HTTP response codes

Status codes, also known as HTTP response status codes, are three-digit codes sent by a server in response to a client’s request made via a web browser. These status codes provide a shorthand way for the server to explain the status of a client’s request and the action it took in response. Codes from the Internet Engineering Task Force’s Request for Comments (RFCs) and other specifications, as well as some other codes used in typical HTTP applications, are also included.

The authoritative registry of HTTP status codes is managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). The first digit of an HTTP status code indicates the category of the code, while the remaining two digits are used to specify the type of answer that falls under the category specified by the first number. According to the nature of the server’s response, HTTP status codes are grouped into the following five classes:

• 1XX – Informational codes. Indicative of successful receipt and comprehension of a request. A temporary one is issued while the request is being processed. The client is notified that they must now wait for a definitive answer. An empty line follows the header fields and the status line to indicate the end of the message.\
• 2XX  – Success codes. The client’s request was received, interpreted, and approved as described. This indicates that the request sent by the client was valid and that the server fulfilled its obligations in a timely manner.
• 3XX – Redirection codes, which may necessitate further action on the part of the requesting client. The extra step typically entails sending the customer to a different web address. The majority of these status codes are employed in URL rerouting.
• 4XX – Issue codes. Issue code indicates that the request could not be processed because the client reported an internal error. Lack of authority, incorrect syntax, etc., could be present in the request. In the event of a mistake, the server should add an object detailing the nature of the problem and whether or not it is a temporary situation.
• 5XX – Error codes. The server encountered an unexpected condition or cannot complete the requested operation and returned an error code. The server should include an object explaining the error situation and whether or not it is transitory (unless when replying to a HEAD request).

The most typical HTTP response status codes are detailed here.

Informational codes

100 Continue code

To proceed with the request or skip it if it has already been completed, the browser should see this status code.

This notifies the client that the server has received and is processing the request’s first segment. In either case, the browser must send the remaining parts of the request or disregard it if the request has already been fulfilled. After processing a request in full, the server is required to deliver a concluding response. In order to deliver the body of a request after receiving a 100 Continue status code, a browser must first specify Expect: 100-continue in the request header.

101 – Switching Protocols

If a browser sends an Upgrade request header, and the server returns a 200 OK response code, it means the server is willing to switch the application protocol used in the connection. Additionally, an Upgrade response header will be included in the response to show which protocol the server upgraded to.

Changes to the protocol are only allowed when doing so would be beneficial, such as when upgrading to a newer version of HTTP or when delivering resources that need real-time or synchronous communication.

103 – Early Hits code

When combined with the Link header, this status code tells the user-agent (such as a browser) to begin preloading resources while the server completes a response.

Success codes

200 OK

With this response code, it is safe to assume that your request was processed without error. Success is defined differently for each HTTP method:

The data you requested was sent in the body of the response when you performed a GET request.
With a HEAD response, only the representation headers are sent, with no body.
The answer to a POST request will always be the resource explaining the action’s outcome.
This is a trace request, thus the server has included the original request message in its reply.
In many cases, the response to a PUT or DELETE request will not be 200 OK, but rather 204 No Content or 201 Created, depending on whether or not the resource has previously been uploaded. Caching is enabled by default on a 200 answer.

201 Created

This response code means that the resource was successfully created in response to the request. In order to return the 201, the server must first build the resource. If the request’s URI or Location header specifies a location for the newly returned resource, that location will be used.

202 Accepted

The request has been accepted for processing, but neither the completion nor the initiation of processing has occurred, as indicated by this status code. The request may or may not be fulfilled depending on whether or not it is approved at the time the request is processed.

The 202 disposition is indecisive. Its goal is to release the user agent’s connection to the server so that the server can accept a request for another process (such as a batch-oriented process). Therefore, HTTP cannot deliver a status code to indicate the result of executing the request at a later time. However, the answer will detail the request’s current status and either direct the user to a status monitor or provide an estimated completion time.

203 Non-Authoritative Information

While the request was fulfilled, the payload was altered from the original 200 OK response by a transforming proxy. In addition, the header meta information that is delivered is not the final, authoritative set as it appears on the origin server, but rather it is compiled from a local or third-party copy. Cached responses of status code 203 can be reused.

204 No Content

If a request is successful but does not require a body to be returned, the client can stay on the same page and not receive a 404 Not Found error. Because there is nobody in a 204 response, it always ends on the first empty line following the header.

However, any new or updated metainformation will be applied to the browser’s active page. This answer is designed to allow input for actions to take place without creating a change to the active page. Like when adding the ability to “save and continue editing” on a wiki. It would be saved with a PUT request, and the 204 response status code would signal that the editor should not be overwritten. It is normal to be able to cache a 204 answer (an ETag header is included in such a response).

Redirection 300 Codes

300 – Multiple Choices

There are multiple possible responses to the request, as shown by this status code. Either the user agent or the user must make a decision. Except in the case of a HEAD request, the user will be presented with a selection of resource attributes and locations in the response.

The browser’s capabilities and the nature of the format being used determine the ease with which the optimal option can be chosen automatically. Location contains the URI for the server’s preferred representation, which can be used by the browser to automatically switch to that representation. This response code is rarely used because there is no standard method for selecting one of the responses. Normally, you can cache a response with status code 300.

301 Permanently Moved

The requested resource has been permanently relocated to the specified URI, as indicated by this status code. The response’s Location field contains the permanent URI. HEAD requests will result in a brief hypertext notice linking to the new URI in the response (s). Requests made with methods other than GET and HEAD will not be redirected with a 301 status code until the user confirms the redirect. This is because changing the request’s context could affect the response.

Since method switching is forbidden with a 301 status, the 308 Permanent Redirect status code is advised for POST requests instead. By default, a 301 answer can be stored in a cache.

302 Found

Any time you get this status code, know that the requested resource has been temporarily relocated to the URI. Response’s Location field contains the temporary URI. HEAD requests will result in a brief hypertext notice linking to the new URI in the response (s). The request will not be redirected with a 302 status code for methods other than GET and HEAD until the user confirms the redirect.

The 302 status code should only be used as a response for GET or HEAD methods, as changing the method is specifically forbidden for this status; instead, the 307 Temporary Redirect status code should be used if the method is changed during the redirection process. Use 303 See Other when you want to request that GET be substituted for the original method. For example, you may use it to send a confirmation message like “you successfully uploaded XYZ” in response to a PUT request rather than the uploaded resource itself. If the Cache-Control or Expires header is present in a 302 response, the response can be cached.

303 See Other

Instead of leading to the freshly uploaded resources, this status code indicates that the redirects lead to a user-defined page (e.g. confirmation page or upload progress page). This response code is commonly returned after a PUT or POST request. GET is always used to load this redirected page.

304 Not Modified

There is no need to resend the data after receiving this status code. It is a hidden 301 redirect to a previously visited page. In these cases, either the request method is known to be secure (GET or HEAD) or the request is conditional (using an If-None-Match or If-Modified-Since header). Cache-Control, Content-Location, Date, ETag, Expires, and Vary would have been included in the comparable 200 OK response.

307 Temporary Redirect

Any time you get this status code, know that the requested resource has been temporarily relocated to the URI. Response’s Location field contains the temporary URI. When a request is redirected, only a 307 status code is returned instead than the more generic 302 Found status code. There is no difference in behavior between 302 and 307 for GET requests. Non-GET methods and 302 Found responses are thus unpredictable on the web, while 307 responses are standard.

Use 303 See Other when you want to request that GET be substituted for the original method. This is helpful when responding to a PUT request with a confirmation message rather than the uploaded resources (e.g., “You successfully uploaded XYZ”).

308 – Permanent Redirect

This status code is returned when the requested resource has been permanently relocated to the specified Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). The response’s Location field contains the permanent URI. Both the request method and the request body will be preserved, unlike the case with 301, when the latter is often mistakenly converted to a GET method while the former is lost.

400 codes – Client Errors

400 Bad Request

Client-side errors, such as improperly formatted request syntax, invalid request message framing, or misleading request routing, result in this status code, which indicates that the server is unable to process the request. It is recommended that the customer does not submit this request again unless changes are made.

401 Not Authorized

The request could not be processed because it did not include adequate authentication data to access the requested resource, as shown by this status code. The WWW-Authenticate header attached to this status message specifies how authentication should be performed. It is possible to access the requested resource again by retrying the request and providing authentication information the second time. An authentication is still an option, unlike the 403 status.

402 Payment Required

There is no current plan to implement this client error status code. This was originally designed to work with electronic payment systems and serve as a warning that a request would be delayed until the customer provided payment. There is no agreed-upon definition or context in which it should be used, and so its use varies widely among various entities.

403 No access granted

The server has processed the request but decided not to grant access.

The status code is identical to that of 401 Unauthorized, except in this case, re-authenticating won’t change anything and a second request is unnecessary. Application logic, such as insufficient rights to a resource, is used to permanently deny access. If the server does not wish the reason for the rejection to be hidden from the client, it can use the 403 status code for any request method other than HEAD. The 404 Not Found status code is used if the server is unwilling to provide the requested resource.

404 File or Page Not Found

The server returned an error status code indicating it was unable to find any resources matching the provided Request-URI. Link rot can affect websites with broken links (also known as dead links). There is no word on whether this is a temporary or permanent issue. In contrast, a 410 Gone status should be used rather than a 404 Not Found status if the server is aware that the resource has been deleted permanently. If the server does not want to provide additional information about why the request was denied, or if no alternative response is appropriate, it will often return this status code. By default, a 404 response can be saved in a cache.

405 Prohibited Procedure

The server recognizes the requesting method but cannot fulfill it because it is not compatible with the requested resource, as shown by this status code. The resource at the given Request-URI cannot be accessed through the Request-Line function. Allow header fields MUST be generated by the server and provide a list of accepted methods for the requested resource. The default caching policy applies to a 405 response.

408 Request Timeout

The server has decided to close the connection since the timeout period for the request has expired and the server is no longer willing to keep it open. The client is allowed to resubmit the request at a later date without making any changes. Since 408 indicates that the server has opted to cancel the connection rather than continue waiting, the server should send the “close” Connection header field in the response.

409 Conflict

An incompatibility between the request and the current state of the resource being accessed causes this status code to be returned. This code is permitted when it is thought that the client may be able to resolve the dispute and retry the request. Therefore, the conflict’s origin should be clearly articulated in the body of the response.

A PUT request is where you’ll see this most often. For instance, if the file you’re trying to upload is older than the one already on the server, a 409 response indicates a problem in the version control system. Here, the answer Content-Type dictates the format in which a list of changes between the two versions should be included.

