integrating seo into development - proseo

Alex Craven – MD Integrating SEO into DevelopmentAlex Craven - MD

Political

Practical

• Alex Craven – MD Winning the Political Battle

Know yourenemy

PaymentonResults

““

Everyone knows

moneyIf you get

you only make

results

• Alex Craven – MD Working with developers

Working with Developers

• Run a workshop

• Explain the Strategy• Why?• Bonus Structure• Anticipated results

• Involve them in the project planning

• Involve their SEO ‘expert’ in the discussion

Involve thesenior decisionmaker in the first meeting

Let them know their work has helped

Some Examples

• Alex Craven – MD Practical Project Planning

Project Planning

• How SEO requirements impact scope

• Why SEO NEEDS to be included at the very beginning

BriefCommercialObjectives

Creative

SEO

Usability

• The larger the client the less important SEO often is

SEO BriefCrawlable

Wordpress

ContentRequirements

Domain

NavigationArchitecture

Platform

SEO requirements that impact upon the scope

Project Lifecycle - Waterfall

Project Planning

• Ecommerce project lifecycle

• Project plan

• Client content population guide

Client Content Population Guide

Project Planning

• Project launch Check List

SEO Development checklist

# Item1. Are ALL project stakeholders identified?

2. Define roles of stakeholders in relation to the project

3. Ensure all stakeholders understand contract terms & targets

4. Organise project kickoff meeting with all stakeholders

5. Produce clearly structured kickoff meeting agenda, allow senior decision makers to leave at relevant point

6. Key phrase research and sign off by client/decision maker7. Produce prioritised list of SEO requirements, seek input from

developers as to implementation difficulty and collaboratively agree prioritisation as part of brief finalisation

8. Organise SEO training sessions with relevant people within the client/developer team

9. Agree KPI’s

10. Identify tracking capability and agree KPI reporting format, identify any gaps and feedback into project requirements

SEO Development checklist

11. Produce benchmark report in agreed format12. Review and contribute to Sitemap / IA13. Review creative concepts and provide feedback14. Draft content population best practice guide (tailored to design)

supporting content plan15. Review inner template designs as they are produced

SEO Development checklist

16. Review content provided and optimise17. Review technical specification / development platform etc.18. Support site launch planning process

301’s if existing domain URL Structure Canonicalization Sitemap update Tracking code check Webmaster tools Robots.txt

SEO Development checklist

19. Pre launch benchmark report20. Post launch analysis:

Page indexing Crawl errors 404 errors 301 mapping check Analytics/web stats check Site accessibility Ranking check

SEO Development checklist

Where it all goes wrong

• Brief signed off isn’t what gets built• Client won’t accept SEO recommendations• Client agrees specification but ‘forgets’ this when site comes out of dev for UAT and requests removal of copy / other SEO elements• No robots.txt PPC landing pages• No robots.txt on dev site• Developers don’t know how SE’s crawl websites

Where it all goes wrong

• Client is late populating site, no time to check prelaunch

• Client copies content from competitor

• Products in more than one category (duplicate content)• Rushed UAT / population SEO best practice abandoned• Client updates website without telling you

• Client owns similar website (another brand or region) and copies content (doesn’t tell you)

Take-aways

• E-commerce development lifecycle• Project launch plan

• Common pitfalls• SEO Development checklist

• Lifecycle info graphic

• Client content population guide

Alex CravenT: @AlexCravenE: acraven@bloommedia.co.ukW: www.bloommedia.co.uk