brightonseo 2017 - seo quick wins from a technical check

@chloebodard | #brightonseo

Technical Check???

@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo


Quick Wins??



Your Go-To Tools



301 REDIRECTS

ROBOTS.TXT FILE

OPTIMISATION SITEMAPS

Top Technical SEO Quick Wins

CANONICAL TAGS


+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.


+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



301 Redirects



● New site?● Older domains?● URL structure changes?● Https migrations?● Relative links?

When Could You Have Issues?



● Missing 301s● Redirect chains ● Broken 301s● 302s● Unnecessary Redirects

What To Look For?



Analyse & Fix the issues.


@chloebodard | #brightonseo@chloebodard | #BrightonSeo


Site migration rushed - resulted in lots of redirect

chains/broken redirects

Redirect chains and broken redirects fixed

301s Case Study


● 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



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



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



Robots.txtFile



User-agent: *Disallow:

Sitemap: https://www.yourwebsite/sitemap.xml

“Make use of the robots.txt file on your web server.”

Google Webmaster Guidelines


https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769


● Disallowing full site post migration● Disallowing CSS/JS files ● Disallowing unexpected URLs● Not disallowing staging site

What Issues Could You Have?



● 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/



Category page!!!


Robots sorted

Technical actions implemented

Robots.txt File Case Study


Improve your crawl budget.



What is a Crawl Budget?



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 URLsEg: /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!)



Add pages irrelevant to search or that you don’t want crawled!

How to Fix It?

User-agent: *Disallow: /blog/tag/Disallow: /whishlist/


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.


How to test your robots?


For more info check out Liam’s blog on How to Improve Your Crawl Budget !

https://www.ricemedia.co.uk/blog/a-guide-to-crawl-budgets-and-crawl-optimisation/

https://www.ricemedia.co.uk/blog/a-guide-to-crawl-budgets-and-crawl-optimisation/


Optimisation



Optimisation Quick Wins?

● Page titles● H1s● Meta descriptions for CTR.



● 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?



How to check?

● Crawl your site

● Look at overview report tab

● Download the SERP Summary report which you can then filter:

MISSING, DUPLICATED & LENGTH



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?


METAS OPTIMISATION


Search Console Search Analytics Report


Page Titles, H1s & Meta descriptions Updated

+46% increase in organic traffic

since!

Optimisation Case Study


● 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



Be a Flamingo in a flock of Pigeons.


Canonical Tags



● Relative URLS● 404s and 301s● Non-preferred domain● Listing URLs canonicalised to the first page

Issues To Look For?



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


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



● 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



Sitemaps



<?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.


https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html#urlsetdef

https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html#urldef

https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html#locdef

https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html#lastmoddef

https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html#changefreqdef

https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html#prioritydef

https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html


● 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?



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



● 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





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


Using Wordpress?

● 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).


Optimising Yoast Sitemaps


Check out Michelle’s AWESOME Sitemap Guide!


https://www.ricemedia.co.uk/blog/sitemap-optimisation-guide/

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 TakeawaysTop 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


BRAUMGroup 57

Canonical Tags

● Use absolute links for canonical tags

● Beware of canonicalising pagination links

Key TakeawaysTop Technical SEO Quick Wins (Part 2)


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


Thank You!

brightonseo 2017 - seo quick wins from a technical check

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