SEO Audits Demystified

Welcome back to the Day Job Detox!

This week I’m doing something a little different. I’ll start with a personal update before sharing a behind-the-scenes peek at my process as an SEO specialist.

August Update

Getting Used to Moving

My July ended by receiving all the boxes we’d been storing in Seville for a few months. We spent a few days unpacking our boxes and

Then we got a few IKEA deliveries and spent a few days building furniture. We finally started feeling at home after a few days of full-time work.

Then, just when we finished making our house a home… I had another adventure on the horizon.

That’s when I visited Stockholm for the week to help my parents move out of my childhood home. That was 4 straight days of house cleaning, box packing and furniture moving.

I flew back to Lisbon and started a brand new challenge.

My Twitter Community of Public Speakers

On Thursday I hosted my first Twitter Space as the co-founder of Growth Nodes. We started this marketing community a few weeks ago as a group of marketers interested in public speaking.

Since then we’ve exchanged learnings in our first Space on SEO and content marketing! We already have a few more sessions planned for market research, community building and AI applications in marketing.

The beauty of starting a community before trying to build an audience is that we’re helping each other build something of value. We’re working together toward a shared goal - getting better at public speaking and getting ourselves out there.

It’s not just me and 2 other guys trying to get people to join OUR SPACE. We’re building something TOGETHER, so everyone is incentivized to make it great and invite their friends.

Let me know if this is something you’d like to get involved with! We have lots of exciting things on the horizon! 🙂

Now onto the real meat of this week’s newsletter, here’s what my daily work as an SEO looks like…

The SEO Methodology

SEO always starts with an audit. Otherwise, you’re just a headless chicken running around aimlessly. You need to get acquainted with the site before you can make a plan to improve it.

Whether it's your own site or a potential client's, these principles will be the same for EVERY SITE that wants to improve their ORGANIC TRAFFIC.

After all, who doesn't need more free traffic?

Why Audit?

First of all, you need to know WHY you're auditing the site. We run SEO audits to see existing issues that need to be fixed and new processes that can improve a site's SEO value.

Once the audit is complete, we'll have a complete list of recommendations and best practices 🚀

Here’s how I approach the task from start to finish 👇

Start with Technicals

I ALWAYS start with the technicals. That’s because the technicals are so fundamental. I like to say that technicals won’t help you rank 1st, but they can stop you from ranking entirely.

The main quick wins are

• Robots.txt - which helps Google crawl the right pages

• XML Sitemap - which helps Google find the right pages

Then I'll run a crawl with Screaming Frog to uncover any large-scale SEO issues.

Screaming Frog helps me find issues with internal linking, page duplication, site structure and meta data analysis.

I'll be able to find virtually any technical issues with the site in my spreadsheet export.

I'll keep this crawl for reference when I start my on-page audit.

I’ll also review all the other technical components to make sure everything is in order. The last thing we want is to overlook something that is stopping Google from crawling the site.

Here’s an inexhaustive list:

• HTTPS

• Site speed

• Google Indexing

• Mobile responsiveness

• JavaScript Dependencies

Once I've completed this review, I'll have the whole list of recommendations to improve the site's crawlability and indexability.

Now with the technicals complete, we move onto our on-page optimization!

On-Page Optimization

Every good on-page strategy starts with keyword research, and here’s how we do that…

Starting with Keyword Research

I'll do some keyword research that are relevant to the company’s niche and services

In Web3, this tends to revolve around:

• cryptocurrency exchange

• learn about crypto

• buy crypto

I'll generally use Keyword Planner or SEMRush to find all the relevant keywords.

Keyword Mapping

Once I have my list of relevant keywords and search volume, I'll map them against different pages:

• Homepage - brand terms

• Service pages - service terms

• Blog pages - new trends & long-tail keywords

If I have keywords that are relevant to my client but don’t align with any existing pages, I add it within a new page section in the map.

Primary & Secondary Keywords

Before completing our keyword map we pick the top keyword for each page:

• Relevant

• High SV

That's our primary keyword, which we'll use in our most important SEO elements.

All other keywords for the page are secondary.

With our map complete, I'll start the on-page audit!

On-Page Content

I start the on-page review with our most important pages. This includes all our most valuable pages such as the homepage, service pages and other blog content.

Then I bulk-check these pages in our SF crawl from earlier:

• page titles

• meta descriptions

• h1 headings

☝️ These should all include our primary keywords.

I'll also ensure we have relevant content around our secondary keywords on-page:

• sub-headings

• content

• image alt text

Secondary keywords add additional value to the content we've already created around the primary keyword.

Once that's done, we just need backlinks!

My Minimalist Off-page Strategy

And my take here is… The best backlink strategy is a GREAT on-page strategy.

That's because Google knows what a paid backlink looks like. So you need to make content people WANT to link to.

Big G knows what's up when you pay for links, and they might penalize you for it...

Once we've reviewed all the site content from an SEO perspective, I'll put together a roadmap to optimize content and create new content over time.

After all, SEO is a process. And anyone who says you get all the SEO you need with a plug-in is LYING to you!

That’s it for this week!

That's been my update and the process I use to identify the SEO strategy for a Crypto site. Share this post on your favorite social channel or with anyone interested in improving their SEO.

Also make sure to follow me on Twitter @HoboMojo_ for more SEO and Web3 content 🚀

Let me know any questions on the above and I'll gladly share my SEO expertise with you!

Join me again next week to flush out the 9 to 5 with your weekly dose of Day Job Detox!

Yours truly,

HoboMojo