Discover All You Need To Know For A Successful Website URL Audit

Top Tips 

• It is important that you recognise that this blog is designed to help those who have a WordPress website, and who also have the Yoast Plugin installed.
• This blog is best suited for websites that have a few hundred URLs, in that your website has more than that, this blog won’t be suitable for you. 

 

Benefits 

• This URL audit is vital for the optimisation of the crawl-path – this is because it will help search engines find the relevant pages that you would like to appear in search engine results.
• By completing this process, you can ensure that you have removed any URLs that made your website appear out of date and decrease its quality.

 

Finding All Your Website URLs 

It’s key for you to find all the URLs on your website – once you have done so, you need to follow this procedure:

1. You’re going to need to set up the “Export All URLs” plugin 
   • It’s important for you to download the ZIP folder from the above link.
   • Go to your WordPress Admin Panel, and then select these in the following order:
     • “Plugins”
     • “Add New”
     • “Upload Plugin”
   • From the computer, you’re going to need to upload the relevant plugin, and then select “Install Now” and then “Activate”
2. Now, you’re going to need to go to “Settings” and then click “Export All URLs”
3. Once you have done this, you will need to tick:
   • “All Types”
   • “URLs”
   • “CSV”
4. Now you’re going to need to select “Export” and then “Download Now”
5. You are going to need to choose where you’re going to download the .csv file to, and then make sure that you rename it. 

 

URLs Classification 

This can be a time-consuming process although you should be aware that you won’t be able to skip this step if you’re intending to ensure you have an optimised website for search engines. 

In order to classify your website’s URLs, then you need to:

1. 1. Ensure that you start on a new Google Sheet. 
   2. Now make sure to click on these in the following order:
      • “File” 
      • “Open” 
      • “Open your .csv file with all the URLs”
   3. Now you will need to copy the URLs and then go over to “Website URL Audit” spreadsheet template before making a copy and saving it in your own personal files.
   4. You’re going to need to add a new sheet and call it “URLs – Unclassified”, and now you need to input the URLs which are in the .csv file onto this sheet.
   5. Now you are going to have to take each of the URLs in the “URLs -Unclassified” sheet, you will need to copy them and transfer the URLs into the relevant columns into sheet labelled: “URLs – Classified” – the way that you organise them will be based on these set-by-step rules and questions.

• • • Does the content continue to be useful to readers? 

1. 1. 1. • Think of it this way, if you had an event on that ended last week, is that important to people who land on your page now?
           • If you find that this content isn’t relevant, then you’re going to need to transfer this link into this column: “Redirect” 
           • Alternatively, if the answer is Yes, then look onto the following question.

• • • Does this page’s content need to be recognised by search engines?
      • In the event that the website has pages such as a “Thank You” web page, or a page which only members can see then this means that the pages don’t need to be visible in search engine results. 

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. If the answer is No, then this means you will need to move the link into the “Deindex” column, before continuing down the list. 
            2. Alternatively, if the answer is Yes, then look onto the following question.

• • • Is the page’s content a replica or really similar to another of your website’s page?

• • • • In the event that you have a page acquisition campaign set up and you have two variations of landing pages, then you should view these as similar.
        • In the event that the answer is No, then you’re going to need to transfer the link across into this column:“Index”, before continuing down the list. 
        • Alternatively, if the answer is Yes, then look onto the following question.

• • • Is your page’s content the original or canonical information – have other copies been made based on it?

1. 1. 1. • If you had made your a copy of one of your web pages for a paid campaign, then this means that the URL of this web page copy will fit into this group. 
           • In the event that the answer is No, then you’re going to need to put it into the “Canonicalise” column. 
           • Answer is Yes? Then you will need to put this into this column:“Index”. 

Once you have completed the process of Classification, you’re going to need to press “ctrl” and “a”, you will then need to select “Wrap Text”, this means that your spreadsheet will appear clearer, so you can now move onto the next section of the blog.

 

Organising The Created Categories 

By this stage in the blog, you should have made sure all the relevant info has been inputted into the “URLs – Classified” sheet. 

Now you’re going to need to make alterations to each of the categories – we will explain how you can do this below:

“Redirect” Column URLs 

1. Now you’re going to need to find the “Redirection” plugin on WordPress and install and activate it.
2. Then you will need to go to Tools and find Redirection 
3. Enter the URL source – this is the one that is in the “Redirect” column, as well as your target URL – where you want to direct your users in the event that they find themselves on an irrelevant page.
4. Now you’re going to need to add a redirect – once you’ve done this, make sure to mark the URL as complete on your spreadsheet. 

 

“Deindex” Column URLs 

1. You’re going to need to go to the URL’s page or the relevant post-editors 
2. Now you need to go further down to Yoast SEO and then select “Advanced” 
3. You need to click on “noindex” – this is under “Meta robots index” before the changes are published, and then mark the URL as done in the spreadsheet.

 

“Index” Column URLs

1. Make sure that you go to the post editor or page for the relevant URL
2. Now you’re going to need to find the Yoast SEO further down the page and then select “Advanced”
   • Find “index”, see under “Meta robots index”, and then make sure that your changes are published.
   • Now you just need to ensure that the URL has been marked off on the spreadsheet. 

 

“Canonicalise” Column URLs 

1. You’re going to need to go to the URL’s page or the relevant post-editors 
2. Now you’re going to need to find the Yoast SEO further down the page and then select “Advanced”
3. Find “Canonical URL” and then enter the page’s URL – whether the content is canonical or original.
4. Ensure the changes are published, and then mark the URL as done in the spreadsheet.

 

And… you’re done!

You have now successfully completed your website URL audit. We hope that you found this blog useful, if you did, then make sure to check us out on social media so that you can keep updated with our latest news and events.