#seoweek: the role of user experience and web development in seo
TRANSCRIPT
THE ROLE OF
USER EXPERIENCE &
WEB DEVELOPMENT
IN SEO
MARCH 2017
ABOUT NETELIXIR
2
OUR TEAM: 100+ fanatically analytical search
marketers, operating in three
countries.
OUR PARTNERSHIPS:We are a Preferred Partner of both
Google and Bing.
OUR VALUE: We combine our expertise and our
proprietary technology to help
businesses get found, convert visitors
to customers and acquire game-changing consumer insights.
PAID SEARCH& SHOPPING
MANAGEMENT
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
PAID SOCIAL MANAGEMENT
TECHNOLOGY{ }SERVICES CONSULTING++
LXR:MULTI-CHANNEL ONLINE
MARKETING TECHNOLOGY
LXR MARKETPLACE:FREE SEARCH MARKETING TOOLS
FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
LXR GUIDE:PAID SEARCH MANAGER FOR
SMALL BUSINESSES
WEB ANALYTICS
DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
ON DEMAND TECH SUPPORT
ABOUT CHRISITE LABARCA
4
Christie has worked in the digital marketing industry for about eight
years, with a special emphasis on the technical elements in
organic search and SEO. Extensive experience in auditing and
identifying causes of deeply-rooted technical issues that impact
SEO performance for small, medium and large websites.
At NetElixir, Christie helps manage organic search for clients, and
places emphasis on educating our clients and their teams.
ABOUT HALA ALI
SEO Manager at NetElixir
Hala Ali has been in the digital marketing field for more than a decade and
specializes in SEO with a focus on small and mid-sized retailers.
She has consulted with pharmaceutical firms, local businesses, and sites
like Club Wyndham before she joined NetElixir in 2016.
4 INTERACTIVE SESSIONS (2PM ET, EVERY DAY)
Tuesday 3/14: The 2017 State of SEO
Wednesday 3/15: Adopting a Mobile-First SEO
Philosophy
Thursday 3/16: The Role of User Experience and
Web Development in SEO
Friday 3/17: Building a Winning Retail SEO Strategy
http://info.netelixir.com/seo-checklist-2017.html
FREE WEBSITE MIGRATION SEO CHECKLIST
POLL
Have you ever experienced an
extreme drop in SEO following a
website change?
A. Yes
B. No
C. I learned my lesson and most
recently have prepared
D. Unsure
AGENDA
• Type of Website Development and UX Changes
Concerned With SEO
• High-Level SEO Elements to Consider During a Website
Change
– Mobile-First Design
– Website Architecture & Scalability
– User Experience
• Importance of Planning & Preparation
• Empowering Your Team With Experts
• Phases of Website Relaunch/Migration or Changes
– Pre-Launch
– Launch
– Post-Launch
• The level of potential impact on organic will be determined by
many different factors for any given scenario.
• Always ask, how can this change impact my current SEO
performance?
• Developers have a job to develop a website. Assume that
they’re not thinking in terms of SEO when making website
changes.
• Major changes (such as a platform migration, redesign,
switch to responsive or mobile-first design) definitely
warrant a need for detailed preparation and plan to ensure
minimum traffic loss.
WHAT TYPE OF WEBSITE CHANGES SHOULD
WE BE CONCERNED ABOUT FOR SEO?
Mobile-First Design
• We know that Google’s main goal is to provide the best
possible experience to the user. Ever-changing ranking
signals typically coincide with changing user behavior.
• Mobile-first shift in the recent months is due to rapid increase
and ultimately shift of users’ primary search device from
desktop to mobile.
• Planning out your website change - design for mobile-first!
HIGH-LEVEL SEO ELEMENTS TO CONSIDER
DURING A WEBSITE CHANGE: MOBILE-FIRST
USER EXPERIENCE
AND SEO
Am I showing search engines that I’m providing the best
possible user experience for searchers?
• User experience is an umbrella that encompasses major
elements, such as mobile-first design and friendly website
architecture.
• Heat Maps can be of extreme use to help understand how
visitors interact with your existing site.
– What links are getting the most clicks? What are
users ignoring? Is it the placement of the links or is
the content not worthy of being on the homepage?
• Understanding how users interact with your website may
take time and extra resources, but it leads to insights that
help us design for a better user experience. Ultimately,
this increases engagement and drives conversions.
IMPORTANCE OF
PLANNING &
PREPARATION
• Website redesigns and migrations involve different teams
that have different roles and responsibilities.
• It’s the job of the web developer to develop the website
and it’s the job of the designer to design the website.
• Never assume web development team knows how to
develop the site, while also optimizing for organic search.
• Expect to see a 15-20% decrease in traffic when doing a
major site redesign or migration.
HOW DO I ENSURE
I PROPERLY
PLAN & PREPARE?
• Planning ahead with SEO experts as early on as possible.
