Updated for Bay Area Drupal Camp (BADCamp X) - October 22nd, 2016 Holistic SEO is a term used to describe building sites in which content, marketing, technical SEO, performance, security, user experience, and much more come together to create an ideal url on the internet. Many factors are calculated by each search engine's algorithm to rank websites. SEO is no longer a few tricks done on or off site. Proper SEO, one with a Holistic approach, should be factored into absolutely every aspect of business goals, content strategy, development, site building, theming, content creation, and content marketing. For years, search engines and good SEO consultants told webmasters that creating good content is better than focusing on SEO trickery. With every Google update this becomes more and more relevant, as you can see results moved away from being specifically keyword focused, to results more defined by user intent, user location, and popularity. While some content disappears from the search engine results, others remain, and even thrive. This presentation reviews: * The most common search engine ranking factors, and how to keep up to date. * An overview of Content strategy and how it can guide development. * An overview of technical SEO best practices in Drupal Learning Objectives & Outcomes: Attendees will come away learning common search engine ranking factors, best practices for technical SEO using Drupal, and ideas on how to guide and empower their administrators to create the best content to achieve their goals.

1. HOLISTIC SEO AND
DRUPAL
BEST PRACTICES IN AN EVER
CHANGING SEARCH LANDSCAPE
Created by Jim Birch
jimbir.ch/holistic-seo
@thejimbirch
Xeno Media, Inc.

2. Holistic SEO is a term used to
describe development in which
content, marketing, technical SEO,
performance, security, user
experience and user intent come
together to create an ideal url on
the internet, about a certain topic.

3. WHY TAKE A HOLISTIC
APPROACH TO SEO?
It defines a set of best practices that
ultimately benefits the user.
As search engine algorithms get
more complex and intelligent, we
won't be able to control or predict
changes.

4. TODAY'S GOOGLE
ALGORITHM PUTS
MORE VALUE ON
TOPIC AND USER
INTENT THAN
KEYWORDS.

5. Once upon a time, we were able to create small pieces of
keyword specific content...
kr2fowdogudo999dvwdlkvnldkvn

6. And we were able to get it to rank on the search engines!

7. These days, one piece of holisticly created content can be
returned for different worded search terms.

8. HouseLogic.com's Guide to Hardwood Floor Finishes
Is listed for the following search terms:
hardwood floor finishes
wood floor finish
how to finish a hardwood floor
wood floor finishing

9. It is a very well written article in an excellently architected
site, from a domain with value.
Nice big image
Over 1000 words
Great meta tags
JSON-LD Markup
Fast
Mobile
and more

11. HARDWOOD FLOOR FINISHES
1ST RESULT
BASIC TYPES OF
SEARCHES
Navigational
Informational
Transactional
Primarily Informational, but also
has Transactional elements
Lots of informative links, and a
shopping box.
We also have similar results for
"wood floor finish"

13. Here's where it gets interesting:
"how to finish a hardwood floor"

14. HOW TO FINISH A HARDWOOD FLOOR
8TH RESULT
Informational Search
Knowledge box and videos all are "How to"
Knowledge box is from the 7th result, same site as our
page
Our page is a product guide, not a How to, but the
information is still percieved as valuable.

16. WOOD FLOOR FINISHING
3RD RESULT
Transactional Search
Business listing showing local floor finishing companies
Yelp business reviews, and Home advisor business listings
Contractor websites
The page in question does not fit in with Transactions, but
is still listed!

17. One more example, showing how semantic Google is.

18. LITTLE BUB FIREPLACE
Now, Google knows the piece of content I need, even if I get
2 of the 3 words wrong!
"little" nor "fireplace" exist on the page, yet I get the result.

19. Lil BUB's Magical Yule LOG Video
GOOGLE IS
Topic based - Returns good content that is related, but
not specific to the search term.
Semantic - Understands synonyms, pluralities,
misspellings, homonyms and more
Focused on User Intent - What the user is trying to acheive
by searching

20. LET'S TALK
ABOUT SCALE

21. ON MAY 24TH, 2016 GOOGLE
REVEALED THAT USERS MAKE AT
LEAST 2 TRILLION SEARCHES PER
YEAR
Google now handles at least 2 trillion searches per year - Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land

22. HOW THAT BREAKS DOWN
Searches per year: 2 trillion
Searches per month: 167 billion
Searches per day: 5.5 billion
Searches per hour: 228 million
Searches per minute: 3.8 million
Searches per second: 63,000
...at least...

