Apologies on the colour of these slides, Slideshare does not pull in the custom theme of my presentation! If you would like the original file, please feel free to get in touch! The Importance of Planning - Many websites lack the synergy between creative and SEO which declines their performance. How can you afford to ignore how search engines interact with your site? If your site breaks for them, it breaks for all potential visitors from Firefox, Internet Explorer & Co. Learn how to create search engine friendly sites that are equally appealing to your visitors: from concept to wireframes to site launches and migrations.

1. Web
Design
For
SEO
The
Importance
Of
Planning
Gary
Taylor,
SMX
Stockholm
October
2012

2. Digital
Director
at
Midlands-­‐based
media
buying
agency
TMW
Ltd.
Key
experience
in
SEO
and
web
analyLcs.
Run
one
of
the
top
domain
name
and
web
hosLng
review
blogs
in
the
UK.
10
years
experience
in
online
markeLng
across
retail,
leisure
and
financial
services.
Some
current
clients
inc.
Previously
spoken
at
Think
Visibility
and
SAScon
in
the
UK.
Follow
me
on
TwiSer
@garyptaylor
or
Google+

3. “The general who loses a battle makes but
few calculations beforehand.”
Sun Tzu, The Art Of War

4. 1. Keywords and Copy
2. Content formats – images, video, rich snippets
3. Site growth and scalability
4. Meta data
5. User experience and creative
6. Internal linking and sitemaps
7. Validation and accessibility
8. Cross browser testing
9. Page and site speed
10. Ongoing optimisation

5. Potential pitfalls…

6. • Poor user experience – General layout, time on site,
bounce rate etc.
• Content scalability issues – Site architecture,
organisation, navigation etc.
• Difficulty optimising – CMS issues with unclean URLs,
image naming, duplicate content, meta data etc.
• Slow site speed – Resource heavy; JavaScript, images
etc.
• Lower rankings in the SERPs – due to quality and
technical issues
• Reduced conversion rates – through lack of visibility

7. Ultimately…

8. Scenario/Problem:
New client running SiteCore
CMS with WordPress blog
Duplicate content issues
(400 + instances)
Google Webmaster Guidelines:
If your company buys a content management system, make sure that the
system creates pages and links that search engines can crawl.

9. Findings:
Multiple URLs for the same
pages across products.
Multiple URLs for the same
posts in blog.

10. Solution:
Use of canonicalization to tell
search engines which URL is
the priority
Use of Robots.txt to block
indexing of tag URLs in blog
Google Webmaster Guidelines:
Use robots.txt to prevent crawling of search results pages or auto-generated
pages that don't add much value for users coming from search engines.

11. Recommended site crawl resources:
hSp://www.seomoz.org
hSp://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-­‐spider/

12. Content
Structure
Organisation
Layout
Image Source: smartlemming.com
Objective (Purchase, Lead, Telephone Contact?...)
Google Webmaster Guidelines:
Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and
accurately describe your content.

13. Get out the
pen and paper
(well…an Excel spreadsheet at least!)
Image Source: wiredmedia.co.uk
Google Webmaster Guidelines:
Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure
that your site actually includes those words within it.

15. Initial benchmark
authority recorded.
Keyword ideas and Core pages are tabbed
copy brainstormed.
and target keywords listed.

16. Home
Page
HP
Category
Pages
C1
C2
Sub
Category
Pages
SC1
SC2
SC3
SC4
SC5
Products
P1
P2
P3
Accessories
A1
A2
A3
Google Webmaster Guidelines:
Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be
reachable from at least one static text link.

17. Hundreds of
products
across 32
headline
categories
Google Webmaster Guidelines:
Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be
reachable from at least one static text link.

18. Home
Page
HP
Category
Pages
C1
C2
Sub
Category
Pages
SC1
SC2
SC3
SC4
SC5
Products
P1
P2
P3
Accessories
A1
A2
A3

19. ✔
✗
Google Webmaster Guidelines:
Monitor your site's performance and optimize load times. Google's goal is
to provide users with the most relevant results and a great user experience.

20. Recommended site speed resources:
developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed
tools.pingdom.com/fpt
www.webpagetest.org
Great read…
Seomoz.org
Blog
-­‐
15
Tips
To
Speed
Up
Your
Website

21. In
PracLce
Case
Study

22. Send Marketing Solutions
• One of the leading direct mail companies in the UK (millions
of mailings for large clients like VW, B&Q and Arsenal
Football Club)
• Wanted to create products to target SMEs who didn’t have
economies of scale to buy volume like their larger clients
• Wanted to improve visibility in the search engines and
generate more leads
Credit to OneResult.co.uk

23. Our Approach
• Understanding the product - What were the USPs?
• How could they convey this message to customers?
• How did we make them stand out in the SERPs?
Our solution…
• Clean/simple landing pages, with clear USPs and a video
• Used planning process to identify keywords & create copy
• Friendly design, not corporate – demonstrate the product was
accessible to all

24. Use wire framing software:
Turn your excel planning ideas into working HTML models with wire frames of
key pages before creative and development work begins.

25. Recommended wire framing software:
Great read…
Smashingmagazine.com
-­‐
35
Excellent
Wireframing
Resources

26. Clear contact
details in line
with video to
catch the eye
Short,
descriptive copy
with call to
action to watch
video
Video in
prominent
position above
fold. Keyword- Main Nav
rich copy below underneath
fold
to take away
from focus
Google Webmaster Guidelines - Video Best Practices:
The presence of a prominent, embedded video player using supported video
formats can make your videos attractive to users & easier for Google to index

27. Recommended video solution:
Video.js
is
a
JavaScript
and
CSS
library
that
makes
it
easier
to
work
with
and
build
on
HTML5
video,
today.
This
is
also
known
as
an
"HTML5
Video
Player".
Video.js
provides
a
common
controls
skin
built
in
HTML/CSS,
fixes
cross-­‐
browser
inconsistencies,
adds
addiLonal
features
like
fullscreen
and
subLtles,
manages
the
fallback
to
Flash
or
other
playback
technologies
when
HTML5
video
isn't
supported,
and
also
provides
a
consistent
JavaScript
API
for
interacLng
with
the
video.
Great read…
SEJ
-­‐
How
To
Properly
OpLmize
Image
Or
Video
Sites

28. Outcome:
The clean layout, concise and targeted copy along with the prominent video has
resulted in a strong organic listing with clear call-to-action in the SERP

29. Result for client
• Rolled out across full website rebuild
• Better rankings in SERPs
• CTRs more than doubled, through more prominent video
listings across the product range
• Increased conversion rates 300% in 3 months

30. Thank
You