Excel Fuzzy Lookup allows fuzzy matching of pretty much any set of data, representing a flexible solution for cutting down manual redirect mapping for 404 not-found pages and website migrations.

1. 5 Reasons to Love
Fuzzy Lookup
SLIDESHARE.NET/MarcoBonomo4
@MarcoBonomoSEO
Marco Bonomo // MediaCom

2. IN DIGITAL
MARKETING
SINCE
2015
@MarcoBonomoSEO MarcoBonomo.co.ukBrightonSEO

3. I HAVE BEEN FEATURED
@MarcoBonomoSEO MarcoBonomo.co.ukBrightonSEO

4. I’M A
GENTLEMAN
FROM
VERONA
MarcoBonomo.co.uk

5. BUT FIRST,
LET ME ASK
YOU A
QUESTION…

6. WHO LIKES
BORING,
REPETITIVE
TASKS?

7. WHAT ABOUT
TIME SPENT IN:
❖ 404s REDIRECTS
❖ SITE MIGRATIONS
❖ KW PRUNING

8. I HAD TO FIND
A SOLUTION!

9. SO, I WROTE A PIECE…
@MarcoBonomoSEO MarcoBonomo.co.ukBrightonSEO

10. MarcoBonomo.co.uk@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO
‘In the wave of data-driven SEO… this post
focuses on setup instructions and hands-on
applications on Excel to allow you to handle
404s and web migrations with ease.’
Marie Haynes Search News – Episode 75
MARIE HAYNES
Recommended reading

11. HOW FUZZY
LOOKUP WORKS

12. LET’S START BY SAYING
WHAT FUZZY LOOKUP IS NOT:
▪ VLOOKUP
▪ INDEX & MATCH
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

13. /sofas/corner-sofas/20500
/sofas/sofa-beds/20900
/sofas/sofa-beds/brochure
/sofas/sofa-beds/old-form
DATA SET 1 DATA SET 2
/sofas/corner-sofas/
/sofas/sofa-beds/new-form
/sofas/sofa-beds/brochure
/sofas/sofa-beds/20900
VLOOKUP AND INDEX & MATCH
WORK WELL WITH EXACT MATCH
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

14. /sofas/corner-sofas/20500
/sofas/sofa-beds/20900
/sofas/sofa-beds/brochure
/sofas/sofa-beds/old-form
DATA SET 1 DATA SET 2
/sofas/corner-sofas/
/sofas/sofa-beds/brochure
/sofas/leather-sofa/0900
/sofas/sofa-beds/0900
…BUT THEY ARE USELESS AT
PROVIDING A SIMILARITY MATCH
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

15. FUZZY LOOKUP
IS NOT
MACHINE
LEARNING…
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

16. …FUZZY
LOOKUP IS
MACHINE
COUNTING
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

17. FUZZY LOOKUP SIMPLY PROVIDES A
SIMILARITY SCORE BASED ON THE
NUMBER OF MATCHING CHARACTERS
=
/sofas/sofa-beds/20900 13
/sofas/corner-sofas/20500 12
/sofas/sofa-beds/brochure 8
/sofas/sofa-beds/old-form 5
DATA SET 1 DATA SET 2
/new-collection/ sofa-beds/20900
/new-collection/ sofa-beds/20700
/ sofa-beds/brochure
/ sofas/corner-sofas/
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

18. AS A RESULT, URLs WITH A SIMILAR
PATH GET A GREAT MATCH
Existing URLs New URLs
/sofas/corner-sofas/venice /new-sofas/corner-sofas/venice
/sofas/sofa-beds/paris /new-sofas/sofa-bed/paris
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

19. Existing URLs New URLs
/sofas/corner-sofas/venice /new-sofas/corner-sofas/
/sofas/sofa-beds/paris /new-sofas/sofa-bed/
WHILE URLs WITH NO DIRECT MATCH GET
PAIRED WITH THE CLOSEST CATEGORY
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

