Site analysis is necessary to identify problems that interfere with the site’s ranking in search engines. The analysis of the site allows you to determine the main errors and form a strategy to promote the site.
If you find negative trends in traffic and website positions, it is necessary to perform a SEO analysis of the site.
Any changes to the site or work on its promotion is logical to begin with a SEO analysis. Knowing all the problems and shortcomings of the resource, it will be easier to plan its development. A full SEO-analysis can give answers to the questions: what are the causes of low positions in search engines and why users do not want to stay on the site.
A SEO audit (analysis) of a website is a comprehensive study. This includes a technical analysis, evaluation of the site structure, content analysis, usability, statistical data, external and internal links and other indicators. The site as a result of the audit is considered from different positions: in terms of convenience for the user (customer), for the administrator, as well as from the perspective of search engines.
Why conduct SEO analysis of the site?
To identify technical flaws (duplicate pages, server errors, broken links, layout errors, etc.).
Check the indexing of the site: whether all pages are indexed and shown in search results.
Understand the reasons for low conversion.
Evaluate the usability of the site and think of changes for the convenience of users.
Analyze user behavior and understand how to increase the time spent on the site and the number of pages viewed.
Find factors that make it impossible to take high positions in search engines.
Determine what prevents the site to bring in sales and return on investment in it.
For “prevention” of a comprehensive analysis is better to be carried out once or twice a year. And, of course, you should constantly monitor the performance of Google Analytics, as well as monitor the dynamics of the visibility and position of the site in search engines.
A basic check-list check is recommended every month, while some parameters should be checked daily.
What’s worth checking:
The dynamics of non-brand search traffic.
The dynamics of the positions and visibility of the site in search engines (preferably check the positions for the whole semantic core once a week, and for priority requests daily).
How to analyze a site by yourself?
Objectively assess the structure, navigation and design of the site can be difficult, if you yourself use it every day. There is also a chance not to notice obvious shortcomings that need to be addressed.
Below we have listed the steps you can do yourself before you start analyzing the site:
Collect any available statistics, feedback (or better yet, complaints) from visitors. If you have the opportunity and time, you can conduct surveys among those users who have already interacted with the site.
Determine the goals and objectives that the site needs to solve.
Look at the content pages. Is the contact information up to date, are there examples of work or customer reviews, how often new content is added, are there customer feedback forms or chat.
Check the loading speed of the site. You can do this with the following online services:
PageSpeed Insights https://pagespeed.web.dev/
WebPageTest https://www.webpagetest.org/
The ideal speed of loading the site – 1 second, the optimal – 2-3 seconds.
Directions for site analysis
When goals and objectives are defined and the preparatory phase is passed, begins analysis of the site in several directions.
Technical check
The basis of any analysis of the site. The presence of technical errors can lead to a deterioration of the site ranking, churn of users or even getting into search engine filters.
What problems can have a negative impact on the site’s ranking:
The presence of technical duplicate pages and broken links
Too long URLs
Server errors
Slow loading of pages
Malicious codes and viruses
Typos in the layout
Images not optimized
Presence of cyclic links and unnecessary redirects
Blank or uninformative pages
Bugs in robots.xt and sitemap.xml
No adaptive layout
SEO analysis
Reveals the reasons why the site is not displayed in the top positions of search engines. This is done by analyzing the search engine indicators. The more links to the site, the higher will be its position in prominence. Also, SEO-analysis includes checking the positions in Google for search queries, content analysis and keywords on pages, checking the presence of meta tags, H1-H6 level headings.
How flaws can negatively affect a site’s ranking:
Incorrectly selected keyword phrases
The presence of a large number of spelling errors
Non-unique texts
Too frequent use of keywords
Weak linking
Low CTR
Lack of micro markup
Errors in the structure of h2-h6 headings
