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Website owners often seek to understand the quality of their resource and whether it meets the requirements of search engines. However, it is not always possible to conduct a website audit yourself and identify all the problems.
The best option is to order an audit from specialists who can thoroughly analyze your project and make recommendations for improvement. But not all website owners can afford such expenses, especially in the initial stages, when funds have already been spent on creating and promoting the site.
In this article, we offer step-by-step instructions on how to conduct a basic site audit yourself and at the initial stage identify the main problems, the solution of which will help improve your resource.
The audit should begin with the technical part of the site. We will analyze in detail what points you should pay attention to when checking.
To get started, check the following settings:
For newbies, these checks may take a while to complete, and that's completely normal. We'll explain in detail how to check each of these points to make it easier for you to assess the health of your site.
To make sure you have a robots.txt file, simply add "/robots.txt" to the end of your domain in the address bar. For example, like this: yoursite.ru/robots.txt
The robots.txt file must contain the following basic directives:
Having these directives in your robots.txt file is critical, as configuration errors can result in search engines not indexing your site.
Example of incorrect setting:
Such a file completely blocks site indexing.
Correct setup example:
This example specifies that search robots can crawl the site, excluding administrative sections and search pages, and also specifies the path to the site map.
The robots.txt settings often indicate the path to the sitemap. Having a sitemap is very important for search engines as it helps them index your site better. You can create a sitemap manually or using special programs. The map should only contain important pages, excluding pages with 404 errors.
For beginners, the main thing is to make sure that the sitemap file exists and is correctly referenced by robots.txt. The remaining aspects can be entrusted to the developers.
This is an important step that many newbie webmasters miss. By connecting your site to Yandex.Webmaster and Google Search Console, you get access to key information about your site, and can also track errors and shortcomings.
Main useful sections for website owners:
Registering a website in these systems is very simple. For Yandex.Webmaster, visit https://webmaster.yandex.ru/, for Google - https://search.google.com/. Once registered, keep an eye on reports and troubleshooting.
These analytics systems allow you to track traffic on your website. It is important to evaluate not only the total traffic, but also the source, to understand where users are coming from.
Tip: Always look at data over a long period to see seasonal variations and understand the real picture.
Often on websites there are duplicates of the main page or sections. It is important to set up a 301 redirect so that all duplicates are redirected to the correct pages. To check, you can use tools in Yandex.Webmaster or Google Search Console, or manually test the links.
When a site page does not exist, a 404 error code should be returned. To check if the 404 error is configured correctly, try navigating to a non-existent URL on your site. If the server response is not 404, but 200, then you need to make corrections to the server settings.
Website loading speed is an important indicator for users and search engines. If a site takes too long to load, users may abandon it and search engines may downgrade it.
To check your loading speed, use services, for example, from Google (https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/). This will help identify weak areas that require improvement.
The site must use the secure HTTPS protocol. Without it, your site will be less trusted by both users and search engines. Check that your site is running over HTTPS by using the appropriate online services or by looking in the address bar of your browser.
In this article, we looked at the basic elements of a technical website audit. This is just the beginning, and in the next part we will dive into the SEO audit so you can promote your website with more confidence. For additional information and assistance on audit issues, contact the SEO studio "SEO COMPUTER" by email: info@seo.computer.
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