20. WHICH RESULTS
SHOULD I EXPECT?

21. IT DEPENDS ON YOUR
URL STRUCTURE &
SITE SIZE

22. ON AVERAGE, IT HELPS IN SAVING AT
LEAST 30 TO 50% OF MANUAL WORK
50%
30%TO

23. FUZZY LOOKUP
SET UP

24. DOWNLOAD THE FUZZY LOOKUP
ADD-IN ONTO YOUR MACHINE
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

25. REFINE THE DATA SETS, E.G.
TAKING AWAY THE DOMAIN NAME
https://www.mywebsite.com/sofas/corner-sofas
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

26. CREATE A TABLE FOR THE
TWO DATA SETS
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

27. CLICK ON FUZZY LOOKUP
AND SELECT THE DATA SETS
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

28. SET THE SIMILARITY THRESHOLD
AROUND 0.6 – 0.7 TO AVOID LOSS
OF ACCURACY
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

29. AND THEN
YOU ARE
GOOD TO GO!

30. FIVE REAL-LIFE
APPLICATIONS

31. SITE
MIGRATIONS
1

32. ochure
rm
0
s Live URLs
/sofas/corner-sofas/20500
/sofas/sofa-beds/20900
/sofas/sofa-beds/2018-brochure
/sofas/sofa-beds/old-form
CRAWL THE WEBSITE TO
GATHER ALL THE LIVE PAGES
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

33. /sofas/sofa-beds/2019-brochure
/sofas/corner-sofas/
/sofas/sofa-beds/new-form
/sofas/corner-sofas/20600
Staging Site URLs Live URLs
/sofas/corner-sofas/2
/sofas/sofa-beds/2090
/sofas/sofa-beds/2018
/sofas/sofa-beds/old-
GATHER THE PAGES FROM THE
STAGING WEBSITE
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

34. USE FUZZY LOOKUP TO AUTOMATICALLY
MATCH THE TWO DATA SETS
/sofas/sofa-beds/2019-brochure
/sofas/corner-sofas/
/sofas/sofa-beds/new-form
/sofas/corner-sofas/20600
Staging Site URLs Live URLs
/sofas/corner-sofas/20500
/sofas/sofa-beds/20900
/sofas/sofa-beds/2018-brochure
/sofas/sofa-beds/old-form
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

35. REDIRECTS
2404

36. ochure
rm
0
s Live URLs
/sofas/corner-sofas/20500
/sofas/sofa-beds/20900
/sofas/sofa-beds/2018-brochure
/sofas/sofa-beds/old-form
CRAWL THE WEBSITE TO
GATHER ALL THE LIVE PAGES
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

37. @MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO
GATHER THE DEAD PAGES (404s)

38. USE FUZZY LOOKUP TO AUTOMATICALLY
MATCH 404s WITH LIVE PAGES
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

39. BROKEN
BACKLINKS
3

40. ochure
rm
0
s Live URLs
/sofas/corner-sofas/20500
/sofas/sofa-beds/20900
/sofas/sofa-beds/2018-brochure
/sofas/sofa-beds/old-form
CRAWL THE WEBSITE TO
GATHER ALL THE LIVE PAGES
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

41. GO TO AHREFS
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

42. 1) ADD THE
DOMAIN
2) CLICK ON
BROKEN
BACKLINKS
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

43. 3) EXPORT
THE URL LIST
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

44. USE FUZZY LOOKUP TO AUTOMATICALLY
MATCH THE TWO DATA SETS
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

45. KEYWORD
PRUNING
4

46. LET’S SAY WE’RE OPTIMISING FOR…
CORNER SOFA

47. EXPAND YOUR KEYWORD LIST
THROUGH KEYWORD RESEARCH
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

48. EXPORT THE KEYWORDS YOU
HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

49. Keywords Avg. Search Volume CPC
corner sofa 110387 1.38
corner sofa bed 33199 1.12
leather corner sofa 18164 1.52
grey corner sofa 27082 1.05
corner couch 2442 1.11
sofa bed sale 12117 1.27
cheap corner sofas 9907 0.78
fabric corner sofa 6627 1.78
convertible sofa 139 1.49
YOU’LL NOTICE A FEW KEYWORDS THAT
DON’T FIT WITH YOUR RESEARCH…
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

