Holistic SEO and Drupal

transcript

HOLISTIC SEO ANDDRUPALBEST PRACTICES IN AN EVERCHANGING SEARCH LANDSCAPE

Created by Jim Birchjimbir.ch/holistic-seo@thejimbirchXeno Media, Inc.

Holistic SEO is a term used todescribe development in whichcontent, marketing, technical SEO,performance, security, userexperience and user intent cometogether to create an ideal url onthe internet, about a certain topic.

WHY TAKE A HOLISTICAPPROACH TO SEO?It defines a set of best practices thatultimately benefits the user.

As search engine algorithms getmore complex and intelligent, wewon't be able to control or predictchanges.

TODAY'S GOOGLEALGORITHM PUTSMORE VALUE ONTOPIC AND USERINTENT THANKEYWORDS.

Once upon a time, we were able to create small pieces ofkeyword specific content...

kr2fowdogudo999dvwdlkvnldkvn

And we were able to get it to rank on the search engines!

These days, one piece of holisticly created content can bereturned for different worded search terms.

HouseLogic.com's Guide to Hardwood Floor Finishes

Is listed for the following search terms:

hardwood floor finisheswood floor finishhow to finish a hardwood floorwood floor finishing

It is a very well written article in an excellently architectedsite, from a domain with value.

Nice big imageOver 1000 wordsGreat meta tagsJSON-LD MarkupFastMobileand more

HARDWOOD FLOOR FINISHES1ST RESULT

BASIC TYPES OFSEARCHES

NavigationalInformationalTransactional

Primarily Informational, but alsohas Transactional elementsLots of informative links, and ashopping box.We also have similar results for"wood floor finish"

Here's where it gets interesting:"how to finish a hardwood floor"

HOW TO FINISH A HARDWOOD FLOOR8TH RESULT

Informational Search

Knowledge box and videos all are "How to"Knowledge box is from the 7th result, same site as ourpageOur page is a product guide, not a How to, but theinformation is still percieved as valuable.

WOOD FLOOR FINISHING3RD RESULT

Transactional Search

Business listing showing local floor finishing companiesYelp business reviews, and Home advisor business listingsContractor websitesThe page in question does not fit in with Transactions, butis still listed!

One more example, showing how semantic Google is.

LITTLE BUB FIREPLACE

Now, Google knows the piece of content I need, even if I get2 of the 3 words wrong!

"little" nor "fireplace" exist on the page, yet I get the result.

Lil BUB's Magical Yule LOG Video

GOOGLE ISTopic based - Returns good content that is related, butnot specific to the search term.Semantic - Understands synonyms, pluralities,misspellings, homonyms and moreFocused on User Intent - What the user is trying to acheiveby searching

LET'S TALKABOUT SCALE

ON MAY 24TH, 2016 GOOGLEREVEALED THAT USERS MAKE ATLEAST 2 TRILLION SEARCHES PER

YEARGoogle now handles at least 2 trillion searches per year - Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land

HOW THAT BREAKS DOWNSearches per year: 2 trillionSearches per month: 167 billionSearches per day: 5.5 billionSearches per hour: 228 millionSearches per minute: 3.8 millionSearches per second: 63,000...at least...

Rand Fishkin, Moz Founder

Which would put it closer to 3 Trillion searches a year!

Over half of those searches happen on smartphones.Nearly one third of all mobile searches on Google arerelated to location.Location-related mobile searches are growing 50% fasterthan mobile searches in general.More than half of all web traffic for the millions of websiteowners using Google Analytics now comes fromsmartphones and tablets.

Google Execs Share 10 Incredible New Mobile Web Stats - Larry Kim, Inc.

SEARCH ENGINERANKING FACTORS

Search engine ranking factors areon- and off-site items that searchengines use to evaluate a webproperty's placement in the searchresults for a certain query.

SEARCH ENGINE RANKING FACTORSEach search engine has their own algorithm to how theyweigh factors.On occasion, Google will publish factors. Pay attention!

Schema markup ( ), ( )

Factors can be ranked differently for each and everysearch term!

MobilegeddonPage SpeedHTTPSAMP'ed results in Search

Reviews in Search Rich cardsSeparate Mobile Search Index

THERE ARE POSSIBLY

200RANKING FACTORS

Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List - Backlinko

Google's 200 Ranking Factors - Search Engine Journal

Penguin is now part of our core algorithm - Google Webmaster Central Blog

ON MAR 23, 2016 GOOGLE'S ANDREYLIPATTSEVM STATED THAT LINKS,

CONTENT AND RANKBRAIN ARE THETOP THREE RANKING SIGNALS INGOOGLE'S SEARCH ALGORITHM.

Now we know: Here are Google's top 3 search ranking factors - Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land

LINKSQuality of linksKeywords in linksQuantity

CONTENTQuality writingKeyword ResearchFreshnessImages, Video, News related to content or verticalDoes the content answer questions?

