SEO4Boss Audit Checklist

What is search position and what is it for

The number of the site's placement in the search results for a text query is called the search position. All SEO promotion activities are reduced to one goal - raising the site's location in the search as high as possible. And the maximum task is to take the TOP 1 position for all keywords of interest. The fight for a higher place is a fight for potential visitors, because search engine users typically only open the first few search results.

What is shown in the monitoring report.

One of the main tasks of the Seo4Boss complex is weekly informing the site owner about the positions of keywords (phrases) in Google search. The Seo4Boss report displays: keyword / region / query concurrency and weekly dynamics of the location of the checked resource as a result of the search.

The example shows that the tested site is ranked 59 and 45, and since the previous check it has improved its search rankings by 22 and 17 places.

Limiting our check to 100 positions. 100+ means that the site was not found in the first hundred, i.e. it is ranked over 100 or completely absent in the ranking for this key phrase.

Search region

The position depends on the region, so we indicate which region was selected for the keyword. Only a country or a country and a city can be specified as a region.

Competitiveness

Competitiveness helps to understand the relative position. For example: if the site being checked is in the TOP10 with a competitive query "Results: about 797,000" - this is a very good result that requires serious promotion work. On the other hand, the same result, getting into the TOP10 with "Results: 17" can hardly be regarded as a great achievement.

Unique internal links

This is a list of all pages on the resource, by which you can view the structure of the site. The number of pages is also an important parameter. Any site on SEO promotion should have a development plan in which one of the main points is to add new content. Our program maintains weekly statistics on this parameter, considering it one of the most important factors in SEO promotion.
Note: Links written using letters in different case will be considered different and will be entered with the list as separate entries. If the list displayed during monitoring is much larger than expected, then most likely there are links to the same internal URL, but written in different (capital / small) letters.
In the list, in addition to the unique URL, you can also look at three titles (Title, Description, H1) and the current checksum.

Google Content

How much content has been indexed by Google on your site, we will show in these statistics. This figure should grow in proportion to the increase in the amount of site content. If this does not happen, then it is necessary to carry out measures to inform the search engine. Our task is to do this check on a weekly basis and show the dynamics of change.

SiteMap.xml

This report page displays the clean links (no tags) contained in the SiteMap.xml file. The summary page shows the number of links specified in this file.
Read more at developers.google.com

Compare real links to SiteMap

Having received a list of all internal site links, we compare them with the links contained in SiteMap.xml. Discrepancies in both directions are reflected in this section of the report. Serious discrepancies between the pages found on the site and SiteMap may indicate that the latter is outdated or the specific settings of the plugin that creates the file.

Pay attention to the order of the numbers

On the summary page of the report, 4 check parameters, namely "Unique internal links", "Google content", "Yandex content", "SiteMap", are marked with a common fill. These numbers must be close or at least one order. Otherwise, it is necessary to understand the reasons for the discrepancy.

Note: There may be 10-30% more "Google Content" than "Unique Internal Links", this is normal. The opposite situation, when there are 2 times more pages on the site than the search engine indexed, indicates serious problems.

Unique images

A web resource without photos is too dry and fits only a very narrow category. On most portals, the photo is the most important element of the page. You can see the exact number of images on your portal in this section. The list is formed in a case-sensitive way, just like links.

In case of statistics "jumps" in this section, which were not accompanied by the publication or deletion of photos, it is possible to use caching plugins, the work of which cannot be analyzed. Because caching is performed according to plugin algorithms and the number of links to the same photo materials may differ significantly on a weekly basis.
If the publication of new images on the site is one of the paid items of SEO promotion, then to control their number, you should think about disabling caching plugins.

Changed content

This section shows:

• added or removed pages and photos;
• pages on which the text was changed;
• modified images, the filename of which has not changed.

Very useful information for understanding whether work is underway to modernize the site.

