Roadmap planning with Google core updates — Craig Harkins // CoStar
- Part 1 Roadmap planning with Google core updates — Craig Harkins // CoStar
Show Notes
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02:46Q4 and SEO planningDuring Q4, prioritize quick wins like content updates, review your 2023 roadmap progress, and lay the groundwork for big projects in Q1. Understand the needs of product and other teams that require SEO support and examine upcoming projects scheduled for 2024.
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07:27Managing user experience and website performance in Q4Fast-loading pages improve user experience and enhance Google's crawling efficiency, boosting content visibility. SEO and engineering collaboration is crucial; sharing insights on identified issues and proposing experiments to improve user experience and page speed.
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10:28Integrating SEO into product roadmapsIncorporate SEO considerations into product team roadmaps, collaborating as stakeholders for initiatives. Prioritize improvements in crawling, internal linking, content structure, and structured data based on audits and keyword trends, enabling SEO to drive and support projects.
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14:19Leveraging data in Q4 for SEO planning and resource allocationUtilize data for budget discussions, making a compelling case for new headcount or resources based on the impact on business growth. Data-driven justifications involve historical trends, testing outcomes, and strategic backburner projects that align with upcoming business priorities.
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19:18Strategic communication for SEO planning during holiday periodsEffective communication with management, especially regarding staff availability during holidays and adjusting for lower capacity, is crucial in SEO planning. This is an important part at the start of all of your development sprints and aids in work-life balance for teams.
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21:33Managing SEO during Google core updatesDuring Google core updates, use a template for communication with management, providing updates on the impact from rollout to completion. Assess impact and adjust your roadmap if significant changes occur, ensuring alignment with your long-term goals.
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24:32Tips for first year SEO leaders in planning and roadmapsStart organizing audits and identifying issues early, organizing stories and features into high-level categories, and creating a roadmap. Prioritize traffic drivers in the first quarter, and collaborate with product or marketing leadership to align your roadmap with product or marketing calendars.
Quotes
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"To have a good experience, you've got to load faster. And that impacts conversion metrics down the line. It lets Google crawl more pages, getting more visibility for that content, and improves UX." - Crag Harkins
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"Q4 is not just roadmap planning, it's also budget time. It's time to lobby for new headcount, new resources, or shifting resources. Use testing and historical data to justify these investments." - Crag Harkins
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"In theory, if you're doing things right for your users, and for the business, you should be okay with core updates." - Crag Harkins
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"I don't want to launch my biggest traffic driver in October. I want to launch the biggest traffic driver in January so that I get 12 months of it." - Crag Harkins
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"For SEO teams, half of our projects are things that we drive and initiate, and for the other half, we're looking at the other product roadmap and seeing SEO opportunities to support and jump in there." - Crag Harkins
Up Next:
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Part 1Roadmap planning with Google core updates — Craig Harkins // CoStar
Craig Harkins, Director of SEO and Content at CoStar, delves into roadmap and planning while managing Google core updates. In Q4, SEOs strategically plan for the upcoming year, using yearly data on trends and past successful initiatives to make a compelling case for budget allocation. However, with code freezes at this time of year, how do we ensure we're prepared should Google decide to release an update right before Christmas? Today, Craig shares his insights on roadmap and planning while navigating Google core updates.