410 Gone

This error number means that the requested resource is permanently unavailable on the server from which it was requested and no alternative address is known. For situations where the server administrator is unsure whether the error is transitory or not, the 404 status code should be utilized.

By informing the client that the resource has been made inaccessible on purpose and that the server’s owners prefer that remote links to that resource be removed, the 410 response is primarily meant to facilitate the process of web maintenance. Limited-time offers and resources belonging to former server employees are particularly vulnerable to this problem. Caching is enabled by default for a 410 answer.

414 URI Too Long 

With this status code, the server has decided not to carry out the request because the client-supplied Request-URI is too long.

This could occur if, for example, a client a) incorrectly converted a POST request to a GET request with long query information, b) fell into a redirection loop (for example, a redirected URI prefix that points to a suffix of itself), or c) was attacking the server in an attempt to exploit security vulnerabilities. By default, a 414 answer can be stored in a cache.

415 Incompatible Media Format

An unsupported payload format is the reason the server returned this status code. The request’s Content-Type or Content-Encoding headers, or a visual inspection of the data, could be to blame for the format error.

418 I am a teapot

The server has decided it is a teapot and will never change its mind, as indicated by this status code. Rather than displaying “Out of Coffee,” a combination coffee/tea maker’s response should read “503 Service Unavailable.” This status code was initially defined in RFC 2324, Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol, as an April Fools’ Day hoax by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in 1998. The Nginx HTTP server emulates the behavior of the goto directive by returning this code in response to requests that it does not wish to process, such as automated inquiries.

429 Too many requests

The user has exceeded the allowed pace of requests (“rate limitation”), as shown by this status code. Response representations may have an explanation of the error and a Retry-After header specifying the amount of time to elapse before resubmitting the request. Responding to each request with a 429 status code uses resources, therefore it may be more efficient to simply terminate connections or take other measures when a server is under assault or receiving a huge number of requests from a single party.

Server Error Codes

500 Internal Server Error

An unexpected problem stopped the server from completing the request, as indicated by this status code. When the server is unable to determine an appropriate 5xx status code to respond with, it will typically use this error response instead. Error responses, such as the 500 status code, are sometimes logged by server administrators along with additional request details to debug the error and prevent it from occurring again.

501 Not Implemented

The server does not have the requisite capabilities to complete the request, as shown by this status code. The client can learn when to check back to verify if the feature is supported by sending a Retry-After header with this status. Fixing a 501 error is beyond your control and will necessitate the intervention of the service you are trying to reach.

This is the correct response to give when a server does not recognize the requested method and cannot provide support for it on any supported resource. Since only GET and HEAD are mandated by clients, servers should not return 501 for any other method. In cases when the server is aware of the method but chooses not to implement support for it, the 405 Method Not Allowed status code should be returned. Unless otherwise specified via caching headers, a 501 response is cacheable.

502 Bad Gateway

This error code indicates that the gateway or proxy server encountered an unexpected problem while trying to complete the request. To resolve a 502 error, the web server or proxies you are trying to access it through must be updated.

503 Service Unavailable

This status code means that the server is currently overloaded or undergoing maintenance and cannot process any requests. As a short-term fix, this is implemented in the hopes that the problem would go away on its own. Included with this answer ought to be a user-friendly page outlining the issue and an expected time for the recovery of the service in the Retry-After header. The client SHOULD treat the answer as a 500 Internal Server Error if no Retry-After is specified.

504 Gateway Timeout

As a gateway or proxy, the server did not receive a timely response from the upstream server (such as HTTP, FTP, LDAP) or auxiliary server (such as DNS) in order to complete the request. The web server or proxies you’re trying to access through likely need to be updated in order for you to get past a 504 error.

How to do SEO audit for the website

Finding issues or mistakes that could keep your website from ranking on Google and other search engines is the process of doing an SEO audit. An SEO audit is composed of several components, including:

• ensuring that Google properly crawls, indexes, and displays your website;
• looking for on-page SEO issues on your website;
• checking your off-page SEO for any potential concerns on other websites that are related to or link to your site confirming the quality of the user experience on your website (for both mobile and desktop users);
• content optimization for keywords Checking your website for redundant or inadequate content;
• setting up and maintaining thorough reporting to monitor the operation of your website

Why Are SEO Audits Important?

With the use of SEO audits, your website and company can avoid:

• losing organic traffic as a result of bad site health;
• not taking advantage of sales possibilities or losing ground to rival brands;
• poorly indexing your website, which prevents searchers from finding it;
• being penalized by Google for harmful backlinks;

In summary, an audit of your website might identify issues that can be losing you visitors and sales.

The Tools You Need to Conduct an SEO Audit

The good news is that performing an SEO audit successfully doesn’t require a lot of SEO tools.

There are five major instruments we’ll use during the audit process:

1. The website analysis tool, like Semrush, Seranking, Serpstat or similar that can provide you technical website audit.
2. Google Analytics – Google Analytics offers metrics and information regarding the effectiveness of your website within their search engine.
3. Google Search Console – Using Google Search Console, you can check to verify if your website is correctly indexed and how it is showing up in search engine results pages.
4. Google PageSpeed Insights – PageSpeed Insights gauges how well your site performs on desktop and mobile platforms.
5. Testing Google Schema Markup — You should ensure that the code is written accurately and without errors, if you’re creating schema for your website (which we’ll discuss in a moment). You are able to test and confirm that your schema is error-free using the Google Schema Markup Testing tool.

What is an SEO Audit?

Go ahead and use a site auditing tool to perform a site crawl before you begin the audit process. Any site audit tool that you feel comfortable with should work, though our free version of our program can help you get started.

Depending on the size of your site, it may take some time to finish because we will be using the insights from this report as we go through each phase.

First of all, launch your website auditing tool by choosing “audit website” and fill the website URL.

Make sure to verify your website in Google Search Console if you haven’t previously.

After covering the fundamentals, let’s talk about how to conduct a site audit.

SEO Audit Fundamentals: The Things You 100% Must Check

Let’s begin the audit with the items that you have to examine without fail.

Those potential problem areas that might keep your website from being properly crawled and indexed or major problems that might be the source of a problem.

1. Compare Your Rankings to Others and Research Your Rivals

Understanding the competition is necessary before delving deeply into a technical SEO audit or on-page review.

The more you are aware of what other companies in the same market are doing, the higher your chances of success will be, whether you are developing a new site for the first time or auditing as part of your ongoing plan.

You must profile your performance against the competition and benchmark the ranks of your website.

And the Semrush toolkit allows you to accomplish all of this.

Benchmarking the Rankings of Your Website

You need to set up position tracking for your website if you haven’t previously.

To start a new project, go to the Position Tracking tool.

Choosing your region, device, language, search engine, and filling out your full business name are the next steps in building out your campaign.

The next step is to enter your tracking keywords.

The addition of keywords can be done in a number of ways, including manually, through campaigns or Google Analytics.
Once the tracking process has begun, you can see your position for the given keywords.

Visit the Competitors Discovery report to see how your rivals are performing for the same keywords.

Recognizing Your Competition

To get a broader view of your rivals, go to the Organic Research tool.
After entering your domain, select the “Competitors” option. A Competitive Positioning map will automatically populate, and a report on your top 100 rivals based on competition level will be displayed.

2. Verify whether Google’s index contains duplicate copies of your website.

Although it may be the simplest test you can perform on your website, it is crucial to make sure that Google is only indexing one version of it. Confused?

You could put your website on:

http://www.domain.com
http://domain.com
https://www.domain.com
https://domain.com
There isn’t much of a distinction here for the user (except that they may see a warning for a non-secure site in their browser).

These represent various iterations of the website to a search engine. You must search for duplication and only index one version of your website. Fortunately, you can quickly verify this.

The indexed URLs for your domain are returned by this.

You may need to address a problem if you see multiple site versions.

The other option is to manually type each URL variation into your browser. Whichever you choose, you should anticipate being sent a single version. If not, use a 301 redirect to point to a single version.

Having stated that, performing a web search is crucial. Additionally, you will have a rapid understanding of any subdomains in use. It’s not unusual to see duplicate site versions on subdomains created for affiliates.

3. Verify the indexed URLs for your website.

Although you can do this check concurrently with the step above, it deserves its own section.

Look at the number of indexed URLs after performing a “site: search” on Google.
On occasion, you’ll be astounded by how many pages Google has indexed.

How many products are listed on your e-commerce site, if you have one? How many articles and pages have you produced in your CMS if your website only generates leads?

This is only a fast check to see if the number of indexed results matches your expectations.

If not, you can have a problem with thin or duplicate content pages that need to be fixed.

It’s important to note that you can use the Google Search Console Removal tool to de-index or otherwise prevent specific pages from showing up in search results. We will discuss this further in the auditing process. Please take note that these must be URLs that you control and have submitted to Google Search Console.

Examples include the rapid appearance of hundreds of thousands of indexed URLs in an e-commerce store with 5,000 products; this is typically due to faceted navigation that is indexable.

On the other side, if the outcome is lower than you anticipated, you can discover that your website isn’t properly being crawled or indexed. Below, we’ll go into more detail about this.

4. Examine any manual actions.

In the event that your website transgresses Google’s Webmaster Quality Guidelines, Google may take manual action against it.

Previously, this was known as a manual penalty. It implies that until Google reverses the decision, your site’s rankings will decline and you won’t be able to rank as highly as you did before. Either a page-level action or a site-wide action can be taken.

In the worst situation, your entire website will be deindexed and will not even rank for your brand name.

In Search Console, you may see if you’ve received a manual action. A “Security and Manual Actions” tab with a manual actions link can be found in the menu on the left-hand side.

When you click it, a page displaying the status will load.

Ideally, you can see a green tick indicating that there are no problems.

Additionally, we provide a useful handbook for navigating and avoiding manual penalties.

5. Examine the Speed of Your Site

Website speed has been significant for a while.

A specific Page Speed Update that Google released in 2018 made speed a mobile ranking factor.

When 2021 rolled around, Google released its Page Experience Update. Today, as many had anticipated, UX is more crucial to SEO success than ever before.

We cannot dispute the importance of speed.

According to statistics from Google that examine user habits, the likelihood that a user will leave a page quickly rises the slower it loads.
Your website’s speed is more crucial than ever, both from an SEO and user experience (UX) standpoint.

6. Verify Your Website Is HTTPS

It’s a good idea to upgrade to HTTPS if your website isn’t already set up that way. Previously known as “Socket Security Layer,” that “S” is now known as “Transport Layer Security.”