Unique documents

If your site contains content in the form of files for example: .exe .doc .zip, etc. which is intended for downloading directly from the site directory, then you can see it in this section. If there are links to download files from other sources, then such documents will not be displayed here, it will be transferred to the external links section.

External links / Unique external links

The fewer links to external resources, the better, especially those that do not have a rel = "nofollow" field and thus transfer the link weight from your site to the site specified in the link. We analyze the code for the presence of external links and display them with an indication of the location pages.
In the "unique" section, each external link is listed once, indicating how many times it has been encountered on the site.

Contacts / Unique contacts

All published contacts, namely phones, E-mail addresses, skype, we will show here in expanded form. Those. on which pages they are displayed. You can also check the secrecy of your data from analyzer programs, if you wanted to hide something. But remember, everything that breaks down can be negatively evaluated by robots - Google and Yandex analyzers.
This parameter can be used to track the statistics of reviews, especially in cases where filling in an e-mail or phone number is a prerequisite for a review. In the "Unique" section, each contact will be displayed only once, for ease of analysis. Perhaps some phone numbers or email addresses are out of date but still published.

Metrics

To count the number of visitors to an Internet resource, as well as to divide them into categories (device type, geolocation, age, etc.), various counters are used. You can see which ones you have installed in this section.

Other content

If the site being checked has files of a type other than text, image, application and document (.doc .zip), then such files will be displayed about the report as "other content".

Redirect (3xx)

Internal links with a response code of 301..305 are displayed here. Such a response code means that an additional transition has occurred (possibly more than one). From the SEO point of view, an internal transition with a 3xx code is not an error. Nevertheless, it is necessary to check the need for additional transitions and, if possible, indicate the direct link that is indicated in the "Redirect" column.

Donors and Donor Links

Links located on other resources linking to your site are called "donor", and the sites on which they are located are "donors". Because Since such links give your site link weight, their number is an important indicator of SEO. We obtain this information from open sources that search for links on their own. Therefore, the number shown in our report may be slightly less than the actual number of sites and links displayed in Google Search Console, where you can see the exact numbers for your site.
We use this parameter in "Competitor Analysis" to understand how much your site is "advanced" relative to competitors.

URLs load time statistics

When opening each page of the checked site, we measure the time. For ease of understanding, the time is divided into intervals with an indication of the number of pages. The arithmetic mean for the site is also calculated.
We carry out these measurements, because site speed is one of the criteria by which SEO ranking is carried out. With a long average time (more than 1.5 - 2 seconds), we recommend checking the speed of your resource using synthetic test from Google. And based on the results, make a decision on how to speed up the site.

Internal links

This section contains internal links located on each page of the checked site. In other words, this is the complete structure of internal site transitions.

Url with GET parameters

Internal links that contain additional (GET) parameters, i.e. contain "?" moved to a separate page of the report. There are no such links in the "Unique internal links" section.

H1-H6 Tags

This section contains all headings from H1 to H6 for each page. It is advisable to use headers in compliance with the hierarchy, namely H1 is required, then H2, then H3, etc. Avoid using non-hierarchical headings when the page, for example, has H1 and only H4.

Keywords on pages

One of the checks of our monitoring is working with keywords. Key phrases found on the pages of the checked site will be displayed in this section with a listing of the pages on which they were found. We also display the frequency of occurrence of each word from the keyword on the page. Adjusting the frequency can be a challenge for the copywriter.
Read more in content material.

Missing Key Phrases

Our clients can indicate the keywords for which it is necessary to carry out checks. One of the checks is the search for a combination of words from a key phrase on the pages of the site. If such a combination is not found on any page, this section of the report will be generated with the indication of such phrases.
The absence of the required phrase on the site means that the search robot will not index your site for this phrase.
Read more in content material.

Spamming> 4%

Too frequent use of the same words in the text may be the reason for the low search rankings or even lead to sanctions from the search engines. We check all pages for high frequency of any words and display the result in this section of the report. The threshold of 4% we have set is not absolute.
Read more in content material.

