Learning from negative tests — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
- Part 1SEO testing 101 — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
- Part 2SEO moneyball — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
- Part 3Testing cadence & objectives — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
- Part 4 Learning from negative tests — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
- Part 5SEO Testing Tools — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
Show Notes
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02:46How SEOs should be thinking about negative testsRelying on keyword research data alone can lead to underperforming ideas. However, negative tests enable SEOs to learn something and get ahead of competitors by never deploying negative changes.
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04:06Negative tests and SEO best practicesThere are SEO best practices that wont always hold true depending on the website, industry, and query intent. But, with negative tests, youre able to tell whether a change is going to be positive or negative beforehand.
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07:24Using negative tests to guide the improvement of content qualitySearchPilot removed a block of terrible boilerplate from category pages on an eCommerce website and that had a negative impact. Best practice would have indicated the opposite but the seemingly terrible boiler play copy was adding value.
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08:53The importance of always running testsWithout testing, small percentage drops after making best practice SEO changes may go unnoticed. With Google algorithm updates and competitor changes, if youre not testing consistently, you may not be able to undo the damage stemming from making changes.
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12:43Revisiting past tests to facilitate Google and industry changesAs it stands, SEOs generally arent looking back at old tests and instead looking forward. However, if Google or an industry makes changes, it would be practical to check whether these changes invalidate past tests and potentially rerun them.
Quotes
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"If your competitors are not testing, never rolling out a negative change is a superpower that will enable you to consistently get ahead of them over time." -Will Critchlow, CEO, SearchPilot
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"We've seen minus 27% organic traffic from a seemingly sensible title tag change driven off keyword research that people said more one way than another way." -Will Critchlow, CEO, SearchPilot
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"As we increasingly have the ability to run tests, we've discovered that often professional SEOs are not much better than chance at being able to tell whether a change is going to be positive or negative." -Will Critchlow, CEO, SearchPilot
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"A 3% drop could get caught up in seasonality, Google algorithm updates, competitor actions. So, if you're not doing controlled testing, you might not discover that and undo that damage." -Will Critchlow, CEO, SearchPilot
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"If an industry change happens or Google announces a change, looking back at the database of past tests and saying, Does that invalidate any of them? Maybe we should rerun that, could be worthwhile." -Will Critchlow, CEO, SearchPilot
- Part 1SEO testing 101 — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
- Part 2SEO moneyball — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
- Part 3Testing cadence & objectives — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
- Part 4 Learning from negative tests — Will Critchlow // SearchPilot
- Part 5SEO Testing Tools — Will Critchlow // 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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