The document discusses technical SEO debt and how fixing technical issues can improve search engine rankings and website traffic. It provides examples of how John Doherty has helped clients by analyzing and addressing technical problems like poor information architecture, thin content, and redirects. He emphasizes using data to identify issues, estimating traffic and revenue impacts, and proposing targeted tests to convince executives. Test successes can then be used to gain approval for larger projects. The key message is that technical SEO matters for business goals and fixing debt sets sites up for ongoing traffic and revenue growth.
SearchLove San Diego 2018 | Will Critchlow | From the Horse’s Mouth: What We ...Distilled
If you pay close enough attention, you can learn all kinds of things from what Google does and doesn’t say in public. From patents to official statements, to comments that Googlers leave on message boards, there is a wealth of information out there that hints at what they really think.
In this presentation, Will is going to work through some of the most significant official announcements and the most insight-heavy comments and leaks of Google’s first 20 years. You’ll come away from this presentation not only with a deeper understanding of the search giant, but also with the tools to understand and interpret future statements and leaks.
SearchLeeds 2017 - Mathew Court, SEO Consultant - Auto Trader - Mobile first ...Branded3
With Google beginning to test mobile first indexing, being just desktop friendly isn’t good enough anymore. This session will cover what we know of the update and how the different areas of Auto Trader are combating this change.
Google Search Engine Ranking Position - 200 Top Ranking Factors for SEO Marke...Ronald Soh
Google Search Engine Ranking Position - 200 Top Ranking Factors for SEO Marketing
It can be classified by
1) Domain Factors
2) Page Level Factors
3) Site Level Factors
4) Backlinks Factors
5) User Interaction
6) Special Algorithm Rules
7) Social Signals
8) Brand Signals
9) Onsite WebSpam Factors
10) Off-Page WebSpam Factors
http://www.vtseo.net
Link Building Strategies: 2013 EditionRoss Hudgens
Presentation from BlueglassX "Link Building Strategies That Actually Work" session from Tampa, Florida.
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rosshudgens
SearchLove San Diego 2018 | Will Critchlow | From the Horse’s Mouth: What We ...Distilled
If you pay close enough attention, you can learn all kinds of things from what Google does and doesn’t say in public. From patents to official statements, to comments that Googlers leave on message boards, there is a wealth of information out there that hints at what they really think.
In this presentation, Will is going to work through some of the most significant official announcements and the most insight-heavy comments and leaks of Google’s first 20 years. You’ll come away from this presentation not only with a deeper understanding of the search giant, but also with the tools to understand and interpret future statements and leaks.
SearchLeeds 2017 - Mathew Court, SEO Consultant - Auto Trader - Mobile first ...Branded3
With Google beginning to test mobile first indexing, being just desktop friendly isn’t good enough anymore. This session will cover what we know of the update and how the different areas of Auto Trader are combating this change.
Google Search Engine Ranking Position - 200 Top Ranking Factors for SEO Marke...Ronald Soh
Google Search Engine Ranking Position - 200 Top Ranking Factors for SEO Marketing
It can be classified by
1) Domain Factors
2) Page Level Factors
3) Site Level Factors
4) Backlinks Factors
5) User Interaction
6) Special Algorithm Rules
7) Social Signals
8) Brand Signals
9) Onsite WebSpam Factors
10) Off-Page WebSpam Factors
http://www.vtseo.net
Link Building Strategies: 2013 EditionRoss Hudgens
Presentation from BlueglassX "Link Building Strategies That Actually Work" session from Tampa, Florida.
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rosshudgens
Jono Alderson - Structured Data for Content MarketingSemrush
These slides were presented at the Semrush webinar "Structured Data for Content Marketing". Video replay and transcript are available at https://www.semrush.com/webinars/structured-data-for-content-marketing/
CRO and SEO together: what happens when what's good for users isn't good for ...Will Critchlow
My CXL Live (#CXLLive) 2019 presentation looking at full funnel testing that combines SEO A/B testing with CRO split testing to help us all work together better.
