If you have a blog or a product webpage, SEO is something you’re probably concerned about. Who wouldn’t want to end up on the front page of Google?
There are countless theories behind what helps your SERP rank. In my opinion, anything that changes the way you write isn’t worth trying because if you aren’t putting your readers first, there is no point in blogging.
So how can you optimize your SEO if you don’t change the way you write?
Website Grader by HubSpot
When I first saw a Website Grader badge, I assumed it was silly ranking that had little to no relevance to the site like an Alexa badge. The truth is, it really didn’t provide any benefit to the site, but it was a great link to follow.
When you get to the site there are options to enter your webpage, competing pages, and your e-mail. I didn’t enter my e-mail, but I did compare my site to a few top blogs just for fun.
The results were far more useful than I expected. Website Grader gives you a free break down of each part of your webpage that search engines look and gives you tips on what you can improve. While there were 5 major categories Website Grader analyzes, there were two section that I found very helpful:
On Page SEO
- Metadata – Your Page Title, Meta Description, and Meta Keywords
Apparently my page title was too long, so it gave me a warning notice that I could improve my SEO by shortening my page title. - Heading Summary – It checks all the pages for header tags h1, h2, h3, etc…
I recently was reading an article by Chris Pearson about how search engines use headings to read your page and how to improve your heading use. Tomorrow, I’ll go into more depth about this. - Image Summary – A summary of all the images on your page and their tags
Apparently, by removing the 16×16 gravatars that I include on my top commentators, I could make my webpage load faster. I’m not sure that I agree with this, but it is something to take note of. It also noted images that didn’t have alt tags. Those tags effect the images rank in image search engines, so this was very helpful. - Page Analysis – This just checks the other pages on your site like contact, about, etc..
Nothing really insightful here for me. - Readability Level – tells the level of education you need to read the site.
Apparently someone in secondary school/high school can read my webpage. Maybe I should start writing more articles about chemistry?
Off Page SEO
- Domain Info – Just general info about your domain. For some reason this site things I don’t have paid hosting, and that I’m using Blogspot… I’ll never be 100% apparently.
- Google Page Rank – If you don’t know what Google Page Rank is you better ask someone! jk
I’d like to be around PR 3 sometime around Christmas. Is that too much to ask from Google for Christmas? - Google Indexed Pages – How many pages on your site Google has indexed. I think my site isn’t old enough to rank other than “n/a.”
- Last Google Crawl Date – I guess this is why I don’t have any indexed pages.
- Traffic Rank – Your traffic rank is based off Alexa’s traffic rank for you. Mine is top 0.725% at the moment. In 3 months that will be better!
- Inbound Links – How many inbound links you have. I don’t know what system they are using to measure the number of inbound links, but 4,842 isn’t terrible for under 3 months.
- DMOZ directory – They spelled it wrong. I’m going to e-mail them about that. I am not listed in DMOZ, but if it will help my SEO, I’ll register tonight.
- Yahoo! Directory – Again, I should register.
- ZoomInfo – Not sure
There are actually several other sections regarding social bookmarking and feeds, but I don’t think they give me anything new to consider.
What To Look For To Improve Your SEO
The On Site SEO section really struck me as the most helpful. Labeling your images with meta/alt tags is very useful for your rank on Image Search engines which can drive more traffic to your site than you might think.
I also found the heading summary to be extremely useful too. Search engines use header content to determine the important of the information on your site and places extra weight on those words. Seeing that my sidebar labels were h2 and my post titles were h3 was kind of bass ackwards. Just checking the heading labels to appropriately fit the content will greatly help your SEO.
The off page SEO useful for knowing some of the directories to register with. The information itself is something I have minimal control over other than making sure I am registered. Also, having a good idea of how many inbound links you have and focusing on increasing that number will help your SERP greatly.
In the end, a lot of your SERP comes from anchored text links from other sites. Link building is a key part to getting your page ranked, so make sure you write quality content that will get others linking to you. Also make the most of guest posts to get high quality links from high authority pages.
Discussion
After I post this I’m going to make the corrections to my site to improve my website grade. How high is your website grade? Is it higher or lower than you expected? Were you able to use Website Grader to improve your SEO?
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Thanks for finding this tool!
WIAW scored a 99%. It found a few things I already knew about, a couple I didn’t, and some stuff I don’t care about.
Like too many images on a page. When I’m writing tutorials with screenshots, that’s how it is.
