#SEO: 9 recurring checks to carry out

If you think that it only takes a few days to be well referenced on search engines, we are sorry but you are wrong! When embarking on a natural referencing strategy, you need to be patient.

Indeed, it takes time for Google (and other search engines) to index and position a page or site. We are talking here about a few weeks, or even several months! This is why you must regularly check the state of your SEO. You can do it yourself or entrust this task to an SEO consultant who will be able to spot problems before it’s too late.

Discover 9 essential SEO checkpoints and learn why it is important to check the state of your SEO regularly.

The 9 SEO points to check regularly

If you want your site to become efficient in SEO, it is strongly recommended to call on an expert whose job it is. Natural referencing requires technical skills and specialized tools.

You can find out the price of your SEO audit by trying our online price simulator. It is free and without obligation.

To still be able to monitor the performance of your site, here are 9 points to check regularly to ensure the performance of your pages.

1. Every week: track the status of Search Console

This is the most recurring check that you must carry out.

The Search Console interface has been redesigned by Google to provide more precise information.

Thanks to this tool, you can monitor the performance of your site as well as essential SEO metrics:

• Indexing errors: in the “Coverage” menu, you will see the pages that have not been indexed by Google and will get advice on how to remedy this problem;
• The ergonomics of your site on mobile: in the “Mobile ergonomics” menu, you can identify any possible ergonomic problems with your site on mobile;
• Manual penalties: If you do not follow Google best practices, you may face penalties. You will be informed of this in the “Manual actions” menu;
• Net linking: in the “Links” menu, you have the possibility to follow your links and thus improve your backlinks and your internal networking.

By monitoring these main metrics every week, you will be able to be responsive to the various problems you may encounter. These metrics can also help you track how your data is improving.

2. Every month: analyze traffic from Google Analytics

Google Analytics is full of data, but if there’s one thing you need to monitor regularly, it’s your site traffic!

In “Behavior” then “Overview”, you can see the evolution of traffic on your entire site.

Go to “Site Content”, then “Detail by URL” to refine your control. Try to find correlations between your marketing activity and any peaks or troughs you see.

By going to “Acquisition”, then “All Traffic”, then “Channels”, you can analyze your traffic sources.

Ideally, data for Organic Search should increase because it matches traffic from organic results. They give a good indication of the state of your SEO.

3. Every month: follow the positioning of keywords

This control is obvious since any natural referencing strategy must be based on keywords. Every month, it is important to check the status of the keywords on which you are ranking.
On SEMrush , for example, you can:

• Identify keywords that drive traffic
• Identify their level of competition
• Analyze your position according to keywords
• Compare yourself to your competitors

Other free tools (to download) exist to track your position on Google based on keywords. This is particularly the case for Free Monitor for Google, SEO Soft and Seascapes.

Your business evolves and your keywords evolve too. Thus, it is recommended to review your keyword strategy every quarter.

4. Every 4 months: check for technical problems

Certain so-called “technical” problems can have an impact on your SEO, but also on the user experience of your website.

One of the first things to check is for 404 errors. They are synonymous with broken links. Read our guide to learn how to detect and fix them.

Also remember to check your canonical tags: if they are poorly implemented, they can be a source of duplicate content.

If you have a WordPress site, make sure your plugins work properly.

5. Every 4 months: check the status of the robots.txt file

This check should be carried out if you have a staging site. To secure it and prevent anyone from accessing it, you have certainly modified the robots.txt file to block access to indexing robots.

Every 4 months, it is a good idea to check that this file from your staging site has not been accidentally copied to your online site.

6. Every 4 months: check the status of the XML sitemap

Many CMS plugins allow you to automatically update your XML sitemap by adding new pages created. However, check that this is indeed the case.

Also submit your sitemap to Search Console.

7. Every 4 months: refresh your content

While it’s important to frequently bring fresh, original content to your site, it’s just as crucial to update and refresh your existing content. When one of your articles no longer seems to attract enough visitors, it might be time to refresh it. Consider employing professional Wikipedia page writing services, specializing in optimizing and updating content to enhance visibility and engagement on the platform. These services can skillfully refine and revitalize your Wikipedia page, ensuring it remains relevant and appealing to your target audience. To do this, you can:

• Add content if your article is a little short and add relevant keywords;
• Update information that has become obsolete;
• Optimize the article by checking that it complies with the basic SEO rules;
• Share it again on your social media.

8. Every 6 months: check the quality of your internal network

We saw it previously: you can follow the evolution of the number of internal links from Google Search Console.

But the quality of your internal networking is not limited to the number of links:

• Control anchor texts: forget links placed on “click here” or “this way”, etc. On the contrary: place your links on relevant keywords!
• Check that your most important pages have links to other pages on your site.

9. Every year: do an SEO audit

Once a year, call on a natural SEO specialist to carry out an SEO audit of your site.

This very comprehensive control will cover in particular:

• The structure of your site;
• The structure of your URLs;
• The meta description and title tags;
• The Alt tags of your images;
• The loading speed of your pages;
• Your sitemap and robots.txt file;
• Duplicate content, etc.

Following this audit, you will have a very clear vision of the “state of health” of your site and you will be able to take the necessary actions to improve and boost your SEO.

Why is the frequency of your SEO audit so important?

The rules in terms of SEO evolve regularly. This is a very competitive field and it is possible to lose your first place if a new, more efficient player launches.

In SEO, nothing is ever taken for granted. It is essential to be vigilant and proactive.

To help you, you can take advantage of the free SEO audit offered by Redacteur.com. In less than 72 hours after your request, you receive tailor-made recommendations to improve the SEO of your website. The audit is carried out by hand by a natural referencing professional.

Google’s algorithm (and those of other search engines) is constantly changing

Whether more or less important, updates are constantly made to search engine algorithms. This allows them to be ever more relevant and efficient in their results. Your SEO strategy will therefore necessarily evolve according to the improvements made to the different algorithms.

To keep up to date with what’s happening at Google, it is advisable to subscribe to the Google Webmaster site

Marketing trends are changing too

We know: for SEO, there is on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

Off-page SEO refers to things you do outside of your web page with the aim of generating traffic, like your social media posts, for example.

Pop culture trends, found across all social media, also apply to SEO. Creating fresh, original content helps with SEO, but it’s far from enough. You have to be able to deliver what your visitors want, and to do that, you have to stay informed of the latest trends.

Web development very frequently experiences new developments

On-page SEO is directly affected by developments in web development.
It is therefore important for companies to adapt their on-page SEO strategy to the latest developments in web development. What is considered a best practice today could become obsolete in just a few months.

You understand, to be on the first page, you have to stay up to date! In addition to following trends, SEO requires continuous work. Therefore, here are 9 recurring checks that you must carry out with a certain frequency to ensure the good referencing of your website.

Conclusion

As you have understood, SEO is work that is carried out over time and requires regularity. You now know the main steps to always stay up to date with your SEO strategy and to carry out the necessary checks.

by james david

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