MKEsearch 2018 | CSI: Forensic SEO Audits
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This document discusses conducting a forensic SEO audit using a 4-stage investigation model. Stage 1 involves preparation including interviews and initial assessments. Stage 2 is evidence acquisition through audits, logs, and tools. Stage 3 is analyzing the evidence to prioritize issues. Stage 4 disseminates results through a report, action items, and accountability measures. The document provides examples of evidence collection on technical issues like structured data, rendering, and geolocation. It emphasizes connecting clues to identify root causes and aligning stakeholders on next steps.
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MKEsearch 2018 | CSI: Forensic SEO Audits
- 1. CSI:Forensic SEO Audits 1 5 /16/18
- 2. Perficient Digital Renee Girard @renee_girard • An SEO since 2012 • 6+years ofdigital agency experience • SMB toFortune 1000 clients • Pubcon, Marquette, andUWM speaker 2
- 4. Bad audits should be considered a crime 4Perficient Digital
- 5. Perficient Digital 5 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Information Overload 1 Domain ~9,000,000 Pages 1,200+ GMB Listings 2 Regions/Languages 150+ Items Audited 53-Page TechnicalAudit 4 Hours of Meetings 50+ JIRA Tickets 4 Months Later…
- 6. Perficient Digital 6 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Hurry Up andWait of enterprise SEOs wait at least a year for critical technicalchanges to be implemented 48% Source: https://moz.com/blog/how-long-are-seos-waiting-for-their-most-important-changes
- 7. Perficient Digital 7 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Computer Forensic Investigation Model Source: Taylor,Haggerty& Gresty(2007)OrganisationalModelforComputer ForensicsInvestigations • Identify the purpose of investigation • Identify resources required Stage 1 InvestigationPreparation • Identify sources of digitalevidence • Preserve digitalevidence Stage 2 Evidence Acquisition • Identify tools and technique to use • Process data • Interpret analysis results Stage 3 Analysisof Evidence • Report findings • Present findings Stage 4 Results Dissemination
- 8. Perficient Digital 8 @renee_girard | #mkesearch SEO Forensic Investigation Investigation Preparation Evidence Acquisition Results Dissemination Evidence Analysis Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Perficient Digital
- 9. Stage 1: Investigation Preparation 9Perficient Digital
- 10. Perficient Digital Stage1: Investigation Prep 10 @renee_girard | #mkesearch • Obtain warrants • Analytics • Google Search Console • Bing Webmaster Tools • Log files • Third-partytools • Conduct interviews • Discovery Q&A • Mission alignment
- 11. Perficient Digital DiscoveryQ&A 11 @renee_girard | #mkesearch • Stakeholders • Business goals andobjectives • KPIs • Targetaudience andgeographic regions • Competitors • Value props • Seasonality andcyclicality • Criticalkeywords • SEO efforts (past andpresent) • Site relaunches, redesigns, migrations (past andpresent) • Paidsearch efforts (past andpresent) • Platform limitations Business Digital
- 12. Stage 2: Evidence Acquisition 12Perficient Digital
- 13. Perficient Digital Stage2: EvidenceAcquisition 13 @renee_girard | #mkesearch • Conduct initial assessments • Proceed with audit checklist • Take screenshots, notes, andsave everything • Appendix (Mostly) FreeTools >> bit.ly/seo-tools-2018
- 14. Perficient Digital Initial Assessments 14 @renee_girard | #mkesearch • Google Search Console • Bing Webmaster Tools • Site crawl • Analytics
- 15. Mind your [crawl] manners 15Perficient Digital
- 16. Perficient Digital 16 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Case of Rogue Subdomains Crimes: Duplicatesubdomainsandstaging sitesindexed, earning backlinks,andwastingcrawlresources Perpetrator #1: No passwordauthenticationblocking staging sites Perpetrator #2:Pagesmissed duringmigration
- 17. Perficient Digital More Initial Assessments 17 @renee_girard | #mkesearch • LogFile Analysis • Page PrioritizationInventory • Page Template Review • Search Visibility Matrix • MobileAssessment • Rendering Assessment
- 18. Escalate what can’t wait 18Perficient Digital
