Sunday, February 3, 2013

The Fundamentals of an SEO Audit

Internet marketing specialists agree that SEO or Search Engine Optimization has evolved into a lucrative business. It used to be a mere web tool used to maximize search engines, but it transformed into a fundamental practice for online businesses to succeed. It has become a large industry utilized by companies who want to efficiently promote their goods and services.



Because this field is dynamic, frequent changes or interferences caused by SEO tests are commonly encountered by many - which affect their websites both positively and negatively. While these changes keep things current, they also make SEO audit difficult for some webmasters. Typical problems involve awkward title tags and weak coding.

SEO audit is the process by which webmasters determine any issues that prevent their target site from getting high ranks in search engines based on particular keywords. These  must be considered to be able to perform an audit properly:

The XML Sitemap
This file stores information about all the web pages for use by search engine spiders and users. The simple concept of a sitemap is to create a single comprehensive catalogue of all the web pages. This helps engine spiders index and find content, especially if an official site has many dynamic pages.

The Robots.txt file
Search engine spiders will look for this file the moment they arrive on a site. Webmasters must not tamper with this, because it has the power to allow or prohibit access to certain sections or pages in the site. It also directs the search engines to the XML sitemap which catalogues all the pages.

Internal links
While the pages are connected through footer or top navigation bar links, they have no significance to the users or the SEO specialists. The backlinks in the content are what’s important to users since they can easily jump from one page to another by clicking these links. Webmasters use internal links to attract a lot of web traffic and keep visitors within the site.

Meta description
A smart webmaster will use this to effectively explain the purpose of the target site. If the search engines do not find this, it might display an error sentence on the page or use another relevant source instead.

For more information on effective SEO audit and other topics related to web designing and Internet Marketing  contact 9Dotstrategies today. Let our skilled professionals help you optimize your official site.