the SEO cyborg - Moz 2018 (full edition)

#MozCon | @AlexisKSanders
the SEO cyborg.

fan of the color yellow-orange
works for merkle
(full-service marketing agency)
technical SEO manager
alexis sanders | @AlexisKSanders

proud member of the merkle SEO team

SEO is about understanding how
search bots and users react to an
online experience
+

SEO requires bridging the gap between
search bots, people, and
our web experiences.

cyborg
(cybernetic organism)
n. a being with
both organic and
biomechatronic body parts,
whose physical abilities are
extended beyond normal
human limitations by
mechanical elements.

the SEO cyborg
n. an SEO team that works
seamlessly between
both technical and content
initiatives (whose skills are
extended beyond normal human
limitations) to support driving of
organic search performance.

classic SEO model
crawl index rank
technical content
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/70897?hl=en

enhanced model
crawl render index rank connect
technical content
signaling

technical + content =

today,
we’re going to cover potential areas of focus,
challenges, and actionable strategies for resolving

technical
relationship with bots

more straightforward, yet nuanced
challenge one

different CMS platforms, frameworks, new tech
challenge one

5 6
1
hard to quantify value
challenge two
0
$

how much is identifying a 403
being served to bots worth?

what about a misplaced noindex ooo
meta robots tag on an important page?

technical SEO is like roots
without a strong foundation, a site is like
a tumbleweed

search at scale can be quirky
challenge three
sometimes we have to give search engines a <br/> w/ trillions of pages to sort through

google does not instantaneously render all
JavaScript upon crawling.
it’s queued.

crawl
index
render
1. instant, first
wave of indexing
2. new links
to be crawled
3. as rendering
resources are
available
4. second wave
of indexing
John Mueller and Tom Greenaway’s 2018 Google I/O JavaScript Session
connotation: sites
are being prioritized

bigger, more authoritative sites
receive somewhat different treatment

sites in the larger click brackets correlate
w/higher crawl rates
SEO experiment w/GSC crawl and click data for ~100 clients

ability to efficiently find web pages
crawl
b/c if you can’t find a page on the Internet, does it exist?

pages can
be found via
links
seed
branch
page
Producing a ranking for pages using distances in a web-link graph, 9,953,049, 4/2018
MajesticSEO, Moz, aHef, and even GSC offer some great resources id’ if a page was discovered via backlinks

by a redirected page

side note:
if you’re seeing weird pages popping up in site crawls
or performing in search, check:
□ backlink reports
□ internal links to URL
□ redirected into URL

sites can provide a list of URLs,
options include:
https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/how-to-submit-sitemaps-82a15bd4
http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification
https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/atom.html
• XML sitemap protocol
• RSS 2.0
• atom 1.0
• .txt URL list

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/80471
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/videosearch/sitemaps
http://www.rssboard.org/media-rss
Images:
• XML sitemap protocol + <image:image> tag
Video:
• video XML sitemap
• mRSS 2.0
sites can also provide a list
of multimedia content:

pages and resources need
to be obtainable

#MozCon | @AlexisKSandersreminder: crawl and indexing are different; if you block
something in index you’ll get that ugly blocked messaging
w/o robots.txt w/ robots.txt
a good robots.txt sanity check: https://technicalseo.com/seo-tools/robots-txt/
/robots.txt
crawlable crawlable crawlable
crawlable crawlable non-crawlable
should be
crawled
should be
crawled
shouldn’t be
crawled
should be
crawled
should be
crawled
won’t be
crawled

leveraging proper http status code
extended UML visual of status codes:
https://www.codetinkerer.com/2015/12/04/choosing-an-http-status-code.html
4xx 5xx 3xx
2xx
302
301
410
404
503
500
issue w/
request
?
server-
side
issue?
page
redirected
?
temp?planned
?
forever?
HSTS?

organized information
architecture for crawling
including:
 simple, clear, useful
main navigation
 relevant on-page linking
 clear, crawlable internal linking
(i.e., <a href="/">)
 html sitemap available
 footer links to tertiary content
sitebulb crawl map of site

requires: deep
understanding
of user
 what trends appear in search
volume (by location, device)?
common questions?
 what pages get the most traffic?
 what are common user journeys?
 what are user’s traffic
behavior and flow?
 how do users leverage site
features (e.g., internal site
search)?

