Are you already doing this? Super! Perhaps performing the checks below will reveal little new. But does figuring out where to start make you screaming mad? Then read on quickly!
Checking your SEO value annually
Looking at your technical SEO points and their status should really be done every six months, but at least once a year. In this blog we share a handy step-by-step plan that you can take every (half) year. This will keep you up to date and work on your SEO health.
The more often you repeat this process, the easier it becomes. You can more quickly address or even prevent major issues, such as the drop in your rankings due to technical things you forget to check. Also, checking the SEO value of your website is important for (better) findability and relevance.
An SEO health check starts by checking for crawl errors
Step 1.
Google Search Console is essential when you want to view a status report. This displays various crawl errors of your website.
A common message is “submitted URL is a soft 404” or “submitted URL was not found (404). Sometimes you deleted pages for a reason, such as because you want to eliminate zombie pages. In this case, you don't have to do anything; Google eventually stops reporting these broken pages itself.
If there are pages among them that you do want Google to index, it's time to take action!
Another possible report is “server error 5xx. These errors lead to availability warnings and should be fixed if possible.
First check if the problems are temporary or if they have been going on for some time. Always ask your web builder if the error indicated is actually important.
Relevant content is part of an SEO health check
Step 2
Your website should contain top and supporting content. Top content is also called cornerstone content. From your cornerstone you link to supporting content.
Top content can be a well-performing blog, but also, for example, a successful product page. As time passes and a whole range of things change, your top content can become obsolete. This is a problem when it comes to SEO value.
Supporting content creates added value during the buying phase. This type of content can be other blogs, buying guides, FAQs and more. This is often already there, only your visitor has to look for it. By linking supporting content to top content, you make finding the answer to your target audience's problem easier and ensure you lose fewer customers.
Why is outdated SEO problematic?
Suppose you have written THE ultimate guide on a certain topic. And that this post has garnered tons of relevant backlinks with high authority, which in turn boosts your SEO profile. That's great, of course.
But a year or two after you wrote the guide, the information is no longer current, sometimes even incorrect. This page will slowly attract fewer visitors and negatively impact your SEO score.
You can avoid this by regularly taking a critical look at these types of pages. Important points to update are:
- Factual information (aka a fact check)
- Adding new relevant keywords
- Updating meta information
- Updating SEO (top and supporting) content
When doing this, focus on pages that rank high in Google and/or contain many backlinks.
An additional tip!
It's worth looking at your duplicate content score once every six months. When two or more identical pages exist, it becomes more difficult for search engines to determine what to display.
A guideline for duplicate content is that about 12-20% of your Web site should consist of identical pages. Are you going over this percentage? Then dive into your content to determine where this can be avoided.
