Lily Ray - Optimize the Forest, Not the Trees: Move Beyond SEO Checklist - MozCon 2024
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The document critiques current SEO practices, arguing that many SEO audits and checklist-based strategies are ineffective and contribute to a negative perception of the industry. It advocates for a more critical, holistic, and long-term approach to SEO that aligns with business goals, instead of relying on automated tools and shortcuts that can ultimately harm websites. By understanding unique site histories, audience targeting, and the implications of Google’s algorithm updates, SEO professionals can rebuild trust and effectiveness in their strategies.
Lily Ray - Optimize the Forest, Not the Trees: Move Beyond SEO Checklist - MozCon 2024
- 1. Optimize the Forest, Not the Trees: Move Beyond SEO Checklists
- 3. IT seems that SEO professionals don’t have the greatest reputation lately…
- 6. SEO audits are a waste of time. Insights are not specific enough, and aren’t suited to our business and audience Recommendations are confusing, vague and hard to implement. MANY DISAPPOINTED SEO CLIENTS
- 7. How did we get here? And what can we do about it?
- 8. We need to redefine SEO
- 9. SEOs don’t ruin the internet. We improve it.
- 10. As an industry, how can we rebuild trust with the outside world?
- 11. How can we change the discourse to show that SEO - when done correctly - is essential?
- 12. We need to separate SEO tricks & hacks from sustainable growth strategies.
- 13. WE CAN GET THERE BY LEARNING TO THINK 1.Critically 2.Holistically 3.Long-term
- 15. There are 24,000 results on Google with “SEO checklist” in the title
- 17. Plus, new Instagram and youtube ads for SEO checklists or SEO automation through ai
- 18. You could implement every item on every one of these checklists without any meaningful seo success? What if I told you:
- 19. Or worse: what if these approaches can even get your site penalized or destroyed by algorithm updates?
- 20. Many of those same SEO shortcuts are the things Google is penalizing and devaluing in 2024
- 21. And another vicious cycle: SEO tunnel vision
- 22. SEO gets excited about knowing a cool new trick SEO approaches client strategies as “a bunch of tricks” SEO tricks don’t lead to actual results SEO learns a cool new trick SEO starts thinking of SEO as a bunch of cool tricks Improving core web vitals Fixing pagination Adding image alt text
- 23. To make matters worse… SEOs often rely on the tools to do the “thinking” for them. or even to automate things that should not be automated.
- 24. “Pretend you’re a Google Search Quality Rater…” “Evaluate this content for E-E-A-T” “Find low- competition keywords” “Find me 10 sites with DA 80+” SEOs’ attempts to oversimplify SEO with LLMs: “Do a full technical audit” “Check this page for broken links”
- 25. …and the AI response is almost always: OK!
- 26. Problem: Chatgpt Is Living In An AI Fantasy Land. It Doesn’t “Know” Search Volume Or Domain Authority. It Doesn’t “Know” How To Be A Quality Rater. It’s Not Retrieving Data From A Database.
- 27. ChatGPT reality Data-driven reality Keyword Monthly Volume (Moz) seo optimization 4300 keyword research 2900 backlink building 200 on-page seo 500 off-page seo 200 seo tools 4300 local seo 6500 seo techniques 500 seo strategy 1700 seo ranking 1700
- 28. 363 pixels 396 pixels 498 pixels 397 pixels 431 pixels
- 29. The problem with SEO tools…
- 30. SEO TOOLS GIVE RECOMMENDATIONS THAT REQUIRE CONTEXT, PRIORITIZATION AND CRITICAL THINKING
- 31. SEO TOOL RECOMMENDATIONS: SEO tool: Your meta descriptions are too long Actual reality: Google re-writes 70% of them anyway
- 32. SEO TOOL RECOMMENDATIONS: SEO tool: You have multiple <H2> tags Actual reality: So what?
- 33. SEO TOOL RECOMMENDATIONS: GSC: Your clickable elements are too close together Actual reality: No, they’re not.
- 34. SEO TOOL RECOMMENDATIONS: SEO tool: You have toxic links Actual reality: Google ignores those links, there is no such thing as “toxic links” and disavowing them can be dangerous
- 35. SEO TOOL RECOMMENDATIONS: GSC: This page is crawled, but not indexed. Actual reality: Except it literally is indexed.
- 36. The problem with overreliance on SEO tools
- 37. SEO tool scrapes first page results & performs TF-IDF SEO tool tells you which keywords to add to your copy Your competitors also use the same SEO tools & get the same recommendations Your site looks the same as all your competitors
- 38. Guess what happens when thousands of site owners rely too much on SEO automation and shared insights from SEO tools?
- 39. Brutal algorithm updates that target too much SEO
- 40. Scaled content abuse Site reputation abuse Expired domain abuse NEW GOOGLE SPAM POLICIES ALSO TARGETING POPULAR SEO TRICKS AND EXPLOITS
- 41. SEOs find ways to exploit the algorithm Google launches new or refined update Innocent site owners lose traffic. SEOs get angry at Google. Google launches algorithm update Google launches new or refined update The Cycle of Algorithm Updates
- 42. SEOs find ways to exploit the algorithm Google launches new or refined update Innocent site owners lose traffic. SEOs get angry at Google. Google launches algorithm update Google launches new or refined update The Cycle of Algorithm Updates 2023-2024 Edition SEOs start using ChatGPT & generative AI to further exploit Google’s algorithms at a scale larger than ever seen before, and shout about their victories and how much money they make all over online forums, YouTube, conferences and social media
- 43. The missing ingredient from SEO checklists: Critical thinking.
