Advanced Technical Hacks to Improve Your Site’s SEOJanuary 2016

Agenda & Speakers

Agenda• Introductions• Advanced Technical Hacks for SEO

• Security • Performance

• Customer Stories • Questions

• Feel free to ask questions using the chat panel throughout the webinar

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Speakers

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Reza MoaiandinSoftware Engineer

Martin WoodsTechnical Digital Marketing Consultant

Patrick StoxSEO Specialist

Peter DumanianHost

Introduction

What is CloudFlare?• Enterprise grade provider of improved website performance &

security • Global CDN with 75 data centers around the world• End-to-end SSL encryption, DDoS protection, and WAF (web

application firewall) • Protection against traffic surges and server overload. Site visitors are

more likely to stay on a website if it appears quickly on their smart phone or computer.

Overview

Across CloudFlare’s 4,000,000+ websites:• 7% of daily Internet web page views• 300 billion page views per month — more than eBay, Twitter, Bing, Wikipedia, Amazon, and Apple

combined• 300 billion+ security threats stopped• 140+ petabytes of bandwidth saved for customers

200GB of log data per minute

CloudFlare

The CloudFlare Global Network

CloudFlare CustomersOver 4 million websites on CloudFlare

Digital Agencies Use CloudFlare for SEO Boost • We have partnered with SALT.agency in the UK to test CloudFlare’s

impact on SEO• We are excited to have SALT talk about its results

Who is SALT.agency?• Technical performance agency• Based in England• International client base (San Francisco to Sydney) and brands• Work with a wide range of clients:

• Fortune 500 / FTSE 100 companies

• Ecommerce

• Successful start-ups (AKA CloudFlare)

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What are we talking about today?• Edge technology is the future present of organic search optimisation• SEO isn’t dead (despite the periodic articles proclaiming so!)• At the core SEO is simply:• Technical excellence

• Compelling content

• Ingenious creative marketing

• Edge technology isn’t just about being #1! It helps make the most of your content & creative marketing through faster, more secure delivery

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SEO in 2016

Mastering SEO Through Technical Excellence• Achieving technical excellence for SEO

(off-page/on-page)• Harnessing the power of CloudFlare to

set yourself apart from the competition

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CloudFlare – the icing on the cake

Technical SEO In 2016•What works & what doesn’t

• For example - people are still putting keywords in meta tags thinking this will influence Google positively (no, we are not joking!)

•On-site architecture• Ecosphere of groups of websites (if applicable)

•On-page code excellency

•Search engine algorithms & their effects

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And More…• Search engine’s crawling and indexing (server logs)• User intent/usability

• User metrics such as speed, bounce rate, CTR, dwell time• User engagement• User protection

• Avoiding your website being hacked and manipulated• Your data being stolen

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Ideal WorldMake the BEST website possible• Researched (business intelligence)• Planned• Project managed• Tested & delivered

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Going the Extra Mile• Security

• Impacts trust, short and long-term• User Brand search goes down• Search engine trust goes down

• Malware• Algorithms warn users• Potentially removes/reduces organic visibility

• Speed & network• Impacts user experience, conversions and algorithms

• Cost• You can spend it elsewhere

All directly affect SEO & ultimately profit18

SolutionsEasier said than done for most companies before CloudFlare existed

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Search Engine Ranking Signals

Ranking Signal - HTTPS

Google considers HTTPS (SSL) ranking signalhttp://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html

Ranking Signal – Malware

Google penalizes websites that are hacked or have malware. It highlights them with labels or completely removes these sites from the

index:https://sites.google.com/site/webmasterhelpforum/en/faq-malware-and-hacked-sites

Ranking Signals – Security Summary• Secure protocol SSL/TSL• Web Application Firewall (Securing your vulnerabilities using the

best minds in the industry)• Hackers can inject malware into your site and Google WILL find it and demote your

rankings

• DDOS protection• If Google can't access your site, it can't index it. Let alone your customers.

• DNSSEC

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Ranking Signal – Site Speed

Google rewards faster loading websites:http

://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking.html

Ranking Signal – Site SpeedTechnical hacks that boost your site’s speed:

• Compression• Minification (CSS, JS, HTML)• Response time• Image Optimization• Browser Caching• How JS & CSS are served• Use of Asynchronous scripts• Use of CDNs• Better headers and caching• Latest server technology (HTTP/2, SPDY, GZIP)

Ranking Signal – Site SpeedHTTP/2 Protocol – the first major upgrade to the HTTP protocol in over 15 years – dramatically speeds up your site.

Live demo: https://www.cloudflare.com/http2/

Pimp My Server & Network• Being on the edge

• Faster DNS response time• Faster CDN• Better global coverage• Lower latency

• Dedicated IP addresses• You will be seen differently in the eyes of search engines, better neighborhood &

associated websites. (If not using private IP address)

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SEO Is Still A Checklist• Algorithms are more intelligent, but are still just based on

metrics, data, and logic.• SEO in 2016 still boils down to a list of things to check off, it’s

just a lot longer, and more complex than a few years ago.• CloudFlare lets you tick more of that list quickly, reliably &

cost effectively• This ultimately means you can spend more time on content,

and creative marketing.

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Technical Hacks Impact on SEO – Case Studies

CloudFlare SEO Case Study & Tests• We've solved many SEO issues for clients using CloudFlare as part of

the solution• Generally we've had many positive results• On one occasion for a high traffic website we ran into a problem

• DDoS issues• Global speed issues• Outgrown hosting capabilities and needed quick fix without high hosts

• The client was very heavily dependent on organic search (over 80% of the traffic)

The Problem• Initial steps

• Client was put behind CloudFlare• DDoS was no longer the problem• Global speed issues were instantly solved by CloudFlare's CDN

• Problem arose• SEO visibility dropped resulting in a fall in traffic (roughly 10%, in

our case 1.5 million visitors per month)

The Dilemma• Back to getting DDoS and serve content slowly?• Stay on CloudFlare and find another solution

It was as simple as that…

The Solution• Following extensive testing it was obvious that the problem came

from the IP address change (extremely competitive niche & privacy driven)

• The solution was to put the site on a private IP address and remove the association given by the shared IP address completely

• Client was put on a private IP address through the CloudFlare business plan

• SEO visibility returned to normal within 5 days• SEO visibility continued to grow based on optimization (by 5%) within

a month

Fascination and Further Tests with CloudFlare• Following our experience we tried to measure the SEO impact with

other clients that were not adversely affected by being on CloudFlare's shared IP address

• Working with CloudFlare, we put three other websites on the CloudFlare business plan. This put them on a private IP address.

• We also used CloudFlare’s dynamic content optimization product, Railgun.

Summary Results #1: Online Services Provider website

• Over 30% increase in ranking positions• 21.5% Increase in traffic as a result• 28,000 => 34,000 users a day

Client taken onto CloudFlare Enterprise in July 2015

Summary Results #2: E-commerce website

• Over 8% Increase in number of first page ranking positions

• 17.4% Increase in traffic as a result• Average 1,150 => 1,350 users a day

Client taken onto CloudFlare Enterprise in September 2015

Summary Results #3: Lead Generation website

• Over 13% Increase in Ranking positions• 9% Increase in traffic as a result• Average 1,100 => 1,200 users a day

Client taken onto CloudFlare Enterprise in September 2015

Questions?

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Advanced Technical Hacks to Improve Your Site’s SEOJanuary 2016