If you want your website to rank well for search engines, you need to publish SEO-friendly content on a regular basis. And if you want to publish SEO-friendly content, you need to ensure that you’re including the correct elements.
That’s where content monitoring comes in. Curious as to the specifics of website change monitoring? We’re going to tell you everything there is to know now.
What Is Content Monitoring?
First and foremost, let’s discuss what content monitoring is. Aptly named, content monitoring involves the monitoring of content, website content, specifically.
You don’t necessarily have to monitor your website content. However, in doing so, you can optimize it for search engines, ensuring that it’s seen by as many people as possible. You can also take what you learn from monitoring and then apply it to your future content.
There are a number of ways to monitor content. You could try to do it manually. However, because there are so many aspects to monitor, you would likely have trouble doing so.
As such, it’s best to use a monitoring app. These apps are programmed to gauge the state of a website’s content. They detect when changes occur, and then provide their users with data over time.
So, if you want to get the most out of your content and your website, make sure to use a content monitoring app. Doing so could provide you with swaths of additional website traffic.
Components That You Should Monitor
There are a variety of components that you should monitor when monitoring your content. They include the following:
Links
Ideally, your content will include both internal and external links. With luck, these links will remain functional over time. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.
Links can break, and when they do, they can hurt your website’s SEO. As such, you need to monitor for broken links and replace them as they appear.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the text that includes a link. You might not realize it, but the state of your anchor text can affect your SEO. Specifically, if your anchor text is too on-the-nose, it can hurt your SEO.
As such, you need to monitor your anchor text and assess how search engines are perceiving it. A content monitoring app can do this for you, and give you tips on what to change.
HTML Tag Changes
Key to all online content is HTML tags like H1 tags, H2 tags, title tags, meta tags, and the like. If you want your content to perform as well as possible, you need to insert these tags in the correct places.
That issue is, over time, these tags can change due to security breaches and other such problems. This can have negative consequences for your SEO.
As such, you need to monitor these tags and ensure that they’re always optimized. A content monitoring app can do this for you.
SSL Certificate Expiration
An SSL certificate is an encrypted technology that facilitates safe communication between web browsers and web servers. Every website should have an SSL certificate.
Unfortunately, SSL certificates expire. For this reason, you need to monitor yours, ensuring that they’re always visible and always functional.
404-Page Errors
Few things hurt a website’s SEO quite like 404-page errors. These are errors indicating that a page doesn’t exist. They indicate to search engine crawlers that the website isn’t well maintained, and therefore reduce the website’s authority and credibility.
404-page errors should be converted to 301 redirects. A 301 redirect will make it so that when a person enters a 401 page, they will instead be redirected to a different yet relevant page.
HTTP to HTTPS Redirects
These days, HTTP protocol is deemed lacking in terms of online security. As such, you should be converting all of your HTTP pages to HTTPS pages. You can do this by using 301 redirects.
Of course, your website likely has tons of pages of content. So, to ensure that all of your pages get redirected, it’s important to use a website monitoring tool. This will detect non-redirected pages, and inform you of their existence.
Sitemap Validity
Part of making your website SEO-friendly is publishing a sitemap. A sitemap lays pages out in an orderly manner, allowing search engine crawlers to index them with ease.
If there are mistakes in the sitemap, however, the crawlers can miss important pages of content. This can have adverse effects on SEO. As such, you need to monitor your sitemap and ensure that everything is optimal.
Structured Data
Structured data is underlying data the works with search engines as a means of explaining a page’s meaning. When optimized, it can serve huge benefits, such as getting pieces of content highlighted for search inquiry snippets.
Of course, if you’re going to facilitate structured data in an optimal manner, you need to monitor it. This can be done with a content monitoring tool.
Need Help With Content Monitoring
Do you need assistance with content monitoring? If so, you’re in the right place. Our website change monitor has you covered.
This monitor tracks everything from keyword usage to backlinks to page rank changes and more. It will stay on top of your website and ensure that you’re doing everything you can to rank on search engines.
Check out our content monitoring app now!
