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TECHNICAL SEO FTW!
Andrew Isidoro#CardiffSEO
■ Work for Gocompare.com as SEO and Social Media Manager
■ Written for some places:
■ Tried to build some stuff:
About me
@Andrew_Isidoro
Quick question…
Who already does SEO now?
@Andrew_Isidoro
What is SEO?
■ Title Tags■ Meta descriptions■ URLs■ H1 headers■ H2 headers■ Alt tags for images
■ Digital PR■ Anchor text■ Do-follow link building■ Citations/NAP■ Link removal■ Compelling content etc.
@Andrew_Isidoro
What is SEO?
■ Title Tags■ Meta descriptions■ URLs■ H1 headers■ H2 headers■ Alt tags for images
■ Digital PR■ Anchor text■ Do-follow link building■ Citations/NAP■ Link removal■ Compelling content etc.
NOPE!
@Andrew_Isidoro
What is technical SEO?
“Technical SEO involves the optimisation of webpage elements that users can't
necessarily see without looking at the source code.”
@Andrew_Isidoro
Less of this…
@Andrew_Isidoro
More of this…
@Andrew_Isidoro
@Andrew_Isidoro
Well, I think Google does…
Well optimised websites are:■ Easy to index■ Easy to crawl■ Give more information■ Have less code and image bloat
■ Easier to parse■ Require less crawl budget■ Make it easier to classify■ Take up less data-center space
@Andrew_Isidoro
Well, I think Google does…
Well optimised websites are:■ Easy to index■ Easy to crawl■ Give more information■ Have less code and page bloat
■ Easier to parse■ Require less crawl budget■ Make it easier to classify■ Take up less data-center space
@Andrew_Isidoro
…which means your boss does too.
Technical audit implementation for a client has led to a 48.25% increase in organic traffic and growing…
@Andrew_Isidoro
Tip 1.
Sitemaps
@Andrew_Isidoro
Sitemaps
■ Usually XML based■ Sitemaps allow 50,000 URLs■ Should be kept under 50MB■ Up to 500 sitemaps per account■ Submit to Google and Bing via webmaster tools
dashboards.■ Always submit something!
@Andrew_Isidoro
Media sitemaps
■ Don’t forget your images! Utilise image sitemaps.■ Mobile URLs? Use a mobile sitemap.■ Newsworthy? Use a news sitemap.■ Got video? Get a video sitemap in.
More info at: https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2048706/the-site-map-gateway-optimization @Andrew_Isidoro
Keep them clean!
■ Clear out duplicated URLs■ Remove 404 /broken pages■ Remove redirecting pages■ Remove un-canonicalised/no-indexed pages ■ Remove irrelevant pages (e.g.. tag pages or search result
pages)
Remember: less wastage = more efficient crawl = happy Google
@Andrew_Isidoro
Pro tip! – Divide and conquer
■ Split sitemaps into different site sections or products:
■ Better site indexation■ Can help highlight site section hierarchy■ More accurate indexation data at a glance!
More info at: https://moz.com/blog/multiple-xml-sitemaps-increased-indexation-and-traffic @Andrew_Isidoro
Tip 2.
Site modelling
@Andrew_Isidoro
Model a site structure
■ Make use of force directed diagrams ■ Create broad to narrow content silos■ Stay topical■ Keep the structure as flat as possible
■ Pro tip – Try using gephi.org to model out new structures
More info: https://www.portent.com/blog/seo/seo-force-directed-diagrams.htm @Andrew_Isidoro
Tip 3.
Page speed
@Andrew_Isidoro
Page speed
■ Page speed is a ranking factor.■ Larger pages take up more of your crawl budget■ Slow loading pages may make users bounce back to the SERPS known
as pogo-sticking.
Don’t make Google waste crawl on “bulky” pages
@Andrew_Isidoro
Shed the (page) weight!
■ Install GZIP for server compression – around 70% savings■ Compress HTML, CSS & JS – ■ Reduce redirects■ Use a content distribution network■ Optimize images
Beginner tip – Use GTMetrix to get a good overview of where you can optimisePro tip – Install sitespeed.io via NPM to run a page speed audit across multiple URLs
@Andrew_Isidoro
Using a common CMS?
You’re in luck!
■ WordPress W3 total cache - https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/
■ Drupal Advagg - https://www.drupal.org/project/advagg
■ Joomlajch-optimize - http://extensions.joomla.org/extension/jch-optimize
@Andrew_Isidoro
Tip 4.
Crawl optimisation
@Andrew_Isidoro
Log file analysis
■ Server logs are analytics on acid…■ Dive into the logs!■ Find spider traps■ Where is Googlebot visiting most often?■ Where is there a crawl deficiency?
■ More info: https://builtvisible.com/log-file-analysis/
@Andrew_Isidoro
Robots.txt
■ Don’t give them junk - Limit Googlebot/Bingbot’s diet■ Block non-organic landing pages■ Use noindex in robots.txt to remove blocked pages from the index -
http://ohgm.co.uk/de-index-pages-blocked-robots-txt/ ■ Add your sitemap URL for indexing:
Sitemap: http://www.gocompare.com/sitemap.xml
@Andrew_Isidoro
Redirects
Redirects can be a major cause of wasted crawl
■ Know your redirects – 301 vs 302 vs 307■ Use if absolutely necessary■ Never link to an internal redirect – there’s no need!
@Andrew_Isidoro
Housekeeping
■ Eliminate links to 404 error pages - both internal and external■ Limit links to non-ranking pages (about us, contact us etc.)■ Eliminate excess pages■ Manage URL parameters within GSC /Bing WMT■ Don’t forget your HTML sitemap – Highlight your most important
pages
@Andrew_Isidoro
Tip 5.
Canonical pages
@Andrew_Isidoro
What does that even mean?
■ Canonicalising URLs is just a fancy way of saying:
“Content should only ever be available at one URL”
@Andrew_Isidoro
Canonicalise!
■ Site run over www. and non-www versions? That’s a problem!■ Site run over http and https versions? That’s a problem!■ Site run over uppercase and lowercase URLs? That’s a problem!■ Site run trailing slash URLs and non-trailing slash versions? That’s a
problem!
■ Make sure all of these redirect to the canonical version!■ Use rel-canonical to catch any stragglers.
@Andrew_Isidoro
Tip 6.
Semantic mark-up
@Andrew_Isidoro
Semantic mark-up
■ Think about implementing Schema.org■ Google has great guidelines available at:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data
■ Google is in the process of adding JSON-LD support for all major rich snippets
Pro tip – Implement Schema.org in bulk via JSON-LD through Google Tag manager. More info at: https://moz.com/blog/using-google-tag-manager-to-dynamically-generate-schema-org-json-ld-tags
@Andrew_Isidoro
That should get you started…
@Andrew_Isidoro
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