Excel: an essential tool for the SEO of your site
When we talk about SEO tools, we immediately have in mind ready-made solutions from editors dedicated toanalysis of backlinks, technical monitoring, logs… with names like Majestif, Ahref, Screaming Frof. However, one of the most used tools in SEO is nothing else than the classic Microsoft Excel. Discover how this software plays a central role in the SEO optimization of a site and how to best exploit it.
Using Excel in SEO
Before writing this article, we interviewed several SEO experts and asked what their relationship was to Excel. Here is a summary of the answers we received.
Crawl and technical analysis
Excel is first of all a great tool to manipulate data from a crawl software. Once you have used a Screaming Frog, Botify or Xenu, it’s Excel that takes over. The software, with the help of sorting and filters, will allow you to quickly move from raw data to strategic decisions and an SEO action plan.
It will highlight the 404 errors to correct, the title tags too long and too short and the most linked pages in the internal mesh.
Identify the keywords
To find keywords, we use multiple external tools. But then, in order to move on to the structuring stage of the tree structure, you need to be able to classify and sort them by topic. Excel’s sorting features allow you to perform this type of operation in record time.
Handling external links
The same with external links. To take stock of the share of nofollow links, the distribution of link anchors or the targeted URLs, there is nothing like a spreadsheet that allows you to make the data talk and even to make graphs.
Make a redirection plan
Where Excel proves to be indispensable is in the creation of redirection plans, for example, when changing the tree structure or redesigning the site. The software will allow to take stock of the complete list of existing and future URLs in order to make a perfect match. Features such as conditional layout to highlight duplicate items helps avoid mistakes.
Upgrade with VBA
The VBA language is a programming language developed by Microsoft that allows you to automate software functions. In other words, you can simply ask Excel to do the same processing on a raw crawl file. It is also possible to easily connect external APIs to create a real time dashboard indicating the positions of the site, its technical health and the evolution of visits with a graphical representation.
Companies such as Officentrale can configure this type of file to your needs.
Why and how to train in Excel ?
You guessed it, Excel Can easily go beyond a simple data list presentation. By mastering its ranking features, macros, sorting and graphing systems, you can highlight useful information to detect the weak points of your site and improve its SEO.
To learn how to use it well, there’s nothing like practice. The Internet is full of tutorials that will help you progress. But you can also attend a training session organized by one of the many organizations offering.