SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON The state of SEO auditing in 2023 is Challenging Site got hit by last updates, lost marketshare vs main competitor, won't be able to achieve goals and still have all seo recommendations from the last 6 months in backlog
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Economic uncertainty Other faster, easier- to-understand marketing channels Increasing organization bureaucracy Less buy-in, resources, and support to execute
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Higher implementation constraints Legacy systems- related tech debt New JS-reliant Web frameworks
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Greater difficulty predicting results Search updates Shifting organic real estate in SERPs Potential impact of AI/Generative Search
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON It’s not only you! I asked +370 SEOs working on audits via the SEOFOMO SEO Auditing Survey https://hub.seofomo.co/seo-auditing-survey/
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Most SEOs have a hard time
with Audits Execution Too many SEOs (35%) had key recommendations implemented only 50%-69% of the time Only 20% see their recommendations implemented +90% of the time
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON As a consequence, it’s also getting harder
to achieve SEO goals Only 17% of SEOs said they achieved goals more than 90% of the time 53% of SEOs said it’s harder achieving SEO goals compared to 2 years ago
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Let’s go through 7 actions to integrate within
your SEO auditing process and recommendations Do a radical SEO prioritization w/ a 10 action plan leveraging storytelling Develop a parallel “SEO low-hanging fruit” framework Set an SEO quality framework Normalize forecasting to kill ambiguity Communicate “no SEO execution” tradeoffs Normalize SEO testing to gain support Use AI or Edge SEO and solutions to accelerate execution 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Nivel de texto 1
Nivel de texto 2
Nivel de texto 3
Nivel de texto 4
Nivel de texto 5 IMPACT EFFORT 1.
To Execute
Now Don’t Do 2.
To Assess
2.
To Assess
Recommendation Impact [0-10] Effort [0-10] To Prioritize Higher Medium impacting with high effort 6 4 12 Low impacting with high effort 4 4 8 Low impacting with very high effort 4 2 6 Very low impacting with very high effort 2 2 4 To achieve goals more easily, we already prioritize SEO recommendations based on impact and effort
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON https://hub.seofomo.co/seo-auditing-survey/ “Insufficient resources, including human resources, budget, or development capacity” https://hub.seofomo.co/seo-auditing-survey/ But it’s clearly not working, we face buy-in, resources, and support issues for execution
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Prioritized Tech SEO Recommendations Should we be surprised though? Even if prioritized, who goes through all of these and has the resources to implement them?
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON + Prioritized Tech SEO Recommendations Prioritized Content Recommendations And those were only the tech SEO ones! What when we add content into the plan? It’s too much!
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON FIXING IMPROVING BUILDING Creating key content to target new relevant queries through user search journey to grow organic conversions further to achieve goals Optimizing key existing content through the customer journey to grow organic conversions for already targeted relevant queries Minimizing crawlability or indexability challenges on key pages to keep and grow rankings, traf fi c and conversions SCOPE OF YOUR SEO RECOMMENDATIONS SCOPE BEFORE Your recommendations shouldn’t include all that matters, is too complex & won’t be done anyway
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON It’s time for a radical prioritization, w/ a maximum of 10 high impact solution driven, action plan FIXING IMPROVING BUILDING Creating key content to target new relevant queries through user search journey to grow organic conversions further to achieve goals Optimizing key existing content through the customer journey to grow organic conversions for already targeted relevant queries Minimizing crawlability or indexability challenges on key pages to keep and grow rankings, traf fi c and conversions SCOPE OF YOUR SEO RECOMMENDATIONS SCOPE LATER
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON You will only include what you should execute now, and leave the rest for future iterations IMPACT EFFORT 1.
To Execute
Now Don’t Do 2.
To Assess
2.