SEO and What You Need to Know to Plan for 2017Marketing Mojo
What do you need to do to plan for 2017? Janet Driscoll Miller, Marketing Mojo president & CEO, covers the things you need to know about SEO before you create your marketing plan.
Presentation for Central Virginia American Marketing Association (CVAMA)
Working in a digital role and not feeling confident with code? Then this beginners guide is perfect for you.
We take a look at the most popular use cases and occasions where you are likely to face or interact with code, and teach you basics in HTML, CSS & Javascript knowledge that will enable you to complete those tasks.
You will learn the followings:
-HTML & CSS Basics for Editing & Styling Content
- Understanding & Working with a Web-Pages Source Code (Using Inspect Element)
- How to Use EMBED Codes to Display Content from Social Media Platforms & Third-Party Sites (YouTube Videos, Tweets)
- Understanding & Working with 'Tracking Tags' (Google Analytics, Retargeting Pixels via Facebook, Twitter)
- Useful Resources for Ongoing Learning
You've seen enough talks to know the importance of internal links. But what next? How exactly do you go about improving your internal linking. This presentation looks at the issues, the opportunities and the actionable steps to take.
How to Maximize Conversions Through SEO and CROSean Si
My presentation on the SEO Summit 2016 touching base on the best way to get returns on your site through maximizing your SEO and CRO and making them play well together.
A presentation from BlueTraffic (www.bluetraffic.com) on search engine optimization from February, 2009. This was done in conjunction with the Iowa AMA and the Des Moines Partnership in West Des Moines, Iowa.
Rand Fishkin's presentation from SMX Munich sharing early data from SEOmoz's biennial search engine ranking factors survey and correlation data from 10K+ Google search results.
SearchLove Boston 2018 - Bartosz Goralewicz - JavaScript: Looking Past the ...Distilled
Thanks to his numerous experiments and viral articles, Elephate’s Bartosz Góralewicz has become an authoritative and trusted voice when it comes to JavaScript SEO. At SearchLove Boston, Bartosz is ready to unveil never-before-seen experiments and research to reveal whether or not you can rank with a JS website, if JavaScript crawling and indexing is as good as Google claims, and more. This eye-opening session will change your perception on the state of JavaScript today.
While smart content creation is fundamental to marketing, the rise of digital has introduced unprecedented technical and analytical challenges. The modern marketer must please both humans and search engines with one killer content strategy to deliver a full sales pipeline.
Flip through "The Science of Content Marketing" to get started.
Jono Alderson - Structured Data for Content MarketingSemrush
These slides were presented at the Semrush webinar "Structured Data for Content Marketing". Video replay and transcript are available at https://www.semrush.com/webinars/structured-data-for-content-marketing/
CRO and SEO together: what happens when what's good for users isn't good for ...Will Critchlow
My CXL Live (#CXLLive) 2019 presentation looking at full funnel testing that combines SEO A/B testing with CRO split testing to help us all work together better.
SEO and What You Need to Know to Plan for 2017Marketing Mojo
What do you need to do to plan for 2017? Janet Driscoll Miller, Marketing Mojo president & CEO, covers the things you need to know about SEO before you create your marketing plan.
Presentation for Central Virginia American Marketing Association (CVAMA)
Working in a digital role and not feeling confident with code? Then this beginners guide is perfect for you.
We take a look at the most popular use cases and occasions where you are likely to face or interact with code, and teach you basics in HTML, CSS & Javascript knowledge that will enable you to complete those tasks.
You will learn the followings:
-HTML & CSS Basics for Editing & Styling Content
- Understanding & Working with a Web-Pages Source Code (Using Inspect Element)
- How to Use EMBED Codes to Display Content from Social Media Platforms & Third-Party Sites (YouTube Videos, Tweets)
- Understanding & Working with 'Tracking Tags' (Google Analytics, Retargeting Pixels via Facebook, Twitter)
- Useful Resources for Ongoing Learning
You've seen enough talks to know the importance of internal links. But what next? How exactly do you go about improving your internal linking. This presentation looks at the issues, the opportunities and the actionable steps to take.