Tag Errors < A > external links

Missing rel = "nofollow" and target = "_blank" fields

There are 2 simple rules that will help to raise the search ranking of your resource from search engines. First, there should be as few links to external resources as possible. Second: in the case when links are really necessary, then be sure to prescribe the field rel = "nofollow". This field indicates "do not index this link, ie do not transfer rating (link) weight". Each external indexed link (without the rel = "nofollow" field) transfers link power from your site to a third-party resource.

In the case of using third-party JS code, for example, all kinds of widgets (callback, weather, exchange rates, etc.), which I register links to a third-party site and you cannot add the rel = "nofollow" field, you should think about the appropriateness of such widgets.

The target = "_blank" field is less critical and improves the behavioral factor by keeping the browser bookmarked on your site. By opening an external link in a new window, it will be easier for a site visitor to return when the bookmark remains open.

All external links that do not have any of the specified fields are displayed in this section and must be corrected.

Errors in the <IMG>tag

Each graphic image published on the Internet portal must be understandable for a search robot, namely, have a hint of what is shown on it. For this purpose, the "img" tag has 2 fields: a title and an alternate title. And if the "alt" field is most often filled in when publishing a picture, then many forget about the "title" field. Giving the search engine a reason to question the quality of the content. Also, the main and alternative titles cannot be the same, and the meaning of alternative is lost.

Title "Title" less than 10 or more than 70

The title of the article must have strictly defined dimensions, not less than 10 characters and not more than 70. If there is a "title" that goes beyond the required dimensions, we will display them in this section.

Duplicate "Title"

Each page on the site must have a unique title. If there are pages with the same "title", you should be able to see this.

"Title" is equal to "H1"

The title of the article "Title" and the title contained within the article "H1" must not be absolutely identical. This list will help you determine which articles the given error was made.

Multiple H1 headings on one page.

The uniqueness of the H1 heading from the rest H2..H6 is that there can be only one such heading on the page. This section will display a list of pages that violate this rule.

"H1" empty or more than 65 characters

Sometimes article authors forget to place the H1 tag. This is a mistake from a CEO's point of view. This tag must be present on all pages. Its content is also limited to a maximum of 65 characters.

Duplicate H1 Tags

In this report, you can see all pages with the same heading "H1". It must be unique for each page of your site, i.e. do not repeat anywhere else.

The "Description" field is empty or more than 320 characters

Along with the titles, the page description is also very important. It is he who is seen by users of search engines when they are trying to understand whether it is worth spending time on opening a particular page displayed in the list of found by request. The text specified in this field is shown in the search list under the link and is intended to help you understand what the page is about. Leaving "Description" blank or filling more than 320 characters is a mistake from the SEO point of view.

Duplicate "Description" fields on different pages

One of the main principles of the Internet is uniqueness. Information on different sites must be unique, information on different pages of the site is published for a specific purpose and cannot be exactly repeated with others. That is why the description for each page should describe this unique page and should be different from all other descriptions.

Hash Duplicate

When opening the pages of the checked site, we calculate the checksum of the received code. And if several pages have the same checksum, then this means that different internal links are made to the same page on the site, or the pages completely duplicate each other. Both of these situations are a mistake from the SEO point of view and should be corrected by removing either links or duplicate pages.

The page load time is more than 2 seconds

An important indicator is the time for which the page is loaded (opened). There is no absolute correct value for this value, the principle the faster the better for both the user and the search engine. In case there are pages that load on our channel for more than 2 seconds, we will show you these pages.
There can be many reasons for the slow work of the site, one of the main is the speed of the hosting. If you have problems loading a large number of pages, you may need to think about replacing the hosting or buying a more expensive tariff package. If the problems are only with some pages, then most likely they have large pictures published or "heavy" scripts are used. In this case, you need to reduce the size of pictures in bytes or optimize scripts.

With a large number of pages that load for more than 2 seconds, we recommend checking the speed of your resource using synthetic test from Google. And based on the results, make a decision on how to speed up the site.

