Search Engine Optimisation
SEO Site Review - do this mini-review on your own web site
This page is for anyone who wants to check out the SEO on their own site. Below you will find some diagnostic tests using free tools and techniques.
For each diagnostic we have given an explanation of what your result could mean.
All you will need is your web site address i.e. www.example.com and about 30 minutes of your time. The issues covered on this page are:
- Is my site indexed by the search engines?
- How many links do I have pointing to my site ?
- What are my Search Engine Ranking Positions (SERPs)?
- What do my meta tags look like?
Diagnostic 1: Is my site indexed by the Search Engines?
You need to visit each search engine individually to see if you are indexed by that particular search engine. Before you click on the links below make a note of what you need to do when you get there.
Check if your site is indexed:
In the search engine search box type "site:www.example.com" - leave out the quotes and replace this example with your own domain name.
What should happen when I run Diagnostic 1?
You should get a list of all the pages that the search engine has indexed - if you follow this link you will see what we see when we perform this diagnostic in Google
What does the result mean?
All of your important pages should be indexed by all of the major search engines. If they are not then your site is not indexed properly.
Diagnostic 2: How many links do I have pointing to my site?
Google in particular likes to see good quality, relevant inbound links pointing from other sites into yours. They use this as a measure of how authoritative your site is on your topic - the assumption being that if other good quality sites think that your site is worth linking to then this is considered to be a vote in your web site's favour. The more votes your site has the better it will perform in the search engine rankings.
Check the link popularity of your site (and your competitors!):
Marketleap Link Popularity Checker
Follow the instructions its very straight forward. Note that you can enter just your own site or you can add up to 3 competitors.
What should happen when I run Diagnostic 2?
You should see a table of results where your own site is highlighted. The table shows you how many links each search engine thinks that you have. The numbers will be different for each search engine - don't worry, this is normal.
What does the result mean?
Generally, the more links you have the better however the links that really count for the search engine results are the quality links and the relevant links. This tool just provides you with a number indicating how many links each search engine "sees" and does not provide a measure of how good your links are. (Note: Google sees more links than this report indicates but you can use Google Webmaster Tools to see more of your own Google links)
TIP: If you click through the numbers you can see exactly what the links are and if you enter some competitors you can look at their links too!
Diagnostic 3: What are my Search Engine Ranking Positions (SERPs)?
Every site owner will have an idea of which phrases they think they should be ranking for - check your rankings yourself to see if your site is working the way you want it to. Think of a list of phrases that you believe your target audience would use when they are searching for a site like yours. Proper keyword research would help to identify the actual phrases that people are using to search but for the purposes of this exercise you should brainstorm and make a list of the phrases that come to mind.
Check your Search Engine Ranking Positions:
Go to each search engine in turn and type in the phrase that you want to check then look down the list to see if and where your site appears.
What should happen when I run Diagnostic 3?
Ideally your site will appear high up the SERPs for the phrases that will bring you the visitors you want to attract. The first page is most desirable of course and very few people look beyond the third page of results.
What does the result mean?
If your site is listed then that link should bring you traffic - check your web site log files or traffic statistics - can you see that visitors are using this search phrase to reach your site? If you have high rankings for a phrase but the phrase does not bring you traffic then it is not a good phrase for you. Good phrases are the ones that bring you traffic!
Diagnostic 4: What do my meta tags look like?
Your meta tags are an important part of your on-page optimisation - things that you do on your actual pages to make them more likely to be found by your target audience. To see your meta tags you need to look at your source code!
Check your meta tags:
Go to any page on your web site.
View the source code of the page by either:
a) right clicking and chosing the 'view source' option, or
b) go to 'view' on the menu bar and choose 'source code'
These are the meta tags that you need to look for and you should find them very near the top:
<title>YOUR OPTIMISED TITLE SHOULD APPEAR HERE </title>
<meta name="description" content="YOUR OPTIMISED DESCRIPTION SHOULD APPEAR HERE, THIS IS USUALLY THE DESCRIPTION THAT APPEARS ON THE SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGE SO MAKE SURE THAT IT COMPELS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE TO CLICK ON YOUR LINK "/>
<meta name="keywords" content="KEEP YOUR KEYWORDS SHORT, NOT ALL SEARCH ENGINES USE THIS TAG BUT IT MAY CARRY SOME VALUE WITH SOME SEARCH ENGINES SO ADD A FEW PAGE-RELEVANT KEYWORDS TO EACH PAGE "/>
What should happen when I run Diagnostic 4?
You should see your meta tags for your web site page. Look to see what the page is targeting as its primary key phrase. This will be the first phrase in your title.
What does the result mean?
If your page is not optmised for any particular phrase then you have a lost opportunity that you can now capitalise on.
TIP: Each page of your web site presents an opportunity to be an landing page i.e. a page that gets ranked in the search engine results pages because it is relevant to the target audience. Therefore, optimise each page for a particular target audience and ensure that the on-page optimisation, particularly the meta tags, are DIFFERENT FOR EVERY PAGE!
If you are interested in more information about how to optimise your own site then these pages should be useful to you
- Introduction to the Essentials of Search Engine Optimisation
- SEO Frequently Asked Questions
If you found this page useful could you drop me a quick email to let me know - suggestions for improvements would be very welcome :)
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