bigger companies but high bureaucracy to implement More flexibility to implement in smaller companies but lower resources More complexity to manage SEO project execution
and how issues are found, as well as how to fix them Errors URLs (4xx, 5xx) Redirected URLs (301s, 302s) Canonicalized URLs Noindexed URLs … … WHAT CAUSE THEM? HOW THEY’RE FOUND? PLATFORM BUG NOT SET RULES … LINKING PAGES XML SITEMAPS … HOW TO FIX THEM AFFECTED URLS
ARE CANONICALIZED TO OTHERS TO WHAT PAGES DO THEY CANONICALIZE? FROM WHAT PAGES ARE THEY LINKED? Do these URLs need to be canonicalized to others? Do these canonicalized URLs need to be linked from these pages? If so, do these links need to be crawlable? Are they canonicalizing to the relevant indexable URLs? Are the links followed? Attach the identified data segmented by scenario, to facilitate their implementation and validation
SALES FOR COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE BY REMOTE PROFESSIONALS INCREASE 400% TRAFFIC TO MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL CONTENT OF COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE FOR REMOTE WORKERS GROW 250% ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC TO COMMS SOFTWARE LISTINGS, COMPARISONS, REVIEWS AND PRODUCTS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 3 POSITIONS OF CURRENT TOP 10 FOR MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL QUERIES TARGETED BY SOFTWARE LISTINGS AND COMPARISONS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 10 PILLAR PAGES OF COMMS SOFTWARE FOR REMOTE PROFESSIONALS …. 1. YOU’RE TRYING TO GET THIS 2. TO OBTAIN THIS! Biz Goals [What Decision Makers care About] SEO goals [What SEOs care about] Start by establishing top-to-down SEO goals for your process that connect with your business ones
SOFTWARE BY REMOTE PROFESSIONALS INCREASE 300% TRAFFIC & 50% CONVERSIONS OF MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL CONTENT OF COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE FOR REMOTE WORKERS …. TOP-TO-DOWN SEO GOALS SEO goals [What SEOs care about] TOP-TO-DOWN CONTENT GOALS INCREASE 150% SALES FOR COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE BY REMOTE PROFESSIONALS IMPROVE KEY REMOTE WORK USER JOURNEY CONTENT ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC BY 250% INCREASE 300% TRAFFIC & 50% CONVERSIONS OF MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL CONTENT OF COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE FOR REMOTE WORKERS GROW 250% ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC TO COMMS SOFTWARE LISTINGS, COMPARISONS, REVIEWS AND PRODUCTS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 3 POSITIONS OF CURRENT TOP 10 FOR MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL QUERIES TARGETED BY SOFTWARE LISTINGS AND COMPARISONS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 10 PILLAR PAGES OF COMMS SOFTWARE FOR REMOTE PROFESSIONALS IMPROVE KEY REMOTE WORK USER JOURNEY CONTENT SOCIAL TRAFFIC BY 50% Content goals [What the Content team cares about] …. IMPROVE KEY REMOTE WORK USER JOURNEY CONTENT ENGAGEMENT BY 50% Biz Goals [What Decision Makers care About] They will allow you to easily get decision-makers buy-in as well as stakeholders support
SOFTWARE BY REMOTE PROFESSIONALS INCREASE 300% TRAFFIC & 50% CONVERSIONS OF MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL CONTENT OF COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE FOR REMOTE WORKERS …. TOP-TO-DOWN SEO GOALS GROW 250% ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC TO COMMS SOFTWARE LISTINGS, COMPARISONS, REVIEWS AND PRODUCTS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 3 POSITIONS OF CURRENT TOP 10 FOR MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL QUERIES TARGETED BY SOFTWARE LISTINGS AND COMPARISONS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 10 PILLAR PAGES OF