How to Maximize Conversions Through SEO and CROSean Si
My presentation on the SEO Summit 2016 touching base on the best way to get returns on your site through maximizing your SEO and CRO and making them play well together.
A presentation from BlueTraffic (www.bluetraffic.com) on search engine optimization from February, 2009. This was done in conjunction with the Iowa AMA and the Des Moines Partnership in West Des Moines, Iowa.
Rand Fishkin's presentation from SMX Munich sharing early data from SEOmoz's biennial search engine ranking factors survey and correlation data from 10K+ Google search results.
SearchLove Boston 2018 - Bartosz Goralewicz - JavaScript: Looking Past the ...Distilled
Thanks to his numerous experiments and viral articles, Elephate’s Bartosz Góralewicz has become an authoritative and trusted voice when it comes to JavaScript SEO. At SearchLove Boston, Bartosz is ready to unveil never-before-seen experiments and research to reveal whether or not you can rank with a JS website, if JavaScript crawling and indexing is as good as Google claims, and more. This eye-opening session will change your perception on the state of JavaScript today.
While smart content creation is fundamental to marketing, the rise of digital has introduced unprecedented technical and analytical challenges. The modern marketer must please both humans and search engines with one killer content strategy to deliver a full sales pipeline.
Flip through "The Science of Content Marketing" to get started.
Technical SEO presentation : optimisation on-page, basic set-up onsite and what you can learn from an SEO Audit.
November 28, 2015 – Women in Digital Switzerland Meet ups – Lausanne
Google is constantly evolving and a webmaster’s ability to react to changes is key to any successful SEO campaign. However, what happens when you can’t get technical SEO recommendations over the line? This session will focus on how you can be more Agile and implement technical SEO recommendations that add value.
Content marketing analytics: how to make your data work harder for your businessDaniel Smulevich
Presentation from Search London - July 2014.
The goal of our work is to understand the triggers behind new and existing customers content consumption and buying behaviour so we can plot the best course of action to drive demonstrable improvements in revenue.
Here is a 3-step process to do that.
Advanced Technical SEO - Index Bloat & Discovery: from Facets to Javascript F...Kahena Digital Marketing
Ari Nahmani covers the latest in advanced technical SEO at SMX Munich (Muenchen) 2016. Discussions of the deprecated HTML snapshot, Javascript crawlability and indexing, new frameworks, prerendering, server side rendering, prerender.io, isomorphic javascript, and other technical issues related to the future of protecting your index health.
Technical SEO Auditing: How healthy is your site? Builtvisible
Will Nye, Senior Consultant at Builtvisible takes you through an introductory SEO site audit, making recommendations on improvements and providing guidance to affiliate site owners.
At theMediaFlow we pride ourselves on being insanely detailed technical SEOs. We use a foundation checklist which is adapted from client to client and sector to sector; though in general we always tend to include the items explained here.
Technical SEO - An Introduction to Core Aspects of Technical SEO Best-PractiseErudite
On Thursday 28th November the group of search experts and business owners, who blog together as "the SEO Chicks" conducted a panel discussion at The Digital Marketing Show at Londons' Excel.
The presentation outlines each of the main considerations each of the presenters discussed; including critical concerns, best practise and common mistakes.
The SEO Chicks are Lisa Myers, Jackie Hole, Julie Joyce, Judith Lewis, Annabel Hodges, Hannah Smith, Bridget Randolph and Nichola Stott
How to Structure a Scalable SEO StrategyDigital Reach
Everybody knows that SEO is important, but preparing for an SEO campaign can seem intimidating and overwhelming. Where do you start? What is important? How will we succeed? Anybody who promises you fast and easy answers isn’t being forthright, but it is possible to win at SEO. In our next Web Clinic: How to Structure an SEO Strategy, I’ll be showing you how to structure your SEO strategy for long term success.
