1www.sempo.org Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
SEMPO’s Sponsors & Donors
2www.sempo.org Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
Designing for Visibility
Presented by: Rob Garner, Senior Director, Strategy, iCrossing and SEMPO Board Member
3www.sempo.org
Considerations for SEO in a
website redesign
4www.sempo.org
Overview
5www.sempo.org
Why consider SEO in a site design or redesign?
■ Opportunity to transition existing search equity■ Much more effective to prevent obstacles at this stage, rather trying to
reverse engineer later■ Costs a fraction of the price of a site fix■ Cures headaches associated with a site fix■ Opportunity to position site for long term SEO potential■ Opportunity for search user data to inform design and strategy elements■ Opportunity to build modules for agile content creation and development
Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
6www.sempo.org
Planning and early stage considerations
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
7www.sempo.org
A few planning considerations
Effective communication – and your brain –
is your best SEO tool
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
8www.sempo.org
A few planning considerations
Budget and scope for search
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
9www.sempo.org
A few planning considerations
Start with search at the beginning of planning and process
… search is not an afterthought
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
10www.sempo.org
A few planning considerations
Give SEO a seat at the design table
… along with back- and front-end developers, creatives, user-experience, marketing stakeholders, project managers, information architects, etc.
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
11www.sempo.org
A few planning considerations
Include search as both a business and technical requirement
… Building business cases may be critical at this stage
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
12www.sempo.org
A few planning considerations
Remind your teams and developers that not considering SEO throughout the process could come at the expense of existing search equity
… Maintaining the search equity that you already have through a redesign should be the primary goal
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
13www.sempo.org
Early planning
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
14www.sempo.org
Benchmark analysis, followed by post-launch reporting
■ The following data points can be used as benchmark metrics:□Ranking visibility
□ Traffic volume from search
□ Volume of various defined actions
□Revenue generated from natural search
□Content gap analysis
Before launch After launch
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
15www.sempo.org
Market research and extensive data analysis
■ Knowing your target audience is now more important than ever
■ Inform your personas through interviews, and ask subjects to talk about how they search; or, better yet, observe how they search online
■ Map keyword learnings into more complex scenarios for the process of finding
■ Leverage learnings from paid search and analytics data early on
■ Remember that often the real gold mine in all of market research is finding and leveraging just one new word or linguistic cue
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
16www.sempo.org
Market research and extensive data analysis
■ Get out of the habit of making assumptions based on what you think your target audience will search for
■ Look to social networks for linguistic cues ■ Use internal search data to help inform campaigns and
future designs ■ Consider the various types of digital assets, and how your
target audience searches for them
Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
“The Days of Guessing at Keyword Research Are Over”http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=121839
17www.sempo.org
Use search data to inform and develop personas
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
18www.sempo.org
Industry vs. consumer language
Industry Language
Oral care
Oral health
Locate dental professional
Good oral hygiene
Oral hygiene
Good Oral hygiene
Whitening
Battery-powered toothbrush
Kid’s toothbrush
Professional whitening system
148
5,232
10
190
5,155
190
5,075
145
592
670
17,407
Search Volume per
month
Consumer Language
Dental care
Dental health
Find a dentist
Dental hygiene
Dental hygiene
Personal hygiene
Tooth whitening
Electric toothbrush
Child toothbrush
Tooth whitening system
188,818
74,588
29,525
24,558
24,558
17,670
146,212
16,522
835
6,205
529,491
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
Search Volume per
month
19www.sempo.org
Develop content strategy
■ Opportunity to leverage search data to inform strategy■ GO BIG – the amount of engaging content is directly
proportional to SEO success
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
20www.sempo.org
Determine which types of digital assets make sense, and create a place for them
■ The days of ten blue links are gone■ Universal search leverages various asset types
□This includes images, video, social, news, real-time, etc.
■ Focus on the most appropriate asset types, depending upon your vertical
■ Ensure that your new site design has a place to accommodate these asset types
■ Optimize and distribute assets both internally (within your public facing site) and externally (locations outside your domain like social networks, feeds, etc.)
