WordPress Loves Google: Marrying Great Design and SEO with WordPress

@WebspecDesign

WordPress Loves GoogleMarrying gorgeous website designs with SEO-

friendly structure.

Lindsey LaMairJune 27, 2016

@WebspecDesign

Hi, I’m Lindsey.

Lindsey LaMairDigital Marketing

Director @ Webspec Design

How SEO-Friendly is WordPress?

That depends on how SEO-friendly you make it!

@WebspecDesign

WordPress SEO Starter Pack● All In One SEO (or Yoast SEO, but I will get to that in a minute)● Google Analytics● Redirection● Google XML Sitemaps

What capabilities does it need help with?

Install well maintained plugins to

compliment

Choose your main SEO

powerhouse plugin

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All in One SEO vs. Yoast SEOAll in One SEO● Made it into the repo in 2007● 26 million downloads● Settings are all in one place● No content analysis tool● Modular approach to features● More social media settings● Wide range of customizations and

specialist settings● Very powerful Pro version - $79

No content analysis tool, but great for SEO experts who are ready to dig in on their own.

Yoast SEO● Made it into the repo in 2010● 25 million downloads● Page by page content analysis tools● Bulk editor● Built in sitemap editor● User-friendly set up● Paid version adds redirect functionality

and multiple focus keywords feature● Multiple paid extension options

Great for beginners who are looking for a little more guidance.

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“SEO is not my job.”

https://www.pinterest.com/iamcayester/seo-memes/

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“I never do anything for SEO except designate page

headings.”

What is the point of designing a really nice new website if no one can find it?SEO is not just for SEO’s or

your marketing team.

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Do I really need to care about SEO?Not every site is going to need SEO.

It all depends on how their users primarily find their site or if they want to increase traffic.

Do they want to increase traffic or improve sales? If they haven’t historically cared about SEO, then the answer is yes.

https://memegenerator.net/instance/55768282

Things SEO’s Care About

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1. Contenta. Homepage contentb. Readable contentc. Heading structured. Unique URLs

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2. Accessibilitya. Navigation & link structureb. Crawl healthc. Sitemap structure

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3. Usability a. Site speedb. Optimized mediac. Mobile-friendly design

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4. Audiencea. Demographicsb. Analyticsc. User Personas

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(None of this says your site has to be ugly or a pain in the @$$ to be SEO-friendly.)

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How does this apply to me?

SEO best practices can be carried out throughout the entire project or ongoing relationship.

● Designers● Developers● Project Managers● Content Strategists● Marketers

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SEO for DesignersAsk yourself…

Is the call to action clear?

Was the site designed with a clear goal in mind?

Is there room for content?

Are there a lot of media elements throughout the design?

What’s above the fold?

Are the responsive versions user-friendly?

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SEO-friendly designs don’t have to be uglySEO-friendly really means user friendly.

SEO-friendly designs do not need to include:

● Keyword stuffed areas in the footer● Boatloads of content● Zero photos● Overly long layouts● Solid content blocks

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Do this, not thatImages with text over them? Make sure the font is readable by users and search engines.

Content that appears as you scroll or hidden content elements? Make sure the most important content is visible upon loading.

Multiple headers on a page? Ensure there is only one H1 and designate the tag for the rest.

Infinite scrolling design?* Consider if the page is too long to be fully crawled or if it needs to be on separate pages.

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A Designer’s SEO Checklist❏ Don’t get too fancy for the bots to crawl the site. If they get confused they will just stop

crawling. Keep in mind that Google is not as advanced as you are.

❏ Don’t sacrifice user experience for a pretty site or trendy design feature that people won’t know how to navigate. Normal users aren’t as advanced as you either.

❏ Consider how large media elements will affect a page’s load time; optimize accordingly.

❏ Try new things and think outside the box when it fits into the target audience’s behavior and interactions.

❏ Focus as much on responsive elements and functionality as you do on the desktop design.

❏ Make sure you only have one H1 tag on a page.

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*Single Page Scroll...These are trendy but not your most SEO-friendly option, UNLESS programmed correctly.

Why is this, you ask?

● Google reads them as one page. ● You only get one URL in your sitemap.● You have no custom meta data.● Limited SEO real estate.

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SEO for DevelopersAsk yourself…

Is the site fast?

Is the site crawlable? Can the top search engines find the site?

Did we move/launch the site correctly?

Are all redirects in place?

Is the sitemap changing? Does it need to stay the same?

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Devs help with SEO more than they thinkCreating search engine friendly URL structures.

Programming a site with clean code, optimized media elements, and fast load times.

Making sure redirects are in place and working correctly.

Creating a content structure that follows the intended sitemap. Whatever can be content, should be content.

Making sure paginated archives are crawlable by search engines.

Minifying code and utilizing compression and caching wherever possible.

Checking for canonical URLs and duplicate content.

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A Developer’s SEO Checklist❏ Testing load time and site speed

❏ Browser testing - especially focus on browsers where most of their organic traffic comes from

❏ URL structures - is the site moving to a new domain?

❏ Make sure the new site is as crawlable, if not more, than the old one

❏ ROBOTS.TXT files - Make sure they are not blocked from index when you launch

❏ Consider text to code ratio

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Text to HTML Ratio: Where SEO & Designs MeetThe amount of text on a web page vs the code on that page.

Ideal Text to HTML Ratio? Between 25% and 70% (the visible text ratio as opposed to non-visible information).

How does it affect SEO? It’s not a direct ranking factor, but it intertwines with several design, development, and ranking factors.

It improves user experience, page load time, and indexing of your pages.

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How to improve Text to HTML Ratios● Remove any unnecessary code● Remove large white spaces within text or designs● Avoid too many tabs● Remove comments in the code when possible● Use CSS to style● Optimize and resize images and videos● Keep page size under 300kb● Remove hidden text that is not visible by users● Always include some amount of plain, readable text in your designs● Avoid tables and flash :)

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SEO for Project ManagersAsk yourself…

Where is this site coming from?

What is the end goal? Does this site accomplish this goal?

Who are the target users?

What kind of traffic needs to be monitored?

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A PM’s SEO Checklist❏ Integrate necessary tracking codes❏ Ensure initial SEO has happened❏ Encourage site indexing in your robots.txt file❏ Do you need 301 redirects?❏ Are you going secure? ❏ Is the necessary content or call to action logical and easy to find?❏ Where is the site/email hosted?❏ Do they have subdomains you need to worry about?❏ Does the site look more than just functional on all devices and browsers?❏ Is the URL changing?

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SEO for Content Strategists1. Create a clear content and heading structure. 2. Make sure every page has content (wherever possible). 3. Even landing pages should be optimized. 4. Maximize your SEO real estate.

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Themes & SEOAre WordPress themes SEO friendly out of the box?

They should be fine, but keep in mind:

1. The fancier the page template, the more dense the code. 2. The more images you add, the slower the site is. 3. Adding more plugins might help functionality, but it won’t always help

SEO.

You’re launching a new site. Now

what?

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Steps to successfully move a site without issues and without tanking your SEO1. Establish any URL structural changes that need to happen. 2. Map out redirects. 3. Transfer existing page optimization if the site ranks well. 4. Establish www vs. non and http vs https. 5. Make sure your robots.txt file is not blocking robots. 6. Make sure Google Analytics, Search Console, and other tracking codes get

transferred. 7. Changing URLs? Submit a change of address form in Search Console.

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Takeaways

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SEO-friendly really just means user-friendly.

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Fast, crawlable, accessible sites will always win.

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Launching a new site can really mess up your SEO.

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Everyone is actually an SEO Strategist.

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Questions?