SEO for the Skilled MechanicAsaad Dookhy

Introduction

• The aim of this presentation is highlight the ways you can diagnose a loss of visibility, create actions and communicate your plan

• I’m the SEO Lead at Decathlon UK (Decathlon is a sports retailer, we sell over 70 sports, in 26 countries/ 100s of stores worldwide)

• My Twitter is @28Asaad• I love football :)

1. Diagnosing a Loss Of Visibility

Top Level ViewSearchmetrics

GA

Where Has The Loss OccurredUse tags in Searchmetrics to discover the areas of your site hit

Use GWT impression data to support Searchmetrics data

Use keyword rankings data (I use SEO Rank Monitor)

Then segment by tag group so you can see the biggest losses in rankings. If rankings are stable then look at the search volumes to see if there’s a dip in popularity

Look into your brand terms using the Google keyword Tools and filtering your brand in GWT to see if your brand is losing popularity

Look at your mobile traffic and rankings

Check Analytics annotations to check if any work on the site has potentially caused an issue

Questions Answered:

• Overall loss in traffic and visibility• Areas of the site most effected• Has brand played a part• Device most effected

Algorithm Changes

Use The Panguin Tool to see any dips around algorithm updates

Break out known factors of the updates into a checklist, the two articles below can help:- themoralconcept.net/pandalist.html - hiswebmarketing.com/penguin-not-just-about-bad-links/

Questions Answered:

• Has your site been effected by an update• Which elements of the update are you guilty of

Loss of Links

Use Ahrefs to see your lost links over time

Possible Reasons Why You Have Lost Links: • End of partnerships• Earned links pushed down sites because of new content

produced• Website owner decided to change the link

Create a pie chart of the areas of your site which have lost the most links & see it it correlates to where the loss of visibility is

Question Answered: • Can you correlate your loss of links to a loss of visibility

2. The Competition

Use Searchmetrics & Similar Web to monitor competitor visibility

Content

Use Wayback Machine to see if they have improved content and design on key landing pages

Technical SEO

Audit competitors with Screaming Frog to see if they have improved on 404 pages, incorrect redirects, page sizes, missing

title tags etc.

Link Acquisition

Use Majestic SEO to see their link acquisition improvements

Company News

• Check for press releases• Staff updates on LinkedIn

Questions Answered:

• Is it just me or is this a dip industry wide• Which competitor has benefited most from your dip• Areas your competitors have improved on and how this

could see them benefit from the latest updates• Which areas of improvement you should look to

prioritise

3. Adapting To Change

List how you compare with your competitors with regards to the most important recent changes

Question Answered:

• Where you fall behind which will affect your overall SEO performance

4. Quick Technical Checks

Quick Technical Checks • Make sure you’re not blocking any URLs by accident in

Robots.txt• Use GWT to see if a rise in 404 pages, investigate why and

correct• Make sure no redirects are 302 instead of 301 redirects• Check canonical URLS are correct• Cannibalisation of content – check if the correct page is

ranking and not the weaker page which then drops• Use GWT to see if there’s drop in indexed pages

5. Fixing It

Context

You know the areas of the site affected and reasons so you can put together an action plan:

For example If Panda then perform X, if Penguin perform Y etc. (It is likely to be a combination of factors)

Resources • Interns to fix errors at scale• Copywriters + designers for content improvements• Tech to make the technical changes required • An agency to make a full link audit and recommendations• PPC to cover the loss of organic visibility• Give yourself the biggest possible timeframe Fundamentally you need more budget and time

Takeaways • Where has your site lost visibility• The likely reasons • How have your competitors benefited • How to fix it

The End