
A comprehensive forensic SEO audit is a thorough examination of a website's technical and content aspects to identify and fix issues that may be hindering its search engine ranking and overall performance.
This type of audit typically involves crawling the website, analyzing its structure, and examining its content to identify technical errors, duplicate content, and other issues that may be affecting its search engine visibility.
A forensic SEO audit can be time-consuming and requires specialized knowledge and tools, but it's an essential step in improving a website's online presence and driving more traffic and sales.
By conducting a forensic SEO audit, website owners can gain a deeper understanding of their site's strengths and weaknesses and make informed decisions about how to improve its performance.
Audit Process
Our forensic SEO audit process is designed to get to the bottom of any issues affecting your website's performance.
We start by reviewing your website architecture and code to uncover its underlying potential. This in-depth review also includes an on-page review to validate if your web pages have all the key elements of an optimized page.
We'll need access to your Google Analytics and Google Search Console to begin our analysis, which can take anywhere from 5 days to more, depending on our current audit schedule and the size of your site's digital footprint.
During the audit, we'll identify any obstacles to your SEO performance, including technical, usability, or content issues, as well as any inbound link, hacking, or negative SEO issues from other sources.
Your Process
Our audit process is designed to give you a comprehensive understanding of your website's performance and identify areas for improvement. We begin by reviewing your website's architecture and code, making sure we uncover the underlying potential of your site.
We'll need access to your Google Analytics and Google Search Console to start the analysis. This will help us understand your website's online footprint and how it's impacting search engine crawlers and prospects.
A forensic website and SEO audit starts with an initial discovery interview, where we get to know you, your business, and your goals. We'll also review your digital footprint, target audience, and ongoing marketing efforts.
Our forensic SEO analysis is like detective work, gathering data, collecting clues, and sifting patterns in your rankings and traffic. We'll break down every aspect of your site, from top to bottom, to find out what's causing you to lose rankings.
A technical website audit identifies programming and technical issues that might be affecting your site's performance. This includes analyzing sitemap, robots.txt, crawl performance, and more.
We'll also review your URL structure, headers, title and meta tags, and other on-page elements to ensure they're optimized for search engines. This includes recommending better internal and inbound linking, easy navigation, and canonicals.
Off-page factors are crucial for search engine optimization, and we'll audit your linking strategies to ensure they're helping or hurting your site. This includes analyzing backlink type, relevance, and placement, as well as providing recommendations for high-quality backlinks.
During the audit process, we'll also perform an in-depth architecture audit to analyze the structure and architecture of your website. This will help us identify the best layout for your site, including a compact menu, efficient internal linking, and better-organized content hierarchy.
We'll also check your robots.txt file and run a site crawl with a tool like Screaming Frog to ensure your site is indexable and not blocked by any technical issues.
To ensure a comprehensive audit, we'll also conduct a competitor research audit to analyze your competitors' SEO strategies and provide recommendations for improvement.
Here's a breakdown of our audit process:
- Initial discovery interview
- Review of Google Analytics and Google Search Console
- Forensic SEO analysis
- Technical website audit
- On-page optimization audit
- Off-page optimization audit
- Competitor research audit
- Architecture audit
- Review of robots.txt file and site crawl
By following this process, we'll give you a clear understanding of your website's performance and provide actionable recommendations for improvement.
User Experience
User Experience is a crucial aspect of your website's success. It directly impacts your website's ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). A good User Experience Audit can help identify the loopholes on your webpage.
The bounce rate, which refers to the percentage of users who leave your website after visiting only a particular page, is a key indicator of User Experience. A higher bounce rate is a bad sign, while a lower one is a good indication that your website is engaging users.
The average time spent by users on your website is another important metric. The longer users stay on your site, the higher your website's performance. Better User Experience leads to higher conversions, which ultimately lead to an increase in sales and revenue.
Here are some key statistics to keep in mind:
A good User Experience Audit will also analyze the user interface and user experience on your site using Google Analytics. This will help you identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to enhance your website's performance.
