What is an seo scan? (Not for free anymore!)
An SEO Scan is the analysis of a website regarding its online visibility through search engines like Google and Yahoo!
Wasseo's SEO Scan report documents the strengths and weaknesses of a website for it to score in the search results aka to be easily found on the internet.
A scenario:
- An seo company offers search engine optimization via her website
- A potential customer googles "free seo scan" and lands on the first google results page that shows links to the first ten most relevant website pages from a total of "about 909,000 results"
- In case none of these first page results is owned by the seo company, a seo scan report will indicate which seo aspects need to be improved in order to establish
- a higher position in the search results
- a higher CTR (Click Through Rate)
- a higher conversion rate
The seo scan report covers the main aspects for driving converting "googlers" to your site: website development, website content, link building & social media and website conversion friendliness. If applicable, it will answer important questions like:
"Why is your site not often visited by people searching for the products that you offer?"
"What technical aspects may be improved?"
"Does the content of your site display enough focus on well chosen key search terms?"
"Are your link building activities effective?"
"Are there any obstructions preventing your website visitors from ordering a product or getting into contact?"
Check out the relevant tabs for more information on the aspects that are covered in the seo scan.
Due to the workload, the seo scan is not delivered free of charge anymore. However, priced at $100*, this service delivers great value for money!
Seo scan report transfer
Normally, the seo scan report will be transferred through a web conference. The Wasseo expert will share his screen and all participants can speak and hear each other. A chat function is also available.
First, you will be contacted to agree on a date for transfering the report. Next, you will be invited by Microsoft Live Meeting to join.
At any given time after the invitation, you may check your system requirements for the meeting. When prompted, it is preferred to download the client for the client-based meeting instead of opting for the web-based meeting.
If necessary, an alternative method of distribution will be used.
Example of an seo scan report
Introduction
The following observations are based on an analysis of the domain xxxxxxx.xxx as it is to date in relation to its ability to appear high in the search engine result pages (serps) of leading search engines like Google and Yahoo. The findings are not a reflection on the skills of the staff that handles website development, copywriting and other (online) marketing activities. If that were so, one would not need seo specialists.
* Scores are on a scale of 1 to 10.
Technique - score: 6*
The website source code should be as "light" as possible. Less code means more relevant text for the search engines aiding them to determine the subject and key search term per web page. Several techniques like javascript and flash are not (easily) read and may obstruct indexation by the search engines. Black hat techniques like cloaking and poor techniques that create duplicate content should be avoided.
Observations:
● Descriptive URLs.
● Personalized 404 error pages.
● Robots.txt file is employed.
● Www-less version is not redirected to www domain (duplicate content issue!) nor vice-versa.
● Invalid XHTML.
● Invalid CSS.
Content - score: 6*
To enhance high positions in the serps, a web page should display focus on key search terms within a clear and consistent content block containing about 500 words of unique text. Furthermore, HTML emphasis should be employed to enhance focus on such terms through title tags, meta tags, etc. Observe however that spamming techniques like keyword stuffing may lead to penalties or even a ban of the entire domain by the search engines.
Observations:
● Attractive design.
● A sufficient amount of text.
● Poor use of HTML emphasis.
● Insufficient focus on keyword search terms.
Links - score: 5*
Web pages need "link juice" in order to generate traffic. The amount and relevance of inbound links from other domains, the authority of those domains and the internal linking structure of the destination domain (xxxxxxx.xxx) are all important factors of the search engine algorithmes to determine your position in the serps.
Observations:
● Good internal linking structure.
● Some relevant links.
● Not enough links.
● Hardly any deep links.
Conversion - score: 7*
The ultimate goal of your website is, of course, the conversion of your call-to-action (cta) like placing an order. Your visitors should be guided to this call-to-action from the moment they arrive on your website. Their path must not be obstructed through issues like hard to find order forms or company contact data.
Observations:
● Consistent layout and navigation.
● Call-to-action "contact" is always present.
● Visitors are not optimally guided towards "contact".
