Or, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff (Yet)”

9. 3 Pillars of SEO

10. 3 Pillars of SEO

11. CONTENT
The Real Reason People Search

12. Content
• The first rule of content:

13. Content
• Content
– Keyword Coverage Analysis
• Basically, ensure that the keywords you are targeting, are actually found within
the content
– Keyword Mix – Brand vs. Non-Brand
• Pull a keyword list from Analytics or Webmaster Tools, drop it into Excel
• Use “Insert Table” to sort the brand terms from non-brand terms
• Graph the results as a pie chart to see the split
– Word Phrases
• Tools such as Webmaster Tools will show the phrases you are being found on
during searches, are they what you want to be found for?
• Bruce Clay’s Site Tools can analyze a page to show most often found phrases
– Linear Keyword Distribution
• Where are your most important keywords showing up on the page?

14. Effective Copywriting
• In general, you want to match content messaging to frequently used
search terms
– Be warned, simply populating pages with terms can get your site
penalized by search engines and get your site knocked back several
pages in ranking
• Write for both the consumer and the search engine
– Avoid “Caveman Speak”
– Create full sentences that are both search term rich and descriptively
detailed
– What is really relevant to the common consumer? That they have a
ballroom or its size?
– Don’t forget the easy stuff
• Lead with the important information
• e.g. you know it’s a hotel, but does the search engine?
• What attractions is the hotel close to?

15. SITE ARCHITECTURE
Ain’t No School Like the Old School SEO

16. Site Architecture
The Back of the House

17. Site Architecture
• Site Architecture
– Page Layout
• Navigation (Location, Breadcrumbs, Flash/JavaScript)
• Site Depth
• Taxonomies
• HTML Structure (Flash, Frames, Etc.)
• W3C Compliance
– Tag Review
• TITLE
• META Description
• META Keyword
• Headlines
• Bold & Italic
• Image ALT
• Microformats
– Internal Linking
• URL Structure (Length, Depth, Content)
• Anchor Text
• Link Hierarchy
• Canonical Issues
• Redirect Issues
• Broken Links
– Page Load Speed
– Site History and Domain Age & Expiration
– CMS Evaluation
– META Robots & Robots.txt

18. Site Architecture
• Site Architecture
– Page Layout
• Navigation
– Location, Breadcrumbs, Flash/JavaScript
• Site Depth
– Shallow sites are best, don’t make the spiders work
• Taxonomies
– Keyword/Topic grouping
• HTML Structure
– Flash, Frames, Etc.
• W3C Compliance
– http://validator.w3.org/

19. Site Architecture
• Site Architecture
– Tag Review
• TITLE
• META Description
• META Keyword
• Headlines
• Image ALT
• Bold & Italic
– Use when appropriate, don’t abuse
• Microformats, Rich Snipets, RDF, etc.
– Stand out from the crowd if you have appropriate content
– Ratings, People, Products, Events, Businessess and Organizations,
Video

20. Site Architecture
The Back of the House
• <TITLE> Tags
– Syntax:
• <TITLE>How to set up proper meta tags up to 50 characters </TITLE>
– Rules:
• 50 characters, including spaces and punctuation
• Be specific:
– BAD: “Hilton San Francisco”
– GOOD: “Hilton San Francisco Hotel…”

21. Site Architecture
The Back of the House
• <META> Tags
– Two Types:
• “Description” –
– Syntax:
» <META NAME="description“ CONTENTS=“…“>
– Rules:
» 233 characters, including spaces and punctuation
• “Keywords” –
– Syntax:
» <META NAME=“keywords“ CONTENTS=“…“>
– Rules:
» 233 – 250 characters, including spaces and punctuation

22. Site Architecture
The Back of the House
• Headlines:
– <H1>, <H2> tags around
what is usually the title
of a paragraph or section
• e.g. “Welcome to
Hilton San
Francisco”
– Spiders look to
information enclosed in
these tags as an
important source of
content for a given page
– Syntax
• <H1>Headline</H1>
or <H2> or <H3>
– Rules
• Never use an image
as a headline,
spiders and bots

