webmarketing123: 5 seo tips for successfully navigating a website redesign-09-08-2011
TRANSCRIPT
5 SEO Tips for Successfully Navigating a Website RedesignStrategies for staying one step ahead of the rest
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Housekeeping Items
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1 Complete a Full SEO Site AuditBaseline your website, including crawl rate and indexation of your site’s pages
2 Identify Pages That Bring TrafficSustain the SEO value of keyword phrases that are driving traffic to your site
3 Develop Proper Navigation & Linking StructureMinimize the impact of URL changes while implementing redirects accordingly
4 Manage Your Inbound LinksRedirect inbound links to your new pages and URLs
5 What to Look for in a New CMSSelect a CMS that will preserve and enable SEO-friendly elements of your site
Webinar Agenda
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1 Complete a Full SEO Site AuditBaseline your website, including crawl rate and indexation of your site’s pages
2 Identify Pages That Bring TrafficSustain the SEO value of keyword phrases that are driving traffic to your site
3 Develop Proper Navigation & Linking StructureMinimize the impact of URL changes while implementing redirects accordingly
4 Manage Your Inbound LinksRedirect inbound links to your new pages and URLs
5 What to Look for in a New CMSSelect a CMS that will preserve and enable SEO-friendly elements of your site
Webinar Agenda
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• Search on Google or Bing: Site:domainname.com
• Identify how many pages are being indexed
1 Complete a Full SEO Site AuditExamine your site pages indexed on the search engines
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• Check your cache to view crawl frequency
1 Baseline How Often Your Site is CrawledMake sure site navigation links can be followed
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Compare against Google’s Webmaster Tools
1 Use Webmaster Tools for Crawler Stats
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1 Complete a Full SEO Site AuditBaseline your website, including crawl rate and indexation of your site’s pages
2 Identify Pages That Bring TrafficSustain the SEO value of keyword phrases that are driving traffic to your site
3 Develop Proper Navigation & Linking StructureMinimize the impact of URL changes while implementing redirects accordingly
4 Manage Your Inbound LinksRedirect inbound links to your new pages and URLs
5 What to Look for in a New CMSSelect a CMS that will preserve and enable SEO-friendly elements of your site
Webinar Agenda
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2 Identify Pages That Bring TrafficHow Do Keyword Phrases Affect Your User Experience?
Visitor Bounce Rate?
• Relevancy
Visitor Time on Site?
• Engagement
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• Are enough people searching on your target keyword phrases?
• Identify the traffic on each keyword
• Carry the keyword phrases to your new site that draw the most traffic
2 Identify Pages That Bring TrafficKeyword Research
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2 Evaluate Your Best Traffic Driving TermsAnalytics & AdWords
Keywords that drive ORGANIC traffic:
Keywords that drive PAID conversions:
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• Continue to churn out fresh content for search engine spiders
• Add more content that includes your keyword phrases and is composed in a natural writing style
• Work to engage your visitors in your products and services:
• Blogs
• Press Releases
• Articles, Whitepapers, and More
2 Reuse Important ContentIf you have good content, why not recycle it?
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1 Complete a Full SEO Site AuditBaseline your website, including crawl rate and indexation of your site’s pages
2 Identify Pages That Bring TrafficSustain the SEO value of keyword phrases that are driving traffic to your site
3 Develop Proper Navigation & Linking StructureMinimize the impact of URL changes while implementing redirects accordingly
4 Manage Your Inbound LinksRedirect inbound links to your new pages and URLs
5 What to Look for in a New CMSSelect a CMS that will preserve and enable SEO-friendly elements of your site
Webinar Agenda
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3 Develop Navigation & Linking StructureMinimize the impact of URL changes
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3 Are URLs Changing?Use 301 Redirects
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3 Are URLs Changing?Use 301 Redirects
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What needs to happen: Google needs to know you have a new page
How to accomplish:
• Carefully structure internal linking
• Create content silos
• Establish crawling pathways through a clear navigation structure
3 Develop Navigation & Linking StructureAdding New Pages
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3 Develop Navigation & Linking StructureRemoving Old Pages
What needs to happen: Google needs to know to NOT visit the old page
How to accomplish:
• Create 301 Redirect of subpages to the homepage unless there is a better target page
• Direct search engine spiders to the new pages
• Establish crawling pathways through a clear navigation structure
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3 Develop Navigation & Linking Structure404 Error Page
• It is very important to set up an effective 404 Error page before launch
• If you make a mistake on your redirects, you will have a safety net
• This page will catch all the redirects you may have missed
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@bradleywjoe
1 Complete a Full SEO Site AuditBaseline your website, including crawl rate and indexation of your site’s pages
2 Identify Pages That Bring TrafficSustain the SEO value of keyword phrases that are driving traffic to your site
3 Develop Proper Navigation & Linking StructureMinimize the impact of URL changes while implementing redirects accordingly
4 Manage Your Inbound LinksRedirect inbound links to your new pages and URLs
5 What to Look for in a New CMSSelect a CMS that will preserve and enable SEO-friendly elements of your site
Webinar Agenda
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Questions to Ask:
• Which outside links are bringing targeted traffic?
• Are the links boosting my rankings?
What to Do:
• Apply 301 redirects on the pages where the links are directed
• Important to sustain the SEO value from these inbound links
4 Manage Inbound LinksReview Incoming Links
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4 Manage Inbound LinksUse a Redirect
Wall Street Journal Link
Old Site Page New Site Page
In 3-6 months, the search engine spiders will learn to go straight to the new page
Full SEO value will be transferred to your new page over time!
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@bradleywjoe
1 Complete a Full SEO Site AuditBaseline your website, including crawl rate and indexation of your site’s pages
2 Identify Pages That Bring TrafficSustain the SEO value of keyword phrases that are driving traffic to your site
3 Develop Proper Navigation & Linking StructureMinimize the impact of URL changes while implementing redirects accordingly
4 Manage Your Inbound LinksRedirect inbound links to your new pages and URLs
5 What to Look for in a New CMSSelect a CMS that will preserve and enable SEO-friendly elements of your site
Webinar Agenda
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5 Choose a New CMSAbility to Generate User-Friendly URLs
• Are your URLs fully editable?
• URLs have an effect on rankings
Best Practices:
1) Short URLs
2) Include relevant keyword terms
Any restrictions on URL management in a CMS would hinder your site’s SEO performance
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Page Titles are the most important page ranking factor!
5 Choose a New CMSAbility to Set Unique Page Titles
• Include keywords at the start of your page title
• Use a call to action
• Page Titles affect Click-through rates (CTR)
Bad Example!
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5 Choose a New CMSAbility to Set Unique Meta Descriptions
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5 Choose a New CMSDefine H1 Tags and ALT Tags
Define at the page level to allow maximum SEO benefit:
• Layout
• Length
• Content
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5 Choose a New CMSDefine H1 Tags and ALT Tags
Define at the page level to allow maximum SEO benefit:
• Layout
• Length
• Content
Pick a CMS where H1 tags will not affect the navigation or menu system
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5 Choose a New CMSDefine ALT Tags
ALT Tags should be set at the page-level, not image library level for maximum SEO benefit.
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5 Choose a New CMSControl & Access Robots.txt file
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5 Choose a New CMSControl & Access Robots.txt file
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• Undergo a full SEO Site Audit before you begin your redesign project
• Determine which pages bring traffic to the live site for your keyword phrases
• Develop the navigation and linking structure with SEO value in mind
• Manage inbound links and set redirects to sustain SEO credit from outside
sites
• Choose a CMS that will allow you to maintain SEO-friendly site elements
Key Takeaways
Thank You!
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