How to Fight 100 Horse-Sized Ducks: Technical SEO Strategies for Multiple Large Sites

Building a technical SEO strategy for a large website can be tricky. Building a technical SEO strategy for several large websites can be REALLY tricky. Between overlapping and contradictory technologies, internationalisation and staying in the good books of several development teams, forging a path to SEO health can be a huge struggle. In this talk Chris will not only break this gargantuan task into manageable chunks, he will also explain what he is well aware is a very strange name for a talk.

Transcript

1. How to Fight 100 Horse-Sized Ducks: Technical SEO Strategies for Multiple Large Sites Chris Spann Technical SEO, Lumar @lumarhq
2. How to Fight 100 Horse-Sized Ducks: Technical SEO Strategies for Multiple Large Sites CHRIS SPANN:
4. Chris Spann Senior Technical SEO REALLY BIG PROBLEMS, really small problems, really weird problems
5. QUESTION Which would you rather fight: one horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?
6. QUESTION Which would you rather fight: one horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?
7. QUESTION Which would you rather fight: one horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?
8. ANOTHER QUESTION But what if there were a hundred ducks, and they were all horse sized?
9. ANOTHER QUESTION …and the ducks were websites?
10. ANOTHER QUESTION Sorry.
11. PRESENTATION TITLE (please edit on master slide)
12. 1 Why do you have multiple websites?
13. 1 Why do you have multiple websites? Separate TLDs for different markets International
14. 1 Why do you have multiple websites? Separate TLDs for different markets B2C v B2B, Separate Brands International Products/Brands
15. 1 Why do you have multiple websites? Separate TLDs for different markets B2C v B2B, Separate Brands Buying competitors/partners International Products/Brands Expansion
16. 1 Why do you have multiple websites? Hreflang tags, geotargeting, geoblocking Differentiating between markets/intents, cannibalisation Different tech, different/ out-of-house teams, legacy issues International Products/Brands Expansion
17. 2 Get to know your stack(s)
18. 2 Get to know your stack(s) Site Site Site Cloudflare CDN DB DB DB Onetrust Brightcove Wordpress React Site Akamai Sanity CDN AWS Azure
19. 2 Get to know your stack(s) If you don’t have a friendly dev to walk you through all this, Wappalyzer is a great tool for finding the info you need
20. 2 Get to know your stack(s) Export CSVs from the plugin and use them to build a filterable database of what sites use what
21. 3 Prioritise your estate
22. 3 Prioritise your estate Difficulty to work on Commercial Priority
23. 3 Prioritise your estate Difficulty to work on Commercial Priority x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
24. 3 Prioritise your estate Difficulty to work on Commercial Priority x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
25. 3 Prioritise your estate Difficulty to work on Commercial Priority x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
26. Once you have all this information, use it to inform your crawling strategy
27. 4 Build a crawl strategy
28. 4 Build a crawl strategy URL Budget: 10000000 Urls/Crawl Crawls/Mo Total Urls Used Tier 1 Site 1000000 4 4000000 Tier 2 Site 1000000 2 2000000 Tier 2 Site 1000000 2 2000000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Total Remaining: 2000 Split sites into tiers - although don’t get too granular
29. 4 Build a crawl strategy Split sites into tiers - although don’t get too granular Sites that don’t often get worked on need crawling less often - especially if they’re low commercial priority URL Budget: 10000000 Urls/Crawl Crawls/Mo Total Urls Used Tier 1 Site 1000000 4 4000000 Tier 2 Site 1000000 2 2000000 Tier 2 Site 1000000 2 2000000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Total Remaining: 2000
30. 4 Build a crawl strategy Split sites into tiers - although don’t get too granular Sites that don’t often get worked on need crawling less often - especially if they’re low commercial priority If your sites are too big, consider crawling the top X% of urls in a web crawl, or using GSC/Analytics data to identify a priority list URL Budget: 10000000 Urls/Crawl Crawls/Mo Total Urls Used Tier 1 Site 1000000 4 4000000 Tier 2 Site 1000000 2 2000000 Tier 2 Site 1000000 2 2000000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Total Remaining: 2000
31. 4 Build a crawl strategy Split sites into tiers - although don’t get too granular Sites that don’t often get worked on need crawling less often - especially if they’re low commercial priority If your sites are too big, consider crawling the top X% of urls in a web crawl, or using GSC/Analytics data to identify a priority list If your sites use multiple CMSes (ie a Shopify site with a WP blog), consider creating segments URL Budget: 10000000 Urls/Crawl Crawls/Mo Total Urls Used Tier 1 Site 1000000 4 4000000 Tier 2 Site 1000000 2 2000000 Tier 2 Site 1000000 2 2000000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Tier 3 Site 666000 1 666000 Total Remaining: 2000
32. 5 Monitor your sites in groups
33. 5 Monitor your sites in groups
34. 5 Monitor your sites in groups What those groups are is up to you - by now you should have an understanding of the commonalities and differences
35. What you want to achieve is the ability to tell at a glance what technology is the likely culprit for any large changes 5 Monitor your sites in groups
36. 5 Monitor your sites in groups Per group, focus on an overview of issues, common problems and areas you are currently working on
37. 6 Be smart
38. 6 Be smart - probably too much to keep on top of yourself You have a lot of data
39. 6 Be smart - probably too much to keep on top of yourself You have a lot of data Use your groups to check what is important and compartmentalise - no point worrying about B-Tier sites if they’re exactly the same as last week and you have no tickets in!
40. 6 Be smart - probably too much to keep on top of yourself You have a lot of data Use your groups Set up alerts to check what is important and compartmentalise - no point worrying about B-Tier sites if they’re exactly the same as last week and you have no tickets in! If possible set up alerts for certain key metrics - you’re too busy to worry about the stuff that has just stayed the same
41. TO SUM UP 1: Why do you have multiple websites? 2: Get to Know Your Stack(s) 3: Prioritise your Estate 4: Build a Crawl Strategy 5: Monitor your sites in Groups 6: Be Smart
42. TO SUM UP 1: Why do you have multiple websites? 2: Get to Know Your Stack(s) 3: Prioritise your Estate 4: Build a Crawl Strategy 5: Monitor your sites in Groups 6: Be Smart And finally, remember…
43. TO SUM UP
44. Thanks.
45. And sorry again about the ducks.
46. Keep in touch Useful resources available here LAST BUT NOT LEAST https://www.lumar.io/collection/lumar-brightonseo-2023/