To Assess
Eliminate anything that doesn’t have a high impact towards your current goals: only must-have, not nice-to- have! Be specific of the scope of the execution (type and number of pages) Clearly specify how each action will help achieve the established seo goal and the business importance Provide examples of what needs to be executed, so it shows viability
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Leverage data storytelling to explain, engage & drive action with each of your recommendations What happened? Why Did it Happen? How to Proceed? SETUP CONFLICT RESOLUTION RECOMMENDATION X WHAT IS THE ISSUE/OPPORTUNITY ABOUT & WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT CAUSE OF THE ISSUE/OPPORTUNITY PROPOSED SOLUTION FOR ISSUE/OPPORTUNITY
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON WHAT IS THE ISSUE/ OPPORTUNITY ABOUT & WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT CAUSE OF ISSUE/ OPPORTUNITY PROPOSED SOLUTION FOR ISSUE/OPPORTUNITY WHAT IS THE ISSUE/ OPPORTUNITY ABOUT & WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT CAUSE OF ISSUE/ OPPORTUNITY PROPOSED SOLUTION FOR ISSUE/OPPORTUNITY SEO RECOMMENDATIONS STTRUCTURE Executive Summary PAGE 1 PAGE 2 PAGE 3 ACTION 3 ACTION 2 ACTION 1 SEO ACTIONS TO ACHIEVE GOALS Setup
Conflict
Resolution Setup
Conflict
Resolution Setup
Conflict
Resolution Conclusion Data Appendix ACTION 2 ACTION 3 Feature an executive summary at the start
to facilitate it further to decision makers WHAT IS THE ISSUE/ OPPORTUNITY ABOUT & WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT CAUSE OF ISSUE/ OPPORTUNITY PROPOSED SOLUTION FOR ISSUE/OPPORTUNITY ACTION 1
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Remember you’re not paid to spot all
SEO issues, but for achieving SEO goals by solving those that are actually hurting the business Feature a maximum of 10 high impact to goals actions Use storytelling to better communicate importance and drive action Add an easy to understand executive summary for decision makers
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Nivel de texto 1
Nivel de texto 2
Nivel de texto 3
Nivel de texto 4
Nivel de texto 5 IMPACT EFFORT 1.
To Execute
Now Don’t Do 2.
To Assess
2.
To Assess
Low hanging fruit should be the first to prioritize, as they have the highest impact with the lowest effort But there are always context agnostic SEO low- hanging fruit opportunities across processes
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Rankings, Keyword & Competition Research Content Audit T echnical Audit Link Popularity Audit SEO Strategy & Prioritized SEO Roadmap Initial SEO Analysis for an SEO Process Parallel Low Hanging Fruit Assessment Low Hanging Fruit SEO Opportunities Assessment SEO Roadmap Implementation Low Hanging Fruit Recommendations Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 SEO
Process Goals These can be developed in parallel to initial
SEO analysis to achieve results much faster SEO Low Hanging Fruit Execution SEO
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Mitigate client or decision maker impatience towards results Show value of SEO implementation faster to gain further support Minimize concerns of complex implementations starting with easiest actions Establish a good coordination base for more complex implementation later on This also helps to address some of the big
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Non-Relevant Term for your Site Poor SERPs CTR Relevant Term for your Site Non-Relevant Ranked Page Lack of content to be created to effectively target the query Non-Relevant / Unattractive Titles and Meta Descriptions to Optimize Relevant Ranked Page SERP features inclusion that you’re not leveraging but could SERP features inclusion that you’re not leveraging but can’t use More ads inclusion that lowers CTR Search intent satisfied directly in search results, generating a non-click Content Cannibalization to fix between many similar/relevant pages High Priority
Medium Priority
No Priority Set a validation checklist for common scenarios of low hanging fruits, eg. poor SERPs CTR
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON HTTPS://DATASTUDIO.GOOGLE.COM/REPORTING/8FBF65E6-9C0A-4627-95AC-F858BFAC89E2 Create resources, like Dashboards to identify top opportunities like this for poorer CTR performers
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON RYTE AND SEOTESTING. COM Automate the process using tools like Ryte or SEOtesting, that feature CTR Underperformers
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON 3Set an SEO quality framework not only to catch but also prevent bugs that will hold SEO execution back
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Nivel de texto 1
Nivel de texto 2
Nivel de texto 3
Nivel de texto 4
Nivel de texto 5 Texto del título A lot of effort when executing SEO goes to catching recurring bugs, rather than new actions https://twitter.com/aleyda/status/1506606557966045184
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Nivel de texto 1
Nivel de texto 2
Nivel de texto 3
Nivel de texto 4
Nivel de texto 5 Texto del título FIXING IMPROVING BUILDING Creating content to target new relevant queries through user search journey Optimizing existing content for already targeted relevant queries Minimizing tech debt to avoid crawlability, indexability and page experience issues We’re stuck at fixing, instead of building