The HTTP protocol is simply an encrypted version of that “S,” to put it simply. For anyone viewing your website, it adds an additional degree of cyber security.
You can see your website’s score and a list of possible problems here. If this page only shows green checkmarks, take the time to fix any issues before continuing to the next step.

Remember that since 2014, HTTPS has been a ranking indication, thus if your site is still using HTTP, you must install an SSL certificate.

Let’s Encrypt makes this possible without cost.

7. Look for problems with mobile-friendliness

In today’s mobile-first environment, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it’s likely that you aren’t prioritizing the user experience.

Since 2015, mobile-friendliness has become a ranking element. The majority of websites are, in fact, either responsive or employ separate mobile-optimized versions, although this does not preclude the existence of problems.

And perhaps most significantly, starting in 2021, the Page Experience will be updated to include mobile-friendliness.

You may assess how well mobile versions of websites work using a helpful Google tool called the Mobile-Friendly Test.

The Mobile Usability area of the Enhancements page on the Search Console is another place to look for any problems.

Here, any problems are mentioned. If not, you can mark that there are no problems.

To save loading time, the HTML on the pages has been reduced.

Search for “AMP Links” in the Crawled Pages report by navigating there. Any problems will surface on your website.
To see if your site has any AMPs at all, you can also access the Statistics report.

If a page has various versions (for example, an AMP version and a non-AMP version), you must set up a canonical tag to direct users to the preferred version.
Find out more advice on optimizing your website for mobile devices.

8. Examine and fix more indexation problems

Stay in Google Search Console and click the Index tab’s Coverage page.

Here, you can see pages that are valid or contain warnings, as well as discover coverage mistakes and excluded pages.
You must fix any problems that may be preventing your site from being properly scanned and indexed if you encounter errors in this area.

Typical mistakes include:

1. Pages that are submitted in a sitemap but contain a noindex attribute
   Pages in your robots.txt file that are prohibited from being crawled but are present in a sitemap include 404 pages.
   You must fix mistakes if you find their source and know what caused them.

2. Disallowed URLs
A list of URLs that were excluded is also included in this report. These are web pages that Google is not currently indexing and may include:

pages with a noindex attribute omitted
website redirects
anomalous crawling
3. Issues with canonicalization
4. Crawled pages that are not indexed
5. 404 Not Found errors
6. Pages that your robots.txt file has blocked
These exclusions can occur for a variety of reasons and aren’t necessarily necessary to resolve.

For instance, it’s possible that you just moved to a different website. Redirects would be anticipated as a result of the move. Using noindex tags, you can also be preventing faceted navigation.

Analyze the report and address any issues that are raised. More information on how to achieve this may be found here.

9. Recognize the Page Experience on Your Site

Google’s Page Experience upgrade, which focuses on site performance and mobile-friendliness, has previously been mentioned above.

User experience is (finally) taken into account when rating websites.
Core Web Vitals was mentioned earlier, right?

Now is the time to incorporate this into your SEO audits. You should keep an eye on it frequently and respond to any problems that surface.

How About Core Web Vitals, though?

A project called Web Vitals was started by Google in May 2020 to offer standardized guidelines for quality signals that are crucial to achieving a great user experience.

Web Vitals are now considered a ranking element as of 2021. The good news is that you can now get a report within Search Console that will assist you audit these. The Core Web Vitals that you need to comprehend are:

This report can be found under the “enhancements” tab.

Opening one of these reports will provide thorough insights into the problems that exist in regard to bad URLs and those that need repair; take action as necessary. You will see a report that corresponds to both mobile and desktop.

10. Examine Your On-Page SEO On-page SEO involves issues like:

• the improvement of header tags, meta descriptions, and title tags;
• using appropriate image alt tags;
• making content that is optimized;
• creating a network of internal links;
• auditing on-page SEO components is essential because you have control over these optimization chances.

SEO Audit Fast Results

It takes time to run a successful SEO audit. It can be challenging to put forth so much effort only to see effects emerge gradually months after implementation.

The good news is that there are easy wins that can instantly enhance your website. These actions are a fantastic method to increase your self-assurance and achieve some quick successes. Let’s get going.

11. Correct faulty internal links

Internal links that are broken make for a bad user experience. When a visitor hits a link on your website, they anticipate being directed to that page, not given a 404 error. But even putting that aside, it gives search engines a bad quality signal.

Broken internal links are indicated in the Site Audit report’s Issues tab under the heading “Breaks.”
It’s as simple as updating the internal link to the proper URL or removing the link to fix issues.

You may also learn which pages pass the most “link juice” by visiting the Internal Linking Report to see which pages have the highest “Internal LinkRank.”

It may be wise to link to orphaned pages from more powerful pages with greater Internal LinkRank if it makes sense to do so.

12. Make Your Sitemap Cleaner

The main pages on your website are listed in the XML sitemap for Google to index.

You will find problems with improper URLs in your sitemap presented as faults in your Site Audit report.
These problems occur if your sitemap file contains URLs that point to pages with duplicate content, reroute to another page, or return status codes other than 200.

As a quick repair, give priority to eliminating any inaccurate pages from your sitemap.

13. Verify Any Redirects

It’s not unusual to encounter redirection-related problems, although these are frequently rather simple to identify and resolve.

The Site Audit report identifies a number of redirect problems.

Chains and Loops Redirect
Redirects can cause crawl problems if they aren’t configured properly. Chains and loops of redirects are frequent instances of incorrect redirect usage.

These will be indicated under the Issues tab.

Instead of 302 redirects, you should nearly always use 301 redirects. 301 redirects are permanent, as opposed to 302 redirects, which denote a more transient change. A 301 redirect is most likely the best option if you intend to retain items in their current location for the long run.

Look for any temporary redirects in the Site Audit report, and if any of them are meant to be permanent, upgrade them to 301 rather than 302.
Examining the Content on Your Website Content is king in SEO. Content keeps website visitors interested and learning. Therefore, it’s imperative to check that your material is comprehensive, practical, and performing well in search engines.

We will then explore how to remedy the problems that your audit uncovers and how you can conduct diagnostic work on your material.

14. Identify and fix issues with duplicate content

Duplicate content on your website can lead to problems that keep you from achieving the best possible rating. It can provide search engines conflicting messages.

After all, if there are two duplicate pages, which one should be ranked? Duplicate material can occasionally be seen as a ranking-manipulation attempt. This, however, is not as big of a problem as it formerly was.

Issues with duplicate material can be found in the Site Audit report’s Issues page.

15. Recognize pages with thin content

It’s still crucial to make sure your content provides adequate context and information for the subject you are writing about, even when it isn’t a direct ranking criterion.

Pages with little or no value for consumers and search engines are referred to as having thin content. Users that read this content are unlikely to convert and may possibly stop visiting your website.

For instance, if you are writing about a complex subject like “cataract lenses,” you should probably concentrate on the specifics of the lenses that are available on the market as well as the procedures that patients can use to obtain these kinds of medical solutions.

However, if you’re promoting a dog food company and want to emphasize the advantages of feeding your dog dry food, that subject might be more succinct and to the point. Most likely, this is not thin content.
Simply put, you’re providing the reader what they want in the exact number of words required to make your argument. In essence, this is a comparison of short- and long-form content.

Having said that, it’s crucial that you spot thin pages and fix these problems. There are two excellent choices:

Make these pages better by producing insightful, original content
If you want to stop the pages from being indexed, add a noindex property.
Usually, this will either make these pages better by producing excellent, original content or stop the pages from being indexed by adding a noindex feature.

Once more, these problems are indicated as pages with a low word count in the errors tab of your Site Audit.

16. Examine Searcher Intent and Compare Your Content to Top Ranking Pages

In recent years, searcher intent has been one of the most important factors that SEOs have concentrated on.

Spend some time examining the top-ranking pages for the search terms you’re aiming for, even though it may seem obvious. Consider conducting a content audit to rewrite your page with searcher intent in mind if you observe a significant disparity between your content and the pages that appear at the top of Google’s search results.

Maybe you haven’t delved into a subject enough? Users could anticipate reading a manual, yet you’re aiming to rank in the e-commerce category.

Fear not if you’re having trouble determining a keyword’s intent. In order to help you identify if a keyword is transactional (T), commercial (C), navigational (N), or informational, several of our keyword research tools now include a Search Intent Metric (I).
Conduct a backlink audit 18.
Links are still a significant ranking element. A backlink audit can be used to check for possibly harmful connections in addition to developing a plan to outlink your rivals.

Not all links boost your position. Links that Google deems to be an attempt to rig your search engine results are prohibited by their Webmaster Guidelines.

When conducting an SEO audit, it’s crucial to look for poisonous links, especially if this is your first time working on the site in question. We have a helpful tutorial that will walk you through poisonous backlinks if you’re not familiar with them or if you just want a reminder.

The Backlink Audit tool can help you find hazardous connections so you can remove them before they have a bad effect on the performance of your website.

There are a number of “toxic backlinks” that may be hazardous (you may filter for these in the tool’s “Audit” tab). In our tool, some detrimental elements that affect a backlink’s toxicity level include:

backlinks from unindexed websites
links coming from websites that have lots of mirror pages
links from link directories that point back
The tool also lists additional “possibly harmful” elements. This is especially helpful if you want to avoid any future backlink troubles.
Google prefers to accept “bad” backlinks as long as you didn’t pay for them or take part in another backlink scam, but if you notice a spike, it might be worthwhile investigating them.

Let’s now discuss how to start a backlink audit.

What Comes Next Following an SEO Audit?

Phew! You’ve completed your SEO audit, and you’ve identified a number of areas that require improvement. What follows is what? The job starts. Here are some items to check off your checklist after your audit is finished:

• Monitor your keyword positions and rankings (and keep tabs on competitor sites);
• To remove any duplicate content indexed by Google, use the Removal tool in the Google Search Console;
• Get rid of any clumsy programming that is impairing the performance of your page or making it difficult for Google to correctly render your website;
• Clean up your sitemap, fix any broken links, and change any 302 redirects to 301 redirects as needed (use the Schema Markup Testing tool to verify your code is error-free);
• Sort your links into the three primary categories, then start contacting publications and exporting your disavow list;
• Add at least one pertinent internal link to any orphan pages you find, and use the SEO Writing Assistant to help you create the most distinctive and original content on the internet;
• Start generating reports with our Reports function to check if the hard work you put into your SEO audit is paying off. This is especially crucial for organizations. Almost all aspects of SEO, including technical SEO, content SEO, and site audits, can be the subject of personalized reports for clients.