- 19. Perficient Digital LogFileAnalysis Idealfor: • Massive websites • Investigating abnormalities • Post-launch auditing 19
- 20. Perficient Digital 20 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Case of AggressiveBot Crawling Crime: Aggressive botbehavior causedsiteoutages Perpetrator: Bingbotmadeup 69% ofall eventsbutonly10% oforganic traffic
- 21. Perficient Digital 21 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Case of BrokenIP-Based Geolocation Crime:Crawlbarriersevident byrewrittentitletagsand Canadawhich received 34% –50% ofall Googlebotevents Perpetrator: IP-basedredirectsforcedanyuser/botfromthe US tothe Canadahomepagebydefault
- 22. Perficient Digital Page Prioritization Inventory 22 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Step 1: Createan inventory byexporting pages from all available tools intotheir own tab Step 2: Compileall pages intoa single column on a new tab anddedupe Step 3: Addcolumns forcritical metrics andVLOOKUPtheir values fromtheir respective tab Step 4: Crawlthe list andadd HTTP status codes Step 5: Adda column for PriorityScore that sums up all metrics
- 23. Perficient Digital 23 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Page Prioritization Inventory Example PriorityScore= Sumofall values
- 24. Perficient Digital Page Template Review 24 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Step 1: Identify page templates Ex.– CMS,category, subcategory, facet, product, blog post Step 2: Run each template through compliance checks Step 3: Determine issues that occur globally oracross certain templates
- 25. Perficient Digital 25 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Page Template Review Example # Area of Examination Examination Doesit Exist? Does it Comply? Findings Category Template: https://domain.com/sample-url 1 Title Tags Yes Yes 2 Meta Descriptions Yes Yes Increase characters/pixels 3 Meta Robots Tag Yes Yes 4 Header Tags Yes Yes Optimize header tags 5 Unique Text Yes No Need unique, optimized copy 6 Facets/Filters Yes No Discuss options for crawl control 7 Images Yes No Add alt text 8 Pagination Yes No Discuss rel=next/prev options 9 Structured Data No -- Add breadcrumb markup 10 Load More No -- 11 Video No -- Discuss adding video
- 26. Perficient Digital 26 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Search VisibilityMatrix 𝑆𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑉𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 = 𝑆𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 × 1 𝑃𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 Matrix Tutorial >> bit.ly/svs-tutorial FreeSVS Matrix Download >> bit.ly/pubcon-svs
- 27. Perficient Digital MobileAssessment 27 @renee_girard | #mkesearch https://developers.google.com/search/mobile- sites/mobile-first-indexing
- 28. Perficient Digital 28 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Mobile Assessment https://technicalseo.com/seo-tools/mobile-first-index/
- 29. Perficient Digital 29 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Rendering Assessment There’sstill alot wedon’tknow
- 30. Perficient Digital Rendering Assessment 30 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Step 1: Audit the presence ofthe essentials in both “versions” • Initial HTML • Rendered HTML– Google’s preference Step 2: Decryptandminimize contradictions • Rendered HTMLonly –Non-JavaScript rendering search engines likely cannotrender Step 3: Identify user event dependencies
- 31. Google cannot click, scroll, or hover 31Perficient Digital
- 32. Perficient Digital 32 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Rendering Initial HTML ViewPageSource Fetch as Googlebot ScreamingFrog – OriginalHTML Rendered HTML Inspect Element Rich Results TestingTool Mobile Friendly Testing Tool ScreamingFrog–RenderedHTML* CACHE *Chrome 60
- 33. Perficient Digital 33 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Rendering Assessment JavaScriptrendering + StoreHTML
- 34. Perficient Digital 34 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Case of UnoptimizedImages Crime#1:Productimages notcrawlabletonon-JavaScript- renderingsearchengines Crime#2:Missing alttext Perpetrator: Magnifyingwidget needsJavaScript Perpetrator: Magento2 bug
- 35. Stage 3: Evidence Analysis 35Perficient Digital
