Case Study: Optimizing a Communications Agency's Website with a Site Crawl Audit
Background
A communications agency sought to enhance its online presence and boost its search engine rankings. They undertook a comprehensive site crawl audit to identify key areas for improvement. The audit revealed several critical issues impacting their website's performance, which became the focus of their optimization strategy.
Strategy 1: Reducing Duplicate Content
Problem: The site crawl audit highlighted a significant number of URLs with duplicate page titles, headers, and meta descriptions. This duplication was causing confusion for both users and search engine crawlers, leading to poor user experience and potential keyword cannibalization.
Solution: The agency prioritized reducing duplicate content. By ensuring unique titles, headers, and meta descriptions, they aimed to improve their website's SEO. Addressing these duplicate content issues would enhance user experience by providing clear and distinct information on each page, thereby increasing the website's authority and relevance .
Outcome: This strategy not only clarified the website's content for users but also helped search engine crawlers better index the site, leading to improved search rankings and reduced bounce rates.
Strategy 2: Enhancing XML Sitemap Coverage
Problem: The site crawl audit revealed over 25,000 URLs missing from the XML sitemaps, along with several orphaned links. This meant that significant portions of the website were not being efficiently indexed by search engines.
Solution: The agency worked on incorporating all relevant URLs into the XML sitemaps. By doing so, they ensured comprehensive coverage and accessibility of their content to search engine crawlers.
Outcome: This improved the website's crawlability, ensuring that all pages were indexed and discovered efficiently. The structured roadmap provided by the XML sitemaps helped search engines prioritize and navigate the website, leading to better SEO performance .
Strategy 3: Improving Page Speed
Problem: The audit indicated that the website's Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and First Contentful Paint (FCP) times were poor, with load speeds exceeding 4000 ms for LCP and 3000 ms for FCP. Slow page speeds were negatively affecting user experience and SEO rankings.
Solution: The agency focused on decreasing the time to LCP and FCP by simplifying page elements, optimizing images, and employing efficient coding practices. Compressing images and minimizing server response times were key actions taken to enhance page speed .
Outcome: Faster-loading pages reduced bounce rates, increased user engagement, and improved the website's crawlability. As a result, the website's search engine rankings improved, and users experienced a more efficient browsing experience.
Strategy 4: Backlink-Building Strategies
To further strengthen their online presence, the agency implemented several backlink-building strategies:
Guest Posting: By contributing valuable content to blogs related to email marketing, the agency established itself as an authoritative expert. This strategy included backlinks to their website, driving referral traffic and improving search engine rankings .
Creating Shareable Visuals: The agency produced engaging infographics and visual content related to email marketing trends and best practices. These shareable visuals attracted natural backlinks from other websites, enhancing visibility and brand recognition .
Participating in Online Communities: Active participation in relevant online forums and discussion groups helped the agency build credibility and relationships within its target audience. Including backlinks in these interactions drove referral traffic and earned valuable backlinks .
Avoiding Harmful Backlink-Building Practices
The agency also steered clear of detrimental backlink-building strategies, such as purchasing low-quality backlinks and engaging in link exchange schemes. These practices could harm their website’s SEO and reputation, leading to penalties from search engines and reduced trust among users .
Conclusion
By addressing key issues highlighted in the site crawl audit, the communications agency successfully optimized their website. Reducing duplicate content, enhancing XML sitemap coverage, and improving page speed were pivotal strategies that led to better SEO performance and user experience. Additionally, strategic backlink-building efforts further solidified their online presence, making their website a valuable resource for their target audience.
Businesses looking to improve their website's performance can draw valuable lessons from this case study. Conducting a thorough site crawl audit and implementing targeted optimization strategies can significantly enhance SEO, user experience, and overall online visibility.
References
Abouobaia, J. (2023, February 28). Get these 6 types of backlinks (+ 4 types to avoid). SEO Blog by Ahrefs. https://ahrefs.com/blog/types-of-backlinks/
Abouobaia, J. (2023, February 28). Get these 6 types of backlinks (+ 4 types to avoid). SEO Blog by Ahrefs. https://ahrefs.com/blog/types-of-backlinks/
Romanchuk, J. (2024, January 16). The 20 types of backlinks that matter the most in SEO. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/types-of-backlinks-in-seo
Google. (n.d.). Learn about sitemaps. Google Search Central. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview
SEMrush. (n.d.). LCP and FCP optimization. SEMrush. https://www.semrush.com/blog/lcp/
Sitebulb Limited. (n.d.). URLs with duplicate page titles. Sitebulb. https://sitebulb.com/hints/duplicate-content/urls-with-duplicate-page-titles/