Avoid SEO Horror Stories with Monitoring! - BrightonSEO April 2023

SEO Horror Stories. Deindexed website, broken links, faulty response codes, ... Some of it will happen for sure to any SEO.
In this talk, I walk you through my method to try and avoid them as much as possible : monitoring.
Learn how to setup your own alerting system, using off the shelf tools or home-made scripts, and a few tips and tricks to make it better. There might be a few bonus if you pay attention ;)

Transcript

1. Avoid SEO horror stories
   with Monitoring!
   SpeakerDeck.com/diije
   @diije
   Julien Deneuville
   DATABULLE
   

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2. @diije #BrightonSEO
   • Young Search Personality
   @ SMX Paris 2018
   • Oncrawl Ambassador
   • Twitter : @diije
   • Blog : databulle.com/blog
   Hello, my name is Julien
   • From Reims, France 🍾
   • 12+ years XP
   • Freelancer since 2017
   • Tech SEO / Data / Python
   

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3. SEO Horror Stories
   

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4. @diije #BrightonSEO
   Scenario
   It’s Friday, December the 23rd
   3:30pm
   Xmas weekend is about to begin
   …
   

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5. @diije #BrightonSEO
   Phone call
   « Hey Julien,
   our website is
   disappearing from Google,
   can you check what’s
   going on plz? »
   

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7. @diije #BrightonSEO
   That’s not supposed to happen
   

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8. @diije #BrightonSEO
   Pro tip: don’t block Googlebot
   dii.je/googlebot
   

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11. NEVER
    AGAIN
    

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12. How?
    

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14. Monitoring?
    

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15. @diije #BrightonSEO
    General idea
    Problem
    occurs
    Solve it
    Define a
    test
    Run test
    routinely
    

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16. Off the shelf
    

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17. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Google Alerts
    

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18. @diije #BrightonSEO
    GA4 Custom Insights
    How to: dii.je/ga4
    

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19. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Uptime Robot
    

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20. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Scheduled crawls
    

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21. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Custom alerts
    

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22. Home-made
    

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23. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Shareable tests
    

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24. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Specific tests
    

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25. @diije #BrightonSEO
    C’est cadeau !
    Simple Python 🐍 script
    to get you started
    dii.je/monitor
    ● Add your own data into
    test_data
    ● Automate with scheduled
    tasks
    

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26. But what
    about our
    de-indexed
    pages?
    

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27. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Use APIs
    GSC’s URL Inspection API
    Daily check for a sample of URLs
    Send an alert if verdict value isn’t PASS
    Example script: dii.je/gsc
    

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28. Tips & tricks
    

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29. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Strategy
    Data needs
    Sample
    size
    Frequency
    

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30. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Adapt your alerts
    

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31. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Avoid too many alerts
    

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33. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Regular check-up
    Are the monitors still running?
    Are the tests still working?
    Are the alerts still being sent?
    

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34. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Logs
    Store tests summary locally
    to make sure everything runs fine
    

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35. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Test reports
    For example, weekly recap
    of tests done / failed
    

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36. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Fire drill
    Make sure the alerts are sent
    and everybody reacts accordingly
    

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37. @diije #BrightonSEO
    Time for maintenance
    Update obsolete tests
    Fix bugs
    Add new tests
    

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39. @diije #BrightonSEO
    In a nutshell
    Take advantage of your existing tools
    Setup a few monitors
    Define an advanced monitoring strategy
    Maintain your monitoring setup
    

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40. Keep in touch!
    @diije / databulle.com
    

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