- 36. Perficient Digital Stage3: Evidence Analysis 36 @renee_girard | #mkesearch • Connect the clues • Direct vs. indirect relationships • Prioritizecollected evidence • Expected LOEvs. business impact • Threat vs. opportunity • Nice-to-haves vs. must-haves
- 37. Perficient Digital 37 @renee_girard | #mkesearch Evidence Analysisfrom a Search Engine POV Discovery Crawling RetrievalIndexing Ranking 1 2 3 4 5 Perficient Digital
- 38. Stage 4: Results Dissemination 38Perficient Digital
- 39. Perficient Digital Stage4: ResultsDissemination 39 @renee_girard | #mkesearch • Report findings in real-time • Google Sheets Action Items • Present results tostakeholders • Executive Summary • Audit Word docor PowerPoint • Appendix
- 40. What? SoWhat? NowWhat? 40Perficient Digital
- 41. Perficient Digital 41 @renee_girard | #mkesearch GoogleSheets Action Items # Issue Priority Recommendation Owner Dev Deliverable DateFixed Topic 1 What? Outline the subtopic or orconcern Sowhat? Critical,High, High, Medium, Now what? Listpotential solutions andyour recommendation Who? Assign who is responsible for implementation Outline if dev resources will be be required Link tosupporting supporting document in When? Document date of implementation
- 42. Perficient Digital Executive Summary 42 Executive Summary 100-footview of what was done, how it was done, and top areas of concern. Summarizedtable of issues listing low LOE and high-business-impact items first. # Issue Priority RecommendationsSummary Topic 1 What? So what? Now what? Perficient Digital
- 44. Perficient Digital 44 1.0 StructuredData Overview Googlereliesheavilyonschema.orgmarkupforindexingandSERPfeatures.GooglerecommendsJSON-LD andfornow,BingusesJSON-LD for theirKG.StructureddatadirectlyimpactsCTRandrichresults. 1.1Missing or incorrect schema.orgmarkup Current state Afterextractingallstructureddata markupwithScreaming FrogandreviewingGSC,wefound: • Pageshavemarkupthataremissing requirements • Pageshavemarkupthathaveirrelevantvalues • Pageshavemarkupthatdon’tfollowtherecommendedsyntax • Pageshavemarkupthatdoesn’tfollowGoogle’sguidelines • Eligiblepagesdon’thaveanymarkup Failuretofixpageswithmarkupthataren’tcompliantmay resultinineligibilityforrichresultsandcreatespotentialriskofa manualaction penalty. Recommended state {{Insertcodesamplesforeachmarkuptyperevisions}} • ImplementwithJSON-LD • Alternativeapproach:implementJSON-LD via GoogleTagManager Priority Critical Audit Topic Example
- 46. Perficient Digital Post-Audit Implementation 46 @renee_girard | #mkesearch • Commit toan action plan • Short-term vs. long-term • Align on dev priorities • Createtickets andreview them iteratively • Document andshare results • Hold stakeholders accountable (within reason)
- 48. Perficient Digital Investigation Preparation EvidenceAcquisition • Obtain warrants • Conduct interviews • Initial assessments • Audit checklist SEO ForensicInvestigation 48 @renee_girard | #mkesearch EvidenceAnalysis • Connect the clues • Prioritizeevidence Results Dissemination • Report findings in real-time • Present results Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Perficient Digital
- 49. Perficient Digital • Discovery Q&A • Google Sheets Action Items • Executive Summary • Audit WordDoc/PowerPoint • Appendix SEO Forensic Investigation 49 @renee_girard | #mkesearch StrategicDeliverables Post-Audit Implementation Perficient Digital • Commit toan action plan • Align andcreate tickets • Review backlog • Document andshare results • Hold stakeholders accountable
- 50. 50 Deck>> bit.ly/mkesearch-2018 IntrotoSEOForensics >>bit.ly/audit-blog-2018 (Mostly) Free SEOTools>> bit.ly/seo-tools-2018 Perficient DigitalSVSTutorial>>bit.ly/svs-tutorial SVSMatrix>>bit.ly/pubcon-svs
Notes de l'éditeur
- Thanks everyone who made it out here to MKESearch tonight instead of Ikea. Today I'm excited to discuss my CSI approach to SEO audits using forensic investigation
- My name is Renee Girard and I’m a Senior Organic Search Strategist I’ve been on the agency side for the past 6 years SEO for clients medium to enterprise Fortune 1000 clients When they let me, I’ve been fortunate enough to speak at Pubcon and the undergrad business classes at UWM and Marquette. Started in DM as a student at UWM and joined MIMA. Honor to speak with you today.
