1.
Why listen to me?

2.
Who am I?

3.
Who am I?
• VP of Community at ContentKing 2015 - now

4.
Who am I?
• VP of Community at ContentKing
• Previously: ran an SEO agency
2015 - now
2009 - 2015

5.
Who am I?
• VP of Community at ContentKing
• Previously: ran an SEO agency
• I ❤ to write and talk about SEO
2015 - now
2009 - 2015

6.
Who am I?
• VP of Community at ContentKing
• Previously: ran an SEO agency
• I ❤ to write and talk about SEO
2015 - now
2009 - 2015

7.
Real-time SEO Auditing and Content Tracking

8.
Why SEO Disasters?

9.
• I love hearing and reading about them
Why SEO Disasters?

10.
• I love hearing and reading about them
• Makes me a better SEO
Why SEO Disasters?

11.
• I love hearing and reading about them
• Makes me a better SEO
• Helps me teach others
Why SEO Disasters?

12.
SEO Disaster: post-mortem

13.
What happened and what was the result?
SEO Disaster: post-mortem

14.
What happened and what was the result?
Why did it happen and
how could it have been prevented?
SEO Disaster: post-mortem

15.
A note on laying blame

16.
A note on laying blame
SEO Disasters are caused by developers :(

17.
A note on laying blame
SEO Disasters are caused by developers :(🚫

18.
A note on laying blame
SEOs love to blame developers
SEO Disasters are caused by developers :(🚫

19.
A note on laying blame
SEOs love to blame developers
Sometimes rightfully, often not
SEO Disasters are caused by developers :(🚫

20.
A note on laying blame
SEOs love to blame developers
Sometimes rightfully, often not
Take responsibility!
SEO Disasters are caused by developers :(🚫

21.
Redirects gone wrong
Yours truly

22.
What happened
Redirects gone wrong

23.
• Multi-lingual site
What happened
Redirects gone wrong

24.
• Multi-lingual site
• HTTP —> HTTPS migration done on Friday afternoon
What happened
Redirects gone wrong

25.
• Multi-lingual site
• HTTP —> HTTPS migration done on Friday afternoon
• We redirected the EN and DE versions to NL ¯_(ツ)_/¯
What happened
Redirects gone wrong

26.
The result
Redirects gone wrong

27.
The result
• Everyone freaked out (incl. client)
Redirects gone wrong

28.
The result
• Everyone freaked out (incl. client)
• Fixed it within 3 hours
Redirects gone wrong

29.
The result
• Everyone freaked out (incl. client)
• Fixed it within 3 hours
• It didn’t have a noticeable impact 😅
Redirects gone wrong

30.
How could it have been avoided?
Redirects gone wrong

31.
• Better test process
How could it have been avoided?
Redirects gone wrong

32.
• Better test process
• Monitoring
How could it have been avoided?
Redirects gone wrong

33.
• Better test process
• Monitoring
• Not rushing important updates
How could it have been avoided?
Redirects gone wrong

34.
• Better test process
• Monitoring
• Not rushing important updates
• Limit release window to Mon - Wed
How could it have been avoided?
Redirects gone wrong

35.
Canonical to dev environment
JLH Marketing
Jenny Halasz

36.
What happened
Canonical to dev environment

37.
• New “Press” section was added
What happened
Canonical to dev environment

38.
• New “Press” section was added
• Press release sent out, got lots of links!
What happened
Canonical to dev environment

39.
• New “Press” section was added
• Press release sent out, got lots of links!
• None of these pages were
indexed by Google?!
What happened
Canonical to dev environment

40.
The result
Canonical to dev environment

41.
How could it have been avoided?
Canonical to dev environment

42.
• Education on best practices
How could it have been avoided?
Canonical to dev environment

43.
• Education on best practices
• Testing
How could it have been avoided?
Canonical to dev environment

44.
• Education on best practices
• Testing
• On-page SEO monitoring
How could it have been avoided?
Canonical to dev environment

45.
Pagination gone wrong
Anonymous

46.
What happened
Pagination gone wrong

47.
• New JS-driven pagination system was rolled out.
What happened
Pagination gone wrong

48.
• New JS-driven pagination system was rolled out.
• “More user-friendly”
What happened
Pagination gone wrong

49.
The result
Pagination gone wrong

50.
The result
Pagination gone wrong
• A massive change to internal link structure

51.
The result
Pagination gone wrong
• A massive change to internal link structure
• Indexed pages went down

52.
The result
Pagination gone wrong
• A massive change to internal link structure
• Indexed pages went down

53.
How could it have been avoided?
Pagination gone wrong

54.
• Education on best practices
How could it have been avoided?
Pagination gone wrong

55.
• Education on best practices
• Testing
How could it have been avoided?
Pagination gone wrong

56.
Canonical in body
StoxSEO
Patrick Stox

57.
What happened?
Canonical in body

58.
JavaScript magic was used
to modify <head>
What happened?
Canonical in body

59.
The result
Canonical in body

60.
The result
Canonical in body

61.
• Google ignored the canonical URL
The result
Canonical in body

62.
• Google ignored the canonical URL
• Duplicate content frenzy
The result
Canonical in body

63.
How could it have been avoided?
Canonical in body

64.
• Education on best practices
How could it have been avoided?
Canonical in body

65.
• Education on best practices
• Testing
How could it have been avoided?
Canonical in body

66.
Disavow like goody two-shoes
Anonymous

67.
What happened?
Disavow like goody two-shoes

68.
Gullible SEO disavowed all links
that looked “unnatural”.
What happened?
Disavow like goody two-shoes

69.
The result
Disavow like goody two-shoes

70.
How could it have been avoided?
Disavow like goody two-shoes

71.
• Critical thinking
How could it have been avoided?
Disavow like goody two-shoes

72.
• Critical thinking
• Discuss with peers
How could it have been avoided?
Disavow like goody two-shoes

73.
Minimizing SEO Disasters

74.
Minimizing SEO Disasters
1. Education on best practices

75.
Minimizing SEO Disasters
1. Education on best practices
2. Involve specialists early on

76.
Minimizing SEO Disasters
1. Education on best practices
2. Involve specialists early on
3. Testing

77.
Minimizing SEO Disasters
1. Education on best practices
2. Involve specialists early on
3. Testing
4. On-page SEO monitoring

78.
Keep learning

79.
Keep learning
Want to learn more about SEO disasters?
• contentkingapp.com/blog/seo-fails/
• contentkingapp.com/blog/seo-fails-bigseo-community/
• contentkingapp.com/blog/five-seo-disasters/

80.
Don’t let SEO Disasters
surprise you!
contentkingapp.com

81.
Thank you for your attention — let’s keep in touch!
Steven van Vessum
stevenvvessum
linkedin.com/in/stevenvanvessum
steven.land

82.
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