- 44. Before diving into seo tricks and tools… Take a step back.
- 45. How to use critical thinking to approach SEO strategically:
- 46. Process Outfit Collection Find Us CONTENT Learn the website’s purpose and how it makes money
- 47. Why is this part first? Because anything else is likely an SEO vanity metric
- 48. display ads affiliate links subscriptions SaaS lead generation ecommerce sponsored content bookings/reservations downloadable content selling courses donations or crowdfunding professional services Ask yourself: How does this website make money? (Check all that apply)
- 49. SEO can be dramatically different depending on the website’s category and monetization methods.
- 50. Google also introduced unique ranking systems and updates that affect specific types of sites
- 51. Type of site v YMYL (your money your life) v Affiliate sites v Reviews sites v Niche blogs v News & publisher sites v Payday Loans sites Algorithm Update v Medic & core updates v Core updates & HCU v Reviews updates & core v Helpful Content Update v Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) v Payday Loans update
- 52. Not to mention, the data shows: Certain types of sites might be at an SEO disadvantage
- 54. USE GA4 TO TRACK SUCCESS OF KEY EVENTS
- 56. Who is the actual target audience? Competitive insights User demographics Traffic distribution
- 57. Who is the actual target audience?
- 58. Who is the actual target audience? Social influencers & competitors Top performing content, authors, links Trending topics
- 59. Where do users spend their time? What is the flow of traffic between sites?
- 60. Does the site receive Google Discover traffic? v What is the breakdown (GSC)? v How can you factor Discover into the organic strategy?
- 61. Create a simulated user persona for google discover & Monitor often, e.g.: “MozCon Marge”
- 63. Talk to your clients SEO confession time
- 64. What is the history of the domain and the brand? What is the unique SEO history of this website?
- 65. Has it been hit by any algorithm updates? Which? What is the unique SEO history of this website?
- 66. Has it received any manual action(s) in its history? What is the unique SEO history of this website?
- 67. 3rd party visibility tools with algorithm update trackers: Sistrix GSC Guardian
- 68. v Have other SEO agencies/consultants have worked on the site before, and what have they done? v In 2024, you are rarely starting from scratch. What is the unique SEO history of this website?
- 69. SEO therapy session It’s ok, you can be honest They bought high DR links, they used ChatGPT to create the content, they disavowed 100 toxic links every month
- 70. Process Outfit Collection Find Us CONTENT Evaluate the lay of the land
- 71. v Conduct a thorough site: search & crawl website v Look for patterns v Rogue pages or subdomains? Unoptimized page types in index? Evaluate SEO footprint
- 72. Review keyword gaps Establish true SEO competitors
- 73. Evaluate SEO footprint: monitor SERP features & SEO opportunity
- 74. Use GA and GSC, but understand their limitations.
- 75. v Sampled, delayed, incorrect and/or incomplete data v Exporting limitations v Deprecated tools v Incorrect status codes v Confusing, misleading emails & reports v Log files provide more accurate data GSC Shortcomings
- 76. v Hard to use, poor UX/UI v Lack of annotations v Lack of educational resources v Lack of Google Discover traffic v Can’t duplicate important reports v Everything else GA4 Challenges
- 77. The importance of strategizing with a small group
- 78. Small groups allow you to see more opportunities you can’t always spot alone Tech SEO Content writer UX designer Client (business knowledge & history) Local SEO expert Google algo update specialist Paid search expert
- 79. Process Outfit Collection Find Us CONTENT Evaluate the POTENTIAL RISK FROM AI OVERVIEWS
- 81. Develop a comprehensive, holistic, data-driven, prioritized SEO roadmap
- 82. Some essential rules of the game
- 84. The importance of saying “I don’t know.”
- 85. SEO Story Time about when I wish I had said “I don’t know” (2014) The site uses parallax, is it ok for SEO? Baby SEO Lily (who had no idea): totally, Google loves modern web design
- 86. Returned to my desk, researched parallax, learned it uses a single page application where most content was on one single URL and not crawlable/indexable.
- 87. I had to backpedal with the client & explain I was wrong. Don’t be like baby SEO Lily. Say you don’t know.
- 88. “That’s a great question, I actually don’t know but would love to research And Talk to an expert, and get back to you later today.” SEO gold.
- 89. Process Outfit Collection Find Us CONTENT The importance of being proactive
- 90. Tell your clients before it impacts them: v Algorithm updates v New spam violations v New SERP features (relevant to client) v Major changes that can impact traffic v New product launches (AIO, Google Shopping, Google Lens)
- 91. Understand the risks of what you are doing.
- 92. SEO is as much about growth as it is about evaluating & mitigating risk.
- 93. v Study the manual actions and spam violations in great detail. v Every tactic must be evaluated for spam potential. v This is an essential part of your job.
- 94. CONTENT The importance of reading between the lines in google’s communications.
- 95. Scrutinize every word in Google’s communications
- 96. The flowchart for developing smart seo strategies