WHAT IS RANKBRAIN?RankBrain is a machine learning artificial intelligencesystem ...If RankBrain sees a word or phrase it isn’t familiar with,the machine can make a guess as to what words orphrases might have a similar meaning and filter the resultaccordingly, making it more effective at handling never-before-seen search queries. - Wikipedia

LEARN MORE ABOUT RANKBRAINHow to Use Google RankBrain in SEOFAQ: All About The New Google RankBrain AlgorithmArtificial intelligence is changing SEO faster than you thinkOptimizing for RankBrain... Should We Do It? (Is It EvenPossible?)SEO Trek: The Search for Google RankBrain* [New Data]Content Marketing and SEOThe four pillars of the future of SEO

THOSE WHO MONITOR ANDDECIPHER SEARCH ENGINE RANKING

FACTORSSearch Engine LandSearchmetricsMozBacklinko

Searchmetrics Search Ranking Factors Infographic 2015

Searchmetrics separated the ranking factors into thefollowing categories:

ContentUser ExperienceTechnicalBacklinksSocial

Search Engine Land - The Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors

Search Engine Land separated the ranking factors into thefollowing categories:

Content - On SiteArchitectureHTMLTrust - Off SiteLinksPersonalSocial

Search Engine Ranking Factors 2015Expert Survey and Correlation Data

"Every two years, Moz surveys the opinions of dozens of theworld's brightest search marketers and runs correlation

studies to better understand the workings of search enginealgorithms."

ACCORDING TO BACKLINKO, THEREARE OVER 200 SEARCH ENGINE

RANKING FACTORS"Some are proven. Some are controversial. Others are SEO

nerd speculation. But they’re all here." - Google’s 200Ranking Factors: The Complete List by Brian Dean

CONTENTSTRATEGY ANDHOW IT CANGUIDEDEVELOPMENT.

THE CONTENT STRATEGY QUADContent Components

SubstanceStructure

People ComponentsWorkflowGovernance

Brain Traffic Lands the Quad - March 2011

THE BASICS OF CONTENT STRATEGYContent-oriented Components

Identify Goals and Substance - focuses on what content isrequired to successfully execute your core strategy.Determine Structure - focuses on how content isprioritized, organized, and accessed.

Content Strategy Basics - Usability.gov

IDENTIFY GOALS AND SUBSTANCEWho are the users the client wants to visit the website?What content is the client going to be able to create andpublish?Who are the client's competitors, and what content arethey ranking for?

TOOLS FOR CONTENT CREATORSGoogle AdWords Keyword PlannerSearchmetrics EssentialsMoz Pro Keyword ExplorerReadability Score

DETERMINE STRUCTUREContent Types and EntitiesSitemapMenu StructureFunctionality/Views

DRUPAL TOOLSOnce you can define your Content Types and Entities, you

can use these Drupal tools to connect them.

can be used to render otherentities inside your main entity

can be used on top of reference fields toallow the user to add new, or select existing entities.

, and are greatmodules to build reorderable, custom entities thatreference other structured data entities

can be used to bridge your entities fieldsand Metatag fields and JSON-LD Views

Entity Reference Fields

Inline Entity Form

Paragraphs Entity Construction Kit (ECK)

Token module

TECHNICAL SEOBEST PRACTICESIN DRUPALLet's review the major rankingfactors, and present ideas how wecan implement in Drupal.

IS THE SITE EASILY CRAWLABLE?Well thought out menuBreadcrumbs with

Friendly URLs from

Schema.org MarkupXML Sitemap module

Pathauto module

NO DUPLICATE CONTENT

, set Canonical URLRedirect moduleMetatag module

DOES THE SITE WORK ON MOBILE?Make sure you use a responsive theme, and it passes the

Google Mobile-Friendly Test

DOES THE SITE LOAD QUICKLY?So many different types of Caching available in Drupal.CDN like Responsive Images/Small image sizes in Image Presets

Cloudflare

DOES THE SITE CONTAIN KEYWORDSIN THE URL?

Use the to set friendly URLsPathauto module

IS THE SITE SECURE?Use HTTPS with an SSL certificate for all sites here on out.Keep core and all modules up to dateLimit server access, and keep server up to date if notmanagedRequire strong passwords - Require Strong Passwordsmodule

DOES THE PAGE TITLE CONTAINKEYWORDS?

Properly set up html title in Metatag module

DOES THE META DESCRIPTIONDESCRIBE THE PAGES?

Add a "Teaser" field which can be used with the Token andMetatag modules for meta description and search results.Same goes for a Feature Image field, used for OG/TwitterCard Meta Images.

DOES THE SITE USE STRUCTUREDDATA?

markup in content & themesSchema.org

DOES THE SITE USE STRUCTUREDDATA?

View block/pane using a contextual filterJavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data (JSON-LD)

</script>

{ "@context":"http://schema.org", "@type":"BroadcastService", "name":"WAAY-TV", "broadcastDisplayName":"ABC", "videoFormat":"SD", "broadcastTimezone": "-8:00", "broadcastAffiliateOf":{ "@type":"Organization", "name":"ABC" }}

PROPER USE OF HEADERSProper, ordered use of h1, h2, h3Remove h1 from WYSIWYG if set by templateIn the theme, remove h3 from block headers, to reservefor content use.

TIPS & TOOLSFORDEVELOPERS

TIPS & TOOLS FOR DEVELOPERSGoogle Defines Best PracticesGoogle Structured Data Testing Tool (Schema)Google Structured Data Markup Helper (Schema)Google PageSpeed InsightsGoogle Mobile-Friendly TestGoogle Email Markup TesterGoogle Search ConsoleGoogle Amp Test

GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLEHas the following tools:

View (and fix) Crawl ErrorsFetch as Googlerobots.txt TesterSubmit SitemapsConfigure URL Parameters

STAY UP TO DATE:Search Engine LandSearch Engine JournalSearchmetrics BlogMoz BlogGoogle Webmasters

THE ENDCONTINUING THE CONVERSATION:

Created by Jim Birchjimbir.ch/holistic-seo@thejimbirchXeno Media, Inc.

Holistic SEO and Drupal

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