COMMS SOFTWARE FOR REMOTE PROFESSIONALS As well as to connect each SEO action to goals, allowing to focus on impact and show its importance 1. RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE X WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE SITE RANKINGS? WHERE HAS BEEN FOUND AND IS GENERATED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 HOW CAN IT BE FIXED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 Screens hot SEO Effect Affected Areas Business Importance Optimization Status Execution Difficulty Required resources Priority High Paginations Medium Low Low Technical High 1. WILL HELP TO ACHIEVE THIS 2. TO OBTAIN THIS
use the SMARTER principles, to ensure impact and meaningfulness SMARTER Specific [Significant] Measurable [Meaningful] Attainable [Action Oriented] Relevant [Rewarding] Time-Bound [Trackable] Evaluated [Ethical] Reviewed [Rewarding]
YoY of X, Y, Z product lines” Specific [Significant]: Will allow to achieve the desired business goals (+150% sales) Measurable [Meaningful]: Organic search revenue, traffic and rankings can be tracked Attainable [Action Oriented]: You’ll have reasonable time to see results (1 year) Relevant [Rewarding]: It will impact the relevant areas/sections to achieve sales goals Time-Bound [Trackable]: It should be achieved during a specific time (1 year) Evaluated [Ethical]: Its evolution will be assessed at the end of each month Reviewed [Rewarding]: Its activities will be reviewed based on their impact
with Miracle’s guide, showing the impact on revenue too https://erudite.agency/insights/forecasting-for-seo-creating-expectation-and-showing-return-on-investment/
a SMARTER SEO goal? It’s a non-problem and shouldn’t be prioritized then INCREASE 150% SALES FOR COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE BY REMOTE PROFESSIONALS INCREASE 300% TRAFFIC & 50% CONVERSIONS OF MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL CONTENT OF COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE FOR REMOTE WORKERS …. TOP-TO-DOWN SEO GOALS GROW 250% ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC TO COMMS SOFTWARE LISTINGS, COMPARISONS, REVIEWS AND PRODUCTS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 3 POSITIONS OF CURRENT TOP 10 FOR MID-BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL QUERIES TARGETED BY SOFTWARE LISTINGS AND COMPARISONS PAGES TAKE INTO TOP 10 PILLAR PAGES OF COMMS SOFTWARE FOR REMOTE PROFESSIONALS 1. RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE X WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE SITE RANKINGS? WHERE HAS BEEN FOUND AND IS GENERATED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 HOW CAN IT BE FIXED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 Screens hot SEO Effect Affected Areas Business Importance Optimization Status Execution Difficulty Required resources Priority High Paginations Medium Low Low Technical High 1. WILL HELP TO ACHIEVE THIS? 2. TO OBTAIN THIS? X
the bottom line comparing unoptimized pages performance vs optimized ones SHOW HOW YOU’RE LOSING MONEY WITH NON-OPTIMIZED CATEGORIES COMPARING WITH OPTIMIZED ONES Google Analytics
WITH LOW DIFFICULTY MEDIUM PRIORITY HIGH IMPACT WITH MEDIUM DIFFICULTY MEDIUM IMPACT WITH LOW DIFFICULTY LOW PRIORITY MEDIUM IMPACT WITH MEDIUM DIFFICULTY HIGH IMPACT WITH HIGH DIFFICULTY DON’T PRIORITIZE MEDIUM IMPACT WITH HIGH DIFFICULTY LOW IMPACT IMPACT 1 3 2 + DIFFICULTY + - 2 3 Prioritize the recommendations to start with those with higher potential impact and lower difficulty
effect The business importance Current optimization Required resources Known restrictions Scope IMPACT DIFFICULTY The impact and difficulty will be relative, connected to the site goals and complexity of implementation
