Unlocking Global Search Success Through SEO Experimentation

In this 25-minute International Search Summit session, Ryan Jones — Marketing Manager at SEOTesting — explores how SEOs can move beyond guesswork and unlock predictable growth through testing.

The talk breaks down three core challenges facing SEO professionals today:

1️⃣ The SEO Hamster Wheel — endless work without learning.
2️⃣ The SEO Guesswork Tax — wasted time from unmeasured changes.
3️⃣ The Prove-It Gap — struggling to demonstrate impact and win buy-in.

Ryan shares practical frameworks, real test examples, and actionable steps for running effective SEO experiments. You’ll learn how to:

- Identify and prioritise test opportunities.
- Design strong hypotheses that isolate cause and effect.
- Measure results using clicks, CTR, and conversion data.
- Build a data-driven testing culture that earns trust and budget.

This deck is ideal for in-house SEOs, agencies, and marketing leaders who want to turn effort into evidence and move from reactive optimisation to strategic experimentation.

📊 Presented at International Search Summit 2025
🎙️ Ryan Jones | Marketing Manager, SEOTesting
🔗 seotesting.com | @RyanJonesSEO

Transcript

2. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO International Search Summit Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Three Problems
3. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Your Problems: - You’re lacking time. - You don’t know what works. - You don’t always feel valued by managers, stakeholders, and clients. International Search Summit
4. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Stick with me for 25 minutes and I’ll take you through why you (probably) have these problems, and what you can do about it. International Search Summit
5. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit We’ll Cover: 1) The Three Main Problems SEOs Face 2) Frameworks to Solve Those Problems 3) Why SEO Testing is the Link 4) What SEO Testing Is 5) Types of SEO Tests Available to You 6) How to Run Successful SEO Tests
6. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit Hi, I’m Ryan! 󰗝 Marketing Manager @ SEOTesting Over a Decade in SEO & Digital Marketing International Conference Speaker Lover of All Things Sports 🏈⚽⚾🏀
7. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit Why Listen? - I work for an SEO testing tool. - I’ve run hundreds of SEO tests across different sites & niches. - I work closely with other SEOs to understand what works. - I regularly speak and write about SEO testing topics.
8. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit You Lack Time
10. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation The SEO Hamster Wheel - We make dozens of changes weekly, hoping something works. - When traffic moves, we sometimes can’t explain why. - So… We keep tweaking, guessing, and repeating the cycle. That’s the hamster wheel! 😉 - More work → more uncertainty → more work again! International Search Summit
11. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit “All of that, while we could be testing, finding what works, doubling down on that, and saving a whole bunch of time!” - Ryan Jones, November 2025.
12. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit Finding What Works
14. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation The SEO Guesswork Tax International Search Summit - We make changes, metrics improve, but we don’t know why. - Every unmeasured change is a small “guesswork payment.” - These payments compound over time into wasted time and lost focus. That’s the SEO Guesswork Tax! 😉 - We can’t double down on what works if we don’t know what did!
15. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit “When you make changes without testing the impact, you lack the ability to understand what’s actually working for your site.” - Ryan Jones, November 2025.
16. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit Not Feeling Valued
18. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation The SEO “Prove-It” Gap International Search Summit - We do the work, but we struggle to show the results. - Wins feel almost anecdotal, not analytical. - Stakeholders ask “What caused this?” And we can’t always answer! - Without proof, SEO looks like guesswork instead of a strategy.
19. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit “When you can’t prove your impact, it’s so difficult for stakeholders to trust you enough to give you budget for other work. Leaving you feeling undervalued!” - Ryan Jones, November 2025.
20. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit
21. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit Okay, cool, now I have your attention! 😉 So what’s the thing that solves these problems?
23. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit Come on, Ryan… We’ve been doing that the entire time! 😩
24. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Time-Based Testing (Old)
25. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
26. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation - Content Refresh - Backlink Acquisition Campaign - Internal Linking Improvements - Try to Improve On-Page Metrics Potential Actions
27. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
29. Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation International Search Summit We now have more/better data (and tools) to do SEO tests the right way.
30. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
31. Work Done (Test) 1) Removed “Fluff” Wording 2) Used Headings to Target Additional Search Queries 3) Generally Improved Article’s “Readability” 4) Updated Title & Meta Description International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
32. Reading Scores Before: - 2,484 Words - 179 Sentences - 131 Paragraphs - Grade 9 Readability - Reading Time of 09:56 After: - 1,232 Words - 155 Sentences - 114 Paragraphs - Grade 6 Readability - Reading Time of 04:55 International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
33. The Results Clicks Per Day Nearly Doubled Site Clicks Went Down Impressions Up 30% CTR Up to 4.42% International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
34. The Results International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
35. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Why SEO Testing?
36. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Building a Business Case - Prove what works for your niche/site. - Avoid making costly mistakes. - Prove hypotheses and get larger project buy-in. - Show the impact of your SEO team. - Add team accountability by tracking the results of changes. - Use past tests to build a backlog of what’s happened on the site.
38. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Breaking the Hamster Wheel - SEO testing gives every change a clear purpose and outcome. - You run smart, controlled experiments. Not endless tweaks. - You find what works, and you double down on that. The SEO Hamster Wheel is motion (work) without learning.
40. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Stop Paying the Guesswork Tax - Testing gives us measurable cause and effect. No guessing required! - Every test acts as a data point that leads to learning, not confusion. - You can replace “it depends” with “I can show.” The SEO Guesswork Tax is paid every time we act without evidence.
42. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Closing the Prove-It Gap - Testing bridges that gap with data that we can show off. - We can demonstrate the exact impact of the work we do. - Testing builds trust with clients, managers, and executives. The “Prove-It” Gap is the space between effort and evidence.
43. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Types of SEO Tests
44. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Two Main Test Types 1) Time-Based Tests 2) Split Tests
45. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Time-Based Tests Before After TIME
46. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Results
47. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Split Tests
49. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Results
50. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Split Test Candidates - High Traffic-Volume - Large Sets of Similar Pages - Ecommerce Websites - Marketplace Sites - User-Generated Content Sites
51. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation “But, Ryan, you’ve not mentioned AI/LLMs at all during this talk!” Well, I’ve got an answer for that too! 😉
52. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation LLM Tests Did this change lead to more traffic from LLMs?
53. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation LLM Tests We can do this in the same way we do time-based tests. Measure data before test, and then measure data for the same period after the change.
54. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Results
55. How to Run SEO Tests International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
56. 1) Form Your Hypothesis 2) Select Your Test Page (Or Pages For Split Tests) 3) Make Your Change 4) Monitor Over Time 5) Next Steps (Rollout, Rollback, Iterate) Five Steps International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
57. Your hypothesis should be statement-based, including something you’re not happy with, something you can change, and something that you can measure to determine whether you were correct or not. Hypothesis International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
58. Bad Hypothesis: What will happen if we do a content refresh on this topic hub? Will organic traffic go up, or will it go down? Hypothesis International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
59. Good Hypothesis: This page’s current CTR (1.2%) is less than the expected for SERP Position 4. We will rewrite our page’s title tag to better match search intent and bring it below 60 characters. This will increase this page’s CTR for our target keyword. Hypothesis International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
60. Something You’re Unhappy With: Current CTR. Something to Change: The Page’s Title Tag. Something to Measure: The Page’s CTR (Post-Change). Hypothesis International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
62. Selecting Pages Performance-Based Questions: 1) Which pages get the most impressions but low clicks? 2) Which pages have high exit rates? 3) Which pages have dropped in traffic recently? 4) Which pages have stagnated in rankings? 5) Which pages rank on Page 2 or Page 3 for target keywords? International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
63. Optimization Opportunity Questions 1) Do any pages lack internal links pointing to them? 2) Do some pages include outdated or “thin” content? 3) Are some pages missing structured data we could add? 4) Are any title tags too long, or missing important keywords? 5) Do similar pages perform very differently? International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Selecting Pages
64. Testing Value Questions 1) Can I isolate this page from others for a test? 2) Will changes on this page affect site performance? 3) Is this page part of a large group I can test across? 4) Can I measure the test results easily? 5) Is this page important for conversions/leads? International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Selecting Pages
65. The key is to find a combination of those prior questions to find good candidate pages for SEO tests! International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Selecting Pages
66. An Example: 1) Has this page dropped in traffic recently? YES ✅ 2) Is there any thin/outdated content on this page? YES ✅ 3) Can I isolate this page as part of a test? YES ✅ International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Selecting Pages
67. Step 1) Make the change to the test page/s. Step 2) Note the start date of the test. Step 3) Inform ANYONE that could impact your test data. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Making Changes
68. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Enterprise Solutions (seoClarity & SearchPilot) Hands-On Solutions (GSC/SEOTesting) Yourself/your team will be the one making the changes to your website. These types of tools will automatically make the changes on your site for you. ** Reflected in the cost…
69. Metrics to Track (SEO): - Clicks - Click-Through Rate - Impressions - Average Position - On-Page Metrics International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Monitoring
70. Metrics to Track (Business): - Revenue - Conversion Rate - Leads - Sign-Ups - Downloads International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Monitoring
71. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation “An SEO test can technically be successful and increase traffic, but if it tanks conversion-based metrics, then was it really a successful test?” - Ryan Jones, November 2025.
72. ✅ Test Worked → Roll Out Sitewide ❌ Test Failed → Iterate Further 🤔 Unclear → Try a New Variation International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation ❌ Test Failed → Revert & Learn Next Steps
73. If you take one thing from this presentation… Let it be this: Use your site’s data to tell stories. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
74. 1 2 3 4 Problem Solution Test Results We realised that 20% of our blog content was out of date. This cost us $26,000 to create. Now it’s not generating any ROI! We propose spending $5,000 and refreshing half of that content to see if generates meaningful ROI. We refreshed 50% of the outdated content, leaving the other 50% unchanged as a control group. The refreshed content skyrocketed and generated an additional 55,000 clicks and $14,000 in organic revenue! International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation
75. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Tools
76. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation 1) Google Search Console 2) Google Analytics 3) Any Other Free Analytics Software Remember: Takes time, and you’ll need to pair this with Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. Free Tools
77. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Paid Tools
78. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Resources
79. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Go Here 1) SEOTesting’s Blog (https://seotesting.com/blog/) 2) SEOTesting’s SEO Test Ideas (https://seotesting.com/blog/seo-testing-guide/) 3) Giulia Panozzo’s SEO Testing Workshop (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzTwC77WW5g) 4) Adam Gent’s SEO Case Study Database (Paid $125) (https://adamgent.gumroad.com/l/seo-case-studies-database)
80. International Search Summit Ryan Jones | SEOTesting | @RyanJonesSEO Unlocking Global Search Success Through Experimentation Extended Trial ;)
81. Thank You! 󰚥
82. Connect With Me! 󰛈 LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/ryan-g-jones/ X - x.com/ryanjonesseo Bluesky - bsky.app/profile/ryanjonesseo.bsky.social