In this episode Cord & Einar discuss the ever-evolving Tallest Tree approach to SEO audits.

Here's the outline Cord & Einar used on the show:

Tools

• Sitebulb: run both an HTML-only and JavaScript crawl
• Ahrefs Crawler
• Ahrefs Site Explorer
• Ahrefs Chrome extension
• Google Search Console
• Chrome Inspector w/Lighthouse
• Google’s Robots Tester
• Inspect URL in GSC
• Schema Validator
• Merkle’s https://technicalseo.com/tools/
• The Wayback Machine

First look

• Explore the site by hand, view source on whatever the half dozen most-used templates seem to be
• Turn off JavaScript using Chrome extension and review the site again
• Explore the backend and get some counts on posts, categories, authors, etc.
• Look at plugins/modules
• Review Sitebult/Ahrefs crawl results
• Review Google Search Console

The goal of the first look is form a basic hypothesis about how technical SEO and site structure can be improved. Take screenshots and start making slides right away.

Checklist

• Review 192 items in 35 categories

Reporting

• How a search engine works
• Crawling
• Indexing
• Ranking
• E-A-T
• Measurement
  • Rank Tracking
  • GTM & GA4 for Traffic  & Conversions
  • Link Growth
• Google News