Dominic Woodman, Senior Consultant, Distilled
Dominic Woodman spoke about SEO split testing. Many SEOs struggle to clarify and showcase the value of their work. This is because it’s not always clear why the changes you make are actually producing the results. Most of the time, you don’t know. Split testing is a good way to get rid of some of that uncertainty and find out what really works.
Dominic ran a lot of experiments using DistilledODN . To be specific, he ran 50 tests on different websites.
ODN stands for Optimization Delivery Network. It is deployed like a CDN (Content Delivery Network). The tool allows you to test individual SEO changes on a website. It splits different pages instead of users and is template-based. It measures the changes between two variants and gives a result calculated by the change in organic traffic, for example '3% increase per day'. Important note: You need around 1,000 organic sessions per day for the set of pages you are testing.
SEO test visual
What did Dominic's test series show?
The results for title tags were:
Title tags have a significant impact. They georgia mobile phone numbers database typically change traffic by ~5% to 15%
Writing good headlines is hard. 56% of all title tag changes were negative, only 6% were positive. About 37% were empty.
You can’t stop testing titles. Titles exist in the context of the rest of a SERP. When everyone else copies your good title format (and they will), you need to refresh it.
Title/meta effects on traffic usually show up within 2-4 days.
Other results from the tests included:
Visible content on first page load is important - So enable javascript beforehand
SEO content (like 'SEO texts') sometimes helps
Reducing content on non-article pages usually has no effect
Structured data has an impact beyond rich snippets
Freshness matters - If you change the last modified date
Dominic also highlighted a number of important insights and tips regarding the split testing process:
Re-challenge your beliefs periodically
If you do not intend to, the added special features will fail
No need to argue when you can test it
Tests can shift the focus to the process rather than just the results
A negative test you get back is a prevented failure
Testing can force you out of the silo
- and this is probably the most important:
Dom Woodman quote
Link to slides
'Newsjacking: How to Add to the Story and Earn Big Links in Real Time'
Ryan Charles, Director of Sales and Marketing, HireAHelper
Ryan Charles, Director Sales
Ryan Charles talked about Newsjacking and gave examples of how he and his team work on it.
If you are unfamiliar with this term, here is a brief definition that Ryan mentioned in his presentation:
"The practice of using current events or news to promote or advertise a product or brand."
The main goal is so that you can get major press coverage and tons of links from major news sites.
Linkbuilding Press - Newsweek
Any company or brand can benefit from this tactic, and according to Ryan, it should be in every digital marketer’s toolbox. It doesn’t have to cost you a lot of time or money to set up a campaign, and it can get you a lot of authoritative links and create good brand awareness.
The bad news is that planning is difficult and inconsistent.
Ryan continued his speech as follows:
How to spot opportunities
How do you decide whether you should do it or not?
How to create a campaign
How will you present it?
How to deal with it if it explodes?
So how do you do this?
First, it’s important to train yourself to spot and pursue opportunities. Second, you need to have some kind of connection to the story. Third, you need to have a unique perspective. Fourth, you need to offer value. Fifth, you need to be able to react quickly when the story breaks.
Here are some ideas of what you can do:
How to create a newsjack
Make sure you provide a visual presence for the press and have a website with information they can link to. Don’t try to pressure the journalist when presenting your idea, but get to the point. If you do an interview, be well prepared.
Newsjacking is probably more affordable and less time-consuming than you think, and anyone can do it. But as Ryan points out, using this tool comes with its own risks, special considerations, and unique rewards.
Link to slides
'How to Do SEO for Discontinued Products?
Luke Carthy, Digital Leader, Mayflex
Luke Carthy, Digital Lead, Mayflex on How to Nail SEO for Discontinued Products
Luke Carthy spoke about what to do with discontinued products. Many websites and webshops delete discontinued product pages without thinking about the consequences. Often these pages rank for many keywords, get a lot of traffic, and have gained a lot of backlinks over their lifetime. So when you discontinue a product, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities and leaving value on the table.
In addition to direct sales, you can expect the following benefits when you reopen your discontinued products:
Recover links and keywords
Better, cleaner user experience
Demand generally continues
Out of stock product pageA good example of an out of stock product page. The site suggests an alternative product that matches the item that is being sold off.
Now, when you reopen your discontinued products, you should consider the following:
Don't let customers "buy" products that are no longer for sale - Turn off the add to cart feature
Don't let search engines see your site as having more discontinued products than on sale
Exclude discontinued products from internal search
Set some rules for how long discontinued products can remain online and/or on search engines
Exclusion from paid search
Avoid redirects whenever possible (because you will lose keyword rankings)
Use DataLayer to gain useful insights into users and traffic to discontinued products
Link to slides
'Controlling branded SERPs and preventing negative press'
Laura Hogan, Director of Search, Ricemedia
Laura Hogan, Director of Search, Ricemedia on Controlling branded SERPs and preventing negative press
Laura Hogan talked about how you can control the SERP if you have negative press.
You may have a nice, pretty profile on your website and social media, but how you appear on the SERP can paint a different picture. The thing is, branded searches can bring up a lot of negative mentions of your company or product because negative publicity attracts more attention. Therefore, you’ll see a lot more of it in the rankings.
Plus, negative press on page 1 can be the difference between your leads converting or not. Laura did her own little survey before the conference that revealed this fact:
