Your SEO Experience Is Holding You Back - DeepCrawl Webinar - May 2020

Your SEO Experience is
Holding You Back
Emily Potter
@e_mpotter

?
Where we get our data &
some SEO A/B Testing 101

Meta-CMS function to make on-the-fly changes

We split large groups of pages into two groups
CatsH1
Intro copy
Featured image
BearsH1
Featured video
Control template Variant template

Positive test result - organic traﬀic increases
Organic traﬀic changeCats Bears

Negative test result - organic traﬀic drops

Inconclusive test result - no measurable impact

Here’s a selection of things our platform accounts for:
● Seasonality

● Seasonality
● Unanticipated spikes in demand

● Seasonality
● Algorithm updates

● Seasonality
● Unrelated sitewide changes

● Seasonality
● Unrelated sitewide changes
● Competitor actions

Tom Anthony
● Created SearchPilot platform

Dominic Woodman
● First SearchPilot consultant

● 35% conclusive
● 65% inconclusive
Test result breakdown before 2019

Emily Potter
● Joined as consultant February 2019

Test result breakdown after 2019
● 43% conclusive
● 57% inconclusive

Year entered the SEO industry:
2013 2005 2018

And if you want to learn more...
Follow us @SearchPilot
Sign up at bit.ly/sp-email-list for our latest case studies
Visit www.searchpilot.com to sign up for a demo

Is “best practice” best?1.
Ranking factors need not apply2.
...but some things don’t change3.
Takeaways and Q&A4.

Most “best practice”
SEO tactics fail
@e_mpotter

SEO Technical Audit
How often have you recommended this?

How often have you recommended this?
SEO Technical Audit
[Opener] + [Description with primary and
secondary keywords] + [CTA]

91% of meta description
changes had no
detectable impact

Meta tag
Google generated
Meta tag
Google generated
Google generated
Google generated
We’re seeing
this more and
more

Why don’t we just
remove them?

Removing meta descriptions on pharmacy store website
*Disclaimer: Identifying details have been changed to protect client privacy

Result
POSITIVE

Old school
Writing an enticing meta
description will drive more
clicks to your website

Satisfying user intent will drive
more traﬀic to your website
New school

Swap “best practice”
for a user approach

Except users are really
hard to predict

What if we used
FAQ schema
instead?

What if some SEO at IMDb wanted to do this?

You can only have 1:
Rating/Price or FAQ
@e_mpotter

Results
NEGATIVE

Results
NEGATIVE
POSITIVE

Be sure to test which
schema is most valuable
for your site

What if IMDb did this and hadn’t tested?
NEGATIVE

Big brands win by not
making mistakes

Fixing broken breadcrumb schema
https://www.searchpilot.com/people/e-potter
Add schema for
breadcrumbs

https://www.searchpilot.com > About > People
Add schema for
breadcrumbs

NEGATIVE

Even previously beneficial
changes can turn bad

Before After

Competitors had it

Old school
Adding breadcrumb schema
improves organic CTRs

Users may think this link won’t
take them to a swimwear page
New school

Takeaway
Don’t blindly follow “best
practice” approaches
@e_mpotter

Takeaway
Implement a user centric
approach instead
@e_mpotter

Takeaway
Accept you don’t always
know what the results will
be and test
@e_mpotter
(especially if you’re a big brand)

“For high volume queries,
traditional ranking factors
matter less in top 5 results
”
-Tom Capper

For top ranking brands,
we don’t know what a
ranking factor is anymore

Implementing new product page template
$60
Shop our over 600 diﬀerent styles of women’s shoes to complete your
wardrobe. We have heels, boots, trainers, and any other type of shoe you
could imagine. All our shoes come with free shipping and handling.
Dresses Jackets Shoes Activewear Accessories
Women's Shoes
654 results
New In!
Red heels
$55
Teal heels Black heels
$65

React is a JavaScript
framework that is
popular with developers

It can create beautiful user experiences

For this test, nothing visible on the page changed

Just some parts of the the page now utilised React
Now loads
in React

Just some parts of the the page now utilised React
Now loads
in React
POSITIVE

First, the page was server side rendered
Now loads
in React
POSITIVE

Second, the JavaScript made the page load faster
Now loads
in React
POSITIVE

Takeaway
JavaScript changes made
with both users and SEO
in mind can be winners
@e_mpotter

Takeaway
Testing allows you to work
with, instead of against,
product teams
@e_mpotter

Moving the search widget to top of the page

Moving the search widget to top of the page
NEGATIVE

Old school
Changes to content need to be
made to impact rankings

Improved user signals can have
subsequent benefits for SEO
New school

Takeaway
Things that previously used
to not impact SEO, now do
@e_mpotter

Takeaway
Work with your product
teams, to make sure you
both of you don’t screw up
@e_mpotter

...but some things don’t change3.

Internal linking between main and sub-category pages
Mammals Reptiles AmphibiansBirds
Cats DogsBears Snakes TortoisesLizards Owls DucksFinches Frogs NewtsToads

Typical A/B test, we change the pages that are impacted
CatsH1
Intro copy
Featured image
BearsH1
Featured video

Internal linking impacts
changes being linked from
and being linked to

Our example has main categories and subcategories

But -- this is an A/B test so we can only change half
VariantControl

We want to know what happens here
VariantControl

And here...
VariantControl

And the combined eﬀect
VariantControl

Adding subcategory links to main category pages
VariantControl

Website #1 - Fashion e-commerce

NEGATIVE
POSITIVE
Main categories
Sub categories

Net result
VariantControl
NEUTRAL

POSITIVE
Main categories
Sub categories
POSITIVE

Net result
VariantControl
POSITIVE

Website #1 had more links than website #2
+15 links

Website #1 had more links than website #2
+6 links

Website #1 was keyword stuﬀing

Website #2 improved relevancy signals

Website #2 created new pathways for users

Website #1 already had links in faceted navigation

Takeaway
Internal linking is
complicated, but getting it
right can have big benefits
@e_mpotter

Takeaway
No two websites (or tests)
are the same
@e_mpotter

Don’t blindly follow
“best practice”
approaches, most fail
Test it.
@e_mpotter

Test it.
Instead, follow a
user-centric approach
to SEO
@e_mpotter

For big brands,
ranking factors need
not apply
Test it.
@e_mpotter

Big brands win by not
making mistakes
Test it.
@e_mpotter

Thank you!
Follow us @SearchPilot
Sign up at bit.ly/sp-email-list for our latest case studies
Visit www.searchpilot.com to sign up for a demo
@e_mpotter

Your SEO Experience Is Holding You Back - DeepCrawl Webinar - May 2020

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (20)

Similaire à Your SEO Experience Is Holding You Back - DeepCrawl Webinar - May 2020

Similaire à Your SEO Experience Is Holding You Back - DeepCrawl Webinar - May 2020 (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Your SEO Experience Is Holding You Back - DeepCrawl Webinar - May 2020