Following on from the first piece on SEO for Business we shall now look more closely at one of the
3 elements of SEO – Analysis of Off Page Elements
A key component of any SEO campaign is an off page analysis, which is sometimes combined with a
technical audit. The off-page analysis assesses elements that may cause a hindrance to SEO spiders;
it also looks at elements that may prevent spiders from visiting all the pages of a site.
Due to the nature of these technical elements it is sometimes necessary to get a coder/developer/
technician involved to help address some of the issues.
An off page analysis should consist of:
Page load time
Having a fast loading website is essential to satisfy users and it is also something search engines take
into account when ranking sites. Google states that websites should aim for a page load time of less
than 1.5 seconds.
Robots.txt file
A Robots.txt file tells the search engines which pages to access and index on a website and which
pages to ignore. By adding a Robots.txt site we can influence which pages are indexed by search
engine spiders.
HTML Sitemap
A HTML sitemap is a page of the website that outlines the complete structure of the site and that
links to all the important pages on the site. It is useful for both search engines and users.
XML Sitemap
XML sitemaps tell search engine crawlers about the structure of your site and they are very useful in
getting all your important content properly indexed. XML Sitemaps can be submitted to Google and
Bing.
Friendly URLs
Short well structured URLs employing relevant keywords are liked by both search engines and users
as they convey the meaning of the page and overall site structure.
Custom 404 error page
A ‘404 Page Not Found’ page is an error page that is presented when a user or search engine clicks
through to a page that does not exist. A custom 404 page with a helpful message, a search box and a
sitemap will help visitors and search engines spiders get back on track and find the information they
were looking for.
Dead Links
4XX error codes returned by the web server indicate that there has been a problem serving a user’s
or search engines’ request for a page.
Server Errors
5XX error codes are generally returned by the web server when something happens on the web
server that prevents a user’s or search engines’ request being completed.
302 Temporary Redirects
Temporary 302 redirects are used by webmasters to redirect users and search engines from one URL
to another temporarily. For SEO it is generally better to use 301 permanent redirects.
301 Permanent Redirects
Permanent 301 redirects are used by webmasters to redirect users and search engines from one URL
to another. These links pass link juice and are a good thing to use when you are redesigning your
website and changing URL structure and content.
Crawl Test
Using a 3rd party crawl agent it should be assessed whether a website is fully crawlable and
indexable. A website, not matter how big or small should be accessible by search engine spiders.
Index Pages
This stat shows how many pages of a site search engines have indexed in their database, the more
pages a site has indexed the more likely it is to rank for keywords. A website should have an index
saturation percentage of 70% and above.