crawl budget
• search engines don’t want to
break your site
• if site has billions of indexable
pages
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2017/01/what-crawl-budget-means-for-googlebot.html
https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1001814463320903680

□ important pages close to root?
□ no crawl traps?
□ no orphan pages?
□ all pages have purpose?
□ duplicate content resolved?
□ redirects consolidated?
□ canonical tags on fleek?
□ not using parameters willy nilly?
crawl efficiency (all sites)consolidatedpage

ability to capture page’s essence
render

challenge one
JavaScript
{ _(); }

is google rendering content?
direct “quotes” from content indexed?
using <a href="/"> links (not onclick();)?
being served to search engine bots?
in the DOM?
google’s mobile-friendly testing tool + JavaScript
console (click “view details”)?
bonus: if using SSR make sure to check-in

infinite scroll?
should all of the content be indexed?
AJAX – use History API + paginated
pages w/rel="next" and rel="prev")
view-all page – one page w/all content
(probably not feasible)

lazy load imagery?
should images be indexed in image search?
<img> tags in <noscript> tags
JSON-LD
schema.org "image" attributes nested in
appropriate item types
schema.org ImageObject item type

challenge two
CSS
background-color: blue;

CSS rendered?
CSS background images not picked up in
image search
CSS animations not interpreted
layouts for page are important (mobile layout;
avoid excessive ads)

challenge three
images+

images?
□ alt tags, metadata, and surrounding content are still
important
□ inline SVGs not picked up in image search
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-improvement.html
https://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/432940645200588800
potential for improvement w/machine learning to improve, check out:
https://cloud.google.com/vision/, they’re interpreting text in images, facial sentiments, and
finding exact references across the web with creepy accuracy

challenge four
personalization

trend in broader digital to target real,
known individuals (not just proxies)
proxies real peopleindex-based

google doesn’t save cookies
across sessions
will not interpret personalization based on cookies,
meaning there must be an average,
base-user, default experience

getting URL into google’s database(s)
index

getting into index
□ ensure URLs are crawl and render-able
□ ensure nothing preventing from being
crawled, rendered, and/or indexed
□ submit sitemap in GSC

“mobile-first indexing means that we'll use the mobile version
of the page for indexing and ranking, to better help our –
primarily mobile - users find what they're looking for.” –
google webmaster blog
google's mobile-first indexing
>
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/03/rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing.html

□ ensure parity between mobile and desktop:
□ content (text, images, videos)
□ structured data
□ internal links
□ GSC settings
□ ensure appropriate <link> tag
if mobile ≠ desktop

suggesting best representation of page
signaling

• google maintains prerogative over choosing URL
• theoretically, only crawl canonicals in HTML*
• google will typically crawl the canonical URL
canonical tags

• represent a collective series
• not duplicate content
• all URLs will likely be indexed; however,
usually first URL in chain will rank
rel="next" and rel="prev"

• indicate appropriate
language/country
• very easy to make errors
• unforgiving
hreflang

□ “international targeting”
□ “url parameters”
□ “data highlighter”
□ “remove URLs”
□ “sitemaps”
ensure GSC settings = solid
use
caution

appealing to bots as best response,
while also developing relationship w/ users
content

does page have the best
response?

are you
known
for this
topic?
https://projector.tensorflow.org/

search engines arranging of pages
rank

□ textual-content
□ multimedia
□ meta elements
□ structured data
on-page content

□ make content both people and bots can
understand
□ answer questions directly
□ write short, logical, simple sentences
□ ensure subjects are clear (not to be inferred)
□ create scannable content
□ define any uncommon vocabulary or link
text-based content
the average american adult reading level is 7th-8th grade,
http://www.clearlanguagegroup.com/readability/
one of my favorite writing resources:
https://centerforplainlanguage.org/learning-training/five-steps-plain-language/

