Every time you have a release, do you have a test (automated or manual) that you perform to make sure that everything is good to go from an SEO perspective? This is what we call a deployment SEO strategy. Odds are you might not have one, but you should.
You need a deployment strategy for two reasons: first, accidents happen. Second, not everyone knows SEO. This posts highlights problems to look for when when you're testing a deployment and tips on how to create a deployment SEO strategy that works for you.
Accidents happen
Between consulting and my in-house experience, I have seen my fair share of accidents and mistakes.
Image via Shutter Stock Photos
Some of these accidents were my fault or responsibility, and some I happened to find along the way. The recurring issues I have seen include:
- Nofollows being added to all internal links
- Meta robots noindex added to pages
- Robots.txt updated to disallow: /
- All title tags being set to the homepage
- Product canonical tags set to category URLs
- 301s used for canonicalization being removed
- H1s disappearing
- Content disappearing
- URLs being changed
- Analytics tracking code removed
All of these issues can have significant impacts on SEO. The reasons for this are far and wide, ranging from the wrong code being copied from the dev server to designers forgetting that title tags are important. As SEOs, we can do things to reduce the likelihood of these things happening by creating systems and processes, but sometimes accidents will happen. Sometimes, something is bound to sneak by. This means you need to have a system in place to find problems when they arise rather than down the road.
Automated vs Manual
When I was working in-house, we had all of our internal links become nofollowed; the nofollow tag was copied over from a dev environment. After learning from this experience, I began doing manual testing following every deployment to ensure that each one was rolled out properly. With weekly releases and multiple sites, this task quickly became quite time consuming. Fortunately, we had a QA team that I trained to handle the testing themselves.
I started the manual reviews by going to pages that needed to be tested and verified that the SEO elements were all in proper place. To automate the process, I oversaw the development of test scripts built by the QA team to verify everything was in order. This was a much more efficient solution.
Big sites with frequent releases should be doing automated testing. Work with your dev team to get these tests created for you. Further, you should also have a QA team that should be capable of running the tests once they are trained. If you're unable to get the resources necessary, well...try to persevere until you can. You'll still have to do the work manually, but this issue is far too important to ignore. If you can gather the dev resources, you'll still need to perform manual tests until automated testing is created.
If you run a smaller site or don’t have frequent releases, manual testing is probably the better solution for you. Sure, it takes some time, but if you aren’t doing it every week, odds are the manual reviews won’t drive you insane.
Which pages to test
Do you need to test every page? In general, no. If your site runs off a CMS or a template, you should be testing every type of page (product, category, homepage, education pages, etc.). Additionally, if you have important landing pages that are one-off creations, you should test them as well.
Do I really have to do it every time?
Yes, you do. It is important. Again, you’re the SEO, and unfortunately you're to blame if something goes wrong.
Minimizing problems
Earlier we discussed that you can minimize the likelihood and frequency of problems by implementing systems and processes. Typically,creating these steps take two shapes: training and reviews.
Training
SEO impacts many different teams and job functions throughout a business. The impact ranges from developers and product managers to customer support. What this means for the SEO is that you have a fair amount of people who can either help you out a lot or make your life a lot more complicated. My advice is to use this cross-team collaboration to your advantage.
Obviously not all of the people in these positions needs to be well versed in SEO or have watched every Matt Cutts webmasters video, but it's probably important that they know how their roles can impact SEO. Discuss the impact each role has with your team to make sure everyone is on the same page, and it will help you define your strategy.
SEO sign-off
In addition to training, you should create SEO checkpoints in project processes where you (or another member of the SEO team) will have to sign-off that the project meets the SEO requirements you have established. I recommend implementing checkpoints as frequently as possible. This ensures that someone with an SEO mind has thought about the project at each step from idea to execution. This "big picture" mentality will not only help to prevent problems, but will help to capitalize on opportunities.
Deployment of an SEO checklist
The following is a basic list of SEO items to check in every deployment. Use it as a guide to what to look for in each deployment, and feel free to customize based on your specific needs.
On-site
.gif)
Page titles exist and are correct
H1s exist and are correct
Meta descriptions exist and are correct
Alt text is targeted
Content exists and is correct
Correct version of site is being shown to search engines (if you do that sort of thing)
Accessibility
Meta Robots are correct
Robots.txt file is correct
Tracking
Analytics code is correct on every page (type)
Ecommerce tracking is properly set up
Technical
Canonical tag is correct
Internal links are followed (unless otherwise stated)
301 redirects are in place
Site is canonicalling properly
URLs are absolute (or there are no problems with relative URLs)
https:// / https:// are correct
Response codes are correct
Other
Sharing functionality exists
I'd love to hear your tips on what deployment SEO strategies work for you. Feel free to share your knowledge in the comments below.