Audit Analysis
During an SEO audit, factors such as web page code and URL structure are analyzed to ensure search engines can pick up the right pages and ranking signals.
We also look at page load time, as slow-loading pages can negatively impact user experience and search engine rankings.
A well-structured sitemap and robots.txt file are also crucial for search engine crawling and indexing.
Factors like canonicals and redirects are also examined to prevent duplication and ensure search engines understand the website's hierarchy.
The quality and originality of content are also vetted to ensure it meets the best practices for user engagement and search engine optimization.
Images are checked for optimization to improve page load time and search engine crawling.
Navigation and design are assessed for user-friendliness and responsiveness to ensure a seamless user experience.
Factors Analyzed
During an SEO audit, several key factors are analyzed to ensure your website is optimized for search engines. These factors include web page code, URL structure, and page load time.
A website's sitemap and robots.txt file are also examined to ensure search engines can crawl and index your pages correctly. Canonicals and redirects are checked to prevent duplication and ensure users are directed to the correct page.
Content quality is a crucial aspect of an SEO audit, and it's essential to have original, informative, and engaging content that's easy to read. This includes identifying areas where content strategies may need to be adjusted and suggesting additions or removals of specific content.
When examining content, it's also important to compare it with competitors' content, both in terms of quantity and quality. Duplicate content, including meta tags, can negatively impact your website's performance.
A forensic SEO audit requires critical thinking and attention to detail, as even small changes can have a significant impact on traffic. This includes checking for changes in meta tags and page copy, which can affect keyword optimization and user experience.
Other factors considered during a website audit include checking for changed URLs that were not redirected, which can lead to 404 errors and negatively impact search engine rankings. Additionally, inbound link profiles and penalties are examined to ensure your website is not being sabotaged by negative SEO tactics.
Here are some key factors to consider during an SEO audit:
- Web page code
- URL structure
- Page load time
- Sitemap and robots.txt file
- Canonicals and redirects
- Content quality
- Duplicate content
- Inbound link profiles and penalties
By examining these factors, you can identify areas for improvement and optimize your website for better search engine rankings and user experience.
Seasonality and Holiday Impact
The holiday season typically accounts for 25% of annual sales for many businesses, with the majority of sales occurring in the last 30 days of the year.
During peak holiday periods, returns can increase by as much as 20%, highlighting the importance of effective inventory management.
The post-holiday season is often a time of significant returns, with some businesses experiencing up to 30% of their annual returns in the first few weeks of January.
Businesses in the retail industry often see a significant spike in sales during the holiday season, with some experiencing sales increases of up to 50% compared to non-holiday periods.
Seasonal fluctuations in sales can be significant, with some businesses experiencing sales decreases of up to 40% during off-peak periods.
Algorithm Updates
Algorithm updates can be a major contributor to traffic drops, but they're often blamed without solid evidence. Only consider an algorithm update if you can't attribute the entirety of the traffic drop to other factors.
Google sometimes issues statements about algorithm updates on their @SearchLiason Twitter account, so it's worth checking that. You can also consult lists of confirmed algorithm updates, like Moz's list, and reports of unconfirmed ones, as reported on by Search Engine Roundtable.
A confirmed or widely-cited algorithm change date close to the date of your drop is a crucial piece of evidence. If you can't fully attribute the traffic drop to other factors, it's possible that an algorithm update was a factor.
For example, a site experienced a traffic drop starting on June 3, 2019, when Google rolled out a confirmed core algorithm update.
Verification and Review
A forensic SEO audit is all about getting to the bottom of any technical issues that might be holding your website back. This involves a thorough verification and review process to identify and address any problems.
A technical website audit is a crucial step in this process, and it's aimed at identifying programming and technical issues that might be causing poor performance. This audit will look into crawl stats, perform an XML sitemap review, and robots.txt review to ensure web crawlers can crawl your website efficiently.
Here are some key areas to review during a forensic SEO audit:
- Audit crawl stats to identify any crawl errors or performance issues.