#MozCon | @AlexisKSandersvisual by @abbynhamilton
use
semantic
HTML

structured dataunstructured data
< >
markup types
JSON-LD
microdata
microformats
RDFa
(e.g. text)
add relevant schema.org structured data

make accessible content
https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-principles/
https://www.w3.org/WAI/test-evaluate/preliminary/
□ accessible rich internet applications (ARIA)
□ keyboard functionality
□ text alternatives for non-text media
□ transcripts for audio
□ images with alt text
□ in-text descriptions of visuals
□ adequate color contrast
□ text is resizable

how to find
relevant
queries?

research + intuition

intuition
+ data
+ testing =
better strategic
decisions
intuition
data
experiments
strategy

research
keyword,
landscape
analytics,
performance
user,
audience

audience research

find target
audience:
who are users?
where are they?
why do they buy?
how do they buy?
what do they want?

what do they
value?
Social
Connection
functional
attributes
functional
consequences
personal
consequences
personal
values
constant
connection
always
informed
hyper-
mobile
competence
and
belonging
appearing
intelligent
efficient
contact

what is their relationship w/
tech?
RELATIONSHIP WITH TECH
79% Google users
(index of 119)
50% find deals online
(index of 120)
59% rely on Internet for
communication with
family/friends
(index of 136)
63% agree Internet has
changed way their free
time is spent
(index of 120)

what do they do online?
MOST PROMINENT ONLINE ACTIVITES
75% booking travel
(index of 145)
72% information
(index of 121)
60% news
(index of 125)

engaging w/other brands?
brand 1
brand 3
brand 2

map out user journey

fit content into priorities
P0
content
P6
content
conversion potential
generic,
non-brand
branded
transactional
research

what does
“best-in-
class” look
like?
best-in-
class

search performance
UX
focus on
UX
focus on
SEO

how can we improve incrementally
to become best-in-class?
current state best-in-classimmediate
wins
next step
progressive development

resonating with people
connecting

connecting is about
understanding that
customers are
human (and we have
certain constraints)

it is constantly:
filtering,
managing,
multitasking,
processing,
coordinating,
organizing, and
storing information

to become
psychologic
ally sticky
we must

1. get past the
mind’s natural
squirrel…wait a
minute… refocus…
the mind’s
natural filter

a positive aspect of being a pull
marketing channel is that
individuals are already seeking out
information, making it possible to
intersect their user journey

2. be memorable

the brain holds
what’s
relevant,
useful, or
interesting
relevant
(now)
useful
(later) interesting

searcher’s interest is already
piqued (even if they aren’t
consciously aware of why they
searched for a particular topic)

which means we have a
unique opportunity to “be
there” for people.

simple
philosophy:
a great brand
is like a great
friend.

bonding
nurturing
relationship
building
trust
maintaining
rekindling
meeting

do your online customers use
adjectives they would use for a
friend to describe your brand?

e.g., available, dependable, honest,
trustworthy, non-judgement, listens,
genuine, respectful, forgiving,
thoughtful, caring, encouraging,
compassionate, supportive,
confident

degrees of
friendship
stranger
friend
i don’t know you, i don’t trust you
oh hey, i see you exist
i love you,
man
i’m intrigued by you
i would like more
you in my life

□ site = crawlable, renderable, and indexable
□ all signals = clear, aligned
□ answering related questions
□ content is relevant, useful, or interesting
□ treat users as friend
overall presentation summary

creating
compelling
experiences for
users + making
sense to search
engines
=

fin.

sophia’s
#ProudAunt
when we made google’s ml
cookies and used our
family as guinea pigs.
when she coerced
me into donuts
machine won best cookie (if you were wondering)

huge THANKS to
technical SEO
mentor
@maxxeight
Max Prin
design support &
creative sounding-
board
/in/garitreuble/
Garit Reuble
work & life
mentor
/in/christopher-glarner/
Chris Glarner
general support +Adam Audette, Matthew Grabiak, Abigail Hamilton, Brian Barna

