Learning Session

Topic: 12 Things To Check In Your Local

Homepage SEO Audit

Your homepage is arguably the most important page of your site.

Sometimes when you go to a site’s base domain name (i.e. “www.example.com”) the site will redirect, sending your browser to another URL (such as “www.example.com/wp/home/index.php”).

This can happen depending upon how your system administrator, ISP or site designer configured your website.

If your homepage must redirect, you generally would want it to do so only once, rather than multiple hops to the final URL.

If your homepage redirects, you might want to assess it through a server header check utility-if your redirected URL isn’t passing a 301 status code, this should be corrected.

2. Evaluate The Visible Text On The HomepageWeb pages can be a bit deceptive where text is

concernedAt minimum, the homepage should have the

following items reflected somewhere in the plain text on the page:

The business nameThe category or type of business that consumers

would search for (ex: “Plumbing”)The name of the city, and possibly the district name

where the business is foundThe street addressThe phone number

3. Evaluate Your Homepage Title TagDoes the <TITLE> contain the business

name, business type/category, and the main place/city name you serve?

The two things that consumers most search for when trying to find your business are your business name, and your business type/category. So, these should be concisely added to the TITLE text.

If you need to redesign your title tag, consider using the Moz title tag preview tool at: http://moz.com/blog/new-title-tag-guidelines-preview-tool

4. Check Under The Hood For The Meta Description TagThe Meta Description text is important – can

attract potential customers to choose your business above competitors appearing in search results along with you.

The text should describe your business – what it does and perhaps what differentiates your company from others.

Also, this snippet optimizer tool may be helpful if you wish to craft a new description.

5. Has The Logo Been Optimized?The logo image on the homepage doesn’t

need to be linked back to the homepage. Usability expert Jakob Nielsen calls-“Ten

Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines”.The file name could be descriptive, and you

could benefit from incorporating the Schema.org markup for logos.

6. Check For Structured Local DataThe business name, address and phone

number should be marked up with the local business/organization schema.

You should check your markup using Google’s  Structured Data Testing Tool  and the Operator Toolbar for errors.

7. Is The Phone Number Formatted Simply Enough?The phone number should be in visible text

and punctuated in a fairly common manner to ensure that search engines can interpret it and successfully identify it as a phone number.

Use one of the standard punctuation formats composed of parenthesis and/or dashes or periods. Examples: (123) 456-7890, 123-456-7890, 123.456.7890

8. View Your Website On a Mobile DeviceFind out how friendly your site is for mobile

devices.Familiarize yourself with Google’s

Webmaster Guidelines for Building Smartphone-Optimized Websites  and make the site friendlier for those smaller devices!

Mobile design is increasingly affecting rankings, and Google has confirmed that it can negatively affect rankings in mobile results if a site is badly-configured.

9. Are Major Navigation Links Spider-Friendly?The homepage is typically a website’s best-

ranking page, because it typically has the most external links out of all the site’s pages.

Spiders ideally should be able to locate all the site’s pages once they arrive on this top page.

The links into the other pages and main sections of content should be spiderable.

Check to see that your main navigation element links appear as straightforward links in the page code.

10. Is Your Image SEO Up To Par?

Other main images on the page can also contribute significantly to the site’s SEO if executed correctly.

The best base for Image SEO is using original photos

using  Google Image Search or  TinEye to see if other sites are using them as well.

Images are sometimes also hyperlinked to deeper pages, and in those cases the links should be well-formed and the URLs should also contain good keyword text.

11. Clock Your Homepage’s Speed!

Google has maintained that rankings can be affected by a page’s speed of appearing in a user’s browser.

While this probably is not a heavily influential ranking factor, it’s still worthwhile to make sure your pages are up-to-speed for the sake of a good user-experience.

12. Analyze Your Social Media Presence On The HomepageCheck to see if your social media links are

properly sociable! I’ve analyzed a great many local business websites that have messed up with their social media links in some way.

If you don’t have a social media presence, you really should integrate this into your online promotion mix.

A final mistake is in choosing to implement a “submit a link” button for the homepage

Final ThoughtsWhile this checklist is not all-inclusive, it is

still a good start to getting what is probably the most important page on your site into top condition.

Reference source: http://searchengineland.com

http://phoenix.fortuneinnovations.com

Thank You...