Metalfrog #SBS Winners Audit – Search Engine and Website Transcripts – Blend Tea and Coffee

Posted 29th April 2015

As a preamble to tomorrow's event, we can share the following factual information with Wendy Surridge about the site:

Site is created using a framework from EKM Powershop.
Site domain went live 18th January 2009.
There are a massive 809 other sites on this server.
The site page load takes a huge 5.545 seconds to load on first load.
Google says we have only 2.4 seconds to capture our audience.
Server load speed is a mid range search engine ranking calculation.

Site is on a Microsoft IIS server, as it is built using Microsoft ASP Programming language. This requires specialist web hosting.
To the naked eye, the site looks to be hosted in the UK at Heart Internet, but it actually goes through Avensys Networks in Sheffield.

Site website title is 'Blend Tea and Coffee Company – Wholesale Distributors of Tea, Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Coffee Machines, Teaware and sundry items.'

There are presently 187 pages indexed with Google.

The audit..
initial post this morning:

I thought it best to mention how this exactly works for Wendy Surridge, and those not in our digital advice group. What we are doing with this is simply pointing out to the owner of the website what they have as issues, how these are broken down in order of priority, simplifying any jargon phrases or terminology. From there, in this special case, we will offer FREE practical advice on how Wendy can influence changes to her website positively, potentially by doing this herself. Unlike the group audit, we will be providing a detailed report to Wendy so that she can use this to further her website and/or search engine position. None of this information is supposition, and none questions design, unless this affects usability.

What we are interested in here is not the traffic Wendy has, but what she is losing, or what more she can gain.

I ask that there is no commentary until the end of the audit, at which point I am happy to take questions, either from Wendy Surridge, or from others in the group who need advice.

See you at 9.30am.

Full Audit Transcript

Chris Wheeler David Roberts has EKM , perhaps her can assist us all?!

5 hrs · Unlike · 3

tag is a part of the HTML code within thetag that contains the name of the web page. Using the same Meta titles for different web pages makes it difficult for search engines to decide what pages to display in search results and for users to understand how one page differs from another. Doing so also means a lost opportunity for using more relevant key phrases.and Meta , you should be able to reduce duplicate content over time. You could use a program like siteliner.com to assess th…See Moretags have the same purpose – to give a short description of a web page’s content. Duplicate text within these tags means a lost opportunity to use more relevant key phrases for a given web page.tag is shown in search results. The length of text to be displayed in Google is limited to 60 characters, including spaces. Having a “too-short” description can be unclear for users. It can also make it difficult for a search engine crawler to understand what the webpage is about. Furthermore, a too-short description may affect a website’s Click-Through Rate and ranking.tag is shown in search results. The length of text to be displayed in Google is limited to 60 characters, including spaces. If the text within the title element is longer than 60 characters, it will be cut and only partially shown in search results. This can affect a web site’s Click-Through Rate.lengths quite quickly. This should be through EKM admin system..

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• Chris Wheeler OK, so if we are all ready , we'll begin..

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• Chris Wheeler Wendy Surridge

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• Chris Wheeler The total score of the website is based on the ratio of found issues to the number of performed checks. Your score is 59 out of 100 for all issues..

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• Chris Wheeler Issues are broken down into Errors, Warnings and Notices – kind of like a traffic light system. Errors are absolutely 'must's to be fixed, warnings should also give cause for concern, and notices are simply recommendations to improve..

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• Chris Wheeler So, we checked 15,467 issues on the site. We found 1,194 across 187 pages..

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• Chris Wheeler These were broken down as follows..

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• Chris Wheeler We checked 7,418 errors, and we found 357..

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• Chris Wheeler 1. 128 pages have duplicate Meta ..

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• Chris Wheeler The Meta tag includes a summary of a web page’s content and can be used by search engines to provide search results with snippets. Having duplicate texts within the tags on different pages means a lost opportunity to use more relevant key…See More

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• Chris Wheeler 2. 115 pages have duplicate title tags..

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• Chris Wheeler The Meta

• Chris Wheeler 3. 114 pages have duplicate content issues.

• Chris Wheeler Duplicate content means that the content of a webpage is very similar or identical to the content found on another web page. Duplicated web pages are competing against each other for higher positions in search results, and dividing the 'weight' of back links and visits, instead of accumulating weight for one page. Excessive duplicate content can negatively impact a webpage's ranking.

• Chris Wheeler Positives out of this Wendy Surridge:

  1. As you have content management – ability to change text on Meta

• Chris Wheeler Now onto Warnings..

• Chris Wheeler The medium severity issues that were detected on the website during the audit..

• Chris Wheeler We checked 7,884 warnings, and we found 836 warnings..

• Chris Wheeler 1. 279 images don't have alt attributes..

• Chris Wheeler An ALT attribute of an tag provides an alternative text for an image that can be displayed when the image is not visible on the web page. Images without an ALT attribute are not accessible for visually impaired people, which can ruin their experience on a web site. Added to this the absence of the ALT prevents search engines from understanding the meaning of pictures or content.

• Chris Wheeler 2. 168 pages are lacking language declaration..

• Chris Wheeler If you don’t declare the language of a web page’s content, the web text might not be recognised by search engines. As well as this is might cause the web page to disappear in search results or be displayed incorrectly, which can make your website less accessible to people with disabilities.