THANK YOU #MOZCON!
@AlexisKSanders
/in/alexissanders

image icons:
• https://www.flaticon.com/authors/
• /gregor-cresnar
• /becris
• /freepik
• /smashicons
• /creaticca-creative-agency
• /becris
• https://thenounproject.com/term/
• /chemex/62388/
• Monster by Ana Lourenço
• roots by Strongicon.com
• Smiley Sad by Anu Prasadh Raja
• smiley struck out tongue by Anu Prasadh Raja
• Happy by Austin Condiff
• Robot by Creative Stall
image icon credits

humantechnical

some technical SEO tools:
<h1>TechnicalSEO.com</h1>
monitor pages status render as search engines
crawlers log file analyzers
structured data tools robots.txt mobile-first
<h1>TechnicalSEO.com</h1> <h1>TechnicalSEO.com</h1>
<h1>TechnicalSEO.com</h1>
saijo george has a list of many more tools, check it out here: https://saijogeorge.com/best-marketing-tools/

some speed tools:
dissect page speed google’s speed fixes prioritized speed report
+
"Network" panel
"Coverage" report
dev working environment CDN finder find server

also, analytics!
performance analytics keyword analytics
use analytics proactively to id’ issues, check out troubleshooting ideas here:
https://www.merkleinc.com/blog/troubleshooting-data-fluctuations-seo-reporting

toolset
keywordtool.io
keyword rankings content ideation
links performance
crawlers mobile-friendliness data

search engines must be
able to find the page
if a search engine, that’s actively looking can’t find a page, it’s going to be exponentially more challenging for user

GSC’s fetch as google

search engines need to have permission
to crawl appropriate pages

idea: leverage what we know about a
person to tailor ads and content.
goal: improve marketing efficiency,
build strong brand connections, and
drive business value.

crawl/index
mobile URL
mobile
page
returned
desktop
page
returned
Mobile Result
https://m.example.com/
Meta description
Desktop Result
https://www.example.com/
Meta description
crawl/index
desktop URL
associate
desktop with
mobile URL
google’sjourney
searcher’sjourney
no
yes
no
yes
yes
no
endrel="canonical"
if (mobile
version
exists)
if (user
accesses
from mobile
device)

challenge five
new web technologies and
advancements

googlebot smartphone
(mobile-first indexing bot)
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 6.0.1; Nexus 5X Build/MMB29P)
AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/41.0.2272.96
Mobile Safari/537.36 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1;
+http://www.google.com/bot.html)
#MozCon | @AlexisKSandersall details here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1061943?hl=en

chrome 41 vs 69:
no HTTP/2
no service workers (for PWAs)
no JS ES5/6 (e.g., JS let)
no JPEG XR image format
no preconnect or preload resource hint
no brotli accept/content-encoding
#MozCon | @AlexisKSanderscheck it out here: https://caniuse.com/#compare=chrome+41,chrome+69

□ add meta robots noindex
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
<meta name="googlebot" content="noindex">
□ remove URLs in GSC (temporary solution)
removing from index

• getting people’s attention
• being present in search where important
• scalability of content
• knowing what will resonate (and what may not)
top challenges for content

toolset
idea
generator
search
volume
analytics
competitive
metrics
Keyword
Explorer
keywordtool.io

tools

it all starts
with a query
query

which is
surrounded
by more
colorful data
personal
data
psycho-g
query
search
history
CRM
data
demo-g
location
purchase
history
language
device
query
intent
time
of day
web
activity

what non-
brand queries
are direct
competition
ranking for?
your non-brand rankings
competitor’s non-brand
rankings
overlap
maintain
opportunity

what does
“best-in-class”
look like?
best-in-class

search performance
UX
focus on UX
focus on SEO


search [center for plain language]
click “five steps to plain language”
https://centerforplainlanguage.org/learning-
training/five-steps-plain-language/