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON “Lack of internal resources, knowledge, or competency in implementing SEO recommendations” With a combination of education, validation and monitoring is how we will be able to address these recurrent issues
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Nivel de texto 1
Nivel de texto 2
Nivel de texto 3
Nivel de texto 4
Nivel de texto 5 Texto del título COMPANY CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO GUIDELINES/ WIKI ONLINE SEO TRAINING AND Q&AS FOR TECH/CONTENT/ [STAKEHOLDERS] TEAMS RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS FEATURING SEO CONCEPTS & IMPORTANCE TOWARDS GOALS INCLUDE A “WHY DOES THIS MATTER” SECTION IN AUDIT & REPORTS CREATE PERSONALIZED GUIDELINES WITHIN WIKI/PM PLATFORM DO LIVE (AND RECORD) WEBINARS & Q&AS WITH INVOLVED TEAMS It begins with a base of SEO education when delivering the SEO recommendations
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Personalize the training based on the team/audience profile Feature real scenarios & examples from your SEO audit & research Don’t blame or have a negative focus, acknowledge efforts so far It’s critical to show the value of SEO in other teams’ goals, to establish understanding
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Nivel de texto 1
Nivel de texto 2
Nivel de texto 3
Nivel de texto 4
Nivel de texto 5 Texto del título WEB PLATFORM CONFIGURATION/SETTINGS CHANGES INTEGRATED VALIDATION CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST FOR COMMON WORKFLOWS RECURRING / ONGOING SEO TECH/CONTENT VALIDATION PRE & POST WEB RELEASES SET RECURRING CRAWLS
WITH SEO CRAWLERS WEB PLATFORMS SEO CONFIGURATION CHECKS CREATE EASY TO FOLLOW/USE CHECKLISTS FOR USUAL ACTIVITIES Strengthen your SEO Quality Framework with a seamless SEO execution validation workflow
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON INDEXABLE CATEGORY PAGES WITH <3 INVENTORY & NO SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION HAS > N TRAFFIC OBFUSCATE LINKS, ELIMINATE FROM XML SITEMAPS AND CANONICALIZE PARENT CATEGORY TARGETS QUERY > Y SEARCH VOLUME HAS FEATURED >3 PRODUCTS IN LAST X MONTHS NO YES NO YES NO KEEP INDEXED AND ADD SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION Automate feasible SEO validations within the Web platform w/ plugins & development support
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON PRE-RELEASE SEO VALIDATION: OK? SEO IMPLEMENTATION YES NO YES ON-GOING SEO VALIDATION SEO RELEASE NO FIX POST-RELEASE SEO VALIDATION: OK? YES NO FIX ON-GOING SEO VALIDATION: OK? YES NO FIX IN LESS 24H REVERSE IMPLEMENTATION Set a release validation workflow, before and
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON WEB CONTENT & TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION CHANGES ALERTS WEBSITE SEARCH CRAWLING ISSUES ALERTS WEB RANKINGS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC & CONVERSIONS DECREASE/ INCREASE ALERTS QUERIES SEARCH POPULARITY DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS MENTIONS & BACKLINKS ALERTS SPAM OR MANUAL ACTIONS ALERTS WEB ANALYTICS TOOLS SEO CONFIGURATION ALERTS TOOLS (LITTLE WARDEN, CONTENTKING) WEB SERVER LOG MONITORING TOOL AND SEARCH CONSOLE RANK TRACKERS SEARCH TRENDS TOOLS MENTIONS/BACKLINKS TOOLS GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE Finally, set a monitoring system to catch
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON LITTLE WARDEN & CONTENTKING Configure your real-time monitoring to catch when meaningful tech & content change
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON LITTLE WARDEN & CONTENTKING Set the alerts so they go to the relevant email, slack or pm tool to not be missed
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Nivel de texto 1
Nivel de texto 2
Nivel de texto 3
Nivel de texto 4
Nivel de texto 5 Texto del título WEB PLATFORM CONFIGURATION/SETTINGS CHANGES INTEGRATED VALIDATION ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC & CONVERSIONS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS WEB RANKINGS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS QUERIES SEARCH POPULARITY DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS WEB CONTENT & TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION CHANGES ALERTS CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST FOR COMMON WORKFLOWS COMPANY CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO GUIDELINES/WIKI ONLINE SEO TRAINING AND Q&AS FOR TECH/CONTENT/[STAKEHOLDERS] TEAMS RECURRING / ONGOING SEO TECH/CONTENT VALIDATION PRE & POST WEB RELEASES EDUCATION VALIDATION MONITORING MENTIONS & BACKLINKS ALERTS WEBSITE SEARCH CRAWLING ISSUES ALERTS SPAM OR MANUAL ACTIONS ALERTS SEO QUALITY ASSURANCE FRAMEWORK RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS FEATURING SEO CONCEPTS & IMPORTANCE TOWARDS GOALS This is how you say goodbye to continuous SEO bugs that hold your execution back
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Learn more about setting a Quality Assurance Framework in this presentation https://speakerdeck.com/aleyda/goodbye-seo-fck-ups-learn-to-set-an-seo-quality-assurance-framework
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON 4Normalize forecasting based on different execution scenarios to kill ambiguity and set expectations
