Guest Blogger: Chad Henderson
This is post # 2 in a series of who knows how many, discussing a rookie’s approach to SEO. Topic of the day, the value of an initial web site analysis…..

It can be pretty overwhelming when you are faced with the overwhelming task of figuring out the best place to start an SEO campaign. But for me, I have personally found that a valuable SEO tip is to complete a thorough initial site analysis to ensure that some important components are in place, and to determine what might be missing. Even though we’ll actually start the SEO campaign concentrating on another area (post #3 keyword research will be coming soon), I’ve found it is always helpful to get a good overall picture of the usability, structure, and current optimization of the site before digging too deep into the research stuff.

So, here is a brief list of a couple of the things I look for when going through this process. Each one of them could probably be expanded into its own post, so be sure to post any questions, comments, or additions to the list. Also, this listing is by no means complete, so additional thoughts would be great.

1. check that the non-www version of your site is being directed to the www version. Can of worms, a whole discussion about duplicate content.
2. check that your sites file include a robots.txt file which identifies “off limits” paths for the spiders. The Karcher Group has an excellent Web Development & SEO Glossary to reference any terms you may not be comfortable with.
3. check to make sure that unresolved pages (someone going to a relocated, removed, or incorrectly typed URL) go somewhere other than a blank page.
4. check common on-page search engine optimization items, such as page titles and internal tag usage (like the headers).
5. check site usability, including navigations, design, and layout
6. check conversion points for functionality and usability

In the next post, we’ll clarify some objectives of our campaign, discuss the possibility of looking at some case studies, and begin our key phrase research.