Slides on a few ideas and steps that I often use to come up with better questions when working with large websites

1. #SEOmeetup
Melbourne

2. Hi!~ Hola!
I'm Gastón Riera 🤓
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3. About me
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More in the pinned tweet: @gastonriera
I love solving SEO problems
- Current: SEO Specialist @ Envato Market.
- ThemeForest, CodeCanyon and others.
- 2yrs as Sr. SEO specialist @ Mercado Libre.
- The largest ecomm in Latin America.
- In SEO since '12 w/ own projects and freelancing
- Gold Product Expert on Google Webmasters Forum.
- Also graduated in electronics engineering, but never have and
probably never will work as that type of engineer.

4. “I thought I knew how
spicy a meal could be,
till I moved to Australia.
Oh boy… Learnt that
the hard way.
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5. Storyline
Paths I've walked and ideas to get more
questions and answers from data

6. Considerations
● Large sites: >500k URLs
● Inquisitive mindset
● Know well the site structure and
its products
It's a lot about coming up with more
and better questions
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7. My starting questions...
- Opportunities not seen?
- Low hanging fruits?
- Quick-wins?
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8. My starting questions...
- Opportunities not seen?
- Low hanging fruits?
- Quick-wins?
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Remember that
a big part of this,
is EXPLORATION!

9. Breakdown the data
Sort sections, categories,
itemtypes and products
by:
- Sales,
- Revenue,
- conversion rate,
- marginal revenue.
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How I usually go about it...
1.

10. Breakdown the data
Sort sections, categories,
itemtypes and products
by:
- Sales,
- Revenue,
- conversion rate,
- marginal revenue.
Interactions
Understand what are the
next interaction users do
after landing on a page.
- 1st interaction
- 2nd interaction
- Last interaction?
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How I usually go about it...
1. 2.

11. Breakdown the data
Sort sections, categories,
itemtypes and products
by:
- Sales,
- Revenue,
- conversion rate,
- marginal revenue.
Interactions
Understand what are the
next interaction users do
after landing on a page.
- 1st interaction
- 2nd interaction
- Last interaction?
SERP's data
Queries, rankings and
impressions.
Use data from:
- Search Console
- Google Ads
Not other tools yet (such
as semrush or ahrefs)
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How I usually go about it...
1. 2. 3.

12. Play with
the data!
At this point you'll have a few clues
about possible answers to your
questions
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13. But!

14. But!
There always are
roadblocks 😡

15. G Analytics 😢
Sampling and low
percentage of sessions.
When filtering on a large
period of time, too many
filters..
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Typical roadblocks...

16. Typical roadblocks...
GSC_1 🤔
Not enough data.
There are
clics/impressions but not
assigned to a query/URL.
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17. GSC_2 😵
Too much data, usually
when querying API.
Not easy to work with.
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Typical roadblocks...

18. The 3rd wheel: LOGS!
● Confirm users & Bot behaviour
● Talk to your friendly dev
● Don't need expensive tools!
Only ask and look at the piece of
data that helps you.
Start small and simple.
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19. Different SC properties
Create different SC properties,
breaking down the reports.
For example:
- Folders and subdirectories,
- Page type.
Not only search data, but
coverage data!
Regex filters on GA
Spend some time learning
Regular expressions and it'll
prove super useful for you. A LOT.
Separate sitemaps
Monitoring indexation is key.
Having separate sitemaps helps
to spot issues easily.
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SC API on Google Sheets
Using the SC API on Google Sheets.
Its as simple as installing an addon
and you can overcome the known
limitations of the SC UI.
A few tips..

20. Links
Resources:
● SC API sheets addon
● RegEx web tool
● GA API sheets addon
○ GA query explorer
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21. Thanks!
Any questions?
You can find me at:
● @gastonriera
● /in/gastonriera
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