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON We complain that “Clients prioritize other channels as they fail to understand the impact of SEO recommendations” but we continue saying “it depends” when asked
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON It’s time to stop those “it depends” and start SEO forecasting to give potential outcomes depending on execution support SCENARIO 1 SCENARIO 2 EXECUTING ACTIONS X, Y, Z EXECUTING ACTION X
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON ADVANCED WEB RANKING Develop forecasts with tools like AWR for targeted queries impacted by different SEO actions
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON https://erudite.agency/insights/forecasting-for-seo-creating-expectation-and-showing-return-on-investment/ You can also use free resources like
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON ADVANCED WEB RANKING Use this to explain how results are tied to execution scenarios and compound over time
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON This will help to establish reasonable expectations and show importance of decision makers support
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON 5Communicate “no SEO execution” tradeoffs toward goals and the cost to get them w/ other channels
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Include in your SEO forecasts how much would it cost to achieve it with paid search, to show how cheap SEO can be
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON This is also a way to address obstacles from other areas and eliminate ego and opinions out of SEO execution decision making “Political issues, top management vetoes, or internal conflicts affecting implementation.” “Bureaucratic processes, approval delays, or challenges in communication across stakeholders.”
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON There are now a few SEO tools like SEOTesting or Ryte that facilitate the development of SEO tests SEOTESTING.COM
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON SEOTESTING.COM You can prove the value of your recommendations by executing them faster in a small group of pages, and get support for full execution
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Select a few categories to implement fast and assess impact vs similar unchanged ones:
* Positive result? Replicate to rest.
* Negative outcome? Move to other implementations! For example, to show value and address conversion or speed concerns when featuring FAQs in ecommerce category pages
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON This will facilitate not only decision makers buy-in but eliminate blockers from other areas/channels vs Conversions Speed …
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON 7Leverage AI or Edge SEO to accelerate execution in bureaucratic scenarios to prove value & get buy-in
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Despite the hype, most haven’t used AI for SEO auditing but plan to do it • No, but I plan to do it: 53%
• Yes, I have: 26%
• No, and I don’t plan to do it: 21% Have you incorporated AI? https://hub.seofomo.co/seo-auditing-survey/
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON But there’s much more potential, with many use cases shared by 26% of SEOs already using AI https://hub.seofomo.co/seo-auditing-survey/ Leveraging AI for Data Analysis and Visualization Language and Content Assistance Technical SEO support Content Audits and Analysis Using AI to classify URLs and conduct analysis across a data set. Using AI tools to explain technical issues to non- technical stakeholders. Using AI tools like Similar.ai and MerchStack for e-commerce. Experimenting with AI tools for content improvement and generating micro-copy. Automation and Efficiency Research and Competitive Analysis Reporting Automation Link Building and Backlinks Seeking ways to improve efficiency, speed up audits, and avoid manual mistakes. Using AI tools for research, analysis, and topic extraction. Automating reports and showcasing the ROI of tasks. Using AI tools for identifying link opportunities and analyzing backlink quality.
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON It’s time to use AI and edge to facilitate the execution of technical SEO configurations in restrictive Web platforms “Technical complexities, limitations, or difficulties in implementing recommendations” “Legacy systems, technical debt, or platform constraints affecting implementation”
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON “But this will require to more effort/boss approval/etc.> and that’s hard” Do a radical SEO prioritization w/ a 10 action plan leveraging storytelling Set an SEO quality framework Normalize forecasting to kill ambiguity Communicate “no SEO execution” tradeoffs Normalize SEO testing to gain support 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Use AI or Edge SEO and solutions to accelerate execution Develop a parallel “SEO low-hanging fruit” framework
SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #MOZCON Is it hard? Perfect, fewer people will be willing to do it, meaning less competition for those who do
aleyda
pavelungr
bastiangrimm
rvth
jmfelip
flatt_security
1118
lcrafty
laurenelizapr
azaharacorrales
arinelli
smartwill
brianwarren
geoffreycrofte
brettharned
cassininazir
mclloyd
keithpitt
tmm1
jeffersonlam
chrislema
robhawkes
smashingmag
morganepeng