- I work at Perficient Digital which is Perficent’s digital agency I am out of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin office so if i seem too happy to be here, it’s because it’s literally 35 degrees back home right now and still considered “SPRING BREAK!” We’re hiring for SEO, PPC, and CRO nationwide! Go to PD.com/careers or connect with me if you’re interested or know someone who might be.
- Whether it's after a botched platform migration or you're seeing a decline in traffic, the SEO audit is supposed to help solve SEO crimes but bad audits should be considered a crime in itself I’ve seen a lot of them and I’m sure you have to Traits of subpar audits: GENERIC = UNDERWHELMING = SO WHAT? It’s the one that looks generic or boilerplate as if the auditor simply just did a find and replace on the client name, left underwhelmed and asking “SO WHAT? TMI = OVERWHELMING = NOW WHAT? or...It’s the one that came from the auditor that lacked sufficient experience and got overwhelmed ending up stuck in the weeds and cycle of analysis paralysis and information overload, left asking “ok everything is broken, but NOW WHAT?”
- I know from my own experience how easy it is to overload everyone with too much information especially at the enterprise level The last technical audit i did could have gone down that route as i was tasked to audit One of the largest hat retailers with at least 9 million pages, over 1,200 GMB listings, reaching 2 regions served in both English and French The result: I audited over 150 areas of this giant site to create a 53 page audit document, added over 50 new JIRA tickets, spent over 4 hours in meetings with the client mostly because they refused to read those 53 pages. Then, had to still wait 4 months for 1 of those JIRA tickets to get implemented
- 4 months isn’t bad compared to a 2016 survey that found almost half or 48% of SEOs working for big companies had to wait at least a year for any critical technical changes to get done Audits are all too often a hurry up and wait scenario Audit is needed because performance may be suffering, you spend hours developing the audit, then the tickets sit in a JIRA project graveyard because there’s NEVER enough dev hours. Nothing getting done makes it challenging to maximize your SEO investment since often any optimizations you do may be limited by technical barriers.
- After that experience, I discovered a four-stage organizational model that’s used as the high-level process for computer or digital forensics investigations to solve cyber crimes. This model can easily be applied as a guide to SEO audit investigations
- This adopted forensic approach to SEO audits starts with investigation preparation followed by evidence acquisition, then leads into thorough evidence analysis and results dissemination. These four stages combined with actionable deliverables, can help the client and SEO investigator understand: Risks Short term and long term opportunities for growth Quick wins -- everyone’s favorite!!
- We begin with pre-investigation prep work as stage 1
- Obtain warrants to access the following necessities: Analytics GSC/BWT Log files if they have access to them Third-party tools they are paying for that you wouldn’t have access to otherwise While you’re waiting for clearance, conduct an in-depth discovery interview with your key stakeholders and align on the audit’s overall mission
- Designed for the investigator to understand the client’s past and current landscapes in both business and digital. Make sure you design the questionnaire to cover the basics and customize as needed. Get to know their business quick: who are their stakeholders, KPIs, business goals, competitors, and unique value props. Get to know their digital strategy quick: outline their past and present SEO and paid search efforts and site relaunches, and keywords critical to their business
- Now that you’ve done the necessary prep work, it’s time to collect evidence for stage 2
- Before jumping right into an audit checklist, save yourself time later by first doing some initial assessments and data pulls Then proceed with an audit checklist I recommend the free and paid checklists provided by Annie Cushing as a foundation Like any good detective, catalog evidence with screenshots, save everything, and take detailed notes You never know when you may need this later for an audit appendix
- Goals: Help you to understand what are most likely the top issues or at least the places where you will need to dig deeper later GSC Going through messages, configurations, check for manual action penalties, and review the new GSC reports BWT Who here uses BWT for auditing? For those who use it, you already know that BWT aggregates all subdomains into one account and reports all XML sitemaps even if you haven’t submitted them UNLIKE GSC Sitewide crawl or segmented crawl (SF, DC) Connect APIs for more data, crawl as different user-agents (Googlebot for smartphones vs. Googlebot regular for mobile-first indexing), text-only vs. JavaScript rendering Analytics If you don’t trust it, do a quick check with SF extraction for UA-ID and GTM container If you still don’t trust it, get a separate analytics audit and leave it to the experts SEOs shouldn't do analytics audits!
