SEO Design Basics
0 likes800 views
The document outlines Fender's evolution into the digital space, emphasizing their focus on SEO as a primary marketing strategy following their shift to direct consumer sales in 2014. It details the integration of SEO with website design and the importance of early planning to maximize visibility and rankings on search engines. Key strategies and best practices for optimizing e-commerce sites are discussed, along with the implications of redesigning and maintaining strong SEO performance.
SEO Design Basics
- 1. Josh Patrice & Paul Bates IRCE Focus - Digital Design March 16, 2015 SEO Design Basics
- 2. FENDER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS • Legendary Brand Founded in 1946 • Today: the world’s leading guitar, bass & amp manufacturer • The two most expensive guitars sold at auction were Fender guitars (Bob Dylan’s - $965,000 & Eric Clapton’s guitar “Blackie” - $959,500 ) • Fender was founded on a platform of product excellence & innovation through consumer engagement
- 3. MOVING INTO THE DIGITAL AGE • In 2014 – Social, Technology & Consumer engagement were a company focus. • Additionally, Fender became the 1st guitar manufacturer to sell direct to consumers.
- 4. Portent, Inc. is one of North America’s elite Internet marketing companies. Located in Seattle, WA., Portent is a full-service agency with in- house design, creative, and development teams including experts in paid advertising, analytics, SEO, content strategy/writing, and social media. Greetings from the #smithtower Ahead of The Horizon SEO Design Basics Portent
- 5. SEO isn’t a tactic
- 7. SEOis getting more relevant traffic to your website from search engines.
- 8. Our Approach It’s All Integrated PPC DISPLAY SOCIAL BLOGSEO CREATIVE OWNEDPAID EARNED CONTENT ANALYTICS INFRASTRUCTURE Channels Elements SEO Design Basics Portent SEO is the result of all your marketing elements working together.
- 9. Oil & Water SEOs & Designers
- 10. Change that!! More Text ere! Don’t have this! Add nav item here! Make this text! What CMS is this?? More CSSSprites!!!!! Get rid of this page!
- 11. SEO Integration Timing is Everything Integrating SEO early on in the design of a site leads to wireframes, title tags, headings, img alt tags, content, navigation, etc. working together.
- 13. SEO Integration Oh, there it is
- 14. SEO Integration
- 15. Proper SEO influences: Wireframes Information Architecture Marketing Strategy Content and even, Design
- 16. SEO – A COMBINED EFFORT 16 SEO PIM DEV IT Marke/ng Designers
- 17. People v. Robots
- 18. Text in Images SEO Designs for Robots
- 19. Hey look at this totally relevant content!!! What You See
- 20. What a Robot Sees
- 21. Sites Need to be Visible …to robots
- 22. Sites Need to be Visible not just humans…
- 23. Important Less Important Not Important The LEAST Important SEO Design Basics People v. Robots Google Actually uses human factors to determine importance.
- 24. People + Robots
- 25. Cyborgs?!
- 26. “We’ll add ‘the SEO’ after it goes live”
- 28. Search Engines Look at 2 Categories to Determine Rankings
- 29. BEHAVIOR BEHAVIOR: The clues PEOPLE give to a website’s quality CRAWL DATA
- 30. BEHAVIOR CRAWL DATA: The stuff COMPUTERS can determine, by crawling your website. CRAWL DATA
- 32. THEM: #1YOU RANK #2 CRAWL DATA BEHAVIOR Only Address 1 Factor?
- 34. Behavior Crawl data 12 111 23 34 45 Strong behavior cues, and a great site #1 for behavior cues, but many crawl issues
- 35. Behavior Crawl data 12 111 23 34 45 Lowest distance from perfect Greatest distance from perfect
- 36. Crawlable Robots can find all pages Robots can see all content Robots can understand all the content Distance From Perfect Relevant Page is useful Page is engaging Page is trustworthy Page performs SEO Design Basics
- 37. Crawlable Infrastructure Architecture Code Distance From Perfect Relevant Design Content Page Speed SEO Design Basics
- 38. SEO Fundamentals
- 39. On-Page elements Title Tag Headings Image alt tags Content SEO Design Basics SEO Fundamentals
- 41. External Links Image alt text Headings Oversized Images
- 42. SEO & Fender
- 43. WHY SEO AT FENDER • Fender launched a Direct to consumer business without: • PPC • Display • Social Advertising • Google Product feed • And other traditional digital channels • SEO became a primary focus
- 44. WHY WE HIRED AN SEO FIRM • In 2014 we implemented an Ecommerce platform, a PIM & new CRM • Many of the moving pieces could have significantly impacted our SEO rankings • An after fact: Company wide we became more in sync with our SEO efforts between departments
- 45. THINGS TO CONSIDER • An SEO agency provides guidance. It still requires action on the client side. • Hiring an internal SEO guru you are limited by their skill set. • SEO is the most unpredictable area in Digital Marketing and there are many conflicting opinions.