50. USE FUZZY LOOKUP TO MATCH HERO
KEYWORD WITH THE KEYWORD LIST
LEFT RIGHT
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

51. FUZZY LOOKUP WILL ORDER
THE KEYWORD LIST BASED ON
THE SIMILARITY SCORE
Keywords Similarity
corner sofa 1.0000
corner sofa bed 0.8571
leather corner sofa 0.8571
grey corner sofa 0.8571
fabric corner sofa 0.8571
cheap corner sofas 0.8278
corner couch 0.0000
sofa bed sale 0.0000
convertible sofa 0.0000
Low similarity
High similarity
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO
Keywords Similarity
corner sofa 1.0000
corner sofa bed 0.8571
leather corner sofa 0.8571
grey corner sofa 0.8571
fabric corner sofa 0.8571
cheap corner sofas 0.8278
corner couch 0.0000
sofa bed sale 0.0000
convertible sofa 0.0000

52. BLOG
CONTENT GAPS
5

53. ochure
rm
0
s Live URLs
/sofas/corner-sofas/20500
/sofas/sofa-beds/20900
/sofas/sofa-beds/2018-brochure
/sofas/sofa-beds/old-form
CRAWL THE WEBSITE TO GATHER ALL THE
LIVE PAGES (EXCLUDING THE BLOG)
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

54. /sofas/sofa-beds/2019-brochure
/sofas/corner-sofas/
/sofas/sofa-beds/new-form
/sofas/corner-sofas/20600
Staging Site URLs Live URLs
/sofas/corner-sofas/2
/sofas/sofa-beds/2090
/sofas/sofa-beds/2018
/sofas/sofa-beds/old-
GATHER THE PAGES FROM THE
BLOG SECTION
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

55. USE FUZZY LOOKUP TO FIND CONTENT
GAPS IN YOUR BLOG SECTION
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

56. TAKEAWAYS

57. FUZZY LOOKUP ISN’T CASE SENSITIVE
…WHICH MAKES THE PROCESS EVEN MORE
STRAIGHTFORWARD
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

58. DON’T BE LIMITED BY TEXT DATA...
BY DEFAULT, FUZZY LOOKUP WORKS JUST WITH TEXT
DATA, BUT A SIMPLE FORMULA WILL DO THE TRICK!
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO
TEXT
NUMBERS

59. =SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTIT
UTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,0,"zero"),1,"one"),2,"two"),3,"three"),4,"fo
ur"),5,"five"),6,"six"),7,"seven"),8,"eight"),9,"nine")
2) FUZZY LOOKUP MAGIC
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTIT
UTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"zero",0),"one",1),"two",2),"three",3),"four
",4),"five",5),"six",6),"seven",7),"eight",8),"nine",9)
...WITH THE ‘SUBSTITUTE’ FORMULA
JUST COPY & PASTE THIS EXCEL FORMULA IF YOU WISH
TO USE FUZZY LOOKUP WITH NUMBERS TOO!
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

60. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
IT WILL TAKE A FEW ATTEMPTS TO MAKE THE
MOST OF FUZZY LOOKUP… SO DON’T GIVE UP!
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO

61. BONUS SECTION

62. WHAT IF
I NEED
MORE
POWER?

63. IF YOU’RE FAMILIAR WITH BIGQUERY,
HAVE A LOOK AT THESE TWO ARTICLES
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO
A Journey Into BigQuery
Fuzzy Matching
Brian Suk
String matching in BigQuery
Natalya Kosenko

64. IF YOU’RE FAMILIAR WITH PYTHON,
HAVE A LOOK AT THESE TWO ARTICLES
@MarcoBonomoSEO BrightonSEO
How to Map 404 URLs at Scale
with Sentence Embeddings
Hamlet Batista
Josh Taylor
Fuzzy matching at scale

65. THANKS FOR
WATCHING!
@MarcoBonomoSEO
MarcoBonomo.co.uk
BrightonSEO