Complete Guide on Technical SEO Audit for Affiliate Blog
This article is a good example of how to conduct a technical SEO audit. This article outlines what you should do during a technical SEO audit and how to apply them to your site.
I also included things that were not covered in the other audit lists. These are our opinions and experiences on technical SEO.
Technical SEO modifications are, in our view, a key factor in SEO rankings. Also, consider:
- A sitemap must be precise and work.
- “link:yourwebsitename.com” in Google to see what is indexed by Google and the SERP displayed
- Search Engine for information
- Core Web Vitals, optimizing your site’s speed
- Removing articles that do not receive any Google traffic and improving existing articles to improve their ranking.
You assume that you know the basics.
At this time, we have not made any changes to website content other than moving pages and fixing grammar and spelling errors. On-page SEO will be covered in another article.
Technical SEO focuses on technical aspects of SEO. They prevent content from being found.
Take a deep breath and enjoy this article. It will explain how SEO sausage works for affiliate blogs.
Site Structure
I changed the structure of our website. This is the key element to the structure and categorization.
Some content could not be properly represented by the menu and it was hard to locate other subjects after you read a webpage article
In past times, navigational items on the right side of a page were used to encourage reader interaction.
Navigation links to lead users to articles are less efficient since Facebook was created.
What can you do to gain better access and control of your website’s contents when there are so many links?
Website Hierarchy
To show the content of different sections, we created a high-up menu. Next, we flattened all the WordPress categories.
Website hierarchies that are flatter than others (up to some point) will perform better. Google gives you a better SEO rank for your content.
The design received much criticism from graphic designers and clients over the years. It is too complicated and provides too many choices.
Although we don’t create websites, it is possible to help improve SEO.
I’m often asked what items you’d add to your menu. A menu can reflect your topic and highlight the most popular.
I’m looking for hints and have been studying the WordPress category and Google Analytics.
Google uses the links within your menu to decide which pages are important.
The menu is named.
It is important to consider the structure of the menus as well as the description and naming of the menu links.
- Clarity – Be sure to clearly state the topic of the article in the clickable link
- Keyword essence – Tell Google what keywords are you looking for
- One line – A menu item that is only one line will look cleaner and easier to read.
- 7-item limit per grouping
- Selectable primary and second menu options – It is frustrating to have non-clickable items. A cornerstone article should link to all sections.
Notice that our article titles are not long. You’ll also notice that we don’t use long article titles.
Add website search
Another item we love adding to our menu is a website search tool. This is a search engine that helps you find information that is not on your menu.
If visitors return to your website, they should bookmark the URL. If visitors return to your site, they should bookmark it.
Previous layout searches were located at the bottom of the navigation bar. While it worked, the results displayed are not consistent with the brand.
Even though WordPress’ search engine can be frustrating for some themes, it is still a good search tool. To search this website and other sites that we make, we use SearchWP.
SearchWP can modify results and search Advanced Custom Fields data. It is exactly what we use.
Search Engine Friendly URLs
According to Backlinko, the ideal length for a URL is between 50-60 characters. From our own experience, I’ve seen shorter URLs do better than very-long-URLs-that-no-one-can-remember. This is not surprising.
The common wisdom is that causation doesn’t always follow correlation. Google has recently said that URL length is not a ranking element. This is BS.
Source: Backlinko
It could be because shorter URLs can be easier to remember and read. I’m less likely to click.
I prefer shorter URLs.
WordPress Permalink Modification
The WordPress permalink settings were very strange. we purchased a blog. It is currently set up as: /%post_id%/%postname%/.
This means blog posts show up as: /12345/your-blog-post/ which looks very messy.
This website was launched 10 years ago. It is still available for two reasons.
- WordPress was slow when WordPress had many websites (more than 100 pages). WordPress creates web pages faster if it uses %post_id%.
- Google liked articles that had numbers in their URLs. This was a signal of freshness.
For either problem, it isn’t the case. The URLs are too long and confusing.
Permalink Change Per Post
First, we changed URLs that weren’t ranking for primary keywords. This article isn’t ranking very well so we made some changes
Please change your URL slug to: /%postname%/
I considered adding “%category” before “%postname%”, but since the website has only 400-500 articles (even after merging them), we decided to not do so.
However, there are issues with changing an already existing permalink.
WordPress lets you make changes to your site’s permalinks. This is something many SEO experts and bloggers do globally.
But not me.
It’s not something we want to happen. A WordPress plugin solved the problem.
Permalink Manager Pro might be the most suitable plugin to solve this issue. It allows you to modify the permalink one-by-one, and not for the whole site.
Our Take
This plugin fixes specific issues with WordPress and SEO. You can also test individual pages to see if they improve your SEO.
This tool simplifies URL changes.
Some articles are ranked on the first Google search page for keywords you want. These articles will be the last we alter.
Permalink Manager Pro allows you to analyze URL structure and see how it impacts rankings.
It can nest WordPress posts with the plugin.
Redirecting To The New Permalink
Now let’s discuss backlinks. SEO experts believe that changing URLs can affect rankings as they do not link directly to the page.
I am confident that this statement is false.
Since they began requiring websites to use SSL, Google makes it simple to link to sites using SSL.
Google views it like this: Links change constantly, so Google doesn’t believe in penalizing an article for not being the same as its source site.
Avoid changing URLs. we are amazed at how many websites fail to build correctly from the start.
I also want to point out the speed at which Google recognizes URLs. Sometimes, keywords take up to 24 hours for Google Search Console to recognize them.
Clarify. This change is permanent. Google rejects 301 HTTP redirects because it suggests that the redirection may change. The URL that you’re redirecting may not receive as much link juice.
Redirecting is the core of running WordPress blogs.
Our Take
SEOPress is a competitor WordPress plugin for Yoast SEO. It is lighter and has more functionality. This version includes Google Page Speed, structured data types, and breadcrumbs. Instant Indexing can also be used. URL rewriting can be done.
I also like to eliminate any unnecessary words or phrases from URLs.
WordPress Category Permalink Change
Category pages for WordPress have the suffix /category/ at their URL’s start.
The URL is redundant. Depending on which WordPress SEO plugin you are using, this part may be deleted.
According to our technical SEO audit, this site did not have SEO disabled.
You can check this option using SEOPress
Internal Linking
can help improve the ranking of your content.
Most SEO tutorials focus only on getting backlinks from outside sources. They often overlook the importance of linking to related articles on your site.
The previous owner used some interesting linking techniques.
The first thing that would be mentioned is the brand name. If they were to refer to another brand, a link to the affiliate link would be added to their review.
This is a missed opportunity to increase interlinking between articles on your site.
It is important to think about it as a reader. Reviewing the product on your site is the best way to accomplish this.
Linking directly to affiliate links does not work.
This all depends upon where you’re on the page. our experience has shown that affiliate links, reviews, and testimonials can be added to your reviews.
This blog did not use a WordPress plugin for creating related articles. It was also difficult to find a WordPress plugin that could be used to make similar posts. Make sure you include calls to action at each end.
Google likes to see customers interact with brands on YouTube and other websites.
LinkWhisper plugin is designed to help you better monitor and report internal linking.
Our Take
LinkWhisper is a WordPress plugin that can help you improve your SEO. LinkWhisper, a WordPress plugin, is an excellent way to improve your SEO.
Broken Links, Internal Redirects
I have mentioned that we love to tidy up our website before we start to build links or improve content.
Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider tool is essential for every SEO consultant. It only checks for broken links and internal redirections.
Broken Links
Broken links (internal and extern) indicate that the webmaster has neglected site maintenance.
Although I’ve not seen any SEO research papers, we imagine Google considering links as a ranking metric. Bad links could negatively affect the site’s quality “.
Before making site-wide changes, make sure you spider the website. Many webmasters remove hyperlinks.
Side Note: The HTTP410 error code is more useful than the 404 error when you remove pages from your site. The page may not be returned. A 410 error means the page has been removed intentionally and Google will deindex it faster.
Redirects internal
Although you cannot make any changes to the links in your site, it is possible to set up internal redirections.
Each mention of an article must be directly linked to it
Search for internal redirections, and replace them with direct hyperlinks.
Google may use the type and number of redirects as a measure for SEO, just like with broken links. It would be surprising if Google did. This is an indicator that the website is unorganized and messy.
It is up to you whether you want to clean up the internal linking. A tool that allows you to update the links at large will be needed.
Tools for Mass Search and Replacing Links
If you want to change URLs on your blog, you will need a tool that can locate all old URLs.
The command-line WordPress tool we love is WP_CLI. It has one of the most basic functions, research-replace
I suggest moving your WordPress hosts to enable this feature.
Some bloggers fear command-line tools so they use WordPress plugins. Clients used the Better Search Replace plugin with similar success to change sitewide links.
Although you need to back up your site before doing any major updates, The BlogVault service is great.
Structured Data
Formatted Data Is a brand-new feature of SEO. It’s something that is often forgotten even by experts.
Many people are confused about the purpose and meaning of structured SEO data.
Intentionally or poorly written content won’t work. The schema is used by Google to determine the purpose and show Google how it fits into the knowledge tree.
You can improve your SEO by using structured data like reviews, FAQs, and breadcrumbs.
Technical SEO audits are about finding out where there is a gap in the markup.
A lot of themes like the Genesis Framework and SEO plugins such as SEOPress include a range of schema markup formatted in JSON –LD format.
Google’s Search Console lets you check whether your structured data matches. Google displays markup for:
- Breadcrumbs
- FAQ
- How-to
- Review snippets
- Sitelinks search box
Google doesn’t display any structured data.
Schema.org offers an excellent validator that allows you to view the schema for another website.
Information about Google’s official schema can be found in Google Search Center Features Guides. Schema.org.
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumb Schema markup must be included in all blogs. Google will benefit.
Breadcrumbs were not used during our purchase of a blog. However, our URL structure had changed. This makes it easy to find your website’s menu structures and search engine results pages (since they are shown).
Even though you may not realize it, the HTML at the top of the page isn’t the markup for breadcrumbs using SERP.
SERP is made easier by the breadcrumb scheme.
You can use a plugin like SEOPress to generate breadcrumb scheme markup. we prefer to keep the breadcrumb at the primary keywords on the page.
You can see that the breadcrumb and primary keywords for the article both are short. The primary SEO keyword is longer than the breadcrumb.
The complete title.
FAQ Snippet
Google will find your FAQ schema and expand your search engine results page by 75 pixels. There are currently only 2 FAQ pages. This allows your site to stand out among the other websites.
However, there is one drawback to this. If your FAQ answers are excellent it can lead to a No Click on the website. This could reduce your site’s CTR.
You need to spark interest in your question by asking it, but you don’t have to answer the whole thing. The goal of creating FAQs is to point a person to your website.
FAQ answers can be used to link to your site. It is not often done.
Google might not use your FAQ Schema, which could be a problem for any FAQ Schema. Google appears to prefer the FAQ schema for transactional intent over informational purposes, though there are no established rules.
You can scan the search engine results page to check if FAQs are available. You should also check the SERP to see if any FAQs are present.
The previous owner did have FAQs about reviews. we decided to convert the FAQ entries into another plug-in.
Fantastic WordPress FAQ plugin that we found. It supports the Gutenberg editor which we love. It is ready to be used.
Gutenberg blocks provide a range of options for block design. A FAQ plugin can generate visually pleasing FAQ entries and a JSON -LD FAQ schema.
Review Snippet
The review schema is a powerful way to get your website higher on search engine result pages (SERPs). This can happen if your product or services are reviewed and compared.
Ratings are higher than any other search results.
These review snippets were generated by the former blog owner, using the SEO plugin Rank Math. (Rank Meth as we like to refer to it) You will need to add that information to your article’s contents
SERP showed a rating that was not displayed anywhere else. Rather than using an existing review plugin such as WP Review, we decided to build our product database and generate our review schema.
To generate the review schema using Advanced Custom Fields, we needed to code.
This plugin is beyond the capabilities of most users.
You should spend custom development in this area.
Affiliate Links
Google has a policy regarding affiliate links. Do not add any payment received from, per click, or action to your ‘link juice.
If you have any affiliate links, it is recommended by Google you use therel=” sponsored”anywhere used on your site. Google will not index these links.
Because other search engines, such as Bing, do not recognize sponsored content, we prefer to use “sponsored-nofollow”.
Our affiliate links go through an interstitial page, just like this site. Affiliate links begin with /go/ at the end of their URL.
WordPress asks that each link be manually added with the rel=” sponsored Nofollow” attribute. our LinkClicky automatically adds both sponsored and unfollowed links to every link.
The same /go/ was used for affiliate links on the blog we bought. The problem with the blog we acquired was some affiliate links were showing up in Google’s ‘site:domainname.com’ search results. This is not a good thing.
Add rel=” sponsored not follow” to all links already indexed by Google.
Google still can visit an affiliate link, regardless of the nofollow or sponsored tag. Google won’t be able to index these links.
I don’t want Google to index our affiliate links. we have added the following to myrobots.txt:
Disallow: /go/
I am unable to access our affiliate links. Here is an example of the robots.txt file.
If you insert your affiliate links manually, it can lead to problems like this. It is also much more difficult to change your affiliate links (which can often happen ). ) Use a link shortener like Pretty Links
Our Take
Pretty Links Pro, a WordPress plugin to track links, is affordable. You can use it for as little as $99.50 per year.
SERP
Higher Google rankings mean higher click-through rates (CTR).
Not necessarily.
Optimize the Search Engine Response Pages (SERP) to improve your chances of someone clicking on your article. Optimize search titles and descriptions for a higher CTR.
You have other options. If you want your SERP results to be more prominent, add some schema. The best way for your result to get clicked is by natural means.
These items can be added to posts but aren’t related to the schema.
Jump Links
This is a simple one and will improve SERP. People read content, not scan it.
A jump can be used for creating a more engaging user experience.
Allow readers to navigate to sections that interest them The EasyTable Of Contents plugin is great and free.
Be aware of your jump link
Subheading) Length.
Vertical HTML Tables
Another great feature to boost your SERP is. This common error is made by many.
I have not tried this technique on our blog. we are adding it to our SERP.
Vertical tables must have a name and an appropriate column format.
An example is that a WordPress table should look like the one shown below.
Not for product pages or product reviews pages.
| Platform | Cloud |
| Price | $495 – $690 one-time fee |
| Promotion | Get a Lifetime License for $495 |
Any WordPress user can add this information to his or her blog posts. The result will not appear on any other pages in the SERP.
Google Freshness
Google considers the recency and accuracy of articles to determine if a website is ranking well.
Older articles by their nature are out of date. In some niches, however, freshness can be more crucial than ever.
An article detailing how to change an oil filter for a specific make and model of a car is an example. Google determines the freshness of content by using which niche.
Even though all ranking metrics are the same, an article that was published one month ago will rank higher than an article that was created three years before.
I was about 80% busy updating content on our previous blog.
After you’ve written enough articles about a topic, you will be limited in how many times you can continue to discuss it.
Investor Junkie reported that many things are changing in Fintech. we wanted to make sure that all content is correct at the time of announcements.
Instead, a blog review needed to be written. Many WordPress themes display only the publication date.
An audit revealed that the blog used the published date. Google defaulted to this date when it came time for SERP.
SEO experts suggest that you disable the date option from your WordPress theme to avoid Google freshness. If your niche needs new content, this will cause problems.
I recommend publishing the last modified date, simultaneously removing the publication date, and updating the content.
It is not enough to simply change the date. You need to make any changes to your article.
While we don’t have any evidence supporting this claim, it seems not surprising that Google maintains a distinction between content updates and new content.
Google can tell you how often the URL’s contents have changed over time. It is also an easy task for search engines. This can be used to track how SEO metrics change over time and to then rank you.
I suggest that your content be kept current in all cases.
WordPress should not interfere with your updated date
Side note: It is important to clarify whether comments can be made on blog posts. Google may use the oldest comment date (a comment that has been posted at least 3 years ago) as an age. These actions could reduce the freshness and quality of the article.
To obscure comment dates, you can substitute the traditional format of MM/DD/YYYYYYY. You could, for example, use relative dates such as 8 months ago.
This is what the WPDiscuz WordPress plugin does well. You can also make your comments interactive with many additional features.
Google’s algorithm is not yet able to recognize relative dates.
My SEO Results So far
It’s more than technical SEO. How will these changes affect the blog?
I took over the blog in September 2021. we began making changes.
How do you get the results?
Ahrefs results speak for themselves.
Ahrefs Rank Tracker tool allows you to track keywords and keep them in your mind. The target keyword here is the Bluehost review.
The improvement in the SERP result is due to technical SEO improvements that we made on our blog Very little content was altered (except for spelling and grammar changes).
Google did not like the website. Google didn’t like the original website. However, they changed the technical SEO.
Since we assumed control, SEO was a fast-growing company. But many technical SEO enhancements can be made and they remain to be improved.
The next step will be to improve the content.
