SEO Regression Tests to Safeguard your Site — Karl Kleinschmidt // LSG

Show Notes

• 01:54
  The importance of SEO regression tests

  To determine whether SEO will work, simulations need to be run. SEO regression tests are crucial to ensure that the website's important SEO elements are functioning correctly and to identify any unexpected changes or issues after software releases.
• 03:48
  Tiers of elements for SEO regression tests

  Along with their QA team, LSG developed a system to prioritize the different types of SEO element changes into three tiers based on their importance. Tier-one includes critical elements like canonical links, title tags, schema, and alt tags, which may affect the entire site if they break.
• 05:17
  Tier two and three elements

  Tier-two elements like title tags, internal links, headlines, and URLs, can have a significant impact on SEO and are relied upon by other departments. While changes in tier-three elements like content and images may not break the site if changed, they should be noted for impact.
• 07:46
  The role of SEO in stopping releases to production

  For tier-one elements, SEO can halt the release as they are critical to the site's functionality. In tier-two, it's about providing input and promptly fixing any negative SEO impact, while release should not be halted for tier-three unless there are drastic changes.
• 10:15
  Getting buy in for SEO regression testing

  An SEO regression testing process is crucial for websites with over a million pages to avoid technical issues that may result in significant losses. By presenting historical examples and their associated costs, SEO can secure the necessary budget to implement this process.
• 13:11
  Automated vs. manual SEO regression testing

  Automated regression tests can help catch issues for larger websites or multiple departments with independent code releases. A manual approach involves requesting 24-hour notice before production and doing a percentage of URL crawls for each new release version.
• 16:28
  Best practices for performing SEO regression tests

  Take into account how much processing power youre using to run these tests and how much time youre adding to the release process. Its crucial to communicate element generation logic to QA, test elements pre-release, and use validation APIs for complex elements like schema.
• 20:11
  Determining which URLs to test

  Factors to consider include the number of URLs being tested, time taken to run each test, and the amount of tests run. Prioritize testing for tier-one elements and provide QA with a sorted list of URLs based on traffic and page type to ensure that critical pages are thoroughly tested.
• 22:24
  Scaling SEO regression testing efforts

  For tier-two elements, it's unlikely that you'll be able to run all tests, so it's important to prioritize based on importance and effort. This could involve using third-party tools to calculate link scores while focusing on checking all URLs.
• 23:34
  Managing notifications during the release process and reacting to failures

  Set up an effective notification system via Slack or another messaging tool to facilitate swift communication in case tests fail. Overall, you should know when you release and be available during that time to stop a release if the need arises.
• 26:02
  Managing pre rendering and its impact on QA and SEO testing

  When designing QA tests for enterprise websites, keep in mind that Google often crawls pre-rendered versions of pages instead of actual pages. Therefore, it may be helpful to implement regression tests as part of the rendering process.