This document discusses SEO testing and experimentation. It provides examples of types of SEO tests that could be done, such as pre-post testing, A/B testing, and combining different measurement approaches. Specific cases are also mentioned, like testing the impact of internal linking, HTML sitemaps, and changes to page titles and meta descriptions. The document emphasizes that SEO testing takes work to set up properly and find meaningful results, but it is important for identifying what strategies are truly effective.

1. SEO testing: Find out
what works for SEO
@MartijnSch
Martijn Scheybeler
VP Marketing at RVshare

2. 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋
Who has done SEO testing?
@MARTIJNSCH

3. 🫵 🫵 🫵 🫵 🫵 🫵
I bet, you’ve all done SEO testing
@MARTIJNSCH

4. 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋
Who has done SEO experimentation?
@MARTIJNSCH

5. What is SEO Testing?
How can YOU do SEO
experimentation?
What’s been tested?
@MARTIJNSCH

6. “WHAT MOVES THE 💉 ?
* NEEDLE
”
@MARTIJNSCH

7. “ WHAT CAUSES THE
NEEDLE TO MOVE.
”
@MARTIJNSCH
Figuring out if correlation actually does mean causation.

8. “ WHAT CAUSES THE
NEEDLE TO MOVE.
”
@MARTIJNSCH
Figuring out if correlation actually does mean causation.
Consistently!

10. Can you
fi
nd what works
across multiple sites?
@MARTIJNSCH
Figuring out if correlation actually does mean causation.

11. Does changing X work for site Y?
@MARTIJNSCH
Lucky you! You’re moving the needle for your business, keep it up! 🥇

12. Does changing X work in vertical Y?
@MARTIJNSCH
Holy smokes! You might have found something that is repeatable and could impact results in 1 industry.

13. Does changing X work in vertical Y,
across industries Z, A, B, C?
@MARTIJNSCH
Well holy 💨🔥 you might have found something that could mean correlation == causation.

14. Can you create a 🛝📕?
@MARTIJNSCH

15. Taking the 🎨 out of 🧬
@MARTIJNSCH
Figuring out if correlation actually does mean causation.

16. Don’t worry, 🎨 is still important.
@MARTIJNSCH
You still have to come up with what to test, and be creative on how to best implement/strategize it.

17. This is NOT simple.
@MARTIJNSCH
Have you ever read a science paper? Doesn’t matter the type of science.

18. What is SEO Testing?
How can YOU do SEO
experimentation?
What’s been tested?
@MARTIJNSCH

19. WHAT WORKS & CAN SCALE?
@MARTIJNSCH

20. How to Test
@MARTIJNSCH

21. @MARTIJNSCH

22. @MARTIJNSCH
Pre - Post
Content Testing Technical SEO Internal Linking
Uplift Uplift + Pre/Post
✅ ❌ ❌
❌ ✅ ✅
Analysis
Engineering
Scalable

23. @MARTIJNSCH

24. Version A
Template
Version B
Version 2
Version 1 Version 4
Version 3
Distributing Tra
ffi
c in SEO Experimentation
25% of pages 25% of pages 25% of pages 25% of pages
50% of pages 50% of pages
@MARTIJNSCH

25. Lessons Learned (the 🤺 way)
Learning 1:
Divide in 4,
not in 2
Learning 2:
Have a
hypothesis
Learning 3:
Be able to
analyze!
Avoid Analysis = Paralysis
Having One is Better Than Nothing
Provide More Control For Anomalies
* HARD
@MARTIJNSCH

26. Bonus Lesson
Learning 4:
Business
Criteria
Make Money & Be Aware of Business Rules
@MARTIJNSCH

27. Solutions/‘Software’ for SEO Testing
🛠
DIY Similar.ai
@MARTIJNSCH

28. Going Advanced 🛠
Aka. You don’t have engineers or support to solve (your) issues.
@MARTIJNSCH

29. Edge SEO
Through
@MARTIJNSCH
or other providers.
Rewrite on the 🦋
* FLY

30. How do you know what worked?
@MARTIJNSCH

31. Measurement Framework
Often Measure Backwards: Transactions > Sessions > Indexed > Crawled > Published.
@MARTIJNSCH

32. Pre-Post / A versus B / Combined
@MARTIJNSCH

33. Pre-Post Analysis
@MARTIJNSCH
————
July 2022
Initial launch of the page.
————
September 2022
You changed the META description
and tweaked the title to better align.
🚀 📈
————
October 2022
Results are taking off!