Hello Geoff,
I think website/page loading speed testing is an also important point in technical optimization and from above all points some of you can easily check out by using "Screaming Frog SEO Spider Tool". Its free and great tool for checking some on page optimization points.
I love Screaming Frog Spider SEO Tools... but it is not really free. If you have to crawl more than 500 URI you must buy a yearly licence.
Site speed is an important issue, especially for really large sites and ecom sites, but I left it off the list intentionally as it's not a critical factor for most sites. It might be for your site, but I think for most it's not make or break. While it is good to be thorough, it is also important to guard your time as this is supposed to make sure there are no critical issues that are going to tank your traffic.
@jemindesai really like app u suggested.....i have to admit that SEOMOZ provide a great environment to get knowledge about SEO...
Thanks for this handy article ! 1 question though. You mention the following mistake "Product canonical tags set to category URLs"
What if within a category, I only have very similar products that can't be merged into 1 product page and that all these product pages share identical content that is more elaborated at the category level => Does it make sense to canonize the category URL ?
it sounds like that would be a good idea - this point inherently wouldn't apply then.
Great article Geoff! I really love the checklist idea, that makes it much more easy to present for the others in the team.
Usually, programmers and the likes a not very fond of: "Well, just make sure that you incorporate these SEO guidelines when your are programming, it shouldn't be such a burden".
Because, it often takes a great deal of time to change certain habits. A visual checklist will certainly make change those habits more easily!
great article for newbie like me......1 thumb down without any explanation?
Nice post Geoff, and good to see the basics being discussed again as 9 times out of 10, these are the real problems that affect the online traffic and sales.
I like the point about about an XML sitemap too from Salyris.
SEO impacts a lot of areas, as is nicely presented in your chart, but how do you get people interested in training if they have no interest in the web or SEO (for example, a traditional offline PR manager)?
Getting people on board can be tricky...Usually I think it helps if you can find out how to show them that doing a few things for SEO will make them look better at their job. Beyond that, bribe them.
Useful post in the fact that this has tackled every side of the subject! i like this way of dealing with SEO issuesthanks
Great list, Geoff. If you're dealing with an international client then I'd consider adding the following to Technical:
The hreflang is a great addition for international sites!
Good stuff. I would add something about Bing/Google webmasters tools, yslow , sitemaps in there :)
Working in-house I've learned the importance of training/ workshops before anything, it's likely that the content uploaders or web developers will have the bulk of work to do if things are not clear to start off with.
Which does not help your popularity :(
No, definitely doesn't help your popularity
Excellent post Geoff. I agree with some of the other comments that the checklist and especially the Training chart are really great for in-house SEOs. I find I use my skills from the years I spent teaching all of the time when dealing with other departments. I do have a question. At the end of your checklist, under "Other" you have "Sharing functionality exists" - what does this mean? Are you referring to social sharing? Or something that's more internal and related to the project?
Thanks!
I meant that sharing buttons were showing up if you have them :)
Excellent post, i am really glad to read informative content on SEO strategy. Your training chart and especially your SEO check list is really helpful for all. I think these all basic points are best to understand what deployment SEO strategies work for us. Enjoy your video and your first graphic pic is very interesting.
Nice to see SEOmoz has published a post about basic things of SEO. Once I have found that designer has used header tags at improper place to bold the characters just. I don't blame him because he doesn't know the importance of it from SEO perspective. Every agency or in-house team should make an excel sheet listed all these basics so that anyone in fact a newbie can check it in few mins.To be honest, this post can be written in more interesting way. :(
Hey Geoff, good post. I think this process works and is great for Internal/In-House SEOs. Do your suggestions change for Agencies and Independents? Based on the information presented, I think the article lends itself primarily to large teams and in-house processes. I wonder if a follow-up post for individuals or agencies might be good.
I do think you're right, there needs to be sign-off somewhere along the way for SEO. Perhaps the checklist you've provided could be used as a starting point. A consultant or agency could verify items from the checklist and then ask the client to sign off that these items had been reviewed prior to deploying new or updated content.
Also, many SEOs provide services for small business clients and I think it will be difficult to get buy-in for automated testing from them and so they will likely be doing manual testing.