• Chris Wheeler 3. 164 pages have a low text-HTML ratios..

• Chris Wheeler The text-to-HTML ratio shows the percentage of text visible to users and the code. Complex and excessive code compared to a small amount of text is considered an unfriendly 'SEO' practice, which can cause slow load speed of a webpage and affect crawling..

• Chris Wheeler 4. 161 pages have a low word count..

• Chris Wheeler The length of a contained web document is a determining factor in a web page’s ranking. If a site has too little content or lacks vital information, visitors may feel compelled to visit another page, and the main stay of this activity is 'what does your competitor do, which is ranked above you for the phrase you wish to be found on?'..More of this later.

• Chris Wheeler 5. 40 pages have duplicate content in the h1 heading and the title tag..

• Chris Wheeler The Meta

  and

• Chris Wheeler 6. 16 pages have a too short text within the title tags..

• Chris Wheeler The text of the Meta

• Chris Wheeler 7. 6 pages don't have an h1 heading..

• Chris Wheeler An H1

  tag is the top-level element in the heading tags’ hierarchy (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6

  ). The text within the

  tag is the most important; and it is considered to be a short description of the web page’s content. An absence of an

  tag will break the heading tags’ hierarchy and prevent search engines from fully understanding the content, which can impact a website’s ranking..

• Chris Wheeler 8. 1 page has a too long text within the title tag..

• Chris Wheeler The text of the Meta

• Chris Wheeler 9. 38 pages have too many links on them to be search engine friendly..

• Chris Wheeler In order to effectively crawl and index your website, the use of links should be relevant to your site’s content. There is no limit to the number of links a webpage can contain; and Google doesn’t penalise sites for including a lot of them. However, yo…See More

• Chris Wheeler 10. 173 pages have slow speeds..As previously mentioned in the preamble to this audit.

• Chris Wheeler Load time indicates how quickly a website reacts to users’ requests. If a web site responds too slowly, this can affect a user’s experience. How quickly a site responds is also taken into account by search engine bots (or crawlers) while crawling and ranking. Site speed is one of the important ranking and trust factors.

• Chris Wheeler So to try to assist with these issues Wendy Surridge..

• Chris Wheeler 1. You can influence your Meta

• Chris Wheeler 2. Unless you have access to the code, you probably cannot change the language declaration of the pages – you may enquire to EKM on this one?..

• Chris Wheeler Pages with low word count, should be able to access and affect this via your EKM admin system?..

• Chris Wheeler Slow speeds, you probably cannot affect, as this is a hosted solution, so you are governed by EKM on this one..

• Chris Wheeler And this ends the wanings section of the audit..

• Chris Wheeler So, finally to notices (recommendations) ..

• Chris Wheeler We checked 444 notices, and we found only 1..

• Chris Wheeler 15 pages are blocked from indexing by Google..this is likely to be because of your robots.txt file..

• Chris Wheeler So, our Rachael has sent you a glossary of terms so that you can get simple explanations to this. We'll send you a detailed report of all issues, and on what pages..

• Chris Wheeler It is important to note that the process of ranking and quality is very technical in some cases, and very simple in others..

• Chris Wheeler If you know which key phrase you wish to be found on Google for, you have to know how the other companies in the top ten for that phrase, in Google or any other search engine, have constructed their site. Factors taken into consideration by a search en…See More

• Chris Wheeler So, top takeaways for your site Wendy Surridge:

  1. Fix images with ALT attibutes missing – should be in the admin section….See More

• Chris Wheeler I hope that this assists you and that you can now clearly see the issues the site faces. Remember that you cannot fool an engine – ever!

• Chris Wheeler Also, understand that your aim is to spread key phrases across pages, not simply send traffic to the home page of your web site..

• Chris Wheeler As far as social standing is concerned – entirely covering ranking only:

  1. You have 82 Facebook likes….See More

• Chris Wheeler There are currently no back links to this site..

• Chris Wheeler Top key phrases:

  1. Suki teapot…See More

• Chris Wheeler These account for an average of 1300 searches a month on Google..

• Chris Wheeler None are on page one on Google at present..

• Chris Wheeler It is estimated that you will receive 10 more visitors to the site in the next 30 days..

• Chris Wheeler Competitors for this space:

  amazon.co.uk …See More

• Chris Wheeler You have no categorisation in Google ,so Google has pigeon-holed you in a category called 'miscellaneous' This needs to be changed and we can advise how to do this FREE very quickly for you..

• Chris Wheeler This concludes the audit for #SBS Winner Wendy Surridge

• Chris Wheeler I am happy to take any questions on this now..

• Chris Wheeler We'll email the full report to you asap Wendy Surridge.

• Wendy Surridge Oh Dear ……

• Wendy Surridge Thanks Chris. Seems i have lots to look at, most of which will probably go straight over my head. May have to have a chat after i have read the full report etc..

• Chris Wheeler We can talk and give you free assistance to get this past first base Wendy Surridge

• Ursh Stevens Well done Chris ! Wendy dont be disheartened at least it can all be fixed! Look at it positively and how it can help you xx

• Wendy Surridge Thanks Ursh. It just seems so daunting but i'm sure with the help from Chris and his team, it will be fixed x

• Chris Wheeler Cheers Ursh Stevens . I am sure Wendy Surridge can positively help herself. Wondered whether any other SBS Winners who use EKM could assist her?