[DevDay 2017] Using analytics, focusing on SEO and unability - Keys to developing for long term success - Speaker: Surge Yurovsky - Account Director at Code Engine Studio
2 likes341 views
The document discusses the importance of a holistic approach to web development, emphasizing the need to understand audience needs and utilize analytics to inform development decisions. It highlights that successful web projects integrate quality content, usability, and effective SEO practices to attract and retain the right users. Additionally, it underscores the significance of continuous evaluation and adaptation based on user behavior and data analytics.
![[DevDay 2017] Using analytics, focusing on SEO and unability - Keys to developing for long term success - Speaker: Surge Yurovsky - Account Director at Code Engine Studio](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/sergeyurovskyusinganalyticsfocusingonseoandusabilitykeystodevelopingforlongtermsuccess-170420102948/85/DevDay-2017-Using-analytics-focusing-on-SEO-and-unability-Keys-to-developing-for-long-term-success-Speaker-Surge-Yurovsky-Account-Director-at-Code-Engine-Studio-3-320.jpg)
![[DevDay 2017] Using analytics, focusing on SEO and unability - Keys to developing for long term success - Speaker: Surge Yurovsky - Account Director at Code Engine Studio](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/sergeyurovskyusinganalyticsfocusingonseoandusabilitykeystodevelopingforlongtermsuccess-170420102948/85/DevDay-2017-Using-analytics-focusing-on-SEO-and-unability-Keys-to-developing-for-long-term-success-Speaker-Surge-Yurovsky-Account-Director-at-Code-Engine-Studio-4-320.jpg)
[DevDay 2017] Using analytics, focusing on SEO and unability - Keys to developing for long term success - Speaker: Surge Yurovsky - Account Director at Code Engine Studio
- 1. Holistic Web Development Looking at the Entire Picture
- 6. Serge Yurovsky ➔ Code Engine Studio 2016 – Present ➔ Principal @ The Left Lane Consulting 2011-2016 ➔ Director of Data Services @ McCallie School 2005-2011 ➔ 21 Years Industry Experience
- 7. Using analytics, focusing on SEO and usability – keys to developing for long term success
- 8. 1. Understanding Audience 2. Content (see #1) 3. Usability (see #1) 4. Site Visuals (see #1) 5. SEO (see #1) 6. … 7. Good Code What should we care about when thinking about a web site?
- 9. Are you saying code does not matter? NO, of course not. It matters, but not JUST code. The best coded web sites with amazing features are useless without content or an audience! Development has to be part of the process, It is a means not an end. Developers need to work with other stakeholders to understand project specific metrics in relation to audience, expectations, tasks, and even pace of development
- 10. We have to ask ourselves WHY we do _____ (anything). Who will use it? Where will they come from? How often will they use this product (site, app, etc)? What ability does the audience have? What technical and content expectations does the audience have? Step 1 Think Audience and Analytics
- 11. Analytics are not new - even offline Practical Example: Your corner store Products match customer needs - most purchased, most requested items are featured and marketed. Adjusts to audience with new products Build new audience based on existing models
- 12. Analytics offer directions and accountability We can better plan phases of development by first considering audience and audience needs Even at the expense of what makes sense from the Dev perspective. If users find the features they need, they will potentially tolerate imperfections or lack of “extra” features Building an audience will give you data on what works and what is needed Marketing will bring people to the site - Analytics will make sense of it Many traditional marketing means (paper, TV, radio, word of mouth) offer no accountability. Digital marketing connected to analytics allow for tracking and planning for best practices
- 13. Deeper into the “why and how” Is your product meant for a particular audience group? If so, does your design and development match that? Do your early adopter (or general users if not new) analytics match your goal audience group? Practical Example Client: Luxury Hotel, starting price of rooms is $150/night, average $300/night Analytics show: Top visitor age group is 18-30 years old. Question: Does that match realistic goals? Does that audience group “convert”?
- 14. Specific Steps to Plan Research Offline Product owner must do market research to understand audience Develop ideal customer profile/s Design and Develop to match Whether it is age, gender, nationality, these have to be considerations for design Audience question: What could be specific things to consider here? Measure and Review Build in analytics capturing specific metrics for tracking audience - from social, from referrals, from demographics Track and evaluate regularly. Data will change. Sites will need to change as well.
- 15. Track behaviour on site - what works and what doesn’t User studies are great, especially in early stages Set up user studies, based on your audience profiles, ask questions Take input seriously, do not explain issues away. - This is where technical experience is a major factor Set up Analytics tracking (touchpoints) throughout the site. Track data from site entrance to exit, specifically seeking to understand why users leave site, especially if NOT completing goals Create clear goals for conversions. Find out what hinders users from converting - Is it usability (too many steps, too slow, not clear)? - Is it content (high cost, information too confusing or scary)? Review and rebuild (if needed)
- 16. - Marketing and exposure only work when product is good - SEO is not magic - It is about understanding your audience - It is about understanding the market - It is about having a good site - It is about having quality content - Ultimately the goal is NOT more users, but more of the RIGHT users - Users that connect with your content/message - Users that convert Step 2 Get users to your products
- 17. How Search Engines operate What is a search engine’s purpose? Providing users with a ranked list of the websites they've determined are the most relevant and useful. How do search engines make money? By selling user data and ads based on user and keyword data. If search engines do not provide best quality results, users will go elsewhere and take data and $ with them.
