1. Is my website running fast enough to keep users engaged?
Why is this important? User engagement. If your website loads
too slowly, users will give up and go elsewhere. Your bounce rate will
increase. And Google won’t rank you as highly in the SERPs if your performance
stinks.
This is even more of an issue on mobile. The
same page will typically load even slower on a smartphone or tablet than it
will on a desktop. And users are more impatient, meaning that you are truly
leaving traffic off the table by ignoring performance.
There are several ways to know if your website
is too slow.
2. What can I do to better improve the content on my website?
Content should be reviewed on
a regular basis and adjusted accordingly. If you aren’t benefiting immensely
from your content, take a step back and think about what you could be doing
better.
3. Do I need outside assistance to get my SEO right?
Then spend your own time
working on other areas where you can add more value
4. Are the links pointing to my site of the highest quality?
While technical and on page
SEO are important for getting a site into Google’s index, backlinks to your
website are the most important factor for getting yourself on page 1 for target
keywords. If you want to rank, you need links.
But too many people cheat on links, so now
Google penalizes cheaters. Even websites who didn’t cheat can get hit as
collateral damage, so it is on each of us to ensure our link profile is of the
utmost quality.
Have you ever done a link audit to see if there
are spammy links? You might be surprised what you would find. Businesses who
have previously paid an SEO to rank their site are high risk in this area.
But it’s not only those folks. Even companies
who have never hired an SEO firm can somehow find themselves with spammy links.
Maybe it’s from companies who are trying to hide client links among a large
number of them when link spamming. Maybe a competitor targeted you for negative SEO to move
you down the SERP below them. There could be any of a number of reasons for
spammy links pointing to your site.
Every website needs to be on top of this. It
pays to do a regular review if you want to keep your rankings intact. If you
don’t know how to do it, again, bring in an outside SEO expert to help.
5. Do I have any issues with website errors?
Website
errors are very bad for the health of your technical SEO. There are
a range of error types, with the most common being a 404 (page not found) or
one of the errors in the 500-599 range (typically a server response problem or
similar, meaning the browser asks for a website and the server responds slowly
or not at all).
If you have any errors, you can find out about
them in your Google Search Console. They need immediate attention. 404 errors
can be fixed with 301 redirects. If you are dealing with any 500 errors, bring
in a developer or web pro to help sort it out. These concerns can cause you to
tumble in the SERPs in short order.
6. How is my online reputation holding up?
What do you see when you search for your own
brand name? Hopefully, the first result is your own website. But what is
second, third, and all the way down the organic rankings?
While it may seem out of reach, it is wholly
possible to control the state of your online reputation proactively.
Do you see negative reviews or news about your
business? That happens a lot, and there are ways to push them down.
Are there companies with very similar names
clogging up your SERP? That can also be fixed.
No matter what you do about it, be sure you have
a handle on the state of your online reputation. It could literally be costing
you visits and customers if you let it slide.
7. Is the mobile UX for my website of the highest caliber?
Mobile SEO is no longer an option. With Google’s
release of what the industry referred to as Mobilegeddon in April
2015, mobile became a must-have for anyone who depends on organic traffic for
success (i.e. everyone).
Have you built a responsive website? Have
you run it through Google’s mobile friendly testing tool? If the answer is “no” on either question, you
are dealing with a problem that is both urgent AND important. It needs
immediate attention.
8. Am I ready for the next iteration of Google Penguin?
I mentioned how important links are above, as
well as Google Penguin itself. But there’s another thing to be aware of – Google is about to fold the entire Penguin algorithm in to their
main ranking algorithm.
What does this mean? We likely won’t see manual
penalties for link cheating any more. We’ll just see decreased traffic when
links are subpar.
This is another huge reason to get your links in
order yesterday. If you haven’t suffered from Google Penguin yet, you might
find yourself in a real pickle when they finally decide to go wide with it.
9. Is my website set up properly to target the Knowledge
Graph?
Have you ever noticed that Google now uses the knowledge graph to give you faster access to information right
on the SERP? If you want to get in on that game, you need to use semantic markup on
your website.
Semantic markup helps Google understand entities,
like products, people, locations, etc. Without it, the search engine has to
guess what your real name, address, phone number, products, and more are.
Websites with the right markup are more likely
to find themselves benefiting from Google quick answers and sidebar knowledge
graph boxes. It can’t hurt to do it, so why not get it rolled out at your
earliest convenience?
To learn more about semantic markup, check out schema.org.
10. What are my long term SEO goals?
Everyone wants “free” traffic, i.e. organic or
SEO-driven visits. That’s great. But SEO is not a quick fix.
What do you want to get from that traffic? Have
you thought about how to convert them to leads and business?
SEO for SEO’s sake is a waste of time and money.
You need to think ahead to what you want to get from it. Set yourself goals, be they overall rate of organic traffic
growth, volume of conversions to your list, and even closed business from it.