On Tuesday, February 21st, we’ll be hosting Web Clinics all day about the proper implementation of an SEO strategy. Register to participate at 9AM PT, 11AM PT, or 1PM PT and set yourself up for SEO ranking success.
During this Web Clinic, our Head of Operations Andrew Seidman will cover:
Low-hanging fruit for ranking improvements
How to develop an effective link building strategy
The value of data attribution in SEO planning
Plus, don’t miss our live analysis of member submitted websites, so be sure to submit your website during the Web Clinic!
Technical SEO and SEO Audits - Engage 2017 Portland - Bill HartzerBill Hartzer
Bill Hartzer's Technical SEO and SEO Audits at the Engage 2017 conference held in Portland Oregon on March 9th, 2017. Bill talks about technical SEO and performing a technical SEO audit of your website
In this presentation, we’ll talk through the advanced world of technical SEO.The term ‘advanced’ is subjective, based on circumstances and complexities of the on-site experience. Technical SEO is the broad term that can apply to all websites, the advanced bit comes in when we’re looking at the intricacies of improving the on-site and browsing experience. When it comes to advanced technical SEO, the power is in your hands… sort of.
If you're an Internet marketer and have to do any kind of site audits, you may benefit from this presentation. It culminates in a Google Doc with 300+ audit checkpoints.
Search Engine Optimization Services by Regalix. Visit http://www.regalix.com or call 1 888 REGALIX to Request a Proposal. For a free sample report email bvictor@regalix-inc.com
SEO Service Corp (SSC) provides free preliminary SEO audit reports of websites upon request. The report is worth $799 in the market. Here is a sample audit report for reference. Visit our website to request a free audit report of your website and identify opportunities for enhancing your visibility.
Computers might already be better at your job than you are. Are you ready to partner with them to keep your job?
This presentation shows you how hard our jobs have become, gives you the results of some of our testing, and outlines a plan to keep our jobs.
Presented at Business of Software Conference, Rand Fishkin (Moz founder and all round great guy) presents his summary of what to love and what to leave in SEO for 2014. In a constantly changing field, Rand stands out as presenting the clearest and most accessible advice on what should work to help your customers find you online.
Watch if you have any responsibility for finding customers, creating content or building marketing.
SEO Monitoring - What, Why, and How - DeepCrawl WebinarJohn Doherty
This presentation covers the what, why, and how of monitoring your SEO activities and data to help you make better decisions.
Tools mentioned:
Moz
SEMrush
Ahrefs
Screaming Frog
Deep Crawl
Google Analytics
Google Search Console
Ebriks-Tips for Google Ranking Evolution.georgepaulv
Ebriks-SEO Services company here showing the details about the Google Ranking Evolution.Google Ranking used a variety of methods to determine which pages are displayed first in the results.The Google Ranking Position Checker tool that we have developed will automatically query Google's search engines.If you want to more info then please on visit www.ebriks.com
Ebriks-Tips for Google Ranking Evolution.georgepaulv
Ebriks-SEO Services company here showing the details about the Google Ranking Evolution.Google Ranking used a variety of methods to determine which pages are displayed first in the results.The Google Ranking Position Checker tool that we have developed will automatically query Google's search engines.If you want to more info then please on visit www.ebriks.com
Practical Seo and internet marketing adviceCharlie Kalech
SEO has changed a lot in the last 3 years (following Panda and Penguin) and radically in the last half year (with an all-new Google algorithm (Hummingbird). Learn how this is a total game-changer and why building links (in a traditional sense) and optimizing for keywords (as we used to) no longer applies
Ranking Factors Data 2011: SMX Elite SydneyRand Fishkin
Rand Fishkin's presentation at SMX Elite in Sydney (Q Station) on ranking factors data form SEOmoz's survey of users and from correlation data collected from Google's rankings.
Rand's presentation from BCAMA covering the shifts in search engines and user behavior that have caused SEO tactics of years past to fail in the modern era.
