Keeping Your SEO In Check - How Often Should You Be Checking Key Elements?
If you've read any of our other articles on SEO, you probably know by now that SEO consists of many different elements. Realistically, there are too many elements to list in this blog post without it being a novel! However, it's important to note some of the key elements and how often they should be checked, updated and changed in order to keep your SEO in check.
Below I'll explain the most important SEO factors and how often we check up on these. Please note, there isn't necessarily a correct answer here, and different SEO freelancers and companies may work differently. Strategies will also vary from project to project so do take these principles with a pinch of salt and consider your own goals when creating your SEO plan.
Google Search Console - data and alerts
This information should be checked weekly. You want to be aware of any significant drops or increases in average position, impressions, clicks etc. as soon as possible and of course, if you have any errors, you want to be able to resurrect these ASAP.
Website Content - Primary Pages
Here I'm going to split the factors into two different sections; website content primary pages and website content blogs. When starting your SEO, the content on your website is likely to be a top priority and maybe the majority of your SEO workload for the first few weeks. Once established, your primary page content should be checked over every couple of weeks hand in hand with the performance data of each page.
Website Content - Blogs
Directly opposite to the above point, your blog content will likely play a secondary role during the first few weeks of your SEO campaign and then be bought to the forefront of your plan once your primary page content has been established. From here, you'll want to either post new blog content or refine existing content every one to two weeks.
Mobile Friendliness
This is a one-off task that should be carried out within the first couple of weeks of your SEO plan. Your site will need to be mobile friendly to perform well on the search engine results page (SERP). If your site is already mobile-friendly (including loading speed etc.) you can skip this part. But be sure to look into accelerated mobile pages (AMP's) for blog content.
URL's and Page Titles
There are two main parts to checking URL's and page titles. The first is an initial one-off overhaul at the start of your SEO plan. The second is periodic checking, every month to six weeks, including checking any new content and optimising based on results data.
Meta Descriptions The first thing to note here is that meta descriptions are NOT a ranking factor despite common belief. This means that they don't directly influence your SEO results in terms of how well your site ranks on the search engine; however, they do affect your CTR. CTR (click-through-rate) is the percentage of people who see your site on the SERP pages, that then go on to click through to your website. I.e. they click the search result. You'll obtain a better CTR if you have a well written and relevant meta description hence the importance despite these not being a ranking factor. These should be checked and where applicable updated monthly. Be sure not to miss any new page content!
Social Signals
Similar to some of the other points made in this article, your Social Media pages may need a one-off overhaul at the start of your SEO campaign. Following this, you'll want to be posting regular updates every 2 to 3 days (variable by the network) and ensure your business information is kept up to date.
Google My Business
Exactly the same as the above; give your GMB profile a quick overhaul to ensure it's up to date and accurate. From here, post every 2 to 3 days for maximum visibility.
Internal Links
As you add more content via your blog and updated page content, you'll want to check back over your internal links. These are links that link text on your site to other pages of your website. For example, if we mention finding an SEO consultant in our blog or on one of our internal pages, we might want to link the text to our blog on how to find an SEO consultant.
As you add more content to your site, there will be more and better opportunities to create internal links. It's important not to go overboard, but change and update links as more relevant linking content becomes available. Check this every two weeks to every month depending on the size of the site and how often new content is being added or updated.
External and Backlinks
Similar to the above, you also want to check links that lead from your site to another site. This might happen, for example, if you post a statistic in a blog post from a study - you should link somewhere in the blog to the study. Check that your external links are both up to date and still working. Occasionally other websites will delete pages or change URL's without setting up a redirect. Check these every month to two months.
Backlinks link other peoples websites to your own website. You can use tools such as Google Search Console and SpyFu to find out who is linking to your site and the text linking it. You want to keep up to date with this as occasionally bad links can occur. Check the linking text as well as the website itself if you see anything untoward.
Google Analytics Data
You should be evaluating and checking your data on a weekly basis (as a minimum). Check impressions, clicks, CTR, search terms, bounce rate, average time spent on site and your website page breakdown as a very minimum. Use this data to identify pages on the website with areas for improvement. Look to see if a certain page has a particularly bad load time or if a particular page has a high bounce rate. These are all indicators for areas of improvement.
Hopefully, this has provided an insight into keeping on top of your SEO elements. There are more. Many more, in fact, but I don’t want to turn a blog post into a novel!If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out in the comments or drop us a message on our contact page. We’d be happy to help.