BrightonSEO 2017 - SEO quick wins from a technical check

1. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Technical Check??? @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

2. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Quick Wins?? @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

3. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Your Go-To Tools @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

4. @chloebodard | #brightonseo 301 REDIRECTS ROBOTS.TXT FILE OPTIMISATION SITEMAPS Top Technical SEO Quick Wins CANONICAL TAGS @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

5. +1,010% Organic transactions YOY What Results To Expect? ● Amount of keywords ranking has increased by 90% over last 6 months ● This lead to a massive jump in transactions from organic traffic. @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

6. +138% Increase in organic goal completions What Results To Expect? ● Page 1 rankings for local terms. ● Organic traffic is up 49% year on year ● Goal conversion rate increased 60% YoY @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

7. @chloebodard | #brightonseo 301 Redirects @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

8. @chloebodard | #brightonseo ● New site? ● Older domains? ● URL structure changes? ● Https migrations? ● Relative links? When Could You Have Issues? @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

9. @chloebodard | #brightonseo ● Missing 301s ● Redirect chains ● Broken 301s ● 302s ● Unnecessary Redirects What To Look For? @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

10. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Analyse & Fix the issues. @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

11. @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

12. @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo Site migration rushed - resulted in lots of redirect chains/broken redirects Redirect chains and broken redirects fixed 301s Case Study

13. @chloebodard | #brightonseo ● Set up 301s from old & 404 pages to new ones ● Prevent redirect chains - URLs should 301 redirect straight to the final version. ● Update all internal links to point to the final destination URL to prevent unnecessary redirects ● Ensure site-wide 301 redirects are set up from non-preferred to preferred versions (www, https & trailing slashes) ● Ensure all redirects are permanent 301s and not temporary 302s UNLESS the move is temporary Redirection Tips @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

14. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Don’t just check and fix the redirects in your web crawl! Look way back… ● Gather backlink URLs via tools such as Majestic ● Gather previous domain URLs ● Gather top landing page URLs from Analytics ● If you’re not sure of the old URLs, check websites like Wayback Machine which store domain website snapshots. ● Gather 404s from Search Console Consider old website versions too @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

15. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Use Screaming Frogs List Mode to crawl your list of URLs. Make sure ‘Always Follow Redirects’ is ticked in Settings. (Configuration > Spider > Advanced) ● Update Redirects which have multiple Redirect Chains ● Create Redirects for key 404s (esp. Backlink or Landing Page 404s) ● Fix broken/incorrect Redirects Crawl your URLs @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

16. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Robots.txt File @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

17. @chloebodard | #brightonseo User-agent: * Disallow: Sitemap: https://www.yourwebsite/sitemap.xml “Make use of the robots.txt file on your web server.” Google Webmaster Guidelines @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

19. @chloebodard | #brightonseo ● Disallowing full site post migration ● Disallowing CSS/JS files ● Disallowing unexpected URLs ● Not disallowing staging site What Issues Could You Have? @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

20. @chloebodard | #brightonseo ● Site Disallow ● Unexpected URLs Disallow ● Disallowing CSS/JS files What To Look For? User-agent: * Disallow: / User-agent: * Disallow: /index.php/ User-agent: * Disallow: */js/ @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

21. @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo Category page!!!

22. @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo Robots sorted Technical actions implemented Robots.txt File Case Study

23. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Improve your crawl budget. @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

24. @chloebodard | #brightonseo What is a Crawl Budget? @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

25. @chloebodard | #brightonseo How to optimise your crawl budget? 1. Crawl your website. 2. Excessive URLs for users rather than search engines being crawled? i.e Add to Basket / Wish List / Parameterised URLs Eg: /claim/?action=claim_listing&listing_id=33910 /claim/?action=claim_listing&listing_id=33911 /book-an-appointment/997 /book-an-appointment/223 3. Disallow these via robots.txt (after testing!) @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

26. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Add pages irrelevant to search or that you don’t want crawled! How to Fix It? User-agent: * Disallow: /blog/tag/ Disallow: /whishlist/ @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

27. Option 1: Use the robots.txt tester in Search Console - this requires the robots.txt file to be actually updated. Option 2: Use the custom robots.txt tool in Screaming Frog to test then and there. Check the commands you are adding will work for the URLS you want to block. @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo How to test your robots?

28. @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo For more info check out Liam’s blog on How to Improve Your Crawl Budget !

29. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Optimisation @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

30. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Optimisation Quick Wins? ● Page titles ● H1s ● Meta descriptions for CTR. @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

31. @chloebodard | #brightonseo ● Missing page titles/meta descriptions/ H1s ● Duplicate page titles/meta descriptions/ H1s ● Lack of keyword targeting ● Meta tags improvement potential ● Internal cannibalisation What To Look For? @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

32. @chloebodard | #brightonseo How to check? ● Crawl your site ● Look at overview report tab ● Download the SERP Summary report which you can then filter: MISSING, DUPLICATED & LENGTH @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

33. @chloebodard | #brightonseo How to check? ● Main phrase at beginning of Page title? ● Main phrase/ variation in the H1? ● H2s semantically relevant? ● Close rankings for different pages? ● Organic traffic drop to one page & increase for a similar one? KEYWORDS TARGETING INTERNAL CANNIBALISATION ● Use SC Search Analytics report ● Check CTR - is rank high and CTR low? ● Do you have KW ranking on top of page 2? @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo METAS OPTIMISATION