Linkbuilding with Guest Blogging

It requires more than merely hitting keywords to improve your site’s exposure. Off-page search engine optimization (SEO) techniques such as guest posting on other blogs can help you gain high-quality backlinks and generate new prospects.

Backlinks are important for a website’s authority to grow. Search engines find new web pages by following links from other websites. It’s also necessary to be discoverable for a search engine like Google to track your page.

It can be difficult for Google to find your site if you don’t have any backlinks. As a result, backlinks result in faster disclosure. Google will index your site after it has crawled it for information (looking at the content, keywords, and interaction). In other words, your website will be added to the web search.

Guest posting might be one of the most effective methods for obtaining backlinks from other websites.

Many people may think it’s foolish to give away their hard-won content to other bloggers, but it’s a tried-and-true method for creating authoritative backlinks.

Guest posting is a great way to get high-quality backlinks.

What is the difference between backlinks and guest posting?

1. Strong blogs accept guest posts.
2. Look for websites that let you post as a guest.
3. Use Google to look for relevant websites

Other guest bloggers can be found here.

1. Email pitches for bloggers
2. Select websites that have a high domain authority.

What Is the Difference Between Backlinks and Guest Posting?

The process of writing blogs for other websites to publish (also known as guest blogging) is known as guest posting. It’s a strategy of obtaining backlinks to your website from blogs in exchange for an article.

Links can be included in the post at various points. In the article’s body, you may include a link to a similar keyword or phrase. People frequently include links in the author bio at the conclusion of the article.

Internal links are more useful because they have a greater click-through rate while people are reading the blog rather than after they have received the material.

Furthermore, foreign sites permit two basic sorts of links:

• Do-follow – By default, any link is a do-follow link. They allow search engines to find you, which aids in your inclusion in the search engine’s index.
• No-follow – A do-follow link can be converted to a no-follow link manually. These kinds of tags turn out to be useless. They have no effect on your page’s rating. They show the webmaster that your site is untrustworthy or that “do not visit this site.”

Because the returns on these sites are small, it is best to avoid sharing your valuable content with them.
A hyperlink is a link that you place on specified target words. The clickable text that is related to your real link is called anchor text.

The most relevant keywords for that link are usually included in the best anchor text. For example, the words “top SEO business” could be used to entice the reader to click for additional information.

The link would then direct them to a website on SEO services that is relevant to your firm. That could be something as simple as a blog post, a services page, or something else entirely.

In contrast to the plain background for other words, the most frequent format for anchor text is highlighted blue lettering.

The webmaster establishes this standard, albeit the font and color of the anchor text can be changed using HTML code.

Strong Blogs invites guest writers to contribute to their sites.

It is critical to provide well-written material that provides readers with useful information in order to achieve good results.

Even with the best material, though, you may not always receive the outcomes you want. As a result, when writing guest posts, you must pay attention to even the smallest details.

You can create a relationship with other bloggers by taking different techniques while guest blogging. This will assist you in increasing the number of referrals to your blog. Bloggers may also beg for additional content or make suggestions to help you better your work. It’s never a waste to get free expert advice.

Of course, the biggest advantage of posting on prominent sites is that your writing will be seen by a larger audience. It’s a simple technique to attract new readers. And, eventually, they may begin to return to your website on a regular basis in search of more high-quality content, converting you into loyal readers.

Guest posting on high-authority websites can help you obtain more credibility. If these sites have mentioned you, Google interprets this as a vote of confidence in you. This will increase trust among visitors to other websites as well.

Look for websites that permit guest posting.

There are four methods for determining which sites allow guest posts:

1. Perform a Google search

To begin, use Google to look for blogs that allow guest posting. You can find a list of high-domain platforms by searching “digital marketing guest posting sites.”

Mashable, HubSpot, GetResponse, and others are among the most popular.

Another option is to use keywords linked to guest posting, such as:

• Please write for us.
• Contribute
• Guest Post Contribute
• Guest Post Guidelines
• Editorial Policies
• Guidelines for Contribution
• Make a post.
• Send us an article.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll have a plethora of options to pick from.

2. Look for relevant websites.

Searching for similar keywords in the search box given by websites with the same niche as yours is an alternative to the previous procedure.

If you run a digital marketing firm, for example, you may compile a list of websites that offer digital marketing services, website construction services, or other firms that create SEO and social media articles.

By typing “write for us” into the search field on their website, you can find guest blogging opportunities. You should be directed to the appropriate landing page.

If the webpage does not include a search bar, you can use Google to search for the domain name and the terms given above. Searching for “thrillax.com write for us” would get the anticipated results for a site called Thrillax.

3. Read Other Guest Bloggers’ Posts

Check to see if there are any other guest bloggers when you read posts on some blogs. You can make a list of authors who appear regularly on numerous websites. If you look them up on Google, you’ll find some of the other places where they’ve posted. Then all you have to do is write content to fill those sites.

4. Use email to pitch blogs

Even if you’ve exhausted all of these possibilities, there’s still one more way to host websites.

If a site does not appear to welcome guest posts, you can send blog pitches directly to the webmaster. Inquire politely via email or the contact forms are given.

But be ready to be rejected. Such inquiries are common on good sites, and they may or may not respond to you. Do not allow yourself to become depressed. Continue pitching to different sites on a regular basis. The worst-case scenario is that they say “no.” There’s no harm in giving it a shot.

Select websites that have high domain authority

Once you’ve compiled a list of websites, you can check the domain authority of each one. Small SEO tools, for example, are free to use for this purpose. Paid tools such as SemRUSH or Ahrefs, on the other hand, will provide you with more accurate information on the domain.

Look into the page’s domain authority. A minimum of 25 must be met. Sites with a lower authority will be viewed as less trustworthy by Google.

Approach websites that have a similar target audience to yours. As more individuals click on the links to your site, the relevancy and quality of your referral traffic will improve.

An excellent website will have a domain name that is easy to grasp. Furthermore, such websites will allow you to communicate with intelligent and polished readers, exposing you to an already existing community that will be beneficial to you.

Providing articles to real blogs establishes you as a trustworthy source of knowledge. Because you’ve been recognized by respected businesses, your audience will have more faith in you. As a result, you’re gaining more credibility for your own blog (and brand).

Be wary of domains that have a group of websites with the same IP address. These are the sites you should stay away from. The host will usually present you with a list of additional websites that they own, which may appear to be useful. They are, however, more likely to only publish your article if you pay them.

Make Useful Content and Link to It in the Body

Your piece must provide value to its viewers in order to be published on a high-authority website.

When stating a fact, you must provide a link to a credible source. Also, if your own blogs are pertinent to the issue and provide additional insight, include links to them.

When compared to links placed below in the author’s bio, links in the body of the piece are better for SEO. Most host bloggers will advise you that your link can only be placed in the author’s bio. If that’s the case, try to persuade them that the link will add useful information to the article and help the readers.

Collaborating with other bloggers will help you gain clout with a new audience. This should, in theory, result in new subscribers over time. It’s a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate your worth to new readers by offering actionable advice that isn’t available anywhere else.

Furthermore, improving your relationships with other bloggers will aid in the improvement of your material. They’ll provide ideas about your material, and you can talk about different tactics for trying new things or coming up with fresh themes to write about.

Backlinks are an important part of SEO

It will help your site’s search rating tremendously if authoritative sites link back to it. Backlinking to respected sites will help Google and other search engines index your blog by making it more recognizable.

Guest writing will provide you with high-quality backlinks, increasing your credibility with Google, other search engines, and end consumers. The more backlinks your website has, the higher its search engine rating will be. As a result, begin contributing to various websites and obtaining as many fresh backlinks as possible.

Contact us to rank your website #1 on Google or get professional SEO services.

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR WEBSITE?

Many site owners or novice optimizers are interested in the question – what affects the speed of SEO Promotion? This question is logical because everyone wants to quickly get to the TOP. Although SEO does not like to rush, there are at least 5 factors that can slow down the promotion even more:

• Technical SEO;
• Lack of qualification for SEO job;
• Lack of niche and SEO marketing strategy analysis;
• Incorrect site structure;
• Budget.

Now let’s go through all the aspects in more detail.

TECHNICAL SEO PROBLEMS AND WEBSITE PROBLEMS

the website with errors affect the timing of its promotion

In the IT industry, it happened so that site developers are practically not versed in SEO. After the approval of the project and the decision to promote it, it turns out that the site has a lot of SEO errors that must be corrected, otherwise it will be almost impossible to promote it.

The main question is – can this be avoided? If the SEO optimizer works in tandem with the programmer, then of course it can. The problem is that IT companies do not work like this, and if they do, then for a decent amount.

LACK OF QUALIFICATIONS FOR SEO JOB

Many site owners collect key queries from Google Keyword Planner, insert them into meta tags, hire a copywriter for articles, publish and get backlinks, and begin to consider they have the “greatest qualification for SEO job”.

It seems to be simple, but it’s not SEO at all. This science is based on small things and hundreds of books have been written for each section thereof. Even after learning the whole theory, it is impossible to say with certainty that it will be suitable for a specific project. Here you need experience and a trained eye.

Therefore, even if you know the whole theory of promotion, but do not have successful cases – it is better to immediately turn to the pros, the result will be much faster.

LACK OF COMPETITOR ANALYSIS IN GOOGLE SEARCH

The lack of niche and strategy analysis affects the timing of website promotion

Niche analysis allows you to understand whether the promotion will be long, complex, or expensive.

How to quickly check it: you need to study the competitors who occupy the TOP 10. If their level is so high that the sites are 20 years old, they have 1000 links, millions of articles, and other factors, then no matter what the budget for promotion is, you will not be able to quickly take this TOP place for the same keys. Let’s say more, this is generally a recipe for disaster.

However, if you do not go head-on to the TOP 10 with strong competitors, but go around, the result will be much faster. But here you need to think through a strategy – use low-frequency queries, look for the weaknesses of competitors, etc.

INCORRECT SEO SITE STRUCTURE

A properly created site structure and the most relevant key queries are already half the success for achieving results in promotion.

WEBSITE STRUCTURE

What does correct website structure mean? Let’s explain with an example: let’s say we are promoting a page of a website selling dry dog food. The competition level here is high, so it is not realistic to advance on high-frequency (HF) queries. If we have one page, it will not be enough to promote on low-frequency queries (LF), since there will be very little traffic/sales from several LF.