Hi George,
I think this post can be really applicable to agency's and IC's as well. What you should be doing depends a bit on the nature of your work - if you're doing pure consulting, you'll want to work with them to integrate this process. If you are acting as a vendor, then you're probably going to be doing the testing yourself.
Ok. When agencies and IC's are working with clients to integrate this process, do you find the agencies/IC's are building the solutions and then training clients how to use them (e.g. automated testing)? Or are they guiding clients as the clients build the solutions themselves? If you see both, which have you observed to work better?
There is no answer to this - Everything is dependent upon the situation. The client's resources, your resources, availability, what other projects are going on - all these things impact the solution. Looking at the situation and coming up on an approach based on your client's needs and environment will give you the solution that is going to work best.
This points to a bigger question though, what's your role/goal as a consultant. Do you want to work with them forever? Or do you want to make them self sustaining? This should impact your solution too.
You should also add a downloadable check list and/or cheat-sheet for the post :)That could be really helpful.
Also since the check list is different depending on the size and stage of the project - it will be really cool to have one or more follow-up posts with seo strategy and checklist for start-ups, seo startegy and checklist for huge sites (takle 1 or 5 or even more millions of pages in a website would definitively change the seo strategy and the check list...)
I'll work on a pdf.
I think a lot of these posts exist already :) Here's one on startup seo: https://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/startup-seo-what-seos-need-to-know/
Away some post , package of all information along with implement advance thing in to your project .Thanks Man !
Awesome Read! Indeed having a proper check list maintained to overview and find out errors to make your work very much easier, especially while working in agency where you have a number of projects to deal with on daily basis. I have been using screaming frog for now as it has automated the whole process by generating a extensive report for all on-page needs, points out where the tags are duplicated and more!
Loved your post !
yeah this is a nice post.
Excellent job geoff. . .these all may be some i was looking for to correct my checklist! thanks man.
Perfect list to plug into Basecamp templates for new clients, thanks!
Love it - thats a great list. Always a good idea to have a second set of eyes look over the deployment as well.
Resourceful share...with good info. Can you please highlight more info on point "Site canonicalling properly".
We all know these are the basics, but most of the time we ignore or overlook these. But these issues really matters. An experienced SEO have the tendency to overlook few small issues like those. We know these basics but not always conscious about deploying them. So, good job and thank you for reminding these basics.
This is a nice post, but if you're on SEOmoz, you already know all this and want to know about how to escape the white and black animals.
I would add a few more important features to your checklist, however this is the perfect guide for beginners. Thanks!
Great post. I completely agree with having a deployment strategy and I use a similar list to the one you've provided.
Everything is really important and there are some best SEO plugins which are really beneficial for On page SEO like Easy WP SEO, yoast, SEOPressor etc.
It's very valuable to have an audit deployment checklist. We use tools such as Screaming Frog to check that all the elements are in place.
Superb article. I have printed the check list off for future reference.
Great article. I'm a big fan of QA testing, especially when it's something as mission-critical as SEO. Funny images as well.
Great post
Thanks for the tips! We've implemented the same strategy, and we can definitely add some of those things on your list...
I like the SEO chart.. its really very useful and designed intelligently
Awesome Read Geoff!
I love your check list, every webmaster have to follow that list.
I have just started to learn how can I make our site searchable. Your sharing comes so handy and just in time as where and how to get started.Thanks for sharing
Good checklist Geoff. I would also add:
* Google XML Sitemap generation and sitemap on website
* .htaccess tweaks such as canonicalization of your site to www.yourdomain.com
* Social Media sharing buttons and JS code (sharethis or addthis...) as well as where they get implemented
Including XML sitemaps depends on your site - if you add a ton of content frequently, then yes, they should be part of this checklist. If you're not adding hundreds or thousands of pieces of new content every week, then you probably don't need it on the checklist.
The other two points are already on there :)
I use a project management system that allows me to duplicate and deploy campaigns. This is handy because SEO is always evolving the strategy is always adapting so you want to use your strongest campaign as a template.
I can copy the most recent and relevant project and use it as a starting block and build on it and customize the tasks for the new campaign. Project management system is critical to deploying strategy.
Enjoyed the graphic in your post with SEO in the middle of all the other departments! Gold!
Hope you've been scoring some awesome downhill MTB Geoff.
Sounds like a great system. Not much downhill this season unfortunately. Next season though.... Do you ride?
Superb; this is really very informative post Geoff.Also included sitemap and server log - webmaster tool clean up?
Great tips and reminders. I especially key on the be the user tip. