How to do a manual website SEO review (a vital step in the SEO audit process)

TL;DR

Learn how to manually review a website to gain insight into its purpose, content, and potential technical issues before using SEO tools.

Transcript

hello my name is olga today i will be showing you how to manually manually review the site before you even start crawling and analyzing it with a variety of tools such as screaming frog or side bulb so this is the purpose of this manual review is to simply kind of get the feel of the site maybe understand it better to see what's really what it is r... Read More

Key Insights

• 🔎 Understanding the purpose: The manual review of a website before using SEO tools helps gain a better understanding of the site's purpose, content, and potential technical issues that may go unnoticed by automated tools.
• 🔍 Homepage analysis: When conducting a manual review, start by examining the homepage to ensure everything appears okay and is crawlable. Pay attention to broken links, visibility issues, and the presence of essential elements like breadcrumbs.
• 🌐 Navigation links and functionality: Review all the links in the navigation menu to check if they are working and pointing to the right pages. Additionally, analyze the implementation of images and ensure they have appropriate alt tags.
• 💼 Examining page categories: If a website has various page categories, such as blog posts or product pages, review each category to understand the content and structure. Verify if canonical tags are correctly implemented.
• 🔧 SEO plugin usage: Utilize SEO plugins like SEO Indexability Check or Detailed SEO to gather insights during the manual review process. These plugins can help identify indexability, nofollow links, headings structure, and more. ⏩ Checking specific pages: Assessing sample posts and pages within different categories allows for a deeper analysis. Look for elements like links to categories, publication dates, images, table of contents, and moderated comments.
• 🔐 Important site pages: Confirm if the site includes crucial pages like an about page, content page, privacy policy, and terms of conditions. Ensure that these pages are indexable.
• ⚡️ Page speed insights: Alongside the manual review, using Google Page Speed Insights gives an initial understanding of a website's performance in terms of Core Web Vitals and field data. A good field data result suggests satisfactory speed performance.
• 🔍 Index status: Check the indexed pages using the site: command in Google search. Analyze the number of indexed pages and evaluate them using tools like Ahrefs or extensions like G Infinity to view indexed pages beyond the first page.
• 📊 Analyzing through Ahrefs: Through Ahrefs, review organic traffic trends, background profile, and top pages to gain insights into a website's performance and backlink profile.
• 📱 Mobile responsiveness: Verify if the website is responsive by changing different mobile device types during the inspection, ensuring the site adapts properly.
• 🗣 Monitoring brand opinions: Search for the brand name in quotation marks to see public opinions and gather insights about the website's reputation.
• 🔄 Combining manual review and crawling: While the manual review provides an overview, combine it with crawling tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider for a comprehensive analysis. Each tool offers unique data, allowing for a thorough SEO assessment.
• 📚 Constant improvement: Request suggestions for improving future videos while offering an opportunity for viewers to ask questions. Collaboration and feedback contribute to better content creation.

Questions & Answers

Q: Why is it recommended to start with a manual review of a website before using SEO tools?

Starting with a manual review allows you to gain a better understanding of the site's purpose, content, and potential technical issues that SEO tools may not detect. It provides you with a broader overview and context before diving into more detailed analysis.

Q: What are some key aspects to check during a manual review of a website?

During a manual review, important aspects to check include the home page, links and navigation, images and alt tags, different groups of pages (such as categories or blog posts), presence of about pages and key legal pages, structure of headings, and mobile responsiveness of the site.

Q: How can you assess the indexability of pages during a manual review?

To assess indexability, you can use SEO plugins like SEO indexability check from Deep Pro or inspect canonical tags. Checking for green indicators or canonical tags pointing to the correct pages indicates indexability, while red indicators or incorrect canonical tags suggest indexability issues.

Q: What insights can be gained from using Google PageSpeed Insights during a manual review?

Google PageSpeed Insights provides information about a website's speed and performance. It shows field data, which is based on actual user experience, and can indicate if a website meets Google's Core Web Vitals for speed. This information helps guide your assessment and audit of the site.

Q: Why is it useful to use Ahrefs during a manual review, and what can you check with it?

Ahrefs allows you to analyze different aspects of a website, such as organic traffic trends, backlink profiles, top pages, and the number of indexed pages. This information can help you understand the overall performance and visibility of the site.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The video discusses the importance of manually reviewing a website before using SEO tools.

• The presenter demonstrates how to review the home page, check links and navigation, inspect images, and analyze different groups of pages.

• Additional techniques covered include checking for an about page, privacy policy, and content pages, as well as assessing headings and using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Ahrefs.