• Communication cross departments or teams consistently to
ensure any changes made on the web development side have
not impacted recommendations or work done from the SEO
side.
• Review all major SEO elements and identify at what point in
the redesign/revamp process they should be addressed.
• Some tasks may or may not be incorporated into your timeline
for launch.
Pre-Launch Phase
At Launch
Post-Launch Phase
• Each of these phases should have detailed items that you or
your SEO team/agency are reviewing and making
recommendations on.
• Working with the developers on this timeline structure to
ensure that review and analysis is completed at the
appropriate/most opportune time for maximum efficiency.
PHASES OF WEB DEV CHANGES
AND/OR TRANSITIONS
PRE-LAUNCH
• Site Crawl (Old Site)
• Staging Analysis of New Site
• Redirects
• Testing Website Performance &
Usability
• Baseline Metrics
PRE-LAUNCH:
SITE CRAWL
(OLD SITE)
• Crawl the entire old site using a tool such as Screaming Frog
to help understand the ins and outs of the site, the
weaknesses and strengths, etc.
• Generally a full audit should be conducted.
• Understand the ins and outs.
• Identify what will and won’t be transitioned.
• Identify any existing redirects, broken links to address.
• Identify all website pages to be redirected.
PRE-LAUNCH:
STAGING ANALYSIS
The goal in performing a staging analysis of the new site is
to ensure:
• No-index/robots.txt tags on dev, appropriate pagination on
new site, etc.
• All content is transferred over to the new site.
• All technical elements and meta tags are in place.
PRE-LAUNCH:
REDIRECTS
(CRITICAL!)
What is a 301 redirect?
Why is it important?
• User Experience POV: Will redirect the user to the page
he/she is looking for, instead of an error page.
• Technical POV: It transfers a pages authority from one URL to
another.
Common Scenarios
• Changing of URL structure.
• Changing of navigational structure.
• Revamping an entire website.
• Condensing multiple pages into one page.
PRE-LAUNCH:
301 REDIRECTS
(CRITICAL!)
• Redirect Planning and Mapping
– Determine which page URLs will be changing, pages being
removed, etc.
– Identify the most valuable page URLs on the old site (via GA,
Majestic, rankings, etc.).
– Combine with pages identified in website crawl to make sure
nothing is missed.
– Identify all pages that have to be redirected, if necessary.
– Map out 301 redirects from old pages to new pages.
• Often Overlooked
– Businesses tend to overlook how critical it is to have a proper 301
map set up before site launch.
– 301 redirects pass page authority from one page to the other, help
preserve rankings on search engines.
– Redirect users to a page that will ultimately speak to the users
intent/experience.
PRE-LAUNCH:
TESTING WEBSITE
PERFORMANCE
AND USABILITY
• Test the staging version of the site in a mobile-first approach
– Test via common devices (iPhone, Galaxy).
– Chrome Dev Tools allow you to test different devices and views.
• Test in mainstream browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Edge,
Internet Explorer.
• Test for usability, design, and navigation. Also, look out for
the way the browser handles any technical changes made.
– For example, the switch to https encryption.
PRE-LAUNCH:
BASELINE METRICS
• Establish baseline metrics to measure impact of transition.
• Ranking Reports
– SERP ranking for top keywords
– Number of keywords in SERP for website
• Google Analytics
– Overall traffic reports
– Top pages
• Backlink Profile Overview (Majestic, Moz, etc.)
• Google Search Console
– Crawl errors
– Mobile usability
– Pages indexed
• Page Load Time (Mobile & Desktop)
LAUNCH
• Update Robots.txt files and any no-
index tags.
• Properly configure Google Analytics
and other tracking tools on new
site.
• Prepare to upload and submit an
updated XML sitemap.
• Utilize change of address tool in
Google (only if changing domain).
• Annotate changes in Google
Analytics.
IMMEDIATELY
POST-LAUNCH:
TESTING 301
REDIRECTS
• Using the 301 redirect map, crawl all of the old URLs to be
sure they’re all properly redirecting to the new pages with
a 301 response code.
• Check for 301 redirect chains
– We want to make sure that we minimize the number of
redirects for a user navigating our website.
– Internal links should be updated if there was a URL change.
This should take the user directly to the new page, taking out
the extra redirect which impacts page speed.
POST-LAUNCH
• Keep a close eye on crawl errors
in Google Search Console.
• Run a site crawl again, preferably
a site audit to identify any red
flags or pressing technical issues.
POST LAUNCH
• Monitor the number of pages
indexed (in GSC and on site
search).
• Observe performance metrics
benchmarked regularly.
– Any significant ranking drops?
Declines in performance? For a
specific channel?
• Measure page speed and
performance on devices and
browsers again, to compare to
benchmarked metrics.
http://info.netelixir.com/seo-checklist-2017.html
FREE WEBSITE MIGRATION SEO CHECKLIST
QUESTIONS
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