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
21www.sempo.org
There is a problem with a key approach to site architecture
■ “Top down” is the most common approach■ In other words, the site is only designed for people who
come in through the front door (homepage)■ The reality is that most aggregate entry traffic comes from
the sum of all other pages■ Search may refer 10-50% of a site’s traffic
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
22www.sempo.org
Creating experiences that meet the unique needs of each visitor
Dog Breed: (category total: 611,743 monthly searches)
Standard Schnauzer
‘dog grooming tip’
Type of Dog (70,197) “hunting dog” (15,892)
Cocker Spaniel Puppies
Puppy Breed(category total: 1.7 million monthly searches)
“Fancy Dog Bed” (5,088)
Travel Plans
Cheapest Tires
Mercedes Wheels
Kitten Descriptors (63,273) – these included cute, baby, kitten color
5Zigens
Size (61,044) – included small, large, miniature
Feeding baby Kittens
Wheels
Cat Breeds (307,140) Kitten Breeds (119,383)
Sweet rims
Cat Behavior (21,782)
Both Dog and Cats: both dog and cat owners searched for picturesand names frequently Pictures (955,145) vs. Photo (77,475)
Names (390,909)
tires Boxer Photos
“hunting dog”
Dog Health (143,703)
> Information “dog health problem/question”
> Grooming “dog grooming tip”
> Health/Solutions “dog health symptom”
Minivan tires
“Premium Dog Food” (22,358)
Cats (72,640) “older cat care”
Travel Expedition
Cat Breeds (307,140) “Persian cat”
Volkswagen Rims
Consider a relational approach to architecture, as opposed to "top-down"
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
23www.sempo.org
Training - Educate your organization about search
■ Educate your organization on the value of SEO prior to planning for any redesign
■ Allocate and budget time for SEO education■ Create and distribute a general “SEO overview”
presentation or handout ■ Integrate SEO training into each phase of the project■ Present a list of technical obstacles of your current site, and
how they could be remedied■ Teach your organization that SEO is an on-going process,
not a finite task
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
24www.sempo.org
URL structure and information architecture
■ URL naming conventions should also be addressed in the planning stage, and then more refined in the development and design stage
■ Work closely with IA to ensure crawlability, and proper content and asset support
■ Architecture should be informed by user language■ Sitemaps for both the user and search engines are also
critical, and should be planned at this stage
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
25www.sempo.org
Design and development process
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
26www.sempo.org
Things we can control: Basic considerations are anything but basic
■ Article Syndication■ Body Content■ Canonicalization Issues■ Cloaking■ Directory Presence■ Document Accessibility■ Duplicate Content■ Frames■ Internal Linking Optimization■ Javascript & Flash Navigation■ Meta Data■ Micro Sites and Sub-Domains■ Obtaining Links from Relevant
Sites
■ On-page Javascript and CSS■ Optimizing Images■ Page Titles■ Redirecting■ Requiring User Actions■ Robots.txt Files■ Secure Servers■ Sites Built in Flash■ Splash Pages■ URL Structure■ Using Ajax■ Video
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
27www.sempo.org
Ensure that Flash is both crawlable and indexable
Factor:
Valuable website content is implemented using Flash technology
Implications:
Search engine spiders cannot read content or follow links implemented in Flash
Best Practices/Action Required:■Implement a static HTML, low-bandwidth version of the website that mirrors the content within your Flash files■Implement user-agent detection to deliver the HTML site to spiders and the Flash version to human visitors
Alternative Practices:
Break up the Flash movies into smaller components and lay the SWF files into optimized, linked HTML pages with unique URLs
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
28www.sempo.org
Ensure that Ajax is both crawlable and indexable
Factor:AJAX, or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a Web development technique used to load content from a server without changing pages
AJAX relies heavily on JavaScript to display and swap content
Implications:Search engine spiders generally cannot read AJAX content
Implementation could block content visibility to spiders
Best practice/Action required:Use AJAX selectively, primarily for supplemental content associated with low search volumes
Alternative Practices:Create a static, spider friendly version of your site that includes content from within your JavaScript
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
29www.sempo.org
Source On-Page JavaScript & CSS to External Files
Factor:
JavaScript and style elements that reside in the webpage code increase loads, and requiring
more processing to parse.
Impact:
Can impede search engine crawling and indexing performance, and also page load time.
Best Practices:
Keep JavaScript off the webpage by putting it into an external file and calling this file from the
webpage. Additionally, using external JavaScript files will increase the flexibility of the code, enabling fast, easy updates and JavaScript
maintenance. JavaScript that cannot be called from an external file without sacrificing the
functionality is acceptable.
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
30www.sempo.org
Manage Threshold of Duplicate Content
Factor:Duplicate content exists when two or more
pages within a website, or on different domains, share identical content. Different
domain names do not create distinct content.
Implications:Major search engines consider duplicate
content to be of less value to searchers, and the ratio of duplicate to unique content on a
site can greatly impede or improve performance
Best practice/Action required:Avoid duplicate content issues by using
unique copy and other content on each page of a website, whenever possible. Duplicate
content may also be given a robots.txt or meta robots directive to not index or follow
pages with wholly duplicated content.