- Whether it's after a botched platform migration or you're seeing a decline in traffic, the SEO audit is supposed to help solve SEO crimes but bad audits should be considered a crime in itself I’ve seen a lot of them and I’m sure you have to Traits of subpar audits: GENERIC = UNDERWHELMING = SO WHAT? It’s the one that looks generic or boilerplate as if the auditor simply just did a find and replace on the client name, left underwhelmed and asking “SO WHAT? TMI = OVERWHELMING = NOW WHAT? or...It’s the one that came from the auditor that lacked sufficient experience and got overwhelmed ending up stuck in the weeds and cycle of analysis paralysis and information overload, left asking “ok everything is broken, but NOW WHAT?”
- Crime: duplicate subdomains and staging sites were indexed, earning legitimate links, and wasting valuable crawl budget -- very common problem when you use multiple CMSs Case solved with BWT inbound links report, text to columns, pivot table to identify 18 subdomains Didn’t know exists, shouldn’t have existed, shouldn’t be indexed Then did additional 301 redirects and added authentication for staging sites
- More advanced assessments that really will set your audit apart from the rest Includes log file analysis, page prioritization inventory, page template review, Search Visibility Matrix, and a rendering assessment
- Escalate what CANNOT wait Use best judgement and raise the alarm when appropriate If you see a critical red flag, PLEASE do not wait until you’ve finished the audit
- Analyzing log files is the only way to truly see the site how a bot does Using SF Log File Analyser, I’ve been able to discover audit findings that can only be confirmed by logs Examples include: aggressive bot crawling where Bing made up 69% of all events even though they only received 10% of traffic (typical of Bing) Helped me to then take the necessary actions to slow them down with crawl delays.
- Case of broken IP-based geolocation Used SF LFA again and found data that can only be provided by logs Client has 6 regions (no US) that forces geolocation based on the IP address If bot/user coming from US tries to visit the site, they will be forced to the CA homepage by default Crime: Google broken indexing where even when looking for the AR site, the title tag was rewritten to say "Canada" Confirmed with log files: Googlebots servers mostly come from US so CA directories received upwards of 50% of all Googlebot events compared to the other 5 regions
- Create an inventory of the most important pages and give them a priority score Create an inventory of the pages from tools like SEMRush, analytics, Majestic into their own tab Add all the URLs in to a new tab and dedupe Add columns with vlookup statements to pull in critical metrics like traffic, revenue, links, and rankings Crawl the list and add HTTP status codes Add a sum column to give a Priority Score to each page
- Page prioritization scores can be used for almost any report to help prioritize efforts of greatest impact Ex. - list of 404s. Instead of providing a list from GSC crawl errors, use that list as an input then FILTER the HTTP status column to 40X errors
- Identify template-specific issues through a series of compliance checks Find different page templates by manually reviewing the site and prioritization inventory Run each page template through a list of compliance checks (customize) Use that to determine if there are key issues occurring globally or template-specific
- Outline key areas of examination like the ones I've listed below then audit if that component exists in the first place and if it does, if it complies to best practices Ex. - For category template, yes, facets exist, but no they do not comply, because let’s say they are eating valuable crawl resources and causing index bloat. Findings = discuss options for crawl control.
