Website Evaluation

Here’s an overview of the process we follow to produce our proprietary website evaluation:

  1. Our clients give us access to important data tools like Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Adwords (if applicable). It’s important that we have access to these tools so we can check out what’s going on under the hood of a website.
  2. We use some additional SEO tools and our Internet Marketing consulting expertise to evaluate all of the data.
  3. We put together the website evaluation, which gives a black-and-white indication of how a particular website stacks up in terms of:

 

A. SEO Fundamentals
We want to know if the very basics in SEO are being done correctly. This includes evaluating things like the following:

  • Meta data structure including page titling
  • URL structure
  • Internal linking
  • Health of code/ability of site to be indexed
  • Site maps
  • RSS feeds


B. Conversion Analysis
We want to know if the traffic coming to a website is turning into customers, or abandoning the website. In this section we’ll answer questions like the following:

  • Where’s the website’s traffic coming from?
  • What’s the traffic funnel telling us about the site’s conversion efficiency? Why are people not converting into customers? What’s the roadblock?


C. Off-site SEO
Now that we have a better idea of waht’s happening with the website internally, we want to know what’s going on externally. Here, we’ll answer the following questions:

  • What keywords does the website rank for and what’s the rank? What kind of penetration does the website have in organic search?
  • Are the keywords the website is targeting the right ones? If not, how much potential traffic is being missed as a result?
  • What’s the state of inbound links? Are the current inbound links helping or hurting? Where’s the opportunity?
  • What’s the completive landscape for the industry? How does the website’s profile compare to its competitors?


D. Content Analysis
Now it’s time to take a hard look at the website’s content – the heart and soul of a site’s performance. We’ll answer the following questions:

  • How is the website’s current content strategy affecting its performance in search? In PPC?
  • What’s the competitive landscape for the industry? How does the website’s strategy compare to its competitors?

 

Website Evaluation Output:
Taking all of the above into account, Brand5 will recommend how we would fix the website, including all of the following

  • Suggestions for how to get more qualified traffic (for example, run a PPC campaign for the next 6 months targeting the following areas and keywords)
  • A list of keywords that should be targeted based on value and competition. These should be the focus of the organic and PPC campaigns.
  • Recommendations for a content campaign
  • Any fixes needed to make to the website’s SEO fundamentals better (for example, stop using dynamic URLs and create more SEO-friendly ones)
  • Any fixes needed to convert more current traffic (for example, it’s too hard to find the button to buy your product…consider changing the wording and placement on the buy button)
  • If necessary,  implementation costs. So for example, if we recommend a PPC campaign, we’lll detail the associated costs.

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