Why SEO is an important factor for effective business promotion on the Internet

SEO optimization is a set of actions aimed at increasing the attractiveness of a site for search engines. The better it is organized, the more traffic the project receives from search engines, and the more potential customers come to the site .

It is important to remember that optimization is actively used today to promote any commercial resources. Even if they work within a certain region and attract customers mainly through advertising. If you do not use this tool, then competitors will easily “take away” potential buyers only due to the fact that their projects occupy higher positions in requests.

An Effective Way to Develop an SEO Audit for Ecommerce

It often happens that sites in which everything is done for successful promotion do not really look attractive to search engines. This is due to internal optimization errors. That is, when analysing a resource, search engines do not receive information that defines it as important, interesting for people. To check the resource for such errors, services that perform an audit check are used. The most effective tool for SEO audit today can be called the Screaming Frog program.

SEO audit of an online store using Screaming Frog

This software must be downloaded from the official portal. Screaming Frog was developed in order to be able to see the online store the way Google robot sees it during the analysis. The program is paid, but the first 500 pages will be analysed for free. To start the process, you need to insert the address of the page to be checked into the Screaming Frog search box and click the “start” button. The program will display a list of found errors.

Duplicate content

Duplicate content is the repetition of completely identical information on different pages of the site. This type of error is most common among online stores . The presence of the same content leads to the fact that the resource falls under the action of filters, and search engines do not let it through, leaving it in low positions. Having found duplication, you must immediately correct the content, otherwise the promotion will not be effective.

Finding duplicate content with Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog shows pages with duplicate content in a separate report tab. To open the tab, you need to find and click the “Duplicate” button in the filter menu. The report clearly shows what exactly caused the error. For example, in different positions of goods, the same characteristics or parameters can be affixed.

Finding Other Kinds of Duplicate Content with Siteliner

Siteliner is another powerful software that allows you to find different kinds of repetition of information. Usage is similar to Screaming Frog. The site address is inserted into the search bar. The result will be issued in a few minutes. 250 checks are performed free of charge.

The main issues of the resource are displayed on the "Your Top Issues" tab. The repetition of words and entire information blocks is a big flaw that negatively affects the success of the store. All errors identified by Screaming Frog and Siteliner should be fixed.

Search for missing canonical tags

Duplication occurs for a variety of reasons. Novice web masters often do not think about the reasons. So, similar versions of the same link, placed on different pages, is already a problem that is solved by prescribing one canonical version of the url in each version. To find out if such an option exists, you need to open the “URL” tab in Screaming Frog, it has a “Canonical Link Element 1” column. In this column, you should find the canonical option, it has the rel="canonical" tag in the HTML code of the page.

Finding Missing or Duplicate Title Tags

Heading tags should be given special attention, as tags are the most important elements that affect resource optimization. Screaming Frog allows you to see if all tags are registered, if they are identical. This parameter is checked on the “Page Titles” tab, where the “Missing” option is selected and the results are uploaded. The downloaded pages contain errors - they need to be written in title tags.

The next step is to follow the same procedure, and then click "Duplicate". The results should be exported with the appropriate button, and pages with repeated title tags should be unique. It is very important to include keywords in the titles.

Search for missing or duplicate meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are more useful for visitors than for search engines. But you also need to work with them. On the "Meta Description" tab, you need to filter the results with the "Missing" function. Then the procedure is repeated using the "Duplicate" filter. For pages that do not have a description, you should enter them. Where the description is duplicated, redo the text.

The recommended description size is from 200 to 320 characters. When compiling, be sure to include keywords.

Search for missing alt tags

Images on the site are additional information that allows search robots to determine the essence and specialisation of the Internet resource. Moreover, for the most part, the systems analyse not the pictures themselves (their robots do not recognize them well), but the alt tags for them.