Make Your Own Damn SEO Tools (Using Google Docs!)

MAKE YOUR

OWN DAMN

SEO TOOLS

@seanmalseed

Cheat Sheet: ranktank.org/damntools/

Why?

• How many hours have you spent trying to find that one tool

that did that one thing that

you need?

• How many hours do you spend fiddling with multiple exports

from three tools trying to eek

out some information?

Cheat Sheet: ranktank.org/damntools/ @seanmalseed

“but i dont know how to code and im really

not that technical…”


If you’re sitting in this room right now,

you’ve got a little technical in you.

Give yourself a little credit.


Talkin’ Bout some GDocs

• ImportXML and

ImportDATA can

automagically pull

and parse data from

an API or web pages.

• ImportHTML can pull

web page source

elements

Google built some really powerful commands

into Sheets.


ImportDATA

• PowerPoint can get a little

boring, so let’s build a tool

right now.


Multi-Page Change Monitor

• The “Have they updated their website

or code yet?” tool.

• Formula used: ImportDATA

• Google Doc with Example


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fTUj8lrkCXhr5TBeK3ClHwWOp-iw2V5FgaQpsXBZlyw/edit?usp=sharing

Setting Up the Sheet

• Column A is for the URLs you’ll be checking

• Column B is for the live pages pulled from the site

• Column C is for the original pages to compare against

• Column D performs the “Has it changed?” check!


The Magic Formula

• Column B is where the real

magic happens, pulling live

data for each page you put in

column A using importDATA

• Let’s build that formula


The Magic Formula

=importdata(A2)

This call uses the URL in cell A2 and pulls all of the page source.


The Magic Formula

=concatenate(importdata(A2))

Concatenate joins an array together. In this case, it forces all of the code into a single string of data in one cell.


The Magic Formula

=substitute(concatenate(importdata(A2)), char(10), “”)

Some pages still have line breaks which cause the sheet to get all weird and stuff. Stop this weirdness by using SUBSTITUTE to replace line breaks Char(10) with nothing “”


The Magic Formula

=if(A2)=“”,””, substitute(concatenate(importdata(A2)),

char(10), “”))

Finally, to keep the sheet clean, we need to check and see if something is actually in cell A2. If nothing is there, we’ll leave B2 blank too.


The Magic Formula

=if(A2)=“”,””, substitute(concatenate(importdata(A2)),

char(10), “”))

Finally, to keep the sheet clean, we need to check and see if something is actually in cell A2. If nothing is there, we’ll leave B2 blank too.

If the value in A2 = empty Make this cell (B2) empty

Otherwise, do the thing!


Column D for Detection!

=if(B2=C2,”Nope”,”Yep”)

Compare the live data in B2 to the baseline data in C2.


Column D for Detection!

=if(C2=“”,””,if(B2=C2,”Yep”,”Nope”))

Cleaning this up a bit: if we didn’t put baseline data in C2, there’s no reason to do

the comparison! We’ll leave the cell blank instead.


Using an API

• The “I just need effing keyword

search volumes in bulk but SEMrush

doesn’t do that” tool.

• API used: SEMrush

• API call used: phrase_this

• Formula used: ImportDATA



http://www.ranktank.org

SEMrush API Format

Looks complicated, but it’s not.

http://us.api.semrush.com/?action=report&type=phrase_this&key=YOUR_API_KEY&display_limit=1&export=api&export_columns=Nq&phrase=KEYWORD

Using the API is literally just calling a URL with your API key in it.


SEMrush API Format

Let’s break it into multiple lines

and examine it.

http://us.api.semrush.com/?action=report <- Required, specify country

&type=phrase_this <- This specifies the type of call you’re making

&key=YOUR_API_KEY <- Your API key goes here

&display_limit=1 <- How many lines of data to get. We only need one!

&export=api <- Required

&export_columns=Nq <- What metrics do we want? Nq means Search Volume

&phrase=KEYWORD <- The keyword to check. Pretty important to include…


Making the Call

We’ve already learned how to use

importDATA!

=importdata(http://us.api.semrush.com/?actio

n=report&type=phrase_this&key=YOUR_API_KEY&d

isplay_limit=1&export=api&export_columns=Nq&

phrase=KEYWORD)


Making the Call

=importdata("http://us.api.semrush.com/?acti

on=report&type=phrase_this&key=YOUR_API_KEY&

display_limit=1&export=api&export_columns=Nq

&phrase=“ & A2)


Uh-oh…


API column header

The actual data we want

The API returns TWO lines of data, when we only want one! It gives us a columnheader AND the data we want, which wind up taking two rows. This won’t workif we want to check multiple lines of keywords!

The Magic of QUERY

Google built a function called “QUERY” into

Sheets, and it’s basically effing magic.

QUERY let’s you perform an SQL query on

data, such as a range of cells or returned

data.

SQL stands for Structured Query Language,

but it might as well mean Simple Query

Language because it’s simple as sh*t.


Let’s QUERY

We’re gonna perform this “QUERY” on the data

the SEMrush API sends us:

SELECT Col1 LABEL Col1 ‘’

It’s going to SELECT column 1 and LABEL

column 1 with ‘’ (meaning blank). BOOM the

header is GONE BABY!


ImportDATA + Query

=query(importdata("http://us.api.semrush.com/?action

=report&type=phrase_this&key=5311a58529cc0bbadf7e277

555e9d83b&display_limit=1&export=api&export_columns=

Nq&phrase=" & A2),"SELECT Col1 LABEL Col1 ''")

Boy oh boy, is that easy to do.


Gettin’ International

=query(importdata("http://” & $E$2 &

“.api.semrush.com/?action=report&type=phrase_this&key=5311

a58529cc0bbadf7e277555e9d83b&display_limit=1&export=api&ex

port_columns=Nq&phrase=" & A2),"SELECT Col1 LABEL Col1

''")

Cell E2 will hold the country code, and using the $

(as $E$2) means the cell position will never change,

even when the formula is pasted or filled-down.


Using XPath

• The “I need to check all of the meta

descriptions and page titles” tool.

• Formula used: ImportXML




XPath

• Xpath confuses everyone.

Including me.

• It’s basically a way to point to

a specific HTML element, or a

bunch of elements.

• We’ll look at a super simple way

to use it. Maybe you’ll want to

go learn more about it.


ImportXML

• importXML lets you specify a

URL and Xpath to perform on the

returned source:

Column C:

=ImportXML(A2, "//title")


ImportXML

• Column C was easy. Column B is

a bit more challenging:

=substitute(ImportXML(A2,

"//meta[@name='description']/@content"),char(10),"")


Xpath is a Roadmap

Painting a path to a specific

element in code:

"//meta[@name='description']/@content”


It’s in the meta Its name is ‘description’ Give me the content

The “OH SH*T” Moment

The moment when

you’ll realize how

freaking powerful

ImportXML with

Xpath is.


BRB, Parsing Google

You can use ImportXML and Xpath to parse Google SERPs.

It even uses a Google internal IP address instead of

yours, so your office won’t get stuck in CAPTCHA hell.


Yes. Oh sh*t indeed.

=importxml("https://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=query","//h3[@class='r']/a/@href")

Xpath to grab just the search result URLs

And on that bombshell…

RankTank.org

CircleRank.com

I do “the Twitter”

@seanmalseed



http://www.circlerank.com

http://www.twitter.com/seanmalseed

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Make Your Own Damn SEO Tools (Using Google Docs!)