SEO testing 101 — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
Show Notes
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02:58Challenges with SEO testingYou can't have multiple experiences shown to Googlebot for the same page. So, SearchPilot runs tests by applying changes to a subset of pages and keeping a subset of the pages unchanged and looks at performance to determine the winner.
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06:32Determining whether a websites site sections are suitable for SEO testingIdeally, the group of pages should have hundreds to thousands of pages to test statistical significance. From there, youre trying to select a controlled and variant set of pages that are statistically similar to each other in terms of seasonality, variance, and traffic.
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10:00Data sources used to determine test and control pagesThe focus is mainly on analytics data, organic traffic, and statistical properties like seasonality, variance, average levels, and conversions where possible. Essentially, the bigger the website, the smaller an impact can successfully be detected with statistical confidence.
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12:50Looking at organic traffic for site sections vs a sample set of keywordsUnlike click through rate and rank position data, organic traffic is the only source that captures everything about those pages. Organic traffic also gets you closer to proving business value and positive business impact.
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15:30Building business cases from SEO testingSEO testing allows you to determine winning strategies and avoid the losing ones. Youre also able to improve efficiency by avoiding strategies with no detectable positive impact and only deploy winning strategies to get ahead of competitors.
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18:15Changes within SEO that fit into the SEO testing frameworkThe simplest things to test are HTML changes and shifting the layout of whole pages. Internal linking tests are a lot more complicated and require the setup of multiple measurement sections.
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20:19Using SEO testing to improve website migrationSeachPilot has worked with companies where SEO testing has helped the company to decide between two different versions. Its also been used to improve winning versions and mitigate SEO issues before deployment.
Quotes
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"If you're running AdWords tests, you can test two different landing pages by sending half your users to one and half of the users to another. That kind of approach doesn't work in SEO." -Will Critchlow, CEO, SearchPilot
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"Not every website is configured for SEO. You need scalable site sections." -Will Critchlow, CEO, SearchPilot
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"A site section is suitable for SEO testing if as a collective, it gets a thousand organic sessions a day. So, 30,000 a month and at least dozens of pages and ideally hundreds if not thousands of pages." -Will Critchlow, CEO, SearchPilot
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"The bigger the website, the smaller an impact you can successfully detect with statistical confidence. If you are on a smaller website with less traffic, only the largest effects will be discoverable." -Will Critchlow, CEO, SearchPilot
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"For the typical website, less than 50% coverage of all traffic is actually covered in impressions and click through rate data." -Will Critchlow, CEO, SearchPilot
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"If you can get to a reasonable level of confidence, avoid the losers, roll out as many winners as possible, then its speed that is the commercial differentiator and that gets ahead of the competition." -Will Critchlow, CEO, SearchPilot
Up Next:
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Part 1SEO testing 101 — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
Will Critchlow, CEO of SearchPilot, discusses a full series on SEO testing. With AdWords and conversion rate tests, you can test two different landing pages by sending half your users to one and half of the users to another. That approach is not applicable to SEO, but you still have to be able to prove its value and impact on revenue, and that’s where SEO testing comes in. Today, Will talks about SEO testing fundamentals.
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Part 2SEO moneyball — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
Will Critchlow, CEO of SearchPilot, discusses a full series on SEO testing. We’re living in the age of access to the enormous amount of statistical data that can help us make better business decisions. Similar to the rise of the three-point shot and the decline of the midrange in basketball, SEOs have access to data that can help them build more efficient strategies and take advantage of tactics undervalued by the market. Today, Will talks about SEO moneyball.
Play Podcast -
Part 3Testing cadence & objectives — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
Will Critchlow, CEO of SearchPilot, discusses a full series on SEO testing. SEO is an ever-evolving field as Google’s algorithm and your competitors will always be implementing changes. As a result, there’s been a shift in mindset toward the continual evolution of websites and that is also being applied to the cadence of SEO testing. Today, Will talks about testing cadence and objectives.
Play Podcast -
Part 4Learning from negative tests — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
Will Critchlow, CEO of SearchPilot, discusses a full series on SEO testing. It’s easy for experienced SEOs to default to SEO best practices and recommend changes that may do more harm than good. However, we now have access to tools and the ability to run positive, negative, and neutral tests to determine whether a change will produce positive, negative, or no impact at all. Today, Will talks about negative tests.
Play Podcast -
Part 5SEO Testing Tools — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
Will Critchlow, CEO of SearchPilot, discusses a full series on SEO testing. Paid search teams are accustomed to receiving six-figure annual budgets, while SEO has historically been an underinvested channel. This tendency can be attributed to SEOs being unable to answer questions from senior management but SEO testing can help SEO teams to build those business cases. Today, Will talks about SEO testing tools.
Play Podcast