- SVS: Simple calculation that gives a numeric score to indicate search visibility of a keyword. Purpose: demonstrate the value of ranking on page 1 of Google’s organic results for keywords with high search volume. The higher the score, generally the better the visibility (doesn’t measure traffic or correlate to conversion)Calculation: Search Volume X (1/Position of one particular keyword) Matrix: Google Sheets that I created which automatically calculates the SVS of your client and their top four competitors as a whole and for any particular keywords or keyword phrases Provides far more context and value to the client instead of just reporting off the top with “competitor x ranks for 25% more keywords” < client dominates search visibility for keywords containing the word “hat” or “hats” but falls behind with “store” Download free matrix and read the full tutorial on how to use it with these bitly links
- Mobile first indexing – not INDEX (1 index) Mobile first = determinity parity between mobile and desktop Mobile friendly has nothing to do with mobile first indexing
- Rendering assessment -- Googlebot is no longer the once “blind 5 year old” and is generally able to render and understand web pages like a modern-ish browser. There are caveats and limitations like the 5 second rule, crawl budget, client-side vs. server-side rendering, which JS framework is being used, but in general, here’s the simplest way to do a rendering assessment: Google IO – Rendering is deferred
- Rendering assessment -- Googlebot is no longer the once “blind 5 year old” and is generally able to render and understand web pages like a modern-ish browser. There are caveats and limitations like the 5 second rule, crawl budget, client-side vs. server-side rendering, which JS framework is being used, but in general, here’s the simplest way to do a rendering assessment: Audit that all essentials tags, links, and content are present in both versions of the page Initial HTML Rendered DOM Decrypt the discrepancies between the two If missing from rendered DOM, Google may not crawl/index (Google prefers rendered DOM) If only in the rendered DOM: Non-Google search engines may not crawl/index (limited JS rendering still) Identify user event dependencies Post load events not rendered
- Remember: Google CANNOT click, scroll, or hover What kind of page is the top offender of user-event dependencies? Location finders
- Initial HTML View page source Fetch as Googlebot -- HTML snapshot (how the crawler sees the page within 5 seconds of rendering) Screaming Frog’s original HTML column under View Source tab Rendered DOM Inspect element in Chrome 41 << Copy outerHTML Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool << View Source Code -- MOST ACCURATE OPTION for DESKTOP (uses Chrome 41) Google’s Mobile Firendly Testing Tool << View Source Code & Snapshot – MOST ACCURAE for MOBILE Screaming Frog’s rendered HTML column under View Source tab -- BEST OPTION FOR MANY PAGES, but uses Chrome 60 instead of what Google uses (Chrome 41) Screaming Frog renders JS using Chrome 60 so wont be exact All the resources of a page (JS, CSS, imagery) need to be available to be crawled, rendered and indexed. Google still require clean, unique URLs for a page, and links to be to be in proper HTML anchor tags (you can offer a static link, as well as calling a JavaScript function). The rendered page snapshot is taken at 5 seconds, so content needs to be loaded by that time, or it just won’t be indexed for each web page. If you run a search and can’t find them within the source, then they will be dynamically generated in the DOM and will only be viewable in the rendered code. rendered DOM is what Google will eventually use to index a webpage’s content
- When in JS rendering mode, you can now store the raw HTML and the rendered HTML to inspect the DOM from the “view source” tab SF Side-by-side comparison for pages -- uses Chrome 60 Ex. - added meta robots tags of NOINDEX, FOLLOW via Adobe’s DTM to deindex a section of the site Raw/original HTML shows INDEX, FOLLOW but rendered HTML shows NOINDEX, FOLLOW
- Auditing many Magento 2 sites I’ve found a discrepancy between text-only and JavaScript rendered SF crawls Crime: Text-only showed product images had no internal or inlinks pointing to them Crime: JS rendering with store HTML options showed the inlinks to the images from the product pages in the rendered HTML and reported them in the missing alt text report Perp: Magnifying widget needs JS and default M2 behavior is missing alt text for the main images on product detail pages
- Stage 3: Evidence Analysis -- Stage 3 is evidence analysis
- Now that we’ve collected the key evidence, it’s time to connect each clue by identifying relationships that exist between them whether that be direct or indirect Prioritize each piece of collected evidence What is the expected level of effort compared to the anticipated business impact Is this a threat or opportunity? Do no harm. Is this something that’s fundamentally broken and therefore a must-have or just a nice-to-have?
