SEO Monitoring to Improve Websites
When it comes to SEO, there are two basic “categories” of activities. The first are the items that get done initially, such as checking all the technical SEO items, like keyword use, URL structure, site speed, writing unique title tags and meta descriptions for each page, and more. The second category is the ongoing work, which includes regularly adding new content to the website, such as through a blog, and regular monitoring of the SEO results.
Every single piece of the puzzle is important, but we feel that regular SEO monitoring is one of the unsung heroes of a good SEO program because it can have a variety of uses, such as using the data to improve websites. Here’s more information:
Uncover Website Issues Via Monitoring
Some website issues can only be uncovered by looking at certain pieces of data. For example, we have a client whose website recently experienced a hack. While the monitoring service they were using detected the hack, we could also identify that something was amiss by looking at their Google Search Console data.
Other website issues that could be uncovered by monitoring data include: site speed issues, manual actions, broken links, performance issues, missing information (such as missing title tags and meta descriptions), form submission failures, and more.
Make Data-Driven Decisions When Making Site Changes
Wondering whether to make certain site changes or not, such as changing the URL structures, changing the navigation bar, adding or deleting pages, changing the footer, and more? Well, you should wait until you look at some data to give you insights on which changes you should make or not.
For example, if your website is performing well and you are generally happy with the results you’re seeing, you should hesitate to make any changes. The reason for this is you have no idea if the changes you plan to make will make the performance better or worse. If your bounce rate is low, people are staying on your site for a while, and your overall results are good, you should hesitate to make changes unless you really need to.
If the opposite true, and your website performance is low, this could be a good time to make some changes, as long as you have some data to support these insights.
Use Data to Improve Performance
Another clear way that website data generated through SEO monitoring can be used is to improve overall performance. For example, if you notice that website traffic is dipping, you can use data to discover:
- Seasonality. Whether or not it is a seasonal pattern. If it is, then you should compare the traffic year over year to get a better gauge.
- Traffic. Which part of the traffic dipped? If it was organic, for example, you can dig a little deeper to discover why organic may have dropped. There might be something here that needs fixing.
- Indexing. Definitely check the indexing. Make sure you have a current sitemap submitted to Google. Determine if your website is getting indexed properly. If not, investigate.
As you can see, SEO monitoring does more than just help the SEO. It can help the website as a whole!
Categorized in: SEO
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