23. Rand Fishkin, Moz Founder

24. Which would put it closer to 3 Trillion searches a year!

25. Over half of those searches happen on smartphones.
Nearly one third of all mobile searches on Google are
related to location.
Location-related mobile searches are growing 50% faster
than mobile searches in general.
More than half of all web traffic for the millions of website
owners using Google Analytics now comes from
smartphones and tablets.
Google Execs Share 10 Incredible New Mobile Web Stats - Larry Kim, Inc.

26. SEARCH ENGINE
RANKING FACTORS

27. Search engine ranking factors are
on- and off-site items that search
engines use to evaluate a web
property's placement in the search
results for a certain query.

28. SEARCH ENGINE RANKING FACTORS
Each search engine has their own algorithm to how they
weigh factors.
On occasion, Google will publish factors. Pay attention!
Schema markup ( ), ( )
Factors can be ranked differently for each and every
search term!
Mobilegeddon
Page Speed
HTTPS
AMP'ed results in Search
Reviews in Search Rich cards
Separate Mobile Search Index

29. THERE ARE POSSIBLY
200
RANKING FACTORS
Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List - Backlinko
Google's 200 Ranking Factors - Search Engine Journal
Penguin is now part of our core algorithm - Google Webmaster Central Blog

30. ON MAR 23, 2016 GOOGLE'S ANDREY
LIPATTSEVM STATED THAT LINKS,
CONTENT AND RANKBRAIN ARE THE
TOP THREE RANKING SIGNALS IN
GOOGLE'S SEARCH ALGORITHM.
Now we know: Here are Google's top 3 search ranking factors - Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land

31. LINKS
Quality of links
Keywords in links
Quantity

32. CONTENT
Quality writing
Keyword Research
Freshness
Images, Video, News related to content or vertical
Does the content answer questions?

33. WHAT IS RANKBRAIN?
RankBrain is a machine learning artificial intelligence
system ...
If RankBrain sees a word or phrase it isn’t familiar with,
the machine can make a guess as to what words or
phrases might have a similar meaning and filter the result
accordingly, making it more effective at handling never-
before-seen search queries. - Wikipedia

34. LEARN MORE ABOUT RANKBRAIN
How to Use Google RankBrain in SEO
FAQ: All About The New Google RankBrain Algorithm
Artificial intelligence is changing SEO faster than you think
Optimizing for RankBrain... Should We Do It? (Is It Even
Possible?)
SEO Trek: The Search for Google RankBrain* [New Data]
Content Marketing and SEO
The four pillars of the future of SEO

35. THOSE WHO MONITOR AND
DECIPHER SEARCH ENGINE RANKING
FACTORS
Search Engine Land
Searchmetrics
Moz
Backlinko

36. Searchmetrics Search Ranking Factors Infographic 2015

37. Searchmetrics separated the ranking factors into the
following categories:
Content
User Experience
Technical
Backlinks
Social

38. Search Engine Land - The Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors

39. Search Engine Land separated the ranking factors into the
following categories:
Content - On Site
Architecture
HTML
Trust - Off Site
Links
Personal
Social

40. Search Engine Ranking Factors 2015
Expert Survey and Correlation Data
"Every two years, Moz surveys the opinions of dozens of the
world's brightest search marketers and runs correlation
studies to better understand the workings of search engine
algorithms."

41. ACCORDING TO BACKLINKO, THERE
ARE OVER 200 SEARCH ENGINE
RANKING FACTORS
"Some are proven. Some are controversial. Others are SEO
nerd speculation. But they’re all here." - Google’s 200
Ranking Factors: The Complete List by Brian Dean

42. CONTENT
STRATEGY AND
HOW IT CAN
GUIDE
DEVELOPMENT.

43. THE CONTENT STRATEGY QUAD
Content Components
Substance
Structure
People Components
Workflow
Governance
Brain Traffic Lands the Quad - March 2011

44. THE BASICS OF CONTENT STRATEGY
Content-oriented Components
Identify Goals and Substance - focuses on what content is
required to successfully execute your core strategy.
Determine Structure - focuses on how content is
prioritized, organized, and accessed.
Content Strategy Basics - Usability.gov

45. IDENTIFY GOALS AND SUBSTANCE
Who are the users the client wants to visit the website?
What content is the client going to be able to create and
publish?
Who are the client's competitors, and what content are
they ranking for?