Keeping Up with Google's Insane Pace of ChangeRand Fishkin
Rand Fishkin's presentation on how marketers can scale with the updates and shifts Google makes on a regular basis, and how to be successful with SEO in 2013.
Presented at the Building a Content Marketing Machine event on February 17th 2016 held at Adobe in Lehi Utah.
John is a San Francisco-based entrepreneur and growth marketer. He is formerly the lead growth manager at Trulia Rentals, head of marketing at HotPads, and the former head of and consultant at Distilled NYC. John got his start in marketing years ago while running a book publishing company in Switzerland.
In his non-work life, he is married to Courtney and they have a very large black labrador named Butterbean.
Pricing your consulting work - SLCSEM DMC2017John Doherty
This is a presentation I gave at SLCSEM's DMC2017 conference. It is the culmination of all that I have learned over the last two years selling consulting work, seeing over 1,000 marketing projects, and speaking with 250+ agencies and consultants as well as the Digital Marketing Pricing Survey released in February 2017 on GetCredo.com - https://www.getcredo.com/digital-marketing-industry-pricing-survey/
Engineering Content at a Growth Startup - This Week in StartupsJohn Doherty
In this presentation for This Week in Startups, I tell startups to not have a blog but rather to focus on bigger pieces of content that they can engineer to repeatedly drive results.
How Startups Can Build A Content Marketing MachineJohn Doherty
This is the case study of how one company built a content marketing machine from scratch through research, iteration, testing, and measurement to increase traffic and leads.
How Startups Can Build A Content Marketing MachineJohn Doherty
This is a case study of the iterations one company went through to find their content marketing machine and move the needle on traffic, links, and conversions.
John Doherty SMX East - Facebook, Twitter, and SEO
The price of technical seo debt final
1. The Price of
Technical SEO Debt
You’re leaving money on the table.
Let’s stop that.
John Doherty - @dohertyjf
2. John Doherty
Director/Lead Consultant at
Distilled NYC
Blogger – johnfdoherty.com
Tweeter - @dohertyjf
Photographer –
johndohertyphotography.com
Usually wears this shirt to
speak
3. I also call this talk “Quit
building links and fix your
freakin’ site.”
8. What can I teach you that you
won’t get here?
Not much, if I’m honest.
9. If you want to learn hardcore
technical SEO, follow these guys
@dsottimano @adamsherk @searchmartin
@thenextcorner @brianprovost @mdsimmonds
They’re smarter than I am and are who I learn from.
10. Read These Awesome Resources
How To Perform The World’s Greatest SEO Audit (SEOmoz)
Craziest Audit Checklist On The Internet (SEER via @anniecushing)
Find Your Biggest Technical Flaws in 60 Minutes (SEOmoz via @dsottimano)
11. Technical SEO Debt defined:
A metaphor referring to the eventual consequences of
poor or evolving architecture or SEO
problems/dependencies within a website.
(paraphrase of Technical Debt on Wikipedia)
16. Client 1 wasn’t ranking
6+ pages targeting every term (high-volume search terms) – low effort
Zero internal linking – high effort
No crawl path to speak of – high effort
Minimal content on “SEO” pages – medium effort
Tons of links - bonus
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
17. Potential Traffic Was
Astronomical
This is for
their top
2100
keywords.
This doesn’t
include
longtail
either. We’re
talking
millions in
revenue per
year.
500,000+ visits per year potential, at $XXX/conversion. WOW.
18. Client 2 wasn’t ranking
No crawl path – medium effort
10,000+ 302 redirects – low effort
No keyword targeting – medium effort
“SEO” content, not valuable content – high effort
Growing #s of links, but not traffic
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
22. Revenue/Effort
Potential revenue * Potential converting traffic/hours*hourly rate
If potential revenue is higher than the total cost to make
the change, it’s worth your time. The bigger the margin,
the easier the case.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/meaningful-seo-metrics
23. *Caveat* - I recommend
being conservative in your
estimates to set yourself up
for success.
