Proper quality assurance is an important part of so many projects. Not only does it save time and money, but it can also increase relevance and yield results beyond the boldest anticipations. Imagine you want to build a house, you must ensure that every single material that will go into the project is of great quality, to enable the house to stand the test of time. That’s what quality assurance in SEO is like.
But first, what is SEO? Also known as Search Engine Optimization, Nell Patel describes it as,
“The process of taking steps to ensure that a website or piece of content ranks higher on Google.”
This basically means increasing the visibility of a website.
If you’ve never heard of search engine optimization (SEO) quality assurance, you’ve missed a prominent digital trend that will probably become even more powerful in the years to come.
The process is comprehensive and very specific; it requires intricate knowledge of SEO, marketing, and even business processes. When done correctly, it can yield a spectacular return on investment.
What Is SEO QA?
As the phrase suggests, Quality Assurance in SEO is simply ensuring that the quality of content that is being put out on a website is perfect and without problems. Additionally, it accounts for a good user experience and helps to fish out problems before they can affect traffic or revenue. Quality assurance testing for search engine optimization makes sure that a campaign is executed in a way that’s bound to deliver on predetermined goals, and this is far from a simple task.
Search engines constantly improve and modify their algorithms to make sure that only the best pages reach the top positions on the search engine results page. This is why a professional involved in quality assurance will have to be aware of the latest algorithm specifics and how these translate into actual whitehat SEO approaches.
QA for SEO involves auditing the current optimization strategy, identifying missed opportunities, and improving it where necessary. SEO is ever-evolving, and quality assurance is an ongoing process. Therefore, an approach that worked exceptionally well a few years back may not necessarily be effective anymore. It’s the job of the quality assurance professional to review the work being done, eliminate weaknesses and strengthen the overall strategy.
A Few Reasons Why QA in SEO Is So Important
Search engine optimization is probably THE most important inbound marketing approach that brands can employ today.
Did you know that 68 percent of online activities today start with a search engine? What’s even more important, 75 percent of Google users will never click past the first result page. This is why it’s imperative for brands to achieve top positioning. When they do, the rewards can be tremendous.
Leads from a well-optimized article and website are eight times more likely to become clients than leads generated through any traditional advertising campaign. Additionally, 76 percent of people who make a local search will visit a business at their location.
The stakes are too high to take SEO lightly. Businesses that ignore its power are actually making themselves invisible to an online audience.
Relying on outdated or blackhat approaches, and other poor practices can result in bans and tremendous ranking difficulties in the future. This is why SEO QA professionals often have to review and update outdated SEO campaigns. If left unaddressed, such vulnerabilities will often ruin good positioning for a significant period of time in the future.
According to studies, 45 percent of SEO professionals have had an optimization incident that had a financial impact of 10,000 dollars or more on a website. That’s a massive loss even big companies can’t afford to incur. Quality assurance reduces the risk of such serious incidents taking place.
SEO Checklist for QA
SEO QA testing involves lots and lots of steps. According to Bruce Clay, an SEO expert,
“an SEO checklist is a list of best practices and reminders that help you optimize a website to perform better in search rankings.”
An SEO QA checklist includes reviews of work already done and the creation of recommendations for future optimization endeavors. In addition to coming up with audits and guidelines, they work closely with optimization and digital marketing teams to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding brand goals and online reputation.
Some of the things that SEO QA professionals will have to do include the following:
- Auditing current website performance to determine if critical errors and omissions exist.
- Reviewing priority items and criteria that impact a website’s ranking.
- Checking critical SEO elements like meta tags, backlinks, keyword usage, schemas, redirects, etc.
- Overseeing content creation and making sure that it accounts for key SEO elements.
- Checking website indexing.
- Monitoring the performance of the competition.
- Ensuring images added to the content are properly labeled.
- Working with website and app developers to modernize functionalities and make sure that the project is in line with the latest Google recommendations.
- Ensuring URLs are properly optimized.
- Checking that the linking strategies implemented are in tune with search engine guidelines.
- Providing feedback to both SEO professionals and company reps.
These are just a few of the several things that need to be included in an SEO checklist.
SEO QA Saves Time and Money
With a quality assurance professional on board, poor optimization issues are detected and resolved rapidly, hence saving the client time and money.
Having one person handling optimization planning, execution, and quality assurance is not effective. The pressure may impact strategic decisions. When QA professionals are available, all aspects of optimization get streamlined and enhanced.
SEO testing and auditing are far from easy tasks. They often involve lots of complex, multi-step processes. Complexity is also increasing as search engines are making their algorithms smarter and more demanding.
When SEO quality assurance takes place in a dedicated and professional manner, risks get mitigated and opportunities are seized the moment they arise. SEO QA doesn’t just save time and money, it can result in new revenue streams when carried out in an efficient manner.