46. TOOLS FOR CONTENT CREATORS
Google AdWords Keyword Planner
Searchmetrics Essentials
Moz Pro Keyword Explorer
Readability Score

47. DETERMINE STRUCTURE
Content Types and Entities
Sitemap
Menu Structure
Functionality/Views

48. DRUPAL TOOLS
Once you can define your Content Types and Entities, you
can use these Drupal tools to connect them.
can be used to render other
entities inside your main entity
can be used on top of reference fields to
allow the user to add new, or select existing entities.
, and are great
modules to build reorderable, custom entities that
reference other structured data entities
can be used to bridge your entities fields
and Metatag fields and JSON-LD Views
Entity Reference Fields
Inline Entity Form
Paragraphs Entity Construction Kit (ECK)
Token module

49. TECHNICAL SEO
BEST PRACTICES
IN DRUPAL
Let's review the major ranking
factors, and present ideas how we
can implement in Drupal.

50. IS THE SITE EASILY CRAWLABLE?
Well thought out menu
Breadcrumbs with
Friendly URLs from
Schema.org Markup
XML Sitemap module
Pathauto module

51. NO DUPLICATE CONTENT
, set Canonical URL
Redirect module
Metatag module

52. DOES THE SITE WORK ON MOBILE?
Make sure you use a responsive theme, and it passes the
Google Mobile-Friendly Test

53. DOES THE SITE LOAD QUICKLY?
So many different types of Caching available in Drupal.
CDN like
Responsive Images/Small image sizes in Image Presets
Cloudflare

54. DOES THE SITE CONTAIN KEYWORDS
IN THE URL?
Use the to set friendly URLsPathauto module

55. IS THE SITE SECURE?
Use HTTPS with an SSL certificate for all sites here on out.
Keep core and all modules up to date
Limit server access, and keep server up to date if not
managed
Require strong passwords - Require Strong Passwords
module

56. DOES THE PAGE TITLE CONTAIN
KEYWORDS?
Properly set up html title in Metatag module

57. DOES THE META DESCRIPTION
DESCRIBE THE PAGES?
Add a "Teaser" field which can be used with the Token and
Metatag modules for meta description and search results.
Same goes for a Feature Image field, used for OG/Twitter
Card Meta Images.

58. DOES THE SITE USE STRUCTURED
DATA?
markup in content & themesSchema.org
<div itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/BroadcastService">
<span itemprop="name">WAAY-TV</span>
<span itemprop="broadcastDisplayName">ABC</span>
<span itemprop="videoFormat">SD</span>
<span itemprop="broadcastTimezone" content="-8:00">PST</span>
<div itemprop="broadcastAffiliateOf" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.o
<span itemprop="name">ABC</span>
</div>
</div>

59. DOES THE SITE USE STRUCTURED
DATA?
View block/pane using a contextual filter
JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data (JSON-LD)
<script type="application/ld+json">
</script>
{
"@context":"http://schema.org",
"@type":"BroadcastService",
"name":"WAAY-TV",
"broadcastDisplayName":"ABC",
"videoFormat":"SD",
"broadcastTimezone": "-8:00",
"broadcastAffiliateOf":{
"@type":"Organization",
"name":"ABC"
}
}

60. PROPER USE OF HEADERS
Proper, ordered use of h1, h2, h3
Remove h1 from WYSIWYG if set by template
In the theme, remove h3 from block headers, to reserve
for content use.

61. TIPS & TOOLS
FOR
DEVELOPERS

62. TIPS & TOOLS FOR DEVELOPERS
Google Defines Best Practices
Google Structured Data Testing Tool (Schema)
Google Structured Data Markup Helper (Schema)
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google Mobile-Friendly Test
Google Email Markup Tester
Google Search Console
Google Amp Test

63. GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
Has the following tools:
View (and fix) Crawl Errors
Fetch as Google
robots.txt Tester
Submit Sitemaps
Configure URL Parameters

64. STAY UP TO DATE:
Search Engine Land
Search Engine Journal
Searchmetrics Blog
Moz Blog
Google Webmasters

65. THE END
CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION:
Created by Jim Birch
jimbir.ch/holistic-seo
@thejimbirch
Xeno Media, Inc.