23. Site Architecture
• Site Architecture
– Internal Linking
• URL Structure
– Length, Depth, Content
• Anchor Text
– Keyword rich
• Canonical Issues
– Nobody likes an ugly URL
• Redirect Issues
• Broken Links

24. Site Architecture
The Back of the House
• Domain, Image, and File Names
– Three important types
• Domain names – www.hilton.com
• Image names – “lobby.gif”
• File names – “meetings.html”
– Be descriptive, spiders and bots consider these during their
calculations of relevancy
• GOOD: “hilton_san_francisco_lobby.gif”
• BAD: “lobby.gif”
• REALLY BAD: “image1.gif”
– USE <ALT> tags on image and anchor tags to provide more detail
• <IMG SRC=“hilton_san_francisco_lobby.gif " ALT=“Hilton San
Francisco Lobby">

25. Site Architecture
• Site Architecture
– Page Load Speed
• Part of the mix, Google hates slow sites
• Webmaster Tools provides this information
– Site History and Domain Age & Expiration
• Older sites appear to have some extra chutzpa
– CMS Evaluation
• Don’t make your life difficult by using a weird CMS
– META Robots & Robots.txt
• How to shoot yourself in the foot without trying
• The deadly “Disallow: /”

26. Site Architecture
The Back of the House
• Internal and External Links
– Both internal and external links are used by the
spiders to rank your pages’ relevancy
– The words within the anchor text are used as
search terms by the spiders and bots
• <A HREF="http://URL">Hilton San Francisco Hotel’s Spa Fusion &
Health Club</A>

27. Site Architecture
The Back of the House
• Other Important Dos and Don’ts
– Avoid sites composed entirely of Flash or images
• Spiders and bots cannot read or describe their contents
– Avoid HTML <FRAMES>
• Spiders and bots can get confused and index the wrong page
– Avoid common SEO SPAM techniques
• Cloaking – dynamic pages just for search engines
• META and JAVA refresh – pages that automatically send you somewhere else upon
arrival
• “Doorway Pages” – over optimized pages that have no use as real, readable content

28. INBOUND LINKS
The Only Time You Enjoy Everybody Pointing At You

29. Inbound Links
• External Linking/Off-Page
– Link Coverage
• Check webmaster tools to discover what sites are linking to your site
• Link: colon hasn’t provided an accurate measurement in years, use only if
you can’t get into WMT
• Are the links spread out across a variety of sites, or just one?
– Social Signals
• Most social sites are nofollow’d, but still good for discovery
– Anchor Text Analysis
• Keyword rich
• Webmaster Tools can provide great insight

30. Inbound Links
• Internal and External Links
– Both internal and external links are used by the spiders to
rank your pages’ relevancy
– The words within the anchor text are used as search terms
by the spiders and bots
• <A HREF="http://URL">Hilton San Francisco Hotel’s Spa Fusion & Health
Club</A>

31. FINAL STEPS
How to Show Off To Your Boss

32. Final Steps
• To Do List
– Don’t try and use your notes in the outline
– Create an actual to do list as you go
• Appendices
– Hold on to all the data you’ve obtained
– Reports, keyword data, etc.
– Good for comparison later on

33. Final Steps
• Lather, Rinse, & Repeat
– Audits are not a one time thing
– Revisit the process at least once a year to track
progress

34. TOOLS OF THE TRADE
No, I Don’t Mean Black Hat SEOs

35. Tools of the Trade
• Google Analytics
– Keyword data
– Page traffic
• Google Webmaster Tools
– Myriad of info
• W3C
– http://validator.w3.org/
• Page Analyzers
– Bruce Clay’s SEO ToolSet
– WebSEOAnalytics.com/Free

36. Jeff Ferguson
jeff@fangdigital.com | twitter: @countxero. @fangdigital & @dead_tree_media
THANK YOU!