But by making a system of filtering by breed, age, and characteristics of the dog and collecting all the relevant semantics, you can get such a large number of LF that not a single HF pales before it.

The correct structure of the site consists of its widest possible breakdown into categories and filtering, by which you can collect LF queries. If you do this at the beginning of the promotion, the result will be much faster than if you break the existing structure in the process.

LOW SEO BUDGET

A small budget affects the timing of website promotion.

Website owners who want to order SEO, do not understand that with a budget of 100 USD/month it will be impossible to quickly take a good position in a competitive niche.

The cost of promotion is calculated on an individual basis, and if the recommended budget is not enough, then there can be no question of speed.

If you take the average case, then to get into the TOP 3, you need to count on about 5000 USD per month when promoting five pages, each of which has about eight keys.

We emphasize that this is only an average budget, which strongly depends on the competition in the niche, the level, and number of keywords.

Shopify SEO tips

Shopify SEO is very important part of your website promotion to get more reach and sales. In our article, we provide you with some most useful tips that help you to reach the Google TOP for your Shopify store.

Step 1: Improve the structure of your Shopify site.

The organization of your material on your page is critical to SEO success.
When customers can discover what they’re searching for quickly and simply, they’re more likely to stay on your site longer and view more pages, which can benefit your search engine rankings.
How can you make your website more user-friendly?
Simplify. Don’t use too many categories or subcategories.
Search engines can explore and rank your products more easily if your site has a simpler structure.
The following is an example of a simple, SEO-friendly site structure:

Your products are only a few clicks away from your homepage, as shown in the diagram, making it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for and for search engines to scan the site.
Using one of these formats, you can easily organize your content using Shopify:

Home » Product Pages » Category Pages
> Category Pages » Sub-Category Pages » Product Pages » Home »
Always keep in mind that your website should be designed with customers in mind.
You’ll need an About page and a Contact page for your site in addition to product and category pages. Don’t skip these pages because they tell shoppers and search engines that you’re credible and trustworthy.
Finally, on your page, provide a search box. Is it going to assist with SEO? Not in a direct way. However, it will assist visitors in finding what they’re looking for, which is a vital component of eCommerce optimization so you can make more money from your existing traffic.

Step 2: Search for keywords.

The success or failure of your SEO campaign is primarily determined by the keywords you choose. Unfortunately, many eCommerce business owners don’t give keyword research a second consideration.
It’s not enough to sprinkle keywords across your website. What matters most is that you use the correct keywords.
How do you come up with the proper keyword mix for your SEO strategy? Simple. Perform a keyword search.

To begin, narrow your focus. Choosing a broad category like “sneakers” isn’t going to cut it. The more specialized the niche, the better. CBD for pets has been shown to be effective.
After you’ve decided on a niche, the following step is to locate the correct keywords to go with it.
There are a couple of approaches you can take. One option is to use Google or Amazon’s auto-suggest feature. Finding the terms your clients are seeking will help you rank higher in their search results, avoid Amazon suspension due to illegal activity, and appear more trustworthy to potential customers.
Assume you’re in the business of marketing pet toys. Go to Google and search for “pet toys.” The following keywords will appear in your search results.

 

If you try the same thing with Amazon, you’ll see something like this:

These search keywords will be used by potential customers to locate your store and products. You may either stop here or go a step further by employing specialized SEO tools to go deeper into keyword research.
Let’s take a look at some of the top Shopify keyword tools.

Shopify’s Best Keyword Tools

The auto-suggest functions of Google and Amazon are excellent, but they are limited in scope. They won’t tell you about the search volume or keyword difficulty of these search queries, for example.
Dedicated keyword tools like Google Keyword Planner and Ahref, on the other hand, can help. They can also generate a longer list of similar terms.
If you plug one of the suggested keywords – say, “pet toys” – into Google Keyword Planner, you’ll see something like this:

Keep an eye on the number of monthly searches and the competitors. You should choose keywords with a large monthly search volume and minimal competition.

Step 3: Incorporate keywords into the content of your page.

You should now have a list of keywords that you want to target. The next step is to make it simple for Google to find your pages by utilizing those keywords.
However, you must first decide the sites to which the keywords will be added. The ideal locations to start are your homepage, product pages, and product category pages.
Where should the keywords be placed on those pages? Ideal locations include the page title, meta description, page body content, and picture Alt texts.
Let’s imagine you want to include the keyword “women sweatpant” in the headline of your product page. I’ll suppose your website is brand new and lacks a product page. This means you’ll have to create one and incorporate your keyword.
Log into your Shopify account and click the Pages link, as seen below:

Fill up the page title using the following format:
Name of the store as a keyword
Here’s an illustration:

You’ve just added a target term to the title of your page. You did a fantastic job.
After that, you’ll want to add keywords to the page description. To do so, go to the Edit website SEO link directly below and type in descriptive text that best describes your page in the Description box. Make sure your target keywords are included in the description.

Step 4: Create Links to Your Shop

Search engines utilize backlinks to judge how well your site is regarded by the general public. Consider it SEO’s version of word-of-mouth. It’s an off-page SEO technique that focuses on establishing your credibility and reliability.
What’s the best way to attract links to your store? Here are some pointers:
Links to Suppliers and Manufacturers
If you sell products created or supplied by well-known companies, it’s possible that they have a policy that only authorized sellers are given a link. Send them an email to see if they’ll link to your store.
Voices from the Industry and Influencers
To develop both links and content, reach out to industry leaders and influencers for interviews.
Mentions
It’s possible that you’ve already been referenced in multiple places but haven’t been linked to. You may look for these mentions on mention.com. Then send them an email requesting that they include a link to your site in their mention.
Expired Links
This involves some detective effort to look for broken links for items and services that are similar to yours. Once you’ve found one, contact the owner of the site that contains the broken link and request that they link to your site instead. Because broken links are detrimental to SEO, this is a win-win situation for both parties: they get to fix a broken link, and you gain a backlink.
We also have a comprehensive guide on link building that includes a variety of additional tactics for improving your ranking.

Step 5: Use Content Marketing to Improve Your Rankings

Let’s speak about content marketing now that you’ve got everything else in place.
People visit your website for the content. As the owner of an eCommerce site, you may be tempted to compromise on content or believe that product descriptions are sufficient.
Take the effort to generate fresh material that enhances your overall user experience, and you’ll have a lot more success.
It can be difficult to decide what to write about, but it doesn’t have to be. Make a list of everything your customers ask you or everything you believe they might want to know. Real responses, not product information.
Your content is an opportunity to introduce clients and potential customers to your brand in a non-sales approach. It’s also one of the simplest strategies to gain more backlinks and rank for more keywords.
Are you having trouble coming up with article ideas? Take a look at this list of more than 100 subjects!

Step 7: Don’t Forget to Set Up 301 Redirects for Outdated Product Pages

If a product goes out of supply in Shopify and you want to inform search engines that a page is no longer available and has been permanently transferred to a different page, 301 redirects are the ideal answer.
What is the difference between a 301 redirect and a 302 redirect?
A 301 redirect is a method of automatically redirecting users and search engines from one page to another. It’s an excellent approach to dealing with a URL that doesn’t exist any longer or that you don’t want people to access. You want to make sure that the visitor or search engine is directed to a helpful page rather than a 404 Not Found page, which could end their customer journey with you.
Perhaps you’ve erased pages for goods that you know will never be available again. Because the page ranked in search engines or was linked to another site, there may be some potential consumer loss if a 301 redirect to a new page is not set up.
You want to redirect the visitor to a new page, and the best way to do so is to use the Shopify admin area to set a URL redirect.
1. Select Online Store > Navigation > URL Redirects from the drop-down menu.
2. Select Add URL Redirect from the drop-down menu.
3. In the Redirect from the field, type the old URL and the new URL in the Redirect to the field.
4. Select Add from the drop-down menu.
It’s worth noting that if the URL you’re redirecting from still contains a web page, you’ll have to delete it for the redirect to operate.

When to Use 301 Redirections: When website pages/products are removed/moved to a new place and are no longer available.
Domains that have been relocated indefinitely.
If there are 404 pages with content that has expired.

Step 8: Register your sitemap.xml with Google Search Console.

A sitemap is a file that contains all of your website’s pages and tells Google and other search engine crawlers what to scan and index on a regular basis. Shopify businesses create a sitemap.xml file containing all of the links to your website’s pages, including products, providing a comprehensive overview of your site’s structure.
However, if you want picture-perfect SEO, that’s only part of the task.
You must upload your sitemap to Google Search Console (or Bing Webmaster Tools if you believe Bing could be a valuable source of traffic for you) in order for your site to be scanned and indexed quickly.
The sitemap in Shopify is located in the store’s root directory, for example, example.com/sitemap.xml.

How to Use Google Search Console to submit a Sitemap

1. Go to Google Search Console and log in.
2. Go to your website’s URL.
3. Click on the sitemap on the left side and choose Add/Test Sitemap.

It may take a few days for your request to be processed.

Step 9: Integration with Google Analytics

To track and report website traffic, a Google Analytics connection is required. It’s free and packed with tools to help you figure out how visitors behave on your site. Although it is a high learning curve, even a beginner may use it to track their paid and organic traffic counts. Do you want to know how long people spend reading a blog post? Google Analytics is a good place to start.
Pro Hint: Always use the Universal Analytics code, which is Google Analytics’ most recent version.
Go to Admin > Online Store > Preferences in your Shopify store. Then, in the Google Analytics account field, add your tracking ID code snippet.

This is a lot less complicated than some CMS choices. Rest certain that your decision to use Shopify has made your online selling life easier in yet another manner.

Step 10: Be Serious About Blogging

You must create informative content on your blog to improve your store’s visibility on Google.
Thankfully, Shopify includes a blogging option out of the box. It may be found by going to Online Store >> Posts on the blog
Create content around the keywords you want to target for the best results.
If you offer women’s sweatpants, for example, blog entries with the following titles might be effective:
1. The ten best sweatpant outfits
2. How to wear sweatpants to a party in style
There are 15 things you should know about women’s sweatpants.
Google search crawlers can easily figure out what your website is about if you publish blog entries that are relevant to your subject.

You’ll be moving up the search results rankings in no time if you follow each of the 10 stages in our Shopify SEO tutorial. To acquire your findings faster and scale them to other traffic sources, contact our team.