& Prioritize 2. To Assess & Prioritize Assess and prioritize based on your own project status, goals and restrictions/requirements Recommendation Impact [0-10] Effort [0-10] To Prioritize Higher Medium impacting with high effort 6 4 12 Low impacting with high effort 4 4 8 Low impacting with very high effort 4 2 6 Very low impacting with very high effort 2 2 4
implement fast and assess impact vs similar unchanged ones: * Positive result? Replicate to rest. * Negative outcome? Move to other implementations! Recommend to Run tests to assess and see if there are alternate ways to achieve the same results
Content Audit T echnical Audit Link Popularity Audit SEO Strategy & Prioritized SEO Roadmap Initial SEO Analysis for an SEO Process Parallel Low Hanging Fruit Assessment Low Hanging Fruit SEO Opportunities Assessment SEO Roadmap Implementation Low Hanging Fruit SEO Recommendations Low Hanging Fruit SEO Implementation Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 SEO Process Goals These are strategy agnostic SEO opportunities that can be done in parallel to the initial SEO analysis
Poor SERPs CTR Relevant Term for your Site Non-Relevant Ranked Page Lack of content to be created to effectively address the query Non-Relevant / Unattractive Titles and Meta Descriptions to Optimize Relevant Ranked Page SERP features inclusion that you’re not leveraging but could SERP features inclusion that you’re not leveraging but can’t use More ads inclusion that lowers CTR Search intent satisfied directly in search results, generating a non-click Content Cannibalization to fix between many similar/relevant pages High Priority Medium Priority No Priority For example, improving the CTR of top-ranked pages for relevant, popular queries
impatience towards results Show value of SEO implementation to gain further support Minimize concerns of complex implementations starting with easiest actions Establish a good coordination base for more complex implementation later on This doesn’t only allow you to achieve results faster but helps to address some of the big SEO challenges
develop the actions for each SEO recommendations, making them actionable & clear WHAT IS IT ABOUT WHY IS IT IMPORTANT HOW IT SHOULD BE IDEALLY WHO SHOULD IMPLEMENT WHERE HAS IT BEEN FOUND 1. RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE X WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE SITE RANKINGS? WHERE HAS BEEN FOUND AND IS GENERATED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 HOW CAN IT BE FIXED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 Screens hot SEO Effect Affected Areas Business Importance Optimization Status Execution Difficulty Required resources Priority High Paginations Medium Low Low Technical High WHEN SHOULD IT BE DONE
each of the recommendations, highlighting the 5Ws & the H WHAT IS IT ABOUT WHY IS IT IMPORTANT HOW IT SHOULD BE IDEALLY WHO SHOULD IMPLEMENT WHERE HAS IT BEEN FOUND 1. RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE X WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE SITE RANKINGS? WHERE HAS BEEN FOUND AND IS GENERATED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 HOW CAN IT BE FIXED? Screens hot SCENARIO 1 Screens hot SEO Effect Affected Areas Business Importance Optimization Status Execution Difficulty Required resources Priority High Paginations Medium Low Low Technical High WHEN SHOULD IT BE DONE SEO Recommendation Summary
How does it affect the site rankings? Where it has been found and how is generated? Screensh ot Scenario 1 How can it be fixed? Screensh ot Scenario 1 Screensh ot Efecto SEO Areas Afectadas Importancia Negocio Estado Optimización Dificultad Ejecución Recursos Ejecución Prioridad ALTO PAGINACIONE S MEDIO BAJO NA TECNICO 1 1. Recommendation to improve X Screensh ot Why is important? How does it affect the site rankings? Where it has been found and how is generated? Screensho t Scenario 1 How can it be fixed? Screensho t Scenario 1 Screensho t Efecto SEO Areas Afectadas Importancia Negocio