Conclusion
The main obstacles for high(er) positions in the search engine results pages are the lack of
1) deeplinks - ongoing quality link generation is necessary
2) keyword integration in HTML emphasis
3) focus on keywords
Ask your webmaster to take care of the technical issues, while mentioning that 301 redirection is paramount. If you wish to tackle (some of) the other problems in house, Wasseo can offer a custom workshop to show you and your team how to do that. Alternatively, you may contract Wasseo to implement improvements.
Contact Wasseo in order to discuss a proposal.
SEO Scan of Technique
Google quality guidelines
Does your site abide to Google quality guidelines? Failure to do so may result in a penalty or even a ban from the search engine results pages (serps). Which website development techniques are applied? Some techniques like frames and flash can seriously obstruct indexation by search engines.
If keywords are hidden from them through the use of images replacing text, the indexation for those terms can obviously not be optimal. If applicable, these issues will be mentioned in an seo scan report.
Domain
Is the domain name wisely chosen? A good domain name contributes to your online visibilty. Are subdomains properly implemented? Poor implementation of subdomains can cause indexation problems like duplicate content. The notorious www-less phenomenon is mentioned in seo scans more often than not.
URLs
Are the urls well composed? Just a few tips are mentioned here.
In order to raise the relevance of important keywords, urls should
● Contain strategical keywords rather than irrelevant (numerical) identifications
● Be short
Duplicate content
Numerical identifications don't just diminish focus on the keyword. They also may create duplicate content. Compare:
http://www.yourdomain.tld/products?catid=123&productid=456 and
http://www.yourdomain.tld/products?catid=123&productid=457 with
http://www.yourdomain.tld/women/shoes/adidas/tennis and
http://www.yourdomain.tld/women/shoes/adidas/golf
Fairly recently Google launched the canonical link to assist webmasters with preventing and resolving some common duplicate content issues. Read more about duplicate content and canonical links on the official seo blog by Wasseo.
Source code
Is the source code clean? The cleaner the code, the higher the focus on keywords and the easier the main subject of website pages is detected by search engines. Is the HTML valid? Is CSS optimally employed? An seo scan reports whether your source code is search engine friendly, or not.
SEO Scan of Content
Keywords
Are the key search terms well chosen? Is the content sufficiently laced but not stuffed with keywords? If not mentioned more than once on the page it will be hard to conclude that a keyword is the subject. The position and frequency of keywords are both factors in the search engine algorithmes. The relevance of surrounding text should also be considered.
HTML Emphasis
Is HTML properly employed to accentuate keywords? There are several ways to use the source code to emphasise keywords like through metatags and header tags. The seo scan indicates how well this is executed.
SEO Scan of Links
Link building does not only have a strong and often decisive and enduring influence on authority, pagerank and climbing the search results but it may also be a significant traffic driving force. A few hours weekly or even monthly link building may already be sufficient. Website visitors generated through link building can be measured and tracked in significant detail through Google Analytics and is known as "referral" traffic.
Inbound links
Does your site receive sufficient links from external parties? Are the originating pages relevant to their destination page? The number of links and their relevance is a highly important factor for search engines during indexation.
Internal link structure
By conciously (re)designing your information architecture (IA) you can raise the scoring potential of keywords through their position. A well designed website structure can save you a lot of link building. No seo scan is complete without a review of the internal link structure.
Social Media for website promotion and as link building tool
Social media specifically target human visitors and should not be considered an seo aspect. For sure, website categories like event ticket vendors cannot afford to neglect the promotional power of social platforms like FaceBook. Their rise as a traffic driving force justifies some consideration. The traffic driving effect of social media has a temporary character and needs to be maintained and renewed through constant and almost daily activity in order to continually generate a significant amount of traffic. That said, any remarkable youtube video getting thousands of daily views may well be a low cost and efficient tool for a viral link building campaign.
On request, an analysis of the branding and opportunities for website promotion through social media may be included with the seo scan. Without specific request however, the message may simply be that "although your brand name is somewhat present in various social media, as a website promoting tool it is wielded rather poorly".