- Evidence analysis from many perspectives but obviously we need to take a primary lens from a search engine viewpoint Do this by determining if there are any barriers that would prevent a page from getting through the entire search engine process starting from Initial page discovery, crawling, indexing, retrieval, and finally ranking Since these steps are generally mutually exclusive, any barriers that exist are considered a relative point of failure Priority must be crawl!
- Stage 4: Results Dissemination -- the final and most important stage of forensic investigation because strong deliverables that cater to your stakeholders regardless of their knowledge of SEO can make all the difference for getting things done post-audit
- Report findings in real-time giving the client visibility into issues as they are being discovered Google Sheets Action Items list Present and deliver results to the stakeholders Executive summary Audit Word Doc -- could also have a supplementary PP deck Appendix -- reference appendix items from all deliverables to make it easy for everyone to reference especially devs who need examples and C-suites that need it for context and visualization
- All audit deliverables should answer these three questions What? So What? Now What?
- Google Sheet updated in real-time Update the list of issues, recommendations, and priorities in real-time as a master record of everything that is and isn’t implemented Gives client opportunity to act on issues as they are recorded
- This is the first part of the audit Word document and could be the only part C-Suite will actually read. Make sure it’s GOOD What was done How it was done Top areas of concern and opportunity Summarized issues table by priority List recommendations that are low expected effort and high expected business impact first. List should follow the what? So what? Now what? model
- Audit structure by topic -- start with topic then list out related subtopics and repeat Topic Overview (education) -- what? Subtopic Current state (issues) -- so what? Recommended state (recommendations) -- now what? Priority Severity scale based off of JIRA or PM tool (low to critical) based on risk, opp for growth, and quick wins
- Audit topic example Topic = Structured data Overview (education) -- what? SD used for G indexing, rich results, increases CTR Subtopic = missing or incorrect schema.org markup Current state (issues) -- so what? Extracted markup using SF to find SD missing required values, has irrelevant values, violates Google's SD guidelines Recommended state (recommendations) -- now what? Provide markup code revisions per type, new markup to add, and the implementation methods such as inline microdata, JSON-LD, or even GTM alternative Priority Severity scale based off of JIRA or PM tool (low to critical) Critical Risk - Google manual action penalty Opp for growth -- new markup types Quick wins -- fix existing markup not validating
- Gone through the four stages of forensic investigation -- Case closed? No.
- Post-Audit Implementation -- is easily the most challenging How many have delivered an audit that went nowhere? Commit: After completing the SEO forensics, collaborate with the client to commit to a short-term and long-term action plan. Align: Since audits typically focus on technical SEO which can take up limited development resources, it’s important to understand the IT ticket workflow and current backlog. Create tickets even if they sit in a backlog Review backlog: You may have no choice but to wait months or even years for anything to get done. Adjust and reprioritize tickets every few months or as needed. Document and share results: anything that actually gets done, get buy-in Hold stakeholders accountable but within reason Pick your battles carefully but articulate opp costs to illustrate money being left on the table
- A more effective model to auditing that cuts through boilerplate audits Each stage allows you to go from completing necessary investigation prep work, to acquiring and analyzing evidence, to disseminating the results to your stakeholders
- Ensure you present your findings with strategic/actionable deliverables including a discovery Q&A, Action Items, Executive Summary, Word Document, and Appendix that answer the WHAT, SO WHAT, and NOW WHAT Finally, speed up the implementation process post forensics by committing to a post-audit action plan that aligns with their current priorities
- NOW Case closed. Justice has been SERVED. You guys like free stuff? Of course you do. Here’s a bunch of it. You’re welcome. Check out the deck, blog post, mostly free tools, resources, and Chrome plugins for your next audit, and the SVS Matrix Thanks everyone! Slides are available on Slideshare Tweet me questions