Many of us will think as to how to do an SEO audit for a WordPress site. Well, this may put you in a spot of bother. But not to worry!!! It is quite simple and not all that difficult. If you have unheard of or have not taken an SEO audit for a WordPress site before, then it’s high time to go for it. The next question that comes to our mind is how you conduct a WordPress SEO audit.
For beginners, it is not tough to understand. If you have basic knowledge about the latest tools and technology and you are tech tech-savvy guy….. Perhaps you would not be going through this post.
The best possible way to undertake an SEO audit for a WordPress site is to introduce you to some of the most familiar internet tools that will make the process a lot easier, instead of going into detail with the drawn-out process. The blog post will explain all about an SEO WordPress audit process so that you have a fair idea of what you are doing.
What do you understand by an SEO audit process?
To put it in simple terms, an SEO audit process is a simple check or audit undertaken to make sure that the website is working fine at the highest level. The SEO audit process will also identify the loopholes in your SEO strategies that are slowing down your website performance, and how one can overcome the problem. In order to have an optimum SEO performance, there are many internet tools available that help to rectify the problem.
When to conduct an SEO audit?
To put it across in simple terms the best possible way to increase your WordPress site is by conducting an SEO audit. Though there are no hard and fast rules on when to undertake an SEO audit, it is best suggested when you feel that your WordPress site is not at its best when giving a performance. It is highly recommended to conduct an SEO audit every quarter to be on the safer side. This will ensure that your site is always at its optimum levels.
Define Your Goals Wisely-
Keep in mind to define your goals in a clear manner. This is an important aspect of every WordPress site and blog owner. Some of the goals listed below are:
- To identify technical glitches, if any.
- Content Optimization
- SEO bonuses utilization
- Poor content identification and rectifying the blog posts
- To improvise the existing content
- Faster loading of the site
- To increase web as well as page traffic
SEO Audit Tools
Some of the SEO audit tools consist of:
- Screaming Frog
- Google Search Console (formerly known as Webmasters tool)
- Google Analytics
- BuzzSumo
- Moz Crawl Test
- SEMrush
To conduct a successful SEO audit, one has to be familiar with the utilization of the above tools.
Let us discuss some of the most widely used tools-
Screaming Frog
This is one of the most popular and widely used SEO audit tools. With Screaming Frog one can audit any number of SEO elements on a WordPress site. This tool can be downloaded and is free. However, after scanning 500 URLs, one needs to purchase the license. It just takes a few minutes to scan the entire WordPress site and offers useful info on Search Engine Optimization. The main advantage of using this tool is that one need not scroll through each and every parameter. The tool is not just limited to URLs, titles, meta descriptions, tags, images, and links but also includes the site’s crucial parameters. The only drawback of this tool is that it runs only on the Java platform.
Google Search Console
This tool is almost similar to Screaming Frog. Formerly known as Webmaster, this tool grants access to search engines to the closest level. Google Search Console comes with numerous info on the optimization of the site that has been targeted for audit purposes.
Google Analytics
This is one of the most popular and widely used tools for SEO purposes. If you want to check the number of visitors visiting the site, then Google Analytics is the best option available.
BuzzSumo
To have successful content marketing and SEO campaigns, BuzzSumo is known to be the most vital tool. The primary advantage of this tool is that it identifies what content is doing well and which topics are drawing more attention. With the help of this tool, one can also come to know the page the content is ranking, page traffic density, and so on.
Moz Crawl Test
This tool allows running a full SEO audit and diagnosing with a report on any site. The tool identifies issues pertaining to SEO and takes the website to the next level. Apart from this, one can also schedule SEO audits. Weekly reports can be generated with data displaying broken pages.
SEMrush
One of the most popular SEO tools is largely used by digital marketing professionals. The tool allows checking backlinks, tracking keyword rankings, checking competitor ranks, keyword research, and more. Apart from doing these functions, SEMrush is also used to display advertising and link building.
How to conduct an SEO audit of your WordPress site and page ranking factors?
As said earlier we are focusing only on WordPress sites let’s discuss the most vital aspect – when you do an SEO audit. The below-listed factors will help review especially on your key pages.
- HTML – This is very important from an SEO point of view since it contains a lot of important information.
- Titles – Giving appropriate titles is very important. Titles should be unique, precise, and relevant to the content with proper insertion of keywords. For any title duplication, the Yoast plugin is sufficient for WordPress sites. One can also check with Screaming Frog’s page Titles tab and HTML Improvements under Search Appearance in Google Search Console.
- Meta description – Make sure that the Meta description is something unique and less than 172 characters. The description should be relevant to the content page by adding a few keywords.
- URLs – Ensure that URLs are short, user-friendly, and has keyword added. Using pretty permalinks ie, the URL for each post must be pretty, permanent, and should not change. Hence the name permalink. There is no harm in checking even though WordPress does it automatically.
- Headings – For structuring the content and making it scannable, heading tags are most important. H1 tags have to be applied only in titles.
- Specific Content – The content has to be unique, and precise containing at least a minimum of 300 words. Proper insertion of keywords with no duplication is equally important.
- Images – ALT tags, file titles, and SEO markers for images are a must. The images must have a description along with proper keyword insertion. Though WordPress has an image plugin while Screaming Frog has an option where one can reduce the size of the image to make it load faster.
- Links – There is every chance of dead links increasing as the site grows. Hence performing link checks for relevance from time to time is a must. Plugin in WordPress has an option to identify broken links.
- Keywords – Focusing on a particular keyword is very important. Though Yoast Plugin is available in WordPress, one has to be careful that it optimizes only one page to focus a keyword. Yoast Plugin will notify if there is any keyword repetition.
- Content Duplication – To find content duplication or plagiarism, Siteliner.com is a good tool for all content-related issues.
Hope by now you have gone through the entire audit process and have familiarized yourself with the tools. Also at the same time, you would have come across a site’s SEO drawbacks. So do not be uncertain. Doing an SEO audit for a WordPress site is not that difficult. There is no rocket science involved here. With many online tools readily available, performing an SEO audit for WordPress is relatively simple.
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