HOW TO FIND EXPIRED DOMAINS: BEST PLACES TO BUY

Imagine a perfect SEO world, where visitors come non-stop from a new eCommerce website or related blog. Backlinks are placed exactly where they are needed, relevant keywords selected for your business, and even the domain name is known by the target audience. You can make this happen with domains that have been used before but are now expired. These domains are called expired domains. UAATEAM provides an overview of where to buy expired domains that have traffic and backlinks. Serhii, from UAATEAM, gives a list of the best places to sell expired domains.

HOW TO FIND EXPIRED DOMAINS

There are several ways to locate expired domains that can be used for satellite sites, Private Blog Networks, and other purposes. Auctions, dedicated search sites, and registrars can all help you find traffic-expiring domains.

Private Blog Network (PBN), is a network that links to other websites. Its primary objective is to promote the main site.

Satellite Site is an additional website that is frequently updated and contains content to promote the main site.

If you purchase expired domains, you automatically receive:

• high quality external links, that have been up and running;
• trust search engines;
• a unique link profile, i.e. You will be the only one able to place links on satellites that your competitors can’t.

You can find resources for international domains at.com,.net and org as well as regional expired domains available for purchase in this article.

EXPIRED DOMAINS WHICH TRAFFIC ARE THE BEST PLACES –

Godaddy

“Expired domains Godaddy” is one the most common queries when searching for expired domains. Godaddy is a top-ofmind domain registrar that offers an auction.

The best thing about this service is its ability to select from a range of filters that you can use for the auction. You can filter domains that have expired by:

• keywords;
• domain zone (Extensions);
• type (Expiring Activities, Public Purchase Now, etc;
• domain categories (Attributes);
• traffic;
• domain Age.

Benefits. It is an excellent platform for searching expired domains with traffic or positions. You don’t have to change the domain registry if you buy an expired website. This means that your website will never go down. This is where you can purchase expired domains as well as register new domains as needed. You also have the option to use additional services offered by the domain registrar.

Dropcatch

Another way to buy expired domains. This auction is also available. This is where you can place a domain backorder. Then, it’s time to start playing the lottery for expired domains. You can also find lists that contain a variety of expired domains in the most popular international zones. If you think you will find something, you are welcome to look at these lists.

It offers easy filtering options and allows you to filter out domains that have expired. The Downloads tab is still a good option. This allows you to download expired lists of domains to further analyse with dedicated services.

Expireddomains.net

This is probably the most used service. It’s quite different to the ones we listed above. This large-scale domain broker is available for free. This site allows you to find domains in a variety of domain zones.

The domains can be divided into two groups:

1. List of deleted domains. These are domains which have been or are soon to be deleted.
2. Marketplace domains include domains from multiple platforms that are collected together in one place. These domains are available for purchase at auction or at a lower price. Dropcatch and Godaddy can be purchased here as well.

Once you have opened the expired domains list you will see several columns with the following sorting options:

• date domain expires;
• by referring domains or pages;
• size and quality, etc.

Additionally, you can adjust some columns in your account to ensure that you only see what is necessary.

There are many filters available. You can filter using indicators such as Majestic and SEMRush usage, or other characteristics:

• a domain name is a combination of words or symbols;
• a domain name doesn’t contain any set of symbols or words;
• site catalogues include domain information;
• domain country;
• the domain expires at the end of its term;
• domain zones;
• the number of referring domains/pages;
• website name.

The list above only includes a portion of the features available on a dedicated website that allows you to search for expired domains.

After domains are sorted and filter, you can view the expired domains listing. This is easily accessed from the website. Or you can download it in your preferred format. Note that the Download option is only available for new users after 2 weeks.

Spamzilla

A great option for those who are constantly searching for expired domains with traffic. The paid service can reduce time spent on expired domains analysis, selection, and analysis. It is very similar to expireddomains in that it offers many more options for sorting, filtering, and analysis. Ahrefs can also be integrated. Spamzilla users can also access Ahrefs API to view the data. You can filter the data using other services, such as Majestic, MOZ or Semrush. Another advantage to such integration is the ability to select websites based on not only the language but also the number of anchor hyperlinks that refer to it.

Searching by links is another benefit, namely:

• by using a keyword in the link’s anchor;
• you can include a specific domain if you are referring to an expiring domain;
• a domain not included in the list is a domain that may have expired.

It offers domain hunters who have expired domains the following benefits. It is the best option. You can gain more information about each domain from the site.

The expired domains list contains a variety of data that can be sorted into sections:

1. Archive includes screenshots of Webarchive sites, which allow you to quickly see the site’s topic and verify if it has changed.
2. Backlinks contains information about links in this format: referring Page – anchor (the exact same format as Ahrefs).
3. Anchors. A list of anchors that were used to refer to the domain.
4. Redirect lists all redirects available for the website.
5. Ahrefs/Majestic provide information about domains that were uploaded to the relevant services.
6. Drops includes information about changes to the NS address domain.
7. Index displays the presence of domain pages in Google index.
8. Ranking keywords are key phrases to help websites rank in Google.
9. Lang History is a history of different language versions of the website.
10. WHOIS History is the history and evolution of WHOIS.

The webmaster will find it much easier to analyze and choose domains from the many options. Our SEO specialists can help you to build your own PBN for your project.

Spamzille allows you to analyze your expired domains lists by any of the parameters. All you have to do is upload your list.

You can request assistance from our team, regardless of whether you are looking to purchase an expired domain name for your business or are already searching for one. Feel free to contact us online. 

Local SEO Solutions: The Unrivaled Resource For Local SEO Strategies

Local businesses hear a lot of marketing strategies to make their store more visible to customers. But if you don’t consider local search engine optimization (SEO), you are missing out. Big time. Local SEO solutions will help you reach the customers most likely to shop in your local area. Local SEO strategies can help you grow your business year after year.

These 7 local SEO solutions will help you leverage your local SEO strategy

It’s crucial to leave no stone unturned when building your local SEO strategy.

Continue reading to find out seven local SEO strategies that will help you attract more customers than ever.

1. Claim your Google My Business Listing

This is a crucial step in local SEO. You won’t be able to appear on Google Maps or in the Local SEO 3-pack if you don’t claim your business.

Here’s an example for a local SEO 3-pack.

You’ll need the following information to claim your Google business:

• Company name
• Address
• Telephone number
• Website
• Hours of operation
• Images of your business
• Logo
• Payment methods
• Services and products

To appeal to different customer types, you’ll need to give as much information as you can.

Not to mention, claiming your business for free! This is a great step to take!

2. Submit your info to online directories

As we said, the more you can claim the online real estate, the better. It’s a crucial local SEO factor to submit information to online directories.

As we have already mentioned, you will submit the same information to Google My Business that you would submit to Google My Business, including your company name, contact information, and hours of operation.

These directories contain sites such as:

• Bing
• Yelp
• HubSpot
• Yellow Book
• Facebook
• Apple Maps
• Angie’s List

These directories will allow you to continue building your brand authority and attracting more customers to your local shopfront.

3. Social media presence:

You have even more online real property to grab with social media profiles! There are many ways to make your local SEO strategy more effective with your social media accounts.

Before you do anything, create social media profiles on platforms such as:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Snapchat

These are the top four social media channels that you can use to benefit your company. Good news! The good news? Each one is free to create an account!

Here are some ways that each social platform can aid your local SEO efforts.

• Facebook: Facebook has the largest user base, with 2.38 trillion active users. You are missing a huge opportunity to build brand awareness among interested customers if you don’t have a Facebook account. Facebook’s local SEO benefits include the ability to have users check in to your business whenever they visit it — encouraging their friends to do so too. You can also post tons of photos of your business, products, and services to Facebook, in addition to flash sales and upcoming events.599Fashions’ Facebook page as an example.

• The cover photo features a picture of some of their clothing products in their brick-and-mortar store. It makes you want to go inside.Local businesses have a lot to gain from Facebook. It allows them to showcase what makes their brick-and-mortar store unique.
• Snapchat: Snapchat allows users to snap a photo and share it with their friends. The only problem is that the photo will disappear forever after you have chosen the time period. There is also a messaging function and a “stories” function that allows users to post videos and images. Stories and messages disappear after 24 hours. Snapchat is a great tool for local SEO. Snapchat allows businesses to buy a geofilter that can be used only by users who are within your geofence.These geofilters are used to promote local events and create brand buzz.
• Twitter: Twitter, like Facebook, is great for local businesses because of its large following. Twitter has 330,000,000 active monthly users and is a great place for an online presence. Twitter is limited to 280 character thoughts. However, it can help you build brand awareness and connect with customers through Twitter. Your followers can retweet your posts and you can upload pictures and videos. Twitter’s direct-messaging feature allows you to offer great customer service.
• Insta: Insta is an image-based social networking platform that allows users to show off their brand’s personality. You can add captions to your posts but the photos and videos should be the main focus. With captions, you can post photos of your products and employees as well as your space. This will encourage people to visit your storefront. Instagram is similar to Snapchat in that it has a story feature. This allows you to “go Live” to discuss a product or promotion, or simply get closer to your followers.Instagram has a direct messaging feature.

4. Online interaction with customers

It doesn’t matter if you use social media to connect with customers directly or if you have a chatbot embedded on your website. What matters is that your customers interact online.

Local businesses are known for being caring and kind people who care about their customers. However, you cannot be called that if you don’t interact with them online.

You’ll need to reply to every message on social media as well as any email inquiry. But how do you start interactions with customers?

These are just a few of the options available:

• Encourage your users to share their favorite products in the comments section of a social media post, and then reply to them
• You can send email newsletters to encourage users to reply with any questions or concerns.
• Online contests can be held and the winner will be announced on your platform.
• Your humanist side will be displayed to your followers.

This company’s owner took the time to reflect on the award she received and customers responded!

Your customers will feel more at ease and familiar with you online. They’ll be more likely to recommend you to others and ultimately, to buy your products.

5. Local keywords can be used to optimize existing content

Keyword Targeting is essential to basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and equally important for local SEO.

A basic SEO campaign optimizes your content for keywords you want to rank high in search results. Local SEO is similar to the basic SEO campaign, but you optimize your content for specific keywords.

Here are some examples of local keywords:

• Austin’s women’s clothing boutique
• Downtown Johnstown Flower Shop
• Portland sporting goods

These keywords are “local” keywords because they include a specific location.

Optimizing your content with local keywords can help it rank higher in search results for people searching for those terms.

This means that you can claim a spot on the SEO 3-pack for your local area (by claiming Google My Business) or in organic search results.

These local keywords should also be used in the title tags as well as the meta description of your page.

6. Online reviews are important!

Did you know that 88% people trust online reviews more than a personal recommendations? This is a huge number, which means customers’ opinions about your business are important to other customers.