Thanks for the find. That’s a good blog too.
.-= Dave Doolin | Website In A Weekend´s last blog ..Practical WordPress Tip #16: Create Template Blog Posts With Common Structure =-.
HubSpot is a good blog. I didn’t read it before, but I’ll probably keep up with it a little more now. I’m not surprised your site got a 99%. You’re a pro!
WebsiteGrader is a good tool for beginner’s SEO. However, use WebsiteGrader as a beginning, but not the end of your site optimization process. There are many things that a real human SEO consultant can offer that a tool like this cannot.
I found this good debate regarding WebsiteGrader here. http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/why-website-grader-is-a-bad-idea/
Website grader surely is a great tool. I always use it to show how my blog in internet. :D
.-= Dana@Online Knowledge´s last blog ..Increase Blog Page Views =-.
website grader cant be used for seo purpose.It is mostly a feel good tool.I use it when i initially launched my website(i.e 4 month back).to get listed in dmoz you need to wait for long time and yahoo listing cost 5 times hosting plan.so for blogger this information is pretty useless.For PR you need to wait as google update it 3 month or so and it depend on how much external link you have.For getting indexed by google you can use http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools.Create a XML sitemap and use it.
if you are seriously looking for seo try to read books like abc of seo etc.
here is list of tools which are helpful http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/webpublish/fwsitesub.html.
Also you can use digital point webmaster tools that are awesome
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/
frankly speaking if you blog 3-4 months the information given by website grader seems funny as most of them is obvious.
Blake : Thank for commenting so much on my blog i appreciate it
Thanks for the additional tool and resources. I’m still learning a lot about SEO, so I’m always interested in checking out a variety of resources.
I agree that the second half of the stuff from website grader is pretty useless, but the on-page SEO information is really helpful for optimizing your site.
I’ve read a ton of ideas about SEO, and I have reason to believe header tags usage is greatly underrated by most people.
If you already have good SEO habits like tagging your images and using the right type of headers then Website Grader isn’t very useful.
link for google webmaster http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools
Website grader is a great way to see what’s missing on your site. Some criteria is tough to justify reaching though. I mean, who would pay $300/yr. for Yahoo directory listing with a PR-0?
Anyway, all in all, it’s a really nice gauge of what’s happening on your site.
Yeah, there is some silly stuff. Like I said in the post, my blog is getting docked point for having “blog” in the title. I had no idea that Yahoo! Directory was $300/yr! I guess when if you go full problogger, $300 to increase site traffic is worth it?
You’re forgetting the fact that Yahoo owns the directory. Yahoo also has a search engine – If I were running the company, wouldn’t you give a little more authority to the ones listed in the directory? :)
.-= Brad Ney´s last blog ..BradBlogging’s 2nd Anniversary Makeover With A New Design and Mindset =-.
Exactly. From a hobby blogger perspective, Yahoo! probably isn’t worth it, but if I’m making $3k+ per month, I can drop $300 for the extra traffic.
Thanks for this amazing discovery, I knew about Twiter grader, a Twitter ranking tool but such a tools also exist for a blog which tels about all the SEO related information is really cool. One more service I use it for the purpose is Wmtips.com. It also explore the Site SEO but ranking system is not available in it.
Wow, that’s a really good resource too. That site is perfect for a seasoned blogger looking for powerful SEO tools.
One thing handy about Website Grader is how even a beginner can use it.
Great post. I also use this tool to rank my websites. I also use Website Auditor by Link-Assisstant.com, it does a real good job of displaying information. :)
I’ve been following this tool for quite some times, very useful tool. My grade should be 99.xx something but doesn’t mean my blog is pretty good.
But don’t take it too serious, just take it as a guideline to improve your blog because most of the website tool is not really accurate. Anyway, enjoy it. :)
Regards,
Lee
You’re right that it doesn’t really tell you how good the content of your blog is. It is really just a helpful diagnostic tool for making sure your SEO is solid.
I noticed my sidebar titles were h2 and my page titles were h4! What a waste of headers. Just by changing a little CSS/PHP I was able to improve the way search engines index my site. I didn’t even have to change the actual content!
i think google webmaster also tell such things
[...] utilities like Website Grader can help you see how search engines see your site and help you to make practical use of your header, [...]
There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some very valid comments.
Hi, I have been heavy into SEO lately particularly link building and every little bit on info that can help me get top rankings and traffi chelps.