Comprehensive Guide: Site Audit to Overcome Google Updates

Introduction

Google updates can significantly impact your website’s performance and rankings. This guide will walk you through a thorough site audit process to help you overcome these updates and improve your overall website quality.

1. Mindset and Approach

• Don’t panic: View Google updates as an opportunity to improve your brand.
• Take responsibility: Assume everything is your fault and focus on what you can change.
• Be proactive: Conduct periodic audits to prevent potential hits from future updates.

2. Technical SEO

Start with the low-hanging fruit by addressing technical issues:

2.1 Use SEO Tools

• Utilize tools like Ahrefs to identify and fix issues.
• Focus on warnings and critical problems first.

2.2 Common Issues to Address

• Fix broken pages (404 errors)
• Eliminate duplicate pages
• Improve internal linking structure
• Add missing alt text to images
• Resolve JavaScript issues

2.3 Website Speed Optimization

• Use Google PageSpeed Insights to analyze your heaviest posts.
• Focus on mobile optimization (60% of internet users are on mobile).
• Address issues such as:
• Large image compression
• Serve images in WebP format
• Minimize JavaScript and CSS files
• Consider upgrading your hosting provider if latency is an issue

3. Backlink Audit

3.1 Analyze Backlink Profile

• Check if traffic drops correlate with increases in referring domains.
• Review your referring domains list in Ahrefs.

3.2 Identify and Remove Spam

• Look for suspicious domains with an unusually high number of links.
• Create a list of spammy or low-quality backlinks.
• Use Google’s disavow tool to remove harmful links.

3.3 Add Social Signals

• Create and link to social media profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube).
• Add social profile links to your WordPress settings.
• Include website links in your social media bios.

4. E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) Website Design

Optimize your website to showcase E-A-T:

4.1 Create E-A-T Pages

• Affiliate disclosure page
• Dedicated author pages
• Editorial guidelines page

4.2 Optimize Content for E-A-T

• Add breadcrumbs for better site structure
• Include “Last Updated” dates on posts
• Link to E-A-T pages from each post
• Add author boxes to every post
• Link to reputable external sources
• Use language that demonstrates expertise and experience

5. Content Audit

This is the most time-consuming part of the process:

5.1 Content Inventory

• Create a comprehensive list of all your content
• Gather statistics: clicks, rankings, keyword difficulty

5.2 Content Evaluation

• Decide whether to delete, redirect, or update each piece of content
• Consider removing content with less than 50 clicks in the past 6-12 months

5.3 Content Ratio

• Aim for a balance of 75% informational and 25% transactional content
• Adjust your content strategy if heavily skewed towards transactional content

5.4 Content Optimization

• Reassess keyword difficulty and search intent
• Conduct Surfer SEO audits for key money-making posts
• Build topical authority with comprehensive content clusters

5.5 Internal Linking

• Implement the reverse silo method for tight, relevant internal linking
• Ensure there are no orphan pages

5.6 Custom Images

• Replace stock images with custom-created visuals (e.g., using Canva)
• Add branding and logos to images
• Ensure all images have descriptive alt text

6. Final Steps

• Be patient after implementing changes
• Continue building high-quality content
• Regularly review and update your site using this audit process

Remember, overcoming Google updates is an ongoing process. Stay informed about SEO best practices and be prepared to adapt your strategy as needed.