- 46. SEO – Planning IT
- 47. SEO - DEVELOPERS • Code Compression • Account for CMS limitations – www.fender.com/default/ was one of ours • Create Canonicals • Fix re-direct hops • Internal linking issues – Example, our still duplicate menu (mobile & desktop) • Dynamically populating SEO info when none is available • Site Speed
- 48. SEO - PIM • Create new data fields in the PIM to support SEO 48
- 49. SEO - Marketing • H1’s • Title tags • Meta Description • Image alt text • Copy • Vanity URLs • Etc… 49
- 50. Re-Design Woes Top SEO considerations when re-designing or re-platforming SEO Design Basics SEO & Fender Losing High Authority Pages Changing URLs of Top Pages Decrease in Page Speed Increase in Code Bloat Creation of Duplicate Content 404 Errors & Broken Links Drop in Ranking Shift in Indexation CMS Behavior Template Issues (design, titles, etc.) Redirect Hops 301 Redirects Canonicalization Issues
- 51. Re-Designs SEO Design Basics SEO & Fender The Dream Old Site New Site
- 52. Re-Designs SEO Design Basics SEO & Fender The Reality Old Site New Site
- 53. Spider Traps SEO Design Basics SEO & Fender The Reality Infinitely-expanding URLs like this mean search engines may get captured in ‘spider traps.’ They can spend all their time in these traps, instead of crawling other pages of your site. This is a long chain in which each page loaded adds one new page to the queue.
- 54. SEO Best Practices for e-commerce
- 55. Image Compression Image compression has a huge impact on load time. We’ve used compression to reduce load time by 50%. The images at right show a comparison of 2 images that were compressed to almost 1/3rd their original size. Code Size Too much code can slow a page down dramatically. It can also be a flag to Google that your pages are ‘thin’ on content. We aim for a content to code ratio of around 30%. Compression, minification, and using external files can save valuable seconds. Page Speed
- 56. Product Pages Page Title H1 Tag Image alt tags Content Schema American Special Jazzmaster® | Fender Electric Guitars
- 57. Product Pages Page Title H1 Tag Image alt tags Content Schema American Special Jazzmaster® | Fender Electric Guitars Signals for Search Engines • “Jazzmaster” • “American Special” Signals for Users • Price = $999.99 • “Fine US Made” guitar • CTA – “Play One”
- 58. Product Pages Signals for Users • CTA – “Play One” many guitarists won’t buy directly online. Leads them to a local dealer • CTA – “Add to Cart” able to buy it now for many products on Fender.com • CTA – “Add to Wishlist” for future shopping or gift suggestions
- 59. Category Pages Page Title H1 Tag Image alt tags Fender Telecaster | Vintage
- 60. Results
- 61. Before & After • Pre-Launch: 1,047,517 visit • Post-Launch: 918,506 visit • *** matching periods vs. previous year Top Pages Before -‐ 2014 A3er -‐ 2015 % Change Home Page 564,618 566,707 0.37% /guitars/stratocaster/ 139,440 175,074 25.56% /guitars/telecaster/ 90,118 115,370 28.02% /guitars/ 92,551 100,413 8.49% /community/guitar-‐tuner/ (moved) 87,560 44,953 -‐48.66% /amps/guitar-‐amplifiers/ (moved) 66,961 34,803 -‐48.02% ***Matching ranges vs prior year, immediately post launch
- 62. Before - Fender
- 63. After - Fender
- 64. Most Redesigns
- 65. WHEN TO CONSIDER AN SEO FIRM • During a re-platform or re-launch • To review current content or structure • Technical advice (code ratios / speed / redirects / error page, etc.) • Content development • International expansion • Mobile expansion • Training staff
- 66. IN SUMMARY • A successful launch or review requires a lot of work, between many departments. • SEO requires forethought. • Prioritization of the structural elements is key. • Our Top SEO efforts: • Our CMS required /default/ • Multiple subdomain, refined to 2. Open task to combine. • Maintaining High Authority Pages • Avoiding duplicate content (Wishlist & Product variation issues)
- 67. Thank Portent, Inc. 506 2nd Ave. Suite 1700 Seattle. WA 98104-2354 | Tel: 206.575.3740 YOU. Fender Musical Instruments 17600 N Perimeter Dr #100, Scottsdale, AZ 85255 | Tel: 480.596.7195 Josh Patrice Director of SEO @Syzlak Paul Bates E-Commerce Reporting Analyst