Technical and Performance

SEO Tune UpCarolyn Shelby, SEO Director, tronc

#SEJSummit@cshel

Carolyn ShelbyDirector, SEO at tronc,Inc.

Organic, technical, enterprise, and news20+ years experience

#SEJSummit@cshel

#SEJSummit@cshel

3 Takeaways

Speed is the goal.Remember Power to

Weight Ratio

Efficient delivery is the key to speed.

Keep things simple.Defined, refined

goals. Elegant code.

A 1-second delay in page load time yields:– 11% fewer page views– 16% decrease in customer

satisfaction– 7% loss in conversions

(source: Aberdeen Group)

KEEP IT SIMPLE

How Much is Too Much?

• How many audiences?• How many tasks?• How much reporting?• What are you tracking?

• How many images?• How many social icons?• How many ads to serve?– From where?

Complexity has costs

• More data to push• More time to retrieve data

from 3rd party• Increased load times• Increased dev time• Greater chance of conflicts• Greater difficulty

maintaining and repairing

SEO Improvements through Simplifying

• Get rid of code that no longer serves a useful purpose

• Reduce the number of 3rd party sources (calls)

• (this includes tracking pixels)

• Reduce the bloat in your code, in your CSS, in your scripts.

• DO NOT CALL or LOAD THINGS THAT AREN’T NEEDED

It’s okay to say no!

KEEP IT EFFICIENT

Speed through Efficient Delivery• Minimize latency

• Minimize file sizes

• Only deliver those things necessary for the user experience.

• Prioritize above-the-fold content.

Speed Traps

• DNS response time

• Latency between the DB and the file server

• Failure or lag in loading a tracking pixel or some other 3rd party service

• Not optimizing your image file sizes

• Not optimizing your CSS delivery

• Too many plugins

• Too many http redirects

MAKE IT FAST

Conversations to have…• Fonts based on ease/speed of load vs what the designer

used in the photoshopped mock up?• Content to suppress on the mobile site? (Using detection

to deliver only the pieces necessary to the UX)• How many different tracking tools do you need? How

many customer analytics/behavior monitoring beacons?

Tools for Page Speed and Load Times• Google PageSpeed Insights – Follow guidance for both mobile and desktop

• Yslow (yslow.org)• Many SEO tools pull in PageSpeed and Yslow into

their auditing tools.

#SEJSummit@cshel

Twitter @cshelLinkedinlinkedin.com/in/cshelGoogle++CarolynShelby

THANK YOU!

#SEJSummit@cshel

3 Takeaways

Speed is the goal.Remember Power to

Weight Ratio

Efficient delivery is the key to speed.

Keep things simple.Defined, refined

goals. Elegant code.