When it comes to performing a technical SEO audit, increasing your website’s authority should remain top of mind: as the higher this metric is, the better your site ranking. Feel free to check yours out by visiting http://www.opensiteexplorer.org.
Diving deeper, a technical SEO audit can check for the following top authority signals:
- Links. As the No. 1 off-site authority signal, links are primed to stay that way for quite some time. Out of all search ranking factors, links are often the most important.
Over the years, Google has significantly changed how links impact your search rankings. Years ago, you could in fact benefit from links that pointed to your site from any random website. Unfortunately, some SEO experts learned how to spam links and thus boost the ranking of low-quality sites (a practice that still in fact occurs).
Today, Google wants links that are not “built” but instead require some sort of third-party editorial review process. Good links come from other sites with high levels of authority that are topically related to yours. Moreover, link text should precisely match your keywords in less than 5% of all instances. A not-so-good link would come from an internet forum or article directory, while a plumbing website (for example) could receive a great link from a respected DIY blog post.
If you have a wide breadth of links with identical anchor text pointing to your website from a number of other sites, Google will suspect you of trying to manipulate your search rankings: meaning you’re at high risk for receiving a penalty.
It also matters who you link to. Google assumes reputable websites link to other reputable websites—and that all valuable sites do this to some extent. It’s therefore a good practice to occasionally link out to other authorities within your niche.
- Content. Every page of content and blog post should include keywords relevant to your service offering. Google prefers websites that offer fresh content, dictating you publish at least one blog post every month. More is certainly better, but only post when you have valuable information to offer. The payoff? Google will crawl and index your website more frequently and assign you a higher ranking if you regularly create content.
The overarching idea here is that websites who publish content regularly are likely more established players in their field and thus more valuable to their target audiences.
- Social shares. The more followers and social shares you have, the better. Not only do social shares help boost site visibility and drive additional traffic to your site, but they also provide the perfect platform for promoting your content and receiving additional links: a true win-win with respect to your website authority.
Wrapping Up
Now that you’re familiar with the primary authority signals, you’ll want to get as many high-quality links as you can, produce quality content, and encourage social shares. A technical SEO audit checks to make sure you do so in a natural, “Google-safe” way. Just remember that your overarching goal should be to contribute value to the Web rather than manipulate your search rankings.
Deceptive actions such as purchasing 1000s of Facebook followers simply do you no good, as these folks won’t care about your company and therefore won’t share your content or buy from you. Stay on the up and up and watch your website authority grow!