Regardless of whether you are positive or negative, it is important to monitor and respond.

If they are positive, you can reply with:

• Hi, [name!] Thank you so much for reviewing our [product]. We are so glad you love it!
• We knew that you would love this product! We appreciate your feedback!
• Thank you for sharing, [name] Did you know we have a similar product coming out in March?

Although it can be more difficult to respond to negative reviews than positive ones, you should. These are some possible ways to respond to a negative review.

• Hi, [name] We are sorry for the bad experience. We are sorry that you had a bad experience. Please call us immediately at [phone number] to get it fixed!
• Oh no! This is not what we intended! We are happy to issue a refund if you contact our customer service team at [email]

It might seem difficult to respond to negative reviews, but there are some things you can do.

• Potential customers can see all of your responses. This means that they may use your replies to customers to get a better impression of your business. Don’t say anything that might hurt the impression of your business to potential customers.
• Remember that “the customer is always right.”
• Talk calmly to customers who are lying about your company.
• Give them a contact number. It shows you are interested in solving the problem by providing contact information.

7. Geofencing advertising

Geofencing is the best local SEO solution because it attracts customers who are close to you and allows you to steal customers from competitors.

This sounds like the ideal local SEO strategy. Keep reading!

Competitor Geofencing Advertising is available to any business. However, it’s especially useful for local businesses. Here’s how it works

• Your business is surrounded by a virtual line
• Your company is notified when a customer crosses, stays within, or leaves that boundary.

Geofencing can be a great way for customers to notice your business.

Let’s take, for example, a sushi restaurant. You have claimed your GMB listing and also created a geofencing program. If a customer walks along the street and enters your Geofence, and happens to be looking for sushi restaurants, an advertisement will show up in search engines.

These ads are very cost-effective as they are only shown to customers most likely to click them, those who live near your company.

Geofencing can be used to outwit your competitors. Let’s take, for example, a new sushi restaurant that opens down the street. To trigger advertising for your restaurant, you can create a geofence that surrounds their location.

Sneaky, huh?

Local SEO is essential for every local business

Choosing local SEO solutions will undoubtedly help take your business to the next stage in a number of ways. Let’s start by determining if your business qualifies as a local one before we get into the why.

What is considered a local business?

Before we get started, you might be wondering if your brick-and-mortar business qualifies for local status. Local businesses are:

• Locally owned brick and mortar business
• A corporate business that has multiple locations. Each of these locations is considered a local business.

Congratulations if your business falls under one of these categories! Local SEO solutions can be applied to your business if it falls within one of these categories.

Local SEO solutions are crucial for local businesses

Now for the good stuff.

Local SEO is essential for your local business.

It’s simple: without them, customers won’t be able to find you online and, consequently, won’t be able to visit your storefront, or buy your products.

If you don’t include SEO strategies within your marketing efforts, it’s up to your customers to find you.

Without local SEO solutions, your customers won’t find your business if they pass it on the street.

Local SEO lets your business appear in Google search results as well as Google Maps, so you can reach customers who live nearby:

• Visit your local area from outside of town
• Plan a trip to your region
• You may be walking down the street but not knowing about your business
• You are a resident of your community, but you do not know about your business.

Local SEO solutions can help you reach more customers to grow your brick-and-mortar store.

Local SEO solutions offer many benefits

We’ve helped you to determine if you are a local business and we’ve also shared the importance of local SEO solutions. Now it’s time for us to share the amazing benefits that local SEO can bring you.

Let’s get started.

1. Brand awareness is built

Local SEO solutions will exponentially increase your brand awareness.

Local search engine optimization can help your business take up valuable online real estate, such as Google search results, Google Maps, and local listing websites.

You can make your brand more visible online by allowing customers to find you more easily.

2. Your competition has a fighting chance

Your competition may already use local SEO solutions in order to reach customers. Problem? They have the same customers like you, and they are your competitors.

It is important to keep up with your competitors by appearing in the same search results (and ranking higher) as well as showing up in Google Maps.

The most important thing? It is important to make sure you choose local SEO, and that your listings are consistent across all platforms.

It’s certain that your competitors will outrank you if you use local SEO.

3. You can take control of your audience

Local SEO solutions allow you to target people based on their location. Local SEO can help you reach people closest to you, get them into your store, increase sales, and make it more profitable.

Because of the targeting options, local SEO solutions allow you to have more control over who visits your store. You might have less foot traffic without them.

Three bonus tips to make your local SEO strategy a success

Check out these local SEO tips to help you create the best local strategy.

1. Be consistent in all of your listings

Consistency is the key to local SEO. It is important to be consistent in your local SEO efforts. You could cause confusion and even lead customers to distrust your business. You don’t want potential customers to be frustrated.

Make sure your store name, address, and phone number are consistent across all platforms. Your Google My Business profile information must match listings in local directories and your social media profiles.

2. Add location pages to your website

Local SEO is more than just Google My Business. You can take the initiative to create pages on your website that target specific keywords such as “ski resorts”

These separate pages will allow you to rank in both organic search results on Google and in the local SEO 3-pack.

 

On this search results page, you will see both the local SEO 3-pack and organic results. The organic result just below the local SEO block shows a page that targets keywords “Mount Joy”, PA, and “bakery”.

The bakery can steal more real estate and gain more customers as a result.

The better the real estate,

3. Encourage positivity

Positive reviews from satisfied customers will increase the likelihood that other customers will purchase from you. You can also integrate star reviews to your Google My Business profile. This will let you show how previous customers feel about your store and products.

A great review is a sign that you trust your customers and are satisfied. The more reviews, the better.

There are many ways to encourage satisfied customers to review your business:

• Ask customers to leave a business card at your register asking them to review your business online and receive a discount on their next order
• Include a link to your review site in an email receipt.
• In your email newsletters, provide a link for subscribers to your website.

Do you need a local SEO service provider that is one-stop?

It can be difficult to keep up with your local business if you own it. We recommend working with UAATEAM, a local SEO agency if you are serious about local SEO and want to see real results.

Here are some examples of the services we offer as part of our local SEO packages:

• Local SEO Expert
• UAATEAM representatives are available (Google, Bing SMB, and Facebook).
• Keyword research in your area
• Title and meta optimization
• Quarterly SEO copy and GMB posts with locally optimized terms
• Management of Citations
• Notifications of reviews/social interactions across all profiles
• Monthly reporting calls
• Monthly reports on local SEO

UAATEAM offers client-managed local SEO services which allow you to take control of your company’s SEO strategies.

UAATEAM can help you with your local SEO efforts, or you can have it done for you by someone else.

Our team holds a number of certifications that make them one of the top-of-the-best, including our Google Premier Partnership and our Google Cloud Partnership.

Every employee is Google Analytics certified. This allows us to pull and explain custom SEO reports that will help you better understand your campaign. We interpret local SEO reports to help improve your campaign, drive better results and grow your business.

This is not all. Marketing is essential for any business owner. We offer every type of marketing strategy.

We also offer the following services if you are interested in taking on your local business:

• Search engine optimization
• PPC advertising (PPC).
• Content Marketing
• Web design
• Email marketing
• There’s so much more

We are eager to help you get started with SEO in your area or any of our other marketing strategies.

For more information, feel free to contact us.

SEO budget strategies that work for you

It can be difficult to figure out how much you should spend on SEO, especially if you have been thinking of organic traffic in a ‘free’ way.

The steady rise in SEO spending is a sign that marketers are realizing the importance of SEO in helping potential customers find their offerings. To increase their organic reach, US companies invested an estimated $79.3 trillion in 2020.

Even if you are aware of the importance of SEO to your marketing, it’s still a challenge to decide how much to spend. There is no one formula for setting an SEO budget. However, there are some strategies that you can use to get the right number for your company.

How to reduce your marketing budget

Recent data shows that B2C companies spend an average 5%-12% of their revenues on marketing. B2B spends about 8%-9% of their revenues on marketing. According to Forrester research, half of the companies’ marketing budgets go towards online strategies such as SEO, direct mail, social media, and data analytics. You’ll spend more on digital strategies if your business is entirely online.

Sample SEO budget breakdown

The 2021 CMO Survey shows that nearly 74% invest in SEO. Each business has different needs. The amount that you budget will depend on your niche and business model. However, it is helpful to see some examples.

Based on the same survey data, the following chart shows average budget breakdowns of different types of companies (B2B and B2C), with different levels of revenue.

This table shows what your total marketing and SEO budget could look like at a high level.

Let’s dig a little deeper. How do you plan to allocate that budget effectively so you can achieve your annual marketing goals?

Five ways to figure out how much you should spend on SEO

There are many options available when budgeting for SEO. These methods can be based on marketing metrics or rough percentages.

1. Contribute a portion of your total marketing budget

How it works

Based on the amount of website traffic you use to generate sales, set aside a portion of your digital marketing budget. An e-commerce company, for instance, might choose to spend more SEO than their brick and mortar counterpart.

The same thing can be done with a flat amount of money: Look at the line items in the marketing budget to determine what you can afford for SEO.

Keep this in mind

Your SEO needs are not being met by allocating a large percentage of your marketing budget.

Your SEO budget should not be based on your financial capabilities. This could lead to you not getting the results you want. Backlinko conducted a comprehensive analysis of SEO services and found a direct correlation in satisfaction. Data shows that people who chose low-budget SEO were less satisfied than those who spent more on SEO as a marketing channel.

2. Match your competitors

How it works

Companies that are aggressively targeting industry keywords must invest more in SEO to retain a portion of organic traffic. Compare your search engine rankings with your competitors and calculate the potential cost of losing customers.

Keep this in mind

Although this approach can help you determine how much SEO to prioritize, it won’t get you far. Next, determine how much SEO you will need to rank above your competitors. You can request a complimentary SEO consultation.

3. Take into account your marketing goals

How it works

Before allocating a dollar amount to a line in your budget, think about your SEO goals within the context of larger marketing objectives.

SEO: Where does it fit in? With a realistic outlook, think about your organic search potential. Is your focus on organic traffic growth in order to achieve key KPIs such as leads and sales? Are you achieving your revenue goals while expanding brand awareness? You must set clear expectations and invest enough money in marketing channels to get the desired results.

Keep this in mind

To align your budget with your goals, it takes careful planning. However, this will ensure that your funds are allocated in a way that supports you.

4. Calculate budget using Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)

How it works

Organic traffic has many benefits beyond just a single purchase. This is especially true if you place emphasis on customer retention and satisfaction. This method determines the web page’s value based on Customer Value (CLTV), which is the long-term amount of money you can expect from a customer.

