How to do Technical Auditing and Monitoring on SEO

When you conduct technical audits and monitoring, it becomes easier to address technical issues that is affecting website performance. It is crucial to focus on the crucial aspects of the website to deliver smooth user experience. 

Technical auditing and monitoring are essential for maintaining the health and performance of your website in terms of SEO. They involve evaluating and optimizing various technical aspects to ensure that your site is properly crawled, indexed, and accessible by search engines. Here are the steps to perform technical auditing and monitoring for SEO:

Website Accessibility: Check if your website is accessible to search engines and users. Ensure that there are no issues with server responses, robots.txt file, or incorrect settings that might block search engine crawlers. Use tools like Google Search Console to identify any accessibility issues.

Crawlability: Verify that search engines can crawl your website effectively. Check for broken links, redirects, or any crawl errors that may hinder search engine bots from accessing your content. Use tools like Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, or third-party crawling tools to identify and fix crawlability issues.

XML Sitemaps: Create and submit XML sitemaps to search engines. XML sitemaps provide a comprehensive list of your website’s URLs, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content. Regularly update and submit sitemaps to reflect any changes on your website.

Website Speed and Performance: Monitor and optimize your website’s speed and performance. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to identify areas for improvement. Optimize images, leverage caching, minify code, and ensure efficient server response times to enhance website speed.

Mobile-Friendliness: Verify that your website is mobile-friendly and responsive. Check how your website appears and functions on different mobile devices and screen sizes. Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to identify any mobile usability issues and make necessary optimizations.

URL Structure: Ensure your website’s URL structure is clean, descriptive, and user-friendly. Avoid using dynamic or complex URLs that contain excessive parameters or session IDs. Use static, keyword-rich URLs that accurately reflect the content of each page.

Canonicalization: Implement canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues. Canonical tags help search engines identify the preferred version of a page when multiple versions with similar content exist. Use canonical tags to consolidate link equity and avoid content duplication.

Schema Markup: Implement structured data markup (schema markup) to provide additional context and information to search engines. Schema markup helps search engines understand your content better and may lead to rich snippets in search results.

HTTPS and Security: Ensure your website is secured with an SSL certificate and is accessible via HTTPS. HTTPS is a ranking signal, and secure websites provide a safer browsing experience for users. Regularly monitor for security vulnerabilities and address them promptly.

Monitor Indexing: Keep track of how search engines are indexing your website. Use tools like Google Search Console to monitor index status, index coverage, and any indexing issues. Address any indexation problems such as crawl errors or pages not being indexed.

Structured Data Validation: Validate the structured data markup on your website to ensure it is correctly implemented. Use tools like Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool or Schema.org’s validator to check for errors or issues in your structured data.

Monitor Algorithm Updates: Stay informed about search engine algorithm updates and their potential impact on your website’s performance. Regularly follow industry news, SEO blogs, and official search engine announcements to adapt your technical SEO strategies accordingly.

Performing regular technical audits and monitoring helps maintain the health and performance of your website in search engine rankings. By addressing technical issues promptly and staying updated with best practices, you can ensure that your website remains optimized for SEO and provides a positive user experience.

By implementing the above strategies you can focus on the key areas like website speed, crawlability, site structure, metadata, and mobile responsiveness. It will ultimately drive more traffic to meet your SEO goals efficiently and generate better returns.