34. Version A
Template
Version B
Version 2
Version 1 Version 4
Version 3
A/B Testing
25% of pages 25% of pages 25% of pages 25% of pages
50% of pages 50% of pages
@MARTIJNSCH

35. Version A
Template
Version B
Post
Pre Post
Pre
Combining measurement theories
Month X Month Y
50% of pages 50% of pages
@MARTIJNSCH
Month X Month Y

36. Did the 🌎 around you change?
@MARTIJNSCH
Offsetting 🦢 Black Swan Events with Actual Results

37. Upstream/Industry Metrics
Google Search Console
Search Volume & Number of Ranked Keywords + CTR%
@MARTIJNSCH
SEMrush / Ahrefs
Search Visibility & Average Ranked Keywords

38. Internal Metrics
🪵
Log Files
# of Pages Crawled & Crawl Frequency
Google Search Console
# of Pages Indexed & Other Metrics
Google Analytics
Tra
ffi
c + Transactions & Other Business Metrics
@MARTIJNSCH

39. SEO Experimentation should
drive revenue but it’s not always
the intent
@MARTIJNSCH
“ ”

40. Case 1:
Internal Linking
Case 2:
HTML Sitemaps + XML Sitemaps
Case 3:
Title & META Description
@MARTIJNSCH

41. XML SITEMAP PING
🛠
Letting a search engine know that an XML sitemap
has been refreshed/updated by pinging them seems
like something that could speed up the crawl of the
actual XML sitemap which speeds up indexation?
Idea
By pinging Google and Bing after an XML sitemap is
updated, we expect to see an increase in time to
discovery/crawl of the new URLs and the XML
sitemap being crawled.
Hypothesis
After an XML sitemap has been regenerated, we
send a ping to Google and Bing with the URL of the
XML sitemap.
Solution
Measured the impact in our log
fi
les of Google and
Bing looking at the XML sitemap after the ping and
saw an immediate crawl basically start to happen.
Down the line this was leading to faster discovery of
URLs and re-crawls which was a primary objective.
Learning
💡
🤑
🧐
🛠
@MARTIJNSCH

42. INTERNAL LINKING
After creating hundreds of guides over the years
around popular destinations for camper rentals. We
needed to make sure that all the long-tail keywords
that it picked up along the way are properly getting
attention through internal links.
Idea
Will adding internal links push the internal authority
of guides for long-tail keywords. We think this will
push the average ranking of pages.
Hypothesis
Implement Similar.ai to enable us to create link
blocks on the
fl
y based on our own business needs.
Solution
Don’t have all learnings, yet. But important to realize
that the smallest impact on this test will have a long.
Learning
💡
🤑
🧐
🛠
@MARTIJNSCH

43. If you’re hoping for just 📈 results…
Yeah, I’m sorry! 📉
@MARTIJNSCH

44. HTML SITEMAP
🛠 DIY
With the amount of orphaned pages it’s becoming a
problem to get more additional pages ranked for
long-tail keywords.
Idea
By adding HTML sitemaps we’re able to provide
internal links to currently orphaned pages. This will
help power additional rankings for long-tail
keywords.
Hypothesis
Implement HTML sitemaps that will list links to
currently orphaned pages.
Solution
Adding HTML sitemaps and providing a crawlable
structure increased the number of pages indexed by
X%.
Learning
💡
🤑
🧐
🛠
@MARTIJNSCH

45. Who’s already doing this❓
&
Who can you learn from❓
@MARTIJNSCH

46. Share results! 📈📉
@MARTIJNSCH
A negative result of your experiment is NOT a failure, it’s a learning. So share it!

47. 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋
Want to do more with this next week?
@MARTIJNSCH

48. Confidential Do Not Share
Thank you.
Enjoy BrightonSEO!