- Review the XML sitemap to ensure all pages are included and properly formatted.
- Check the robots.txt file to ensure it's not blocking any important pages or crawl requests.
- Run a few pages through the URL Inspection Tool and test live URL to ensure current indexability.
By thoroughly reviewing these technical aspects of your website, you can identify and address any issues that might be impacting your SEO and overall online presence.
Verify Site Indexability
A Technical Website Audit can identify programming and technical issues on your website, which might be the reason behind its poor performance.
To ensure your site is indexable, look at the robots.txt file and use the Robots.txt testing tool in Search Console if you're unsure.
Run a site crawl with a tool like Screaming Frog to find noindex tags, redirects, and canonical tags that result in certain or all pages being non-indexable.
Check the Coverage report in Search Console, especially the "Excluded" section, for patterns in excluded URLs that might indicate a technical issue.
Run a few pages through the URL Inspection Tool and click "Test Live URL" to ensure current indexability.
Here's what to check in the Coverage report:
- Excluded URLs for patterns that might indicate a technical issue
- Pages that are non-indexable due to noindex tags, redirects, and canonical tags
Verify Traffic Data Accuracy
Make sure the traffic data you're looking at is accurate, as inaccurate data can lead to incorrect conclusions. I've had clients freak out over a significant drop in traffic, only to find out that someone removed the Google Analytics tracking code from the site or made an edit that affected the accuracy of data collection.
Use Tag Assistant to ensure the tracking code is present and functioning correctly. Cross-check against other data sources like SEMRush and Search Console to confirm the accuracy of your findings.
Choose a comparison timeframe that takes into account fluctuations in traffic patterns throughout the week, month, or year. This will help you identify a true drop in organic traffic.
Compare the date range from the organic traffic drop to present day against the same time period before the drop. This will help you determine if the drop is a one-time anomaly or a consistent trend.
Check if all channels dropped or if it was just organic traffic that decreased. If all channels dropped, it could be due to seasonality or a trickle-down effect from a change in other marketing activities.
Performance and Optimization
A forensic SEO audit is like a doctor's visit for your website. It's a thorough examination to identify any issues that might be affecting your search engine rankings.
The audit will review your on-page optimization, which includes things like URL structure, headers, title and meta tags, and more. It's like a check-up to make sure everything is working correctly.
The audit will also analyze your highest traffic-generating keywords and provide a list of additional keywords you should aim for. This helps you understand what people are searching for and how you can optimize your content to match.
A clean URL that reflects the content on your website is also important. This makes it easier for search engines to understand what your content is about.
Our forensic SEO audits also include conversion rate optimization, which is all about increasing the number of clicks that turn into actual conversions. This is like the final step in the sales process, where you turn visitors into customers.
Here are some of the key components of our forensic SEO audits:
- On-Page Optimization Audit
- Conversion Rate Optimization
- Review of URL structure, headers, title and meta tags
- Analysis of highest traffic-generating keywords
- Recommendations for better internal and inbound linking
- Identification of obstacles to SEO performance
With a forensic SEO audit, you'll get a clear understanding of what's working and what's not, and a roadmap to recovery. This helps you fix any issues and get back on track with your search engine rankings.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is forensic SEO?
Forensic SEO is the process of investigating and analyzing website ranking and traffic issues to identify the cause and effect of changes in search engine rankings or traffic. It helps uncover penalties or drops in ranking, allowing for targeted solutions to improve online visibility.
What does an SEO audit include?
An SEO audit assesses a website's on-page elements, content, speed, backlinks, and technical issues to identify areas for improvement. This comprehensive evaluation helps optimize a website's search engine performance and online visibility.
Sources
- https://www.infidigit.com/seo-audit/
- https://www.lalunacreative.com/forensic-website-and-seo-audit/
- https://pamannmarketing.com/16-tips-for-forensic-seo-audit-success-checklist/
- https://www.searchenginerescue.co.uk/forensic-seo
- https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/pubcon-florida-2018-csi-forensic-seo-audits/93357674
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