Let’s suppose your website has a transactional page that receives 10,000 visitors per month. You can sell to 100 customers per month if you convert 1% of your visitors. If your CLTV is $3,000 your web page will be worth $300,000.

This figure can be used to determine how much you should spend on SEO. You might want your SEO strategies to increase traffic by 10% and generate an additional 1,000 visitors per month. This traffic, with a conversion rate of 1%, will bring 10 new customers to your SEO investment, which in turn will give you $30,000 worth of value.

Keep this in mind

SEO or CRO? If budgeting is for SEO, then SEO. If you are using CLTV to determine page values, be aware of the various factors that impact conversion. You can increase the profitability of your SEO efforts by increasing conversion rates through CRO and UX investments. These two marketing strategies can be combined to increase the bottom-line impact.

5. Determine the effectiveness of SEO and paid search spending

How it works

SEO can be budgeted in conjunction with your PPC advertising spend. This is based on the effectiveness of each marketing strategy.

According to MarketingSherpa, most companies are comfortable spending more on PPC than they do SEO. SEO generates more traffic than SEO. According to research, organic search generates 53% website traffic on average, while paid searches generate about 15%.

How about e-commerce conversions Closed deals? You can compare your data between paid and organic traffic to see the ROI. Also, make sure you have comparable budgets that are consistent with your returns.

SEO can bring more quality visitors to your website. You might consider re-allocating your digital marketing budget to reflect the higher returns on your investment. This comparison between SEO and PPC is comprehensive.

Keep this in mind

Although PPC can produce quick results, visibility will drop once you stop running ads. An optimized website can build momentum and drive traffic long-term. You can mix SEO and PPC to meet your changing business needs.

Increase your SEO budget

You might be surprised at the results of your calculations when you try to determine how much you should spend on SEO.

It is possible that your budget stakeholders don’t understand the value of investing in SEO. Here are some helpful points to communicate.

Bargain-basement SEO won’t deliver significant results

There is a correlation between SEO spending and satisfaction. Backlinko showed that customers who spent more than a minimum threshold were 53.3% less likely to be extremely satisfied than those who spent less.

SEO is more effective than other channels

SEO is a relatively recent digital marketing channel. You don’t have to prioritize it in your budget just because you or your stakeholders aren’t comfortable with it.

SEO has many stats you can communicate with your stakeholders to support prioritizing SEO to achieve the highest ROI. Consider the following benchmarks.

Let the numbers speak for themselves and plan your budget keeping your final ROI in view.

Online advertising is being affected by privacy changes

SEO is a powerful digital strategy in today’s evolving online environment.

Google and Apple have introduced privacy restrictions on third party cookies. This is a move that will reduce the effectiveness digital advertising strategies. These changes won’t affect the first-party cookies that you use to track your customers on your site.

SEO budgeting that works for you

Each person’s budgeting process is different. You can adapt each method to match your annual goals. Talking to an SEO consultant is the best way to plan your SEO budget. SEO marketing agencies often start with a complimentary SEO consultation.

It helps you to identify the best SEO opportunities and determine the right level of investment to achieve the desired results. It’s a great way to ensure you are investing at the right level before you commit any budget dollars.

SEO management: Google Search Console Overview

SEO management is an important part of website or app promotion. Search Console is a special tool from Google that shows how the search engine sees the site. Namely: how the site is indexed, by which queries it is ranked in the search results, which pages give an error, how it is displayed on a PC, mobile phone, and so on.

INSTALLATION OF GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

When you install Google Search Console on your site, you will be offered to select the type of resource:

1. A domain resource that combines data for all http/https subdomains and with or without www.
2. A resource with a prefix in URL that includes a specific http or https protocol.

After that, you will need to confirm the ownership of the site using any of the suggested options.

SEO MANAGEMENT: GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE SETTINGS

At the top of the screen the following is located:

1. The main menu displays all tools of Google Webmaster.
2. A tab where you can switch between resources, if there are several, and add new ones.
3. A search bar where you can insert a specific URL of the analyzed site for obtaining of the statistics on it.
4. Help with the program.
5. User settings.
6. Messages. Here you will receive useful notifications from Google about any changes that may have an effect on the ranking of the site.

In the “Settings” menu item, you can:

• add a “delegated owner” if your site is optimized by SEO specialists.
• change the site address if you moved to a new domain.
• see which robot is indexing your site.
• delete a resource.

MENU ITEMS

Review

Here you can find general information about the site statistics. But you shall keep in mind that Google Search Console is not updated instantly, but with a delay of about 2-3 days.

Performance

It is one of the most important tools with a wide range of features.  You can set various filters by which you want to analyze the site:

Let’s have a look at each of them:

Search type. Here you can select the content type, and also set the parameter for comparison of one type with another:

Date. Here you can set the time period for which the statistics will be displayed. You can also compare one period with another and thus see the dynamics of changes in the results.

“New” button. By clicking on it, you can configure statistics using additional five filters in the drop-down list.

The “Query” filter offers the possibility to track how the site was ranked by the exact query or phrase you entered. The “Page” filter allows you to set the exact URL of the analyzed page.

The “Country” and “Device” filters allow you to select the country in which the site and device are shown, respectively.

The “Search View” filter allows you to select the display option.

All these filters also allow you to compare the indicators.

Four blocks are presented below:

• Total clicks. This parameter shows how many times users have visited the site. Here, clicks are counted only on organic search results, excluding ads. If you set the filter “Search type” as image, then the click on it will be taken into account only when linking to the site.
• Total impressions. This parameter indicates how many times the link was shown in the search results. The impression is counted even if the URL is out of the user’s field of view. But note that in” carousel view”, it is on the contrary, the impression is counted only if it is in the visible part of the screen. This rule also applies to images.

In addition, there is an opinion that if the search is carried out through the “Images” tab in the Google search engine, then the Search Console will count the impression of the image only if it appeared in the user’s field of view.

As for links, all URLs of one element in the search results leading to the site will be counted as a single impression. At the same time, in the table below, in the “Pages” tab, one impression will be counted for each unique site URL:

• Average CTR. Parameter that reflects the percentage of impressions that resulted in clicks. Taking into account the special features of counting of the clicks and impressions described above, it is important to optimize the site so that the positions in the search results are still in the user’s field of view.
• Average position. This parameter shows the average position of the site in the search results for the selected period. The average position of individual pages will be shown in the table below. The report starts with the first link of organic results. At the same time, all links in the “carousel view” will have the same position in which the “carousel” itself is located. If several links of your site are shown in the search results, the Google Search Console will count the top one as the average position. If you want to analyze the statistics of positions by images, then in the main Google search results, the same position is assigned to all images.  When the search is performed through the “Images” tab in the Google search engine, the Google Search Console assigns positions for images from left to right.

URL check

The tool that allows you to check a specific site URL for the presence in the index, analyze errors and suggested improvements. To do this, enter the analyzed URL in the search field:

If you see this in the search results, then you should understand that not the page that is currently displayed on the site, but the page that is in the index was checked.

Therefore, this is not a guarantee that the page is currently displayed in the search. If you changed something on the page or in the file robots.txt, then you should click “Check the page on the site” button.».

In the obtained report, you will see information about the current version of the page. A positive result or a result with a warning only indicates that the bot can index the current version. For this, it should not have sanctions imposed manually and it should not be a duplicate of similar pages.

If you need a more detailed report, click the “Study verified page” button.”

“View details” tab displays all the problems found and the reasons for their occurrence:

The tool also allows you to request page indexing without waiting for the bot to index it itself.

The request for indexing of the page is not carried out immediately, according to Google estimates, this period shall take up to two weeks.

Coverage

This tool shows statistics on indexed pages and pages outside the index. Here, as in the “Performance” tool, statistics is divided into four blocks, which can be “included” or “excluded” if necessary.

Pages with an error are shown in red, pages with a warning are shown in yellow, pages without errors are shown in green, and pages excluded are shown in gray.

Below, the “Details” table shows examples of such pages with indication of the type of error, warning, or exclusion.

It happens so that the Google Search Console does not specify the cause of the problem. Then, by clicking on the item of interest, we see the following report with a chain of actions for clarification. Click the URL to open the prompt with suggestion.

If the URL check didn’t answer the question, you can use another method.  If the URL is blocked by file robots.txt, then click on the following report.

Sitemap Files

This tool allows you to send the site map for indexing. To do this, you shall indicate the file address Sitemap.xml, but without the domain, because it should automatically be displayed:

The table below shows the files that have already been added, and by clicking on them, you can get more detailed information about the algorithm described in the “Coverage” tool.

All errors found shall be corrected, because, by default, all URLs in the file Sitemap.xml shall be indexable and have the server response code 200.

Deletions

The tool allows you temporarily to delete URL addresses from the index if, for example, they are indexed by mistake or have unsuitable content. To do this, press the button.

Use the highlighted button to create the desired request for deletion. But remember that this is only a temporary solution, Google gives a delay of six months until you cardinally solve the issue.

Key Internet indicators

The tool shows the download speed for mobile phones and PC. To obtain a more detailed report, click the button “open report”.

The number of pages with a low level of loading (a critical indicator), and the number of pages with a load time which can be reduced (a noncritical indicator) is shown here.

By clicking on the data in the “Details” table, you can see examples of such pages. Data is pulled in from PageSpeed Insigthts:

Convenience for mobile devices

The tool shows how convenient your site is for mobile devices. The “Details” table shows the error types. By clicking on them, you can see examples of such pages and detailed information on the problem. Safety problems and measures are taken manually

Google will send exactly here a notification if the site is hacked or suspicious activity is being carried out from its address, it is sanctioned, and so on. If there are no problems, you will see the following:

Links

The tool that shows:

• external links — pages to which third-party resources link.
• internal links — pages to which the other pages within your site most often link.
• sites that link most often — a list of domains that link to your site.
• the most common texts of links – texts of external links.

You will immediately obtain the information on how many links your site has obtained in total. And then, going through the data in the table below, you can see how many external links a particular URL has and how many domains link to it:

By clicking on a specific linking domain, you can see how many links from it leads to your site and the specific addresses of the linking pages of such a domain.

Google Search Console provides basic statistics on the site and helps you evaluate how adequate your resource is optimized, what errors are present and what you need to pay attention to. A convenient tool with hints for both resource owners and SEO specialists.

Write your opinions in the comments, and if you have any questions about the SEO optimization of your site, our team of specialists will be happy to answer them and help you understand how to solve the issues.