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
31www.sempo.org
Avoid the creation of URL canonicalization issues
Viewed as the same by most search engines:
• http://en.wikipedia.org• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/• http://www.en.wikipedia.org
Factor:
Canonicalization is the process of picking the best URL when there are several choices, usually referring to the homepage of a website
Implications:
Search Engines may not pick the client-preferred URL, rather the one they determine to be most relevant
Best practice/Action required:
There are a few ways to ensure that the proper URL is indexed:
•Consistent linking
•Use 301 permanent redirects on the Web server
•Redirect the non-www homepage to the www version of the homepage
Use the canonicalization tag
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
32www.sempo.org
Set up a URL redirection plan
■ In just about every redesign project, at least some content is removed, and URLs go away
■ Redirection helps the engines and users to point them to the most similar page on your site
■ Important to spend time mapping out which URLs are going away, and where they should be pointed
■ Don't sit on the plan – execute the plan on the day or evening that a site is pushed out of production
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
33www.sempo.org
Case study: Understanding the impact of a site redesign
Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
Site relaunched with new URLs in mid-month
• 404 errors spiked, and the site never fully recovered• These error visits represent real people and link equity lost
Site relaunch on renamed URLs, with no redirection plan
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
34www.sempo.org
Factor:RSS (which, in its latest format, stands for "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or special promotions, and a great way to easily syndicate your content to website owners
Implications:RSS feeds give full control to the publisherThe benefit to RSS is that individuals opt-in to content of interest, controlling the flow of information that they receiveRSS is a great way to share your information with other site owners for virtually no cost
Best Practices/Action Required:Provide users with fresh relevant content specific to your industryIf you can break up frequently changing content into specific groups it may be more appealing for others to subscribeKeep the information short but descriptive, tempting users to visit your website for more informationMake sure to syndicate your feeds
Implement RSS feeds for various types of content distribution
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
35www.sempo.org
• Allows for on-page content to become portable across multiple channels
• Engines are all displaying enhanced listings for sites with RDF or microformats-tagged data
• Recommended inclusion in HWS 2.0 requirements
• Prominent in travel, restaurant, anything local (reviews), and event-based data
Implement structured data (rich snippets, microformats, etc.)
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
36www.sempo.org
Wireframe reviews
■ Wireframes are a visual representation of where things will be laid out on the different templates of the website
■ Your SEO team should review these and make recommendations on the wireframes, as this layout can have a major impact on natural search performance
■ Basic elements include:□ Title
□ Meta description
□ Meta keywords
□ H1 & H2 headings (page title)
□ Page body, text
□ Image alt text
□ Linking
Page H1 & H2 headersPage H1 & H2 headers
Pages textual contentPages textual content
Title, meta description & meta keywordsTitle, meta description & meta keywords
Image alt textImage alt text
Linking from contentLinking from content
Navigation linkingNavigation linking
Global Sitemap linkGlobal Sitemap link
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
37www.sempo.org
Assign keyword themes to pages for copywriters
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
■ Keywords should be assigned to specific pages based on the page theme
■ It may not be possible to assign keywords to all pages, but there will be many pages where the most relevant keyword will be fairly apparent based on the theme of the page
■ This information should be communicated directly to content strategists and copywriters
38www.sempo.org
Copy deck reviews
■ After the copy deck is created by incorporating your identified keywords, your SEO team should review this to determine if any further modifications need to be made to ensure copy is optimized
■ This is also a good time to re-evaluate pages that keywords were not found for during the roadmap review
■ Now that these pages have copy available, there may be more opportunities for optimization
■ Depending on what was scoped, this would also be the time to create meta descriptions
■ This may have already been done by the client or the Web development copywriters
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
39www.sempo.org
Launch considerations
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
40www.sempo.org
Launch redirection plan
■ Upon launch of new pages, it is important to activate the redirection plan
■ This ensures a smooth flow for users, and search engines
■ Redirects should be setup on a one-to-one basis
■ Every page should be redirected to a corresponding page
■ If no page corresponds, it is recommended that these be redirected to the homepage
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
41www.sempo.org
Remember post-launch reporting
■ The following data points can be used as benchmark metrics:□Ranking visibility
□ Traffic volume from search
