The Top 3 Tools You Should Use for Technical SEO Audits-SEO Tools-SEO Audits tools-top SEO tools

 The Top 3 Tools You Should Use for Technical SEO Audits Image credit: DeepCrawl | Enhanced by SEOEntrepreneur Pratik Dholakiya Pratik Dholakiya Contributor Co-Founder of E2M & MoveoApps Verizon Hacked, With Data of 1.5 Million Customers Stolen Accelerate Your Business Verizon Hacked, With Data of 1.5 Million Customers Stolen Reuters These 10 Tools for Remote Workers Will Make Office Life a Permanent Thing of the Past Accelerate Your Business These 10 Tools for Remote Workers Will Make Office Life a Permanent Thing of the Past Aaron Agius Facebook Now Automatically Detects Imposter Accounts Accelerate Your Business Facebook Now Automatically Detects Imposter Accounts Tom Brant 841 Shares January 28, 2016 Join us live at Entrepreneur's Accelerate Your Business event series in Chicago or Denver. Secure your spot » Doing a search engine optimization (SEO) audit is no joke. It used to take time, the patience of a saint and too many spreadsheets. You may grow a white hair or two in the process. But, thanks to technical SEO audit tools, we are no longer doing those insane manual checks that we did in the past. Most SEO experts arm themselves with these tools so they’re no longer rummaging through raw data but making strategic decisions instead. Related: The Quick SEO Guide You Need for Your Website In this article I’ll share three of my go-to tools for performing a technical SEO audit: DeepCrawl (a cloud-based tool), Screaming Frog (a desktop-based tool) and Search Console (the free web-based tool from Google themselves). They all have their different strengths and use cases. Depending on your requirements, you may need to choose one -- or you may find all three useful in conjunction. 1. DeepCrawl I really like DeepCrawl, because of its flexibility and the depth of the reports it provides. When starting a crawl, you can choose from numerous crawl types, right up to a full gap analysis of my entire site. You can also auto-schedule crawls, which is really useful. Crawls are highly customizable, so you can set the criteria for maximum / minimum links per page, content, title / URL length, load time, etc. Here are the three things I like the most about DeepCrawl: It can easily handle crawling millions of pages, so if you need to crawl a huge site, look no further. It provides competitor reports -- not just the basic headlines, but the real nitty-gritty details on content, pricing and promotions, site architecture and even the brand’s key influencers. It allows you to project manage your SEO team, creating tickets for issues and assigning them to people. It also alerts you if any issues pop up consistently in crawls. Plus, it maintains a history of all changes, so you can look back and monitor performance and progress over time. If I had to improve one thing, I’d ask for more mobile-focused reports. (Their support guys told me to expect more of these in their next product update, so looks like that'll be solved soon anyway). Related: It's Time to Rethink Your SEO Approach for 2016 2. Screaming Frog When it comes to desktop crawlers, Screaming Frog is an undisputed leader. The tool has been around for quite some time now, and webmasters managing sites of all sizes swear by it. If you are looking at crawling less than 500 URLs, you can even use it for free. However, if you have a large website with over 10,000 pages, be wary, as desktop crawlers can cause server-response problems. Besides, it doesn’t come with collaboration features, which makes it far less attractive for SEO teams these days. That said, in this price range, it’s one of the most useful crawlers, and here are the reasons it's in my top three: It doesn’t die off when your memory is running low and alerts you beforehand. I especially like this feature, because this has happened to me a few times. All you need to do is save the project, increase random access memory (RAM) and restart it to continue. Their bulk export option really makes life easier, as you can export all data, including internal links, outbound links, anchor text, image alt text, etc. There is an option to accept cookies, so you can also crawl websites that make it compulsory to accept cookies. And, though I like the tool overall, if I had to change one thing about it, I’d want them to improve the user experience to make it easier to customize crawls. 3. Google Search Console While SEO veterans might find it funny to see this tool in the list, many SEOs are relying on it more than ever. The tool has come a long way since its earlier days and can offer a fair amount of insights. These are the three things I do love about it: It gives you estimates on your position for a keyword, plus the number of impressions and clicks for your site on that keyword in Google search results. That may be basic, but it’s important and useful. It gives a good summary of things that matter -- things like broken links, number of pages indexed, correctness of HTML markup, page loading speed, etc. It’s free -- and it comes from the horse's mouth! (OK, that’s two things, but they’re both major plus points.) The only thing I don’t like about Search Console is that it doesn’t always give a complete picture. Remember, these tools may not be the best fit for your specific needs. All three have their particular unique selling points and solve specific pain points well. You should review them all and choose the one that’s right for you. The main things to consider are the size of your website, the volume of new pages you generate and the kind of insights you are looking for. Related: 5 Must-Use Google Analytics Strategies to Measure SEO Success Accelerate Your Business Event Accelerate Your Business Event Join Entrepreneur, Reddit's Alexis Ohanian and other business leaders in Chicago or Denver. Secure Your Spot »

