SEO Audits for Complex & International Brands

Page speed is a critical ranking factor that directly impacts user experience. Slow load times lead to higher bounce rates and lost conversions. Common culprits include:

Unoptimised images

Large, uncompressed image files force browsers to consume excessive bandwidth, delaying load times. Enabling compression, sizing images properly, and serving responsive versions are critical.

Render-blocking resources

JavaScript and CSS files that delay content paint can impact key speed metrics like First Contentful Paint and Largest Contentful Paint. Minifying these assets and deferring non-critical resources is recommended.

Excessive DOM elements

“Bloated” HTML and inefficient JavaScript payloads tax browser processing capacity. Auditing third-party scripts, refactoring top-heavy templates, and leveraging Web Components can streamline page rendering.

Poor server performance

Insufficient CDN provisioning, legacy hosting hardware, inefficient database queries, etc. can bottleneck server-side processing. Load testing and provision monitoring are crucial.

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As search engines prioritise high-quality content that comprehensively meets user needs, pages lacking substance and expertise get deprioritised. Weak content exhibits issues like:

Thin content

Superficial, reused, or low-value-added content absent true subject matter expertise. This provides a subpar experience compared to authoritative sources.

Mismatched keyword targeting

Failing to naturally map on-page content to align with searcher intent and demand. This creates a disconnect between what users expect and what’s delivered.

Engagement deficiencies

Shortages of multimedia, smart internal linking, jump links, and other engagement elements that extend dwell time on a page. This sabotages content’s ability to satisfy intent.

Relevance gaps

Topics/angles that are misaligned or incomplete compared to the holistic information landscape required to comprehensively cover a subject area.

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When identical or considerably overlapping content exists across multiple pages or sites, it creates duplicate content issues. Search engines struggle to determine the authoritative version, diluting visibility. Common causes include:

URL parametrisation

Session IDs, faceted navigation filters, tracking parameters, print-friendly versions, and other URL variations can spawn duplicate content instances across URLs.

Content syndication

Republishing the same copy across domains without employing proper canonical signals and redirects. Scraper sites and affiliates can proliferate this issue.

Inefficient templating

Outputting boilerplate text like product descriptions, location details, or other universal content duplicated verbatim across pages rather than dynamically rendered.

Migration/re-platforming errors

URL mapping and redirection issues during site migrations can accidentally duplicate legacy content across new URLs and domains.

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In an era of rampant cybercrime and data breaches, Google actively prioritises secure HTTPS connections as a baseline signal. Unencrypted HTTP is flagged as non-secure and can hamper rankings if not addressed. Key migration steps include:

• Obtaining SSL/TLS Certificates – Purchasing a reliable certificate issued by an authoritative Certificate Authority like DigiCert, GoDaddy, Let’s Encrypt, etc.
  
  
• Enabling HTTPS on Servers – Applying web server and load balancer configurations to correctly process HTTPS requests and redirects.
  
  
• Implementing Hybrid Transitions – Using 301 permanent redirects and rel=”canonical” signals to slowly pivot contexts from HTTP to the new secure HTTPS origins.
  
  
• Revising Hardcoded Resources – Auditing and updating internal links, plugin integrations, JS/CSS file calls, and other hardcoded HTTP assets within the codebase.

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Broken internal links divide a site’s architecture, preventing search bots from crawling the full content set – while broken outbound links diminish authority and off-site user experiences. To remedy:

Comprehensive link auditing

Using crawl log analysis, automated link-checking tools, and manual reviews to surface every broken URL asset.

Prioritising based on impact

Not all broken links have equal SEO importance. Prioritise remediation efforts based on factors like link popularity/frequency, referring traffic sources, and page value.

Implementing redirects

For permanently removed assets, implement 301 permanent redirects to the most relevant live destination. For temporarily unavailable content, set descriptive 404/500 pages to retain visitor engagement.

Updating internal links

Revise or remove internal links pointing to broken resources to bolster content cohesion and provide uninterrupted visitor pathways through the site.

