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SEO for developers
London Perl Meetup - March 30, 2017
Andrew Solomon
https://geekuni.com

Definition of SEO
Knobs to turn
Measuring SEO

Definition of SEO Increase your organic search traffic
Knobs to turn
Measuring SEO

Terminology
● Keyword - a Google search term e.g “online perl course”
● Keyword search volume - the number of times this keyword is used in a month
● Site Keyword Ranking - distance of site from the top of page 1 search results
for the keyword
● Organic search traffic - visitors arriving via Google search (not an ad)
● Googlebot - Google’s web crawler
● Google SRP - Google’s search results page
Definition: Terminology

… for increasing traffic to a site
through Google search
SEO
is a
methodology

Knobs to turn
Content
Architecture
Performance
Measuring SEO

Content
the stuff on a page
● Metadata
● Schema Markup
● Keywords
Knobs: Content

● description, title - what you see on the Google SRP
● robots/noindex - tells bot the page shouldn’t be indexed
● robots/nofollow - tells bot not to follow links on this page
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/79812?hl=en
Metadata
Knobs: Content

Schema Markup
Knobs: Content
Data structured according to the Schema.org rules
Could be:
● A JSON-LD - a JSON block anywhere in the header or body
● Microdata around the human readable text
● …
Example https://schema.org/Person

keywords
use them in the text your human visitors will read
Knobs: Content

Architecture
directing the Googlebot crawl
● robots.txt
● XML Sitemaps
● Internal links
● Redirects and response codes
● URL structure
Knobs: Architecture

robots.txt
Knobs: Architecture
Where the bots should/shouldn’t go:
Example: https://www.theguardian.com/robots.txt
User-agent: *
Disallow: /sendarticle/
…
Sitemap: http://www.theguardian.com/sitemaps/news.xml
Sitemap: http://www.theguardian.com/sitemaps/video.xml

XML Sitemap
Knobs: Architecture
Submit it at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/sitemap-list

Internal Links
Things to avoid:
Spaghetti structure - shallow tree-like topology is best
Too many links - Google assigns a crawl budget
Popups, Java, Form submission, Frames - give bots indigestion!
https://moz.com/learn/seo/internal-link
Knobs: Architecture

Redirects and response codes
Say what you mean!
● 3xx - don’t mix your onesies with your twosies!
● 4xx - get sign-off from the legal team :-)
● Meta refresh sucks!
https://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes
https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html

URL structure
● Use keywords in the url - /x/y/z/t does no favour unless it’s a physics site
● Minimize ?query parameters - SQL metaphor - / = join, ? = where
● URL structure should resemble the site topology
● Ensure multiple URLs with same content point to a single canonical to avoid
cannibalism
● WARNING: Google distinguishes www.example.com from
WWW.EXAMPLE.COM https://moz.com/blog/15-seo-best-practices-for-
Knobs: Architecture

Performance
for the Googlebot to calculate
● Page load time
● Mobile friendly
● HTTPS ???
Knobs: Architecture

Knobs to turn
Content
Architecture
Performance
Measuring SEO
Ranking
Sessions
Social Referral

Feed Google Analytics

<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=/slideshow/seo-for-developers-74015693/74015693/g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto');
ga('send', 'pageview');
</script>

Measuring

Has my change taken effect?
To see if the google bot has come by:
Google query:
> cache:www.example.com
and
> site: www.example.com
Measuring

Keyword Ranking Analytics - Acquisition - Search Console - Queries
Measuring: Ranking
What
happened?
https://moz.com/
google-
algorithm-
change#2016
What should I
do?
https://moz.com/
blog/seo-
rankings-drop-
guide

Keyword Ranking Webmaster
Measuring: Ranking
Webmaster Search analytics
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/search-analytics
● Tell Google to visit certain pages
● Tell Google to skip other pages
● Analyse external links to site
● ...

Forecasts and Seasonality
● Calculate averages over various repetitive periods/patterns
● Adjust according to changed conditions
● Forecast growth
● Collect data and derive prediction
https://moz.com/blog/back-to-the-future-forecasting-your-organic-traffic
https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2325080/understanding-seasonality-
in-search
Measuring: Ranking

Cannibalism
When two of your urls have similar content and compete between each other for
Google’s ranking.
The ranking is spread, reducing the maximum ranking across the site’s competing
pages.
Measuring: Ranking

Sessions
?
?
datastudio.google.com
Measuring: Sessions

Sessions
?
Measuring: Sessions

Sessions and Engagement
Measuring: Sessions

Social Referral Analytics - Acquisition - Social - Network Referrals
Measuring: Social Referral

Definition of SEO
Improve your Google ranking
… against the right keywords
Knobs to turn
Content
Architecture
Performance
Measuring SEO
Ranking
Sessions
Social Referral
In summary

Appendix 1: Conversion rate
Not really SEO, but part of an SEO “virtuous circle” where happy customers trigger
social referral.
https://moz.com/learn/seo/conversion-rate-optimization

Appendix 2: PageRank
The algorithm based on external links to site
● Got Google off the ground
● Now deprecated
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank
https://moz.com/blog/links-built-arent-helping-page-rank-higher-whiteboard-friday

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