35. @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo Search Console Search Analytics Report

36. @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo Page Titles, H1s & Meta descriptions Updated +46% increase in organic traffic since! Optimisation Case Study

37. @chloebodard | #brightonseo ● Ensure ALL pages have a unique Page title, meta description and H1s. ○ Targeted keyword should be at the start of the page title & in the H1 ○ Look at top rankers !! ○ Seize improvement opportunities from SC ○ Make meta descriptions engaging & with a CTA. ○ Include KW & semantic variations in H2s ● Ensure page titles & meta descriptions are within recommended length (up to 61-63 characters now) ● Ensure each page targets a different phrase to avoid internal cannibalisation ● Push pages ranking on top of page 2 to page 1 Optimisation Quick Wins @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

38. @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo Be a Flamingo in a flock of Pigeons.

39. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Canonical Tags @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

40. @chloebodard | #brightonseo ● Relative URLS ● 404s and 301s ● Non-preferred domain ● Listing URLs canonicalised to the first page Issues To Look For? @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

41. @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo Tech changes made and canonicals set to non preferred (http) version Canonicals updated to avoid 301s and point to preferred version (https) Canonical Tags Case Study

42. @chloebodard | #brightonseo How to check? Run a DeepCrawl Canonical Report to highlight: ● canonical errors, ● orphaned canonical URLs ● pages without a valid canonical tag Use Screaming Frog to: ● Identify canonicalised URLs ● Check for errors by exporting the Canonical Errors report @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

44. @chloebodard | #brightonseo ● Use absolute rather than relative URLs ● Make sure your canonical matches your preferred domain (http or https) ● Update canonical tags if you migrate. ● Don’t canonicalise listing URLs to the first page - they are not duplicate content, use rel=”prev” & rel=”next” tags ● Canonical tags should not point to a 404 or 301 redirect ● Add self-referencing canonical tags to non canonicalised pages Implementing Canonical Tags @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

45. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Sitemaps @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

46. @chloebodard | #brightonseo <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"> <url> <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc> <lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod> <changefreq>monthly</changefreq> <priority>0.8</priority> </url> </urlset A standard sitemap as shown within Sitemaps.org looks like this: ● Does not improve rankings ● Does provide a key list of your important pages to Google. ● There can be lots of hidden issues within your sitemap. @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

47. @chloebodard | #brightonseo ● Errors in your sitemap, such as 404, 301s or canonicalised URLs ● Orphaned URLs that you may / may not want to be indexed ● Missing/inaccurate Last Modified Date ● Missing key pages ● Noindex pages & URLs blocked by robots.txt file Issues To Look For? @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

48. @chloebodard | #brightonseo How to check? Use DeepCrawl to analyse your sitemap. Sitemap report will: ● Highlight any orphaned URLs to be linked ● Pages missing from your sitemap to be added ● Errors within its pages to be fixed Use Search console to submit it & check for errors: ● Check for warnings & follow recommendations ● Look at number of URLs submitted vs indexed @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

49. @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

51. @chloebodard | #brightonseo ● Best type of Sitemap is dynamic - automatically updates! ● Check for errors in your sitemap, don’t include 404, 301s or canonicalised URLs ● Beware of orphaned URLs that you may not want to be indexed ● Include an accurate Last Modified Date ● Make sure your key pages are in there & use child sitemaps to separate sections/large list of URLs. ● If multiple types of content, use additional sitemap types (image, video & mobile ) Sitemap.xml Guidelines & Quick Wins @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

52. Choose Yoast for beautiful dynamic sitemaps, but... Default settings include EVERYTHING that isn’t set to noindex! ● URLs you never knew existed like layout & slider sections? Likely to be in the sitemap. ● PPC pages that you’ve created but not linked internally? Likely to be in the sitemap. ● Old pages you’ve used but haven’t redirected? Likely to be in the sitemap ● Test pages you’ve made for fun? Likely to be in the sitemap @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo Using Wordpress?

53. ● Always check your sitemap settings, crawl your sitemap for the list of URLs that you’ll be submitting to Google. ● Any URLs you don’t agree with? Remove via settings or noindex them (will remove them from Yoast). @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo Optimising Yoast Sitemaps

54. @chloebodard | #brightonseo Check out Michelle’s AWESOME Sitemap Guide! @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

55. BRAUMGroup 56 301 Redirects ● Don’t forget about 301s for migrations & preferred version site-wide rules ● Eliminate redirect chains, check for redirects from internal links ● Don’t forget about old domains!! Key Takeaways Top Technical SEO Quick Wins (Part 1) Robots.txt File ● Check & test your robots.txt file ● Optimise your crawl budget Optimisation ● Optimisation should be unique, strategic, user friendly & tailored to competition ● Overuse SC’s search analytics report @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo

56. BRAUMGroup 57 Canonical Tags ● Use absolute links for canonical tags ● Beware of canonicalising pagination links Key Takeaways Top Technical SEO Quick Wins (Part 2) @chloebodard | #BrightonSeo Sitemaps ● Beware of hidden errors within your sitemap(s) ● Ensure all important pages are included in the sitemap, that there are no orphaned pages, nor unwanted pages ● Use Last Modified date to notify Google of page updates

57. @chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo Thank You!

BrightonSEO 2017 - SEO quick wins from a technical check

Chloe Bodard

BrightonSEO 2017 - SEO quick wins from a technical check