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Search engine optimization experts bust four common myths about search friendly website design and share best practices for SEO in 2016.

James A. Martin By James A. Martin Follow

CIO | Mar 14, 2016 5:00 AM PT
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    Search Internet Marketing

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Many misconceptions exist about what is and isn't search engine friendly website design, according to Shari Thurow, founder and SEO director of Omni Marketing Interactive.
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Thurow, who recently spoke at the SMW West search marketing conference, says one assumption is that search engine friendly sites are, by default, also user friendly. Many people believe that for sites to be search engine friendly, they must use only text links for navigation. Others think XML sitemaps are essential, or that search friendly sites are inherently ugly.

We pulled information from Thurow's SMW West panel, and followed up with her and a set of additional SEO and SEM experts after the event, to clarify some of these false assumptions. We also came up with 10 tips and best practices to make sure search engines — and users — can easily find your website content.
What exactly is search engine friendly website design?

Search engine friendly design "is a user friendly website design that enables websites to be easily found via the crawler-based search engines, other types of search engines, and industry-related websites," Thurow says. "In other words, it's a website that is made for users but it also accommodates search engines."

"[It] is a balance between technology-centered design and user-centered design, with the user coming first," Thurow says. "SEO is optimizing for people who use search engines."

Ultimately, the key to ranking well with search engines is "to provide the best content with a good user experience," says David Sorenson, vice president of audience development at Everyday Health. "If you focus on the user, in most cases, the search engines will recognize and reward you."

“Technology, design, user experience, and search engines have evolved from ten years ago, and websites have gotten better at finding that balance between search-engine and human friendliness, but there's always room for improvement," Sorenson says.
Debunking 4 myths of search engine friendly website design

Myth: If a site is search friendly, it's also user friendly

Some sites are easier for search engines to crawl and index because they contain a lot of text. However, big chunks of text can be turnoffs for some users, especially those on mobile devices, and they don't necessarily help site visitors find the information they seek or complete desired tasks. Making a site easily accessible to search engines "is only one part" of search engine friendly site design, according to Thurow.

Myth: Search friendly design means all navigation is formatted as text links

The common belief that text-link navigation is key to search friendly design is inaccurate, according to Thurow. "Navigation is about enabling task completion," she says. Often, graphic- or image-based navigation menus can help site visitors easily complete tasks, and that's more important than simply trying to appeal to search engines.

Myth: XML sitemaps are essential for search friendly design

An XML sitemap, which is essentially a list of ,s for a site, "shouldn't be a substitute or a Band-Aid for poor site navigation," Thurow says. Instead, the XML map should be regarded as supplemental navigation.

Myth: Search friendly sites are text-heavy and ugly

Aesthetic design can greatly improve user experience, according to Thurow. "The site every SEO consultant trots out as being search engine friendly is Craigslist," says Susan Leopold, senior director of product commerce at Ziff-Davis. "While Craigslist gets the job done, the Internet wouldn't be nearly the interesting place it is today if everyone used that model."