Trust
Aesthetics
Accessible content
Easy to navigate
Functionality
SEO and
UX goals
being
met?
Are you 20% faster than competitive set?
Pages must work for users
to visit site and return
Information architecture should
enable user to find information
easily
Text should be visible, click elements
should be spaced appropriately, etc.
How appealing is the look, feel, vibe of
the site to users
Without trust, sites are utilities. Are appropriate
sections HTTPS? Does the aesthetic inspire trust?
How easy is it to convert? Can any bottlenecks be
alleviated?Frictionless
conversion
Speed

is content relevant? 1/2
converting?
repeat
visits? visit more?
KPIs:
orders
leads
revenue
page flow
pages per visit
existing customers
repeat visitors
visitor recency
search?
rankings
featured snippets, PAA
share of SERP
clicks/impressions

engagement? sharing? referencing?
bounce rate
time on page/site
average duration
social media engagement
likes
shares
views
watch time
backlinks:
quality
quantity
is content relevant? 2/2

what is relevancy?
user interest
what you
want to say
relevant

□ what is content already ranking?
□ what types of queries?
□ does content answer the user
intent?
□ share of SERP (market share)?
visual is SOV from BrightEdge
seed questions

#MozCon | @AlexisKSandersvisual modified from @smrvl via @DannyProl
data information knowledge insight wisdom
search
volume
query
intent
content gap
personas
content inventory
competitive
ranking
potential
content
strategy

brand + non-brand questions
plug URL in to google’s keyword planner

plug URL in to answerthepublic.com
brand + non-brand questions

prioritizing
keywords
visual concept by @abbynhamilton
search volume
ranking
potentialrelevancy

what are they looking for?
categories sum of avg. monthly searches
category 1
category 2
category 3
category 4
category 5
category 6
category 7
category 8
category 9
category 10
grand total
Beautiful relevant quote, “what you seek is seeking you” - rumi
pivot keyword data

what are users
asking in internal
site search?
relevant search filters
narrow searches
relevant sorts
related searches
what’s being searched here is important to your users

borrowing intelligence from other digital channels
2015
1994
1950’s
PEOPLE
BASED
COOKIE
BASED
INDEX/
PANEL-
BASED
BEST
Addressable
PII Match
Closed Loop
BETTER
Addressable
PII Match
One Way
No Closed Loop
GOOD
Addressable
Cookies
Device IDs
Closed Loop
FIDELITYOFAUDIENCE

vs.new repeat visitors?

core demographic information?
MEN
WOMEN
KEY DEMOGRAPHICS
62%
38%
% OF SEGMENT AS COMPARED TO TOTAL
AGE
19-21 22-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50+
19% 35% 45%
14% HAVE CHILDREN
14%
$60K-$75K, $150K-$250K index high

can also use for services
P0
content
P6
content
conversion potential
levelofurgency
generic,
non-brand
branded
seeking expertdo it yourself

AUDIENCE 1 AUDIENCE 2 AUDIENCE 3 AUDIENCE 4 AUDIENCE 5 AUDIENCE 6
AUDIENCE OVERVIEW
AUDIENCE
MINDSET
CONTENT
STRATEGY
OVERVIEW
OPPORTUNITY
establish overview of audience and strategy

the average human
brain consists of 100
billion neurons,
capable of holding an
estimated million
gigabytes.

theories on working memory
suggest that on average, we can
remember 7±2 things
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
If anyone can recall of these in-person by end of MozCon, I’ll buy you a drink

content should
aim to be
relevant,
useful, or
interesting.
relates
resonates
utility
functional
meets need
quirky
humor
emotional

□ https://
□ limited ads in layout
□ proof of claims
□ relevant reviews and testimonials
□ contact information is available and easily findable
□ relevant information is intuitively available to users
□ it’s as easy to buy/subscribe, as it is to return/cancel
□ integrity visible throughout the entire process
□ maintain credible reputation across the web
inspiring of trust?
w/o trust brands are utilities

most influential
degrees of
influence
what you demonstrate
what customers
say about you
what you
say about
you
least influential

□ is all content either relevant, useful, or interesting?
□ does content honor user’s questions?
□ are you treating users as you would a friend?
□ do your users use friend-like adjectives to describe
your brand and/or site?
□ do brand’s actions align with overarching goals?
connecting w/users

the SEO cyborg - Moz 2018 (full edition)

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the SEO cyborg - Moz 2018 (full edition)