- 18. How Search Engines operate How do search engines rank web sites? - Content, Content, Content - Developers generally do not think about content - But Developers SHOULD think about making content accessible to users and search engines - Site Authority (based on links to site, history, etc) Why does SEO matter? SEO guides a search engine to content that site owners want to prioritize.
- 19. 1.2 How Search Engines operate Crawling and building an index - Internet is like a network of stops in subway system - Search engines use “links” and sitemaps to crawl the network to find documents on the web - Data gathered through crawling is indexed and stored in a database to be recalled later in search query - While search engine do decipher non-compiled code (js, html, php) they look for specific markup to identify key data elements How Search Engines operate
- 20. 1.2 How Search Engines operate Search Engine Results - Returned based on user queries - Relevant advertising can be returned based on same query - Commonly personalized based on collected user data and browsing history - Ranked based in quality of data in listed documents as well as authority of documents - Can have custom displays (e.g. maps, local business, images) based on data markup How Search Engines operate
- 21. 1.2 How Search Engines operateHow Search Engines operate How many types of markup driven content can you see here?
- 22. Who Likes Cake? SEO is like a layered cake... Search Engine friendly Development
- 23. 1. Content planning a. Understand what your primary content points will be b. Prepare your text content and then adjust it based on keyword research c. Prepare your media content 2. Make sure your code meets SEO Standards 3. Make sure your site has high usability a. Responsive b. Fast 4. Make sure your site can index well a. No “ghosts” b. Good use of Schema.org 5. Test, check, and adapt - standards will change! SEO Layers - On Site SEO
- 24. Every page that is meant to be indexed should have a link to them Use standard HTML links instead of JavaScript (or accompany it) on any page you’d like crawlers to crawl Avoid embedding links in Flash, Java, and other plugins Don’t hide navigation - e.g. display only in footer No page on the site should be further than three clicks away from any other page. Search Engine friendly Development - Specifics
- 25. a. Better to be static than dynamic e.g. should not contain characters such as ($ A ! * % = ?) b. Better to be shorter than longer c. Use hyphens to separate words d. Sub directories can rank better than sub domains e. The website should be hosted only on one version of the domain. Either its WWW or NON-WWW version Search Engine friendly Development - Specifics
- 26. Use H1, H2, H3, H4, and so on, with H1 starting the page as the main heading. The remaining heading codes descend to lower level headings on the site. One H1 tag for each page Headings contain keywords and are relevant to the content of website Example: <h1>How to Optimize Your Business for Search Engines</h1> <h2>The ABCs of SEO</h2> <h3>Research</h3> Search Engine friendly Development - Specifics
- 27. 1. Optimize size of images E.g. if images only need to be 800px in width, upload them at that size instead of their original size at 2400px. 2. Proper file name E.g. salt-water-pool.jpg instead of image123.jpg Search Engine friendly Development - Specifics
- 28. ● Provide alt text for images ● Supplement search boxes with navigation & crawlable links ● Supplement Flash, Java or other plug-ins/embedded items with text ● Provide transcript for video and audio content ● Add Meta Data to pages for descriptions, keywords (partially outdated), and social sharing Search Engine friendly Development - Specifics
- 29. Increase speed and improve site performance by: ● Optimizing code (e.g. removing spaces, returns, extra characters in .min version of a file) ● Minimize number of requests, dns lookups, and sources of code/scripts ● Defer parsing of scripts (e.g. by placing them in a footer) ● Use browser and server caching ● Enable compression ● Reduce redirects ● Optimize images and videos systematically and defer loading (e.g. lazy load) Test your site on GTMetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights to check for issues Pages with faster load time are better for user experience and are more likely to rank higher Search Engine friendly Development - Specifics
- 30. Schema markup is code snippets that you add to your website to help the search engines return more informative results for visitors. This helps to specify and display all the rich content the site contain, which benefits Search Engines and real users alike Example: <div> SEO Conference<br/> Learn about SEO from experts in the field.<br/> Event date:<br/> May 8, 7:30pm </div> <div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Event"> <div itemprop="name">SEO Conference</div> <span itemprop="description">Learn about SEO from experts in the field.</span> Event date: <time itemprop="startDate" datetime="2012-05-08T19:30">May 8, 7:30pm</time> </div> Search Engine friendly Development - Specifics
- 31. Because ultimately search engines care about their audience, not the paying customers, there are external factors to SEO SEO - On Site is a starting point! ● Industry rankings ● External Links ○ From Quality Sources ● Site Authority and Longevity ● Site “freshness” (how often is site updated - make it easy for content to be added)
- 32. ● Usability trumps “Pretty” ● Content is “King” ○ If you have a usable site with good content (think Craigslist?) - users will come ● Not all sites need to be the same, so while standards should apply, think about your audience and your product ● Best coding practices mean better usability, better speed, responsive sites = More users, more conversions ● Plan, test, implement, check, repeat! Final Thoughts
- 33. Got any questions? If you have more questions, come and talk to me later! Q&A
- 34. THANK YOU!