Our last blog covered tools that can help business owners and marketing professionals audit websites and ad campaigns. There are a number of free and paid tools you can access across the web. Below, you can find more information on certain techniques and tools for optimizing your online presence.
Chrome DevTools
Prior videos show co-owner Dale Wooddy accessing Chrome’s DevTools to perform a customized Google Search. By using this technique, you can access extremely localized search results, such as for an area near an office building. You can access DevTools by opening Chrome, clicking the three dots in the right-hand top corner of the browser, and selecting “Developer Tools”.
You can do a lot with Chrome DevTools, not just custom Google searches. In fact, you can spot potential issues with a website, such as broken code, malfunctioning features and performance issues.
Another really helpful tool is the Toggle Device Toolbar. This is a free tool that will allow you to access your website in responsive mode. You can view your website as a mobile device. There are many different mobile devices to choose from, such as Apple iPhones and iPads. You can also view your site from a Samsung device. Why should you use this tool? You should use it to discover formatting errors with a responsive website. Ideally, your website should have a good user interface (which provides good user experience) on your desktop and mobile website as well as across many different types of devices.
Finally, you can also generate a Lighthouse Report to check app and site performance. You should be sure to use a Chrome Incognito Window to avoid skewing the results. Additionally, make sure there are no issues with your internet connection when performing the test. Always back up a site speed test with tests using other tools and try to look for consistent issues. Google Search Console is your friend.
Moz
Anyone who knows anything about digital marketing knows about Moz. Moz is one of the premier software developers in the digital marketing world. The company is responsible for various tools, some of which are free, that you can use to identify issues with business listings or your website.
The Domain Authority Score (DA) is a metric developed by Moz. It is a predictive score assigned to a domain. DA attempts to predict how well a domain could rank against other domains. Much of the score has to do with backlinks. Backlinks are nofollow or follow links that link back to your website from another domain. For example, many attorneys with a Lawyers.com subscription and business listing attach their domains to the listing. This means that anyone who comes across the attorney’s profile on Lawyers.com can also find a link back to the attorney’s website.
Good backlinks, the kind that help DA, have several characteristics in common, such as:
- Relevant to your industry and expertise. If you are an attorney, would it make much sense to obtain backlinks for a hospital’s website, or a medical business listing? No. In fact, it could cause confusion for search engines if your firm lacks any medical experience. Make sure your backlinks are associated with your industry and expertise. If you are an attorney, check which legal listings your competitors use for backlinks. Any industry can find backlinks using this method.
- Has high domain authority and low spam score. Avoid putting a link to your domain on spammy, low-quality websites. You do not want to associate your domain with crappy websites, as it will cause Google and other search engines to associate your domain with crappy websites. You can check the domain authority of a website using Moz’s free Domain Analysis Tool. Check the DA and spam score of a website before adding your domain.
- Variation. You do not want only follow links. Google will think you are attempting to game its algorithms, which could have consequences for your domain and website. Many backlinks are nofollow links, as follow links typically require some type of paid subscription or special relationship with the other domain.
Some of this is old school SEO. The rules for backlinks in 2017 have not changed significantly in the past five years. Future blogs may go into more detail on how to obtain backlinks. However, it is a very broad, extensive topic that can cover a lot of areas, such as software for finding backlinks or how to perform competitor analysis.
Moz Title Checker
Moz also has a free meta title optimization tool. You can use this tool to optimize meta descriptions and meta titles for your website. Make sure your meta titles and meta descriptions meet SEO best practices. If your title is too long, it will not show up properly on search results.
This free tool can help you shorten titles and ensure you have the greatest chance possible of having your chosen meta titles display on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). You can also use this tool to clean up meta title errors caught by a website audit.
Merkle Schema Generator
Schema, also known as a type of structured website data, can be helpful depending on the circumstances. You can attach Schema to a page on your website using WordPress plugins and Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator. By utilizing this technique, you provide Google with more information to attach to search results. In some cases, this extra information that appears can help improve the click-through-rate for a specific page on your site.
There are right and wrong ways to attach structured data to a page on your website. You would want to make sure any Schema you attach is relevant to what is already on the page. For example, it could be beneficial to attach FAQ (frequently asked question) schema to a page where FAQs appear. You would make it more likely the FAQ shows up on Google Search Results, possibly in a Featured Snippet/Rich Result.
Contact for a Free Consultation
Contact TriLux Digital for a free business consultation with co-owner Dale Wooddy. Learn more about how to use these tools if you run a marketing company.
If you are a small business owner and need help with digital marketing, you may also contact us for a free consultation.
