SEO on a Shoe- string Budget - Optimizing with the Bare Minimum - Pubcon - October 2024

Transcript

1. Optimizing with the Bare Minimum SEO on a Shoe-String Budget Presented by: Keith Goode
2. Agenda • Introduction and Overview • Target Audience • Solutions and Tools • Manual Audits and Insights • Automating Processes Using Generative AI • Conclusion
3. Problem Not every SEO is given the budget for large- scale enterprise platforms …or even subscription-based SEO tools.
4. “ ” SEO is one content, technical, and marketing discipline that you can do with the bare minimum. It always outpaces the investment in it when done intentionally and with the end-user in mind. … But don’t invest the bare minimum if you want to succeed.
5. Agenda Target Audience for this Session Automating Processes using Generative AI Free and Low-Cost Tools You Can Use Using the Data that Search Engines Provide Deep-Diving on Manual Audits and Analysis
6. Target Audience
7. Target Audience Who Can Benefit from this Information
8. Target audience Corporate/Enterprise Teams with no Budget Solo and Independent Consultants Boot-strapping Entrepreneurs and New Businesses
9. Corporate / Enterprise SEO Teams There really is no excuse for this type of SEO to be in this situation … but I’ve been here as well LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithlgoode/
10. Reasons for this: • General Cause: Magical SEO thinking • SEO Fault: Poor communication of needs or proof of value • Root Cause: Poor Leadership
11. Become better at communicating your value: https://speakerdeck.com/keithgoode/organizations-at-war- with-themselves-navigating-egos-red-tape-and-conflicting- priorities-pubcon-pro-2023
12. Agitation There are SEO teams who consistently deliver results month after month, quarter after quarter, proving their expertise in SEO time after time. And there is leadership who continually question that expertise and their recommendations despite the evidence.
13. “ ” A strong majority of respondents believe corporate America is in the midst of a “leadership crisis” and that older business leaders “refuse to pass the torch to the next wave,” according to a U.S. News – Harris Poll survey released Tuesday which has revealed a negative assessment of American leadership almost across the board. Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/leaders/articles/2023-12-14/americans-see-leadership-crisis-in-the-corporate-world-survey-finds
14. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithlgoode/
15. Boot-strapping Entrepreneurs and New Businesses • Limited budget • Nimble and versatile staff • Quick Wins
16. Independent Consultants • Side Hustle • Getting your first few contracts • Trying to stay competitive with bigger agencies • Quick and personalized wins
17. Solutions and Tools
18. Solution Take advantage of the free and inexpensive tools and platforms available, and then let your expertise prove your value.
19. Using Search Engine Tools and Resources Usable Information Directly from Google and Bing
20. Top Search Engine Resources Google Search Console Google Analytics and Looker Studio Google PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse Bing Webmaster Tools and MS Clarity Chrome Developer Tools
21. My Tips for Google Search Console • Use DNS Verification • Verify each subdomain and subfolder
22. My Tips for Chrome Developer Tools • Become very familiar with all the tabs, not just Elements • Run your site with and without JS enabled • Learn the distinction between the Raw HTML and the DOM
23. Bing Webmaster Tools • Bing Webmaster Tools provides access to data about how Bing crawls and indexes your site and offers suggestions for improving your site's visibility in search results. • Bing Webmaster Tools also offers features such as URL submission, sitemaps, and crawl control, which allow website owners to control how Bing indexes their site.
24. The Uses of Microsoft Clarity • Microsoft Clarity provides: • heatmaps • session recordings • other features to help website owners identify areas for improvement. • It can be used to: • optimize site speed • improve user experience • increase conversions. • Clarity integrates with Microsoft Advertising and Google Analytics for a more comprehensive view of website performance.
25. Free or Inexpensive Tools Analysis, Crawlers, and Research Tools
26. “ ” The SEO community has a long history of enabling each other through free and low-cost tools. When older tools are acquired, there are free tools regularly being developed to replace them.
27. Top Free Tools and Plugins Chrome Plugins: Ayima Redirect Path, View Rendered Source, SEO in 1 Click Other: JSON-LD Schema Generator for SEO, XML Sitemaps, Aleyda Solis’ Tools Projects and Research: Ahrefs and Semrush (Limited) Crawlers: Screaming Frog and Sitebulb (Limited) Keyword Research and Visualization: SEODataViz
28. Ayima Redirect Path View page response codes Validate redirects and detect JS redirects
29. View Rendered Source Compare Raw HTML to DOM Good for sites that are heavily depended on JavaScript
30. SEO Meta in 1 Click View your most important on-page elements Validate your page structure
31. SEODataViz.com (see Ryan Jones) • See the Ngram map for a keyword or a set of keywords • Compare the Ngram for two domains
32. Manual Audits and Insights
33. Deep-Diving into Manual Audits Using the Best Tool at Your Disposal – Your Brain
34. “ ” You can learn a lot about search intent and the kinds of content that do well for queries just by looking at the SERPs. Tools and platforms merely allow you to scale those efforts.
35. The Ultimate Free Plug- in: Your Own Insights • What do the results in the SERPs tell me about intent? • What about the content for the #1 ranking page answers that intent best? • Which aspects of the user experience does this result do better at?
36. The Ultimate Free Plug- in: Your Own Insights •What do I need to do to compete? •Am I relevant for this query? •No, really. Am I relevant or am I just after that sweet search volume?
37. Questions to Ask • What keywords do I think I should be ranking for? • Market Competitors: Who directly competes with me in the market? • SERP Competitors: What types of other sites are relevant but aren’t market competitors? (Wikipedia is a good example.) • What does a discovery/informational intent search look like for my industry? • What does a purchase intent search look like for my industry?
38. Automating Processes Using Generative AI
39. Automating Processes Using Generative AI Safe Usage for Content Ideation, Code Reviews, and More
40. “ ” Scaling efforts used to only include hiring (or contracting) more people or investing in expensive platforms. Now we can turn some entry-level work over to LLMs and generative AI, which have a lower barrier to entry.
41. Recommended AI Solutions Free Solutions Paid Solutions ChatGPT OpenAI Subscription Gemini Native Copilot in MS Office MS Copilot Frase Jasper AI MarketMuse
42. Using AI for Your Work • Bookend all AI efforts with human oversight • Sanity check the content • Validate the code • Patiently craft your prompts • Restate your prompts as necessary
43. Conclusion
44. About me Concierge SEO Consultant, Goode Search SEO Product Manager, Kaiser Permanente Over 15 years In-House SEO Vrbo Dell IBM Cox Automotive Group Various startups Conference speaker Podcast host/guest Austin Otaku Webcology Search Engine Journal … and many more Certified Scrum Master Featured in Majestic’s SEO for 2022 Follow me on LinkedIn
45. Thank you!