Image size over 300kb

In this section, we display a page and photo content, the size of which is more than 300 kilobytes. The presence of such heavyweight images will significantly slow down page loading. This reduces the speed of the site as a whole and, as a result, may be the reason for not high search rankings.
There are 2 ways to bring pictures in order, the first to reduce the pixel resolution and the second to increase the compression ratio. For example, a photo of 1500x650 pixels at 72 dpi and 60% compression can take up no more than 100 KB.

Errors in the "Status Code" during externallinks

Each link, when opened, returns a code. If the server responds correctly, this code is 200. If the server responds with a code other than 200, this is not correct, although the page following the link may open. We will show all links with an excellent 200 code in this section of the report;they must be replaced (corrected) or deleted.
If the response code is 3xx, then the 'Status Code' field will contain the URL that responded along the chain with the extreme one and, as a rule, with the code 200. This URL must be specified as an external link.

Errors in the "Status Code" during internallinks

All links indicated on the site must be "working". Unlike external links for internal links, the correct server response codes are not only 200, but the entire group of 3xx codes, i.e. starting with a three. 3xx are redirection codes, which is quite acceptable within one resource. All response codes that are not 200 or 3xx you will see in this section of the report. It is necessary to remove or correct broken links.

To facilitate the search and elimination of "non-working" links, a section "Unique internal from 4xx, 5xx" has been created in which each "broken" link is indicated once.

HTML Errors

The presence of a large number of errors in HTML and SCC code indicates a low quality of the site and may lead to a decrease in the search ranking. Checking one page for HTML code validation is not a difficult task. It is much more difficult to check the entire site. To do this, you need to get a list of all pages and check each one in turn. With the total number of pages about a dozen or two, you can keep within an hour. And if the number of pages on the site exceeds several hundred or thousands, then for this we create this section of the report.

Total number of errors

To understand the process of working on the site, all errors found are summed up and the dynamics of growth or decline in their number is shown. The absolute number is not very important. Organizing mitigation work is more important.

Information retrieval mechanism.

1. The list on which we are currently searching: "Youtube", "Facebook", "Instagram", "Twitter", "Telegram", "Pinterest";
2. When you find one link to social. network - this link, the number of publications and subscribers will be displayed;
3. When finding several links to one social. network - all links will be displayed, the number of publications will be summed up. This algorithm is designed for multilingual sites with several social media sites. networks for different languages;
4. With the help of a telegram bot, it is possible to disable the verification of any of the social networks;
5. In the absence of links to any of the checked social. networks, we will inform you about it.

SSL certificate problems

The site must have an SSL certificate (work over the https protocol), if this is not the case or the certificate expires in less than 15 days, we will warn about this.

Domain is about to expire

We issue this warning when the domain expires in less than 15 days, or when there is no way to check the domain's validity in open sources.

Missing Sitemap.xml

From the sitemap.xml file, search robots receive information about the pages to be indexed, as well as the indexing date and priority. The absence of this file in the root of the site will be negatively perceived by search engines. That is why we warn you if the file does not exist.

Not configured redirects

One of the points of the weekly audit is to check the necessary redirects (redirects). Namely:

When opening a link	need to go to
http://test-test.com	https://test-test.com
www.test-test.com or vice versa test-test.com	test-test.com www.test-test.com
test-test.com / index.php	test-test.com
test-test.com/article . html	test-test.com/article
test-test.com/article /	test-test.com/article
test-test.com/article //	test-test.com/article

The problem of misconfigured transitions leads to the appearance of several links to the same page, which in turn is perceived negatively by search engines. In the absence of any of the listed redirects, we issue a warning. How to set them up correctly depends on your website platform.

Missing favicon.ico

The site icon is used not only for beauty, but also provides additional information about the site. Therefore, search robots welcome the presence of this file. And our task is to warn about its absence.
Read more at developers.google.com