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
Economic uncertainty Other faster, easier- to-understand marketing channels Increasing organization bureaucracy Less buy-in, resources, and support to execute
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
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
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.
Nivel de texto 1 Nivel de texto 2 Nivel de texto 3 Nivel de texto 4 Nivel de texto 5 We know how critical is to establish action driven, solution-focused, prioritized recommendations https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/seo-flowcharts/#1-2
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
There are many frameworks for this, I shared an SEO Actions Prioritization Template to help HTTPS://DOCS.GOOGLE.COM/SPREADSHEETS/D/15DD2VFZE203ZIKD-VTQLG3WG-YQY9A-HS5J7AT- S4JA/VIEW
However, this is not enough, most SEOs are already doing it https://hub.seofomo.co/seo-auditing-survey/ • +90% of the time: 62% SEOs • 70%-89% of the time: 24% SEOs • 50%-69% of the time: 10% SEOs • 20%-49% of the time: 2% SEOs • -20% of the time: 1% SEOs • Balancing Impact vs Effort • Focus on Business Goals and Objectives Achievement • Setting an Optimized Web Base First • Balancing Resources and Feasibility SEO Prioritization Frequency SEO Prioritization Criteria
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
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?
+ 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!
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 BEFORE Your recommendations shouldn’t include all that matters, is too complex & won’t be done anyway
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 LATER
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
Your recommendations will become easier to go through and execute vs IMPACT EFFORT 1. To Execute Now Don’t Do 2. To Assess 2. To Assess SEO RECOMMENDATIONS BEFORE SEO RECOMMENDATIONS AFTER
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
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
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
Nivel de texto 1 Nivel de texto 2 Nivel de texto 3 Nivel de texto 4 Nivel de texto 5 SEO long term nature is one of the main reasons for its execution challenges “Lack of time, delays, or impatience from clients expecting immediate results”
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
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
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 recommendations execution challenges
More traffic for already ranked pages More Popularity for Key Pages Refreshed Targeting to Regain Traffic For example, here are 3 SEO low-hanging fruit actions you can easily execute across processes Improving the CTR of already top- ranked pages Optimizing internal linking of almost best ranking pages Identifying search shifts and content decay to update & rank better
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
HTTPS://DATASTUDIO.GOOGLE.COM/REPORTING/8FBF65E6-9C0A-4627-95AC-F858BFAC89E2 Create resources, like Dashboards to identify top opportunities like this for poorer CTR performers
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
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 which is how we actually achieve goals
Nivel de texto 1 Nivel de texto 2 Nivel de texto 3 Nivel de texto 4 Nivel de texto 5 Texto del título SEO RECOMMENDATIONS ONGOING SEO EXECUTION SEO QUALITY ASSURANCE FRAMEWORK EDUCATION To prevent SEO mistakes VALIDATION To avoid launching SEO Errors MONITORING To catch SEO incidents fast This is why it’s fundamental to set an SEO quality framework, that starts when auditing the site
“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
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
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
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
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
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 after launching, taking “what-ifs” into account
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
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
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
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
https://erudite.agency/insights/forecasting-for-seo-creating-expectation-and-showing-return-on-investment/ You can also use free resources like Miracle’s guide in Excel
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.”
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
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/
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.
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”
“But this will require to <change how methods/ 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
I’m Aleyda Solis * SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti * SEO Speaker at +100 Events in +20 countries * Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.” * Crawling Mondays Video & Podcast Series Host * #SEOFOMO & #MarketingFOMO Newsletters Author * Maker LearningSEO.io * European Search Personality of the Year in 2018 * remoters.net Co-Founder Thanks! Questions? SEO AUDITS IN 2023 BY @ALEYDA FROM ORAINTI AT #LOCALSEOFORGOOD
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