Estado Optimización Dificultad Ejecución Recursos Ejecución Prioridad ALTO PAGINACIONES MEDIO BAJO NA TECNICO 2 2. Recommendation to fix Y Screensho t Why is important? How does it affect the site rankings? Where it has been found and how is generated? Screensh ot Scenario 1 How can it be fixed? Screensh ot Scenario 1 Screensh ot Efecto SEO Areas Afectadas Importancia Negocio Estado Optimización Dificultad Ejecución Recursos Ejecución Prioridad ALTO PAGINACIONES MEDIO BAJO NA TECNICO 3 3. Recommendation to improve Z Screensh ot START WITH HIGHEST PRIORITY The document organization should be prioritized, starting with the highest priority recommendations
Prioritized SEO Recommendations Template in Google Slides for it HTTPS://DOCS.GOOGLE.COM/PRESENTATION/D/1NBI_KDHYHHUKQNSJ1CCQFM4KABLNYBN8BFGW955IIBC/VIEW
BUSINESS IMPORTANCE CURRENT OPTIMIZATION CONTENT SUPPORT TECH SUPPORT LINKBUILDING SUPPORT IMPLEMENTATION DIFFICULTY VALIDATED PRIORITY PAGE PERSON IN CHARGE IMPLEMENTA TION DATE LAUNCHING DATE NOINDEX AND BLOCK CRAWLING OF INTERNAL SEARCH RESULT PAGES THAT GENERATE CONTENT DUPLICATION INTERNAL SEARCH RESULT PAGES HIGH LOW LOW NO YES NO LOW 1 1 MARIA 01/08/2021 15/08/2021 INDEX THE PAGES OF COLORED FILTERS WITH SEARCH VOLUME HIGHER THAN 100 COLORED FILTERED PAGES OF SUB- CATEGORIES HIGH HIGH LOW YES YES NO MEDIUM 2 5 MARIA 15/08/2021 30/08/2021 301 REDIRECT OLD PAGES WITH 404 HTTP STATUS PAGES ATTRACTING EXTERNAL LINKS OLD BLOG POSTS FROM PREVIOUS BLOG VERSION MEDIUM MEDIUM LOW NO YES NO MEDIUM 4 10 JAVIER 30/08/2021 15/09/2021 DIFFERENTIATE SUB- CATEGORIES pages TITLES INCLUDING THE SUB- CATEGORY NAME IN THEM SUB-CATEGORY PAGES MEDIUM MEDIUM MEDIUM YES YES NO MEDIUM 3 15 JAVIER 15/09/2021 30/09/2021 WHAT WHY WHERE WHO WHEN HOW The 5Ws and H will also facilitate recos planning and coordination with other team members too
the SEO recommendations & gathered data for operational stakeholders Executive Summary SEO Recommendations Gathered SEO Issues Data …. Operational Stakeholders
& organization that facilitate stakeholders & decision-makers to review Executive Summary SEO Recommendations Gathered SEO Issues Data …. Google Slides Google Docs Google Sheets
the job? Who is ACCOUNTABLE for final decisions and ultimate ownership? Who is CONSULTED before a decision or action is taken? Who is INFORMED that the decision or action has been taken? Along the RACI model to establish the SEO process roles & responsibilities for each action
avoid crawlability/indexability/Page Experience issues that will hold the site pages back from ranking well IMPROVE Optimizing existing site content for already targeted relevant queries to Improve their rankings, traf fi c & conversions BUILD Creating Content to Target New Relevant Queries through user search journey aligning with product/ marketing initiatives to achieve business goals The Pyramid of SEO Success Needs We’re stuck fixing and improving, rather than building which is how we actually get results to the next level
and monitoring measures for an optimal execution SEO RECOS ONGOING SEO IMPLEMENTATION SEO QUALITY ASSURANCE FRAMEWORK EDUCATION To prevent SEO mistakes VALIDATION To avoid launching SEO Errors MONITORING To catch SEO incidents fast
SEO GUIDELINES/WIKI ONLINE SEO TRAINING AND Q&AS FOR TECH/CONTENT/ [STAKEHOLDERS] TEAMS RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS FEATURING SEO CONCEPTS & IMPORTANCE TOWARDS GOALS INCLUDE A “WHY DOES THIS MATTER” SECTION IN AUDIT & REPORTS CREATE PERSONALIZED GUIDELINES WITHIN WIKI/PM PLATFORM DO LIVE (AND RECORD) WEBINARS & Q&AS WITH INVOLVED TEAMS Establish your SEO Quality Framework with a base of SEO education when delivering SEO recommendations
the team/ audience profile Feature real scenarios & examples from your SEO audit & research Don’t blame or have a negative focus, acknowledge efforts so far It’s critical to show the value of SEO in other teams’ goals, to establish understanding & minimize issues