□ Volume of various defined actions
□Revenue generated from natural search
Before launch After launch
PlanningPlanning DevelopmentDevelopment LaunchLaunch
42www.sempo.org
Case Study: Combined Insurance
43www.sempo.org
Project goals
Primary goal■ Drive more qualified leads
Secondary goal■ Help existing customers find what they need
Success measures■ Captured leads, qualified leads, converted leads
44www.sempo.org
Solution
Our approach: Combine in-depth market research with search analytics to drive the architecture, creative and search strategy for the new CombinedInsurance.com
iCrossing believes: If you truly understand what people are looking for and how they search for it, you can create connected online experiences that deliver on promises and engage the user at every step of the customer journey
RequirementsSite delivery,
Site Map,etc
Final Site
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 4
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 3
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 2
StakeholderAnalysis
CustomerAnalysis
TechnologyAudit
ContentEvaluation
CompetitiveAnalysis
LinguisticAnalysis
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 1
Discover Program Develop
Functional Requirements
Current Situation Report
User Personas
User Experience Strategy
Prioritization
Functional Recommendations
RequirementsSite delivery,
Site Map,etc
Final Site
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 4
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 3
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 2
StakeholderAnalysis
CustomerAnalysis
TechnologyAudit
ContentEvaluation
CompetitiveAnalysis
LinguisticAnalysis
User &Stakeholder
Inputs
Prototype 1
Discover Program Develop
Functional Requirements
Current Situation Report
User Personas
User Experience Strategy
Prioritization
Functional Recommendations
45www.sempo.org
Develop User Experience
Strategy Brief
Develop User Experience
Strategy Brief
Planning
PlanningGather business, brand,
user insights, and search data
DevelopmentCreate site framework,
design and development, page build
DevelopmentCreate site framework,
design and development, page build
LaunchQA testing, deployment
LaunchQA testing, deployment
SEO
46www.sempo.org
Development
Establish hosting
environment
Establish hosting
environment
Create copy deck
Create copy deck
Develop visual design
Develop visual design
Create site map and
wireframes
Create site map and
wireframes
Develop creative concept
Develop creative concept
PlanningGather business, brand,
user insights, and search data
PlanningGather business, brand,
user insights, and search data
DevelopmentCreate site framework,
design and development, page build
DevelopmentCreate site framework,
design and development, page build
LaunchQA testing, deployment
LaunchQA testing, deployment
Baseline search metrics
Baseline search metrics
Develop test
strategy
Develop test
strategy
SEO
47www.sempo.org
Launch
PlanningGather business, brand,
user insights, and search data
PlanningGather business, brand,
user insights, and search data
DevelopmentCreate site framework,
design and development, page build
DevelopmentCreate site framework,
design and development, page build
LaunchQA testing, deployment
LaunchQA testing, deployment
Ongoingmeasurement
and optimization
Ongoingmeasurement
and optimization
Deploy AnalyticsDeploy
Analytics
Deploy newsite
Deploy newsite
Execute QA tests
Execute QA tests
SEO
48www.sempo.org
Before
Existing global wireframe
49www.sempo.org
After
Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization
A creative solution that considers a wider user-experience
50www.sempo.org
Where search intention is met with relevant answers: High ranking pages get straight to the heart of what searchers are seeking
Findability is a usability issue: Both new visitors and existing customers can find what they are looking for, faster
Delivering on the search “promise”: Multiple points of entry create a relevant and engaging experience
A creative solution that considers a wider user-experience
51www.sempo.org
Search keyword “supplemental insurance”
52www.sempo.org
Search keyword “supplemental insurance”
53www.sempo.org
Action-based vernacular reflects user goals
Find > Browse > Learn > Connect
54www.sempo.org
Case Study: Combined.com
YOY Interactive Results – 2008 to 2009■Unique visitors
□Up 34%
■Search Visits□ 35% of all traffic (natural search previously represented 20%)
■Natural Search Optimization □ Increased keyword visibility YOY by 46%
▪ Branded keywords up 47%▪ Non-branded keywords up 84%
□ Top non-brand keywords▪ Supplemental insurance, disability insurance, accident insurance
■25,000 online applications captured in the new Applicant Tracking System (June 8, 2009 - December 31, 2009)
55www.sempo.org
Key takeaways
■ Search deserves a seat at the website design or redesign table□Rely on a dedicated SEO expert
■ There are many important aspects of SEO performance that are “baked-in” to the process
■ Considering SEO throughout the process helps remove obstacles that may impede natural search performance
■ Develop business cases for including search in design□ Emphasize not only what can be gained, but what could be lost
■ Using search to inform design can increase various metrics from 100-1000%
■ Search is an integral part of user experience
Join SEMPO today at
www.SEMPO.org
SEMPO, Inc.401 Edgewater Place, Suite 600Wakefield, Massachusetts 01880+1 [email protected]
Questions and Answers
Thank you
Rob GarnerSenior Strategy Director, iCrossingSEMPO Board of [email protected]
Twitter @RobGarnerFacebook.com/GarnerGreatfinds.icrossing.com Linkedin.com/in/robgarnerMedia Post Search Insider blog