24. I want to give you
ammunition for your
bosses/clients
26. Your KPI Is Your Pitch
Whatever your conversion means (revenue, profit, user signup), this is
how you achieve buy-in to fix technical problems.
If we do x, we can expect y. If we don’t do x, y will do z.
Another way to pitch it is “How much/many money/conversions are we
leaving on the table by not making this change?”
http://www.distilled.net/blog/web-analytics/are-you-leaving-mobile-
users-on-the-table/
http://www.seonick.net/seo-business-model/
30. I do one Excel sheet with all my
data, and visualize.
Internal links
External links
DA/PA/mR
Page size
Level in architecture Rank Load time
http://www.johnfdoherty.com/making-seomozs-serp-analysis-tool-more-
awesome/
31. Then graph it and find
anomalies.
Spot the correlations and anomalies – Excel for SEO
34. Bad Information Architecture
Kills Your Rankings/Revenue
Visualize yours vs your competitors. Show ranking and potential traffic
comparison. I used Visio here.
http://seogadget.com/inspiring-sitemap-diagrams/
35. Bad Information Architecture
Kills Your Rankings/Revenue
Visualize yours vs your competitors. Show ranking and potential traffic
comparison. I used Visio here.
If you show this to your VP I will fly to your office and kick you in the shins.
Pitch what they care about, not what you find interesting.
36. I showed it this way too.
Level in
architecture
was closely
correlated to
rankings. We
ranked
terribly, and
this convinced
the exec to
buy into
letting us
make changes.
Competitor comparison is powerful.
37. Pitch the potential $$/users.
5000 potential visitors 5% conversion rate $200 per conversion
$50,000 potential
revenue in this test.
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
38. Show how the investment will
pay off.
5000 potential visitors 5% conversion rate $200 per conversion
$50,000/(hours)*(hourly rate)
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
39. Use Story Time To Get Accurate
Numbers.
The only way to get these numbers as accurate as possible is to get
commitment from the development team about how much time *they*
think it will take.
This is true agile. Some companies call it “story time” where they sit
down, build the “story” of what they want to do, and come to a team
consensus.
40. Pitch a test if necessary.
Getting buy-in is the hardest part, so pitch a test. We did an internal
links test and these are the results we saw across the domain (30%+
increase in keywords and unique ranking URLs).
Protip – execs love these charts. Up and to the right is their language.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/smarter-internal-linking-whiteboard-friday
41. Be sure to report on the results
with KPIs in mind.
Here’s one keyword that we tested (10k/visits mo) and now have buy-in
for more work.
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
42. Use one success to create more
tests for success.
Here’s one keyword that we tested (10k/visits mo) and now have buy-in
for more work.
It worked. Got more buy-in.
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
44. Thin Content Keeps You From
Ranking
In this case,
content on-
page was very
highly
correlated to
rankings/traffic
. This held true
across SERPs
run through
Screaming
Frog.
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
45. Thin Content Keeps You From
Ranking
Added
content to
important
pages. When
the page
already
ranked, saw
a 13.46
position
increase on
average. 5.65
was average
when URL
changed.
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
46. Built upon previous success to
get buy-in and prove worth.
Repeated Success.
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
48. Client Targeted A Keyword
About To Spike in Volume
We hit it here and…
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
49. Client Targeted A Keyword
About To Spike in Volume
Search volume spiked
Months later, we still get converting
traffic from it.
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
50. Client Targeted A Keyword
About To Spike in Volume
You know where I’m going with this now. It’s time to do some more
modeling and show reason for doing it again.
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
51. Pitch the Internal Case Study
If A did B and got us
result C
What we’re saying here is “let’s do it again!” If example A yielded x%
conversion and y number of users, then it’s worth trying to replicate that
success especially since the infrastructure already exists!
John Doherty | @dohertyjf
52. At the end of the day, your
boss should care about
revenue, not rankings.