VALIDATION CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST FOR COMMON WORKFLOWS RECURRING / ONGOING SEO TECH/CONTENT VALIDATION PRE & POST WEB RELEASES SET RECURRING CRAWLS WITH SEO CRAWLERS WEB PLATFORMS SEO CONFIGURATION CHECKS CREATE EASY TO FOLLOW/USE CHECKLISTS FOR USUAL ACTIVITIES Strengthen your SEO Quality Framework with a seamless SEO execution validation workflow
the Web platform w/ plugins & Dev support INDEXABLE CATEGORY PAGES WITH <3 INVENTORY & NO SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION HAS > N TRAFFIC OBFUSCATE LINKS, ELIMINATE FROM XML SITEMAPS AND CANONICALIZE PARENT CATEGORY TARGETS QUERY > Y SEARCH VOLUME HAS FEATURED >3 PRODUCTS IN LAST X MONTHS NO YES NO YES NO KEEP INDEXED AND ADD SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION
with devs, to crawling before & after launching PRE-RELEASE SEO VALIDATION: OK? SEO IMPLEMENTATION YES NO YES ON-GOING SEO VALIDATION SEO RELEASE NO FIX POST-RELEASE SEO VALIDATION: OK? YES NO FIX ON-GOING SEO VALIDATION: OK? FIX
to establish actions if incidents arise PRE-RELEASE SEO VALIDATION: OK? SEO IMPLEMENTATION YES NO YES ON-GOING SEO VALIDATION SEO RELEASE NO FIX POST-RELEASE SEO VALIDATION: OK? YES NO FIX ON-GOING SEO VALIDATION: OK? YES NO FIX IN LESS 24H REVERSE IMPLEMENTATION
CHANGES ALERTS WEBSITE SEARCH CRAWLING ISSUES ALERTS WEB RANKINGS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC & CONVERSIONS DECREASE/ INCREASE ALERTS QUERIES SEARCH POPULARITY DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS MENTIONS & BACKLINKS ALERTS SPAM OR MANUAL ACTIONS ALERTS It’s about catching critical SEO configurations and KPIs changes fast to take action before it’s too late WEB ANALYTICS TOOLS SEO CONFIGURATION ALERTS TOOLS (LITTLE WARDEN, CONTENTKING) WEB SERVER LOG MONITORING TOOL AND SEARCH CONSOLE RANK TRACKERS SEARCH TRENDS TOOLS MENTIONS/BACKLINKS TOOLS GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
VALIDATION ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC & CONVERSIONS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS WEB RANKINGS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS QUERIES SEARCH POPULARITY DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS WEB CONTENT & TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION CHANGES ALERTS CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST FOR COMMON WORKFLOWS COMPANY CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO GUIDELINES/WIKI ONLINE SEO TRAINING AND Q&AS FOR TECH/CONTENT/[STAKEHOLDERS] TEAMS RECURRING / ONGOING SEO TECH/CONTENT VALIDATION PRE & POST WEB RELEASES EDUCATION VALIDATION MONITORING MENTIONS & BACKLINKS ALERTS WEBSITE SEARCH CRAWLING ISSUES ALERTS SPAM OR MANUAL ACTIONS ALERTS SEO QUALITY ASSURANCE FRAMEWORK RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS FEATURING SEO CONCEPTS & IMPORTANCE TOWARDS GOALS This is how you establish the base to avoid continuous SEO F*ck Ups that hold your execution back
That Matter, that drives the SEO execution for Success Make your SEO audits solutions focused to develop action driven recommendations Connect each of your SEO recommendations to SMARTER SEO goals Prioritize your SEO recommendations based on impact and effort, with SEO low- hanging fruits Format SEO recommendations to facilitate actionability and collaboration Establish ongoing actions to prevent new SEO issues & leverage opportunities during the process
I’m Aleyda Solis * SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti * SEO Speaker at +100 Events in +20 countries * Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.” * Crawling Mondays Video & Podcast Series Host * #SEOFOMO Newsletter Wrangler * Maker LearningSEO.io * European Search Personality of the Year in 2018 * remoters.net Co-Founder Thank you! Questions?