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A website’s backlink profile plays a huge role in establishing authority, trustworthiness, and rankings. Toxic signals like

• Low-quality link sources – Links embedded within spammy directories, blog comments, thin affiliate pages or other contexts with little vetting provide minimal authority transfer.
  
• Overly-optimised anchors – An unnatural distribution skewed heavily toward exact-match anchor text vs. branded references, naked URLs, and contextually relevant variations.
  
• Authority deficits – A general lack of links originating from high-domain authority websites and other trusted, powerful domains. An imbalance of reliance on weaker sites.
  
• Negative SEO attacks – Malicious efforts by competitors, scrapers, or bots to manufacture spammy inbound links on private blogging networks, hack victims, etc. in attempts to trigger penalties.

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When a website’s content exists as disconnected silos without strategic internal linking hierarchies, it prevents visitors and search engines from discovering and prioritising the most important, authoritative pages covering each topic. Efficient internal linking structures empower:

• Equity consolidation – The effective transfer of ranking abilities and authority signals focused on the most conversion-critical pages and topics.
  
• Siloing and prioritisation – Logical hierarchies and linking sculpting to map which pages hold subject matter ownership and topical authority for categories/subcategories.
  
• Content discovery – Guided pathways that steadily reveal additional layers of contextual relevance and supporting information surrounding primary topics.

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Schema markup, also known as structured data, enhances website listings in search results with informative rich elements like review stars, pricing info, Q&A snippets, FAQs and more. Its key benefits include

• Increased CTRs – Listings with concise information upfront gain more visibility and engagement than generic blue links.
  
• Improved user experience – Directly surfacing key data points satisfies queries faster by reducing “click dispersion” into websites required to find relevant content.
  
• Structured data understanding – Crawlers digest schema data objects as interconnected entities rather than arbitrary prose requiring natural language processing.

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This often-overlooked text file wields tremendous control over a site’s indexability. It contains directives telling crawlers which areas they can and cannot access. Common configuration mistakes include:

• Full crawler blockage – Inadvertently disallows all user-agent bots, effectively deindexing the entire site.
  
  
• Subdirectory path exclusions – Accidentally disallowing crawlers from entire subdirectories that contain important content sections or functionality.
  
  
• Malformed/unsupported instructions – Using improper directive formatting, idiosyncratic syntax, or outdated path exclusion methods stymie bots entirely.
  
  
• Inefficient crawl path directives – Failing to leverage crawl optimisation techniques like segmenting sections with sitemaps to avoid overwhelming bot limitations.

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When search engine crawlers are unable to discover and index new or updated pages, they become invisible blindspots in organic search. Common roadblocks causing crawler issues include:

• Crawl debt buildup: Too many new/updated URLs published simultaneously overwhelm bot processing capacity and budgets.
  
• JavaScript rendering issues: Crawlers experience difficulties indexing content trapped within client-rendered JavaScript, iframes, and other dynamic delivery filters.
  
• XML sitemap deficiencies: Empty, out-of-sync, or improperly formatted XML sitemaps neglect to signal newly published content to search bots automatically.
  
• “Orphan” page architecture: URLs lacking clear navigation pathways and direct internal linking from existing indexed pages evade crawler awareness.

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Canonicalisation issues stemming from botched rel=canonical tags are an insidious cause of sitewide duplicate content problems. Common mistakes include:

Invalid target URLs – Canonicalisation signals point to incorrect URL versions as the authoritative origin.

Self-referencing issues – Unintentional configurations that wrongly canonicalise pages to themselves, trapping crawlers in infinite loops.

Overly aggressive deployment – Applying canonical tags on single-version pages without duplicate exposures unnecessarily dilutes authority signals.

Cross-domain/protocol conflicts – Rel=canonical references crossing domains or failing to account for HTTP/HTTPS protocol variances create duplicate content scenarios.

Implementing proper canonicalisation through thorough auditing and precise tag deployments is critical for consolidating ranking abilities. Even minor issues compound at scale.

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