Why your tech optimisations are still sat in the backlog

Why your tech optimisations
are still sat in the backlog
@pangolinks
Vicky Mills
SALT.agency

A lot of you have probably heard of
the “SEO Triangle” before
#BrightonSEO #SALT | @pangolinks

TECHNICAL LINKS
CONTENT

We’re going to tweak
that a bit

This is our
SEO skeleton

We’re going to
call him Gerald

Let’s say Gerald’s
head represents
content
Content

His ribcage
and
extremities
represent links
Content
Links

But his
spine…
Content
Links Technical

That
represents
technical SEO
Content
Links
Technical

If you take it
away,
Gerald’s
head falls off
Content
Links
Technical

Content is important

Technical SEO is the
backbone that allows
our content to perform
to its full potential

So we want our tech
tickets implemented
quickly right?

But how often does this
actually happen?

What’s the longest
you’ve ever seen a
ticket sat in a backlog?

What was the reason?

Today we’re focusing
on this one

I know SEO tends to be
pretty adversarial

SEO Devs
vs

“The devs are lazy”

“They just need a kick
up the arse”

“They just need a kick
up the arse”
“They’re idiots”

I ask that you leave
those thoughts at the
door and bear with me
for the next 15 minutes

Relationships

Developers aren’t stupid

They just have different
priorities to you

If something is
implemented poorly
(from an SEO
perspective) there’s
probably a reason

Even if that reason is
simply “time”

If the dev doesn’t know our
SEO priorities, why would
they do something the
“correct” way?

We need to communicate
our SEO priorities

The three main priorities
we should be
communicating to the devs
are…

1.Is it crawlable?

2. Is it indexable?

3. Is it visible?

And we should make sure
the devs understand the
implications of these
things

So how do we do that?

It depends
👉👉

Try to establish a working
relationship with the
developers

If you’re in-house this
might be slightly easier

If you’re agency based you
may need to request a
meeting with them via your
point of contact

Be prepared to provide
examples of problematic
implementation vs best
(SEO) practice
implementation

Make sure you follow up
these explanations in
writing to give something
to refer back to

And remember,

We’re not just here to tell
the devs what’s what

In terms of tech SEO, the
devs are our strongest
asset

Come with a list of
questions

This is a collaboration, so
you want to be learning
from them too

1.Ask about the tech stack

CMS limitations, server
software, CDN usage, page
templates, page speed
1. Ask about the tech stack

What level of automation
do they have?

E.g. if you wanted to
update all title tags, would
that be manual or
automated?

Ask their standard for SEO
things you know you’ll be
regularly returning to

E.g. what’s their standard
for redirect implementation

Do they always use
301/2? Do they sometimes
use JavaScript redirects?
When? Why?

Ask how are redirects are
typically implemented - e.g.
via the CDN or web server
config (apache, nginx, etc)

Anything you can think of
that affects your work

You might find they already
have work in progress that
aligns with your goals

Or it might not, which is
also okay

2. Ask about workload

What is availability like?

Are they working on any
other high priority
projects?

3. Ask about their work
process

Do they follow any project
management
methodology?
3. Ask about their work process

E.g. agile or waterfall

Or is it more free form?

How do they want your
tickets?

Do they want the full
explanation or should they
be short and sweet?

If you’re unable to meet
with the devs, standards
documents are useful

But can be quite one sided

If you are able to get a face
to face meeting, come
prepared with what you
want, and examples of it

But also come with
questions!

Tech nuances

One of the biggest
challenges in SEO is how
different each tech stack is

E.g. CMS differences

Or CDN differences

Or CDN differences
Or hosting differences

Etc.

These differences can
affect our
recommendations

Some CMS just don’t
support the best practice
Google recommendations

Or certain implementations
may be outside of budget
or time limitations

E.g. Google say:
“Dynamic rendering is a
workaround and not a long-term
solution”

But sometimes a
workaround is better than
nothing

Tailor your
recommendations

If your CMS restricts robots.txt
edit access, robots.txt
recommendations are going to
be pointless

Be flexible

Project
management

First things first…

please…

Keep the backlog up to date!

Remove things that have
become redundant

The last thing you want is for
devs to waste their time on
an outdated ticket

But how else can we make
sure our ticketing is as good
as can be?

Understand how your
tickets can best facilitate
the developers’ work

What ticketing style works
best for them

Issue
Why this is an issue
Recommendation

Description
Acceptance criteria
Notes/further info

Understand when a
problem has a single
solution

In which case you can give
the solution straight to the
devs

Vs an issue which requires
more nuance and
creativity

In these scenarios it’s fine
to have idea but

The devs should also be
involved

They might think of
something you’d never
have thought of

But even this type of
approach depends on the
developers

You may end up working
with devs who just want to
be told what to do

The point is you need to
identify your working
relationship first

And then you’ll know how
best to ticket

Timescales

One of the worst things
you can do as an SEO is
expect everything to be
implemented asap

It is very rare to have a
developer dedicated
purely to SEO

This is why it is so
important that we
communicate our SEO
plans with the devs

E.g roadmapping and
keeping them aware of
upcoming work

And when ad hoc stuff
does come up

We need to think about
whether or not it’s worth
bumping something else
down

If we’re going to push hard
for something, we better
be sure it’s important

Prioritisation

So how do we prioritise?

As SEOs it’s our job to
think about the impact of
our recommendations

And identify the difference
between best practice vs
site-breaking issues

If something affects one of
our 3 core concerns, it
should be high priority

1.Is it
crawlable?
2.Is it indexable
3.Is it visible
Recap:

But what do we do when
all our issues are high
priority?

And what do we do when
we don’t have enough dev
resource to tackle all high
priority issues?

Fibonacci planning (or
similar) is a great way to
tackle this

Issue SEO Impact
Score
Implementation
Difficulty Score
Priority

Issue
Be sure to include a short
description of the issue so
the devs don’t need to dig
through the backlog

SEO Impact Score
Score the impact based on
how much you think it will
affect the site from an
SEO perspective

SEO Impact Score
I find it helpful to note
down some justifications
for my impact scores

SEO Impact Score
Especially if you’re
agency-side and working
across multiple projects

Implementation Difficulty
Score
LEAVE THIS ONE FOR
THE DEVS TO FILL OUT

Score
It may seem
counterintuitive to give the
devs more paperwork but

Score
The devs are the ones
who know the tech stack
the best

Score
And with this approach,
you’ve opened a channel of
communication and
collaboration

Takeaways

In tech SEO, the
developers are your most
critical resource

Collaboration is important

Collaboration is important
Find ways to combine your
knowledge with theirs

Communication is key

It’s a lot easier to get
people on board if they
understand your main
priorities

You don’t need to train
them in SEO but you
should communicate the 3
principles

Prioritisation will move the
needle faster

Issues are tackled quicker
when including devs in
prioritisation
Prioritisation will move the
needle faster

And remember

Without good tech SEO to
hold up your fantastic
content, your site will
struggle

But you need developers
to keep your SEO
backbone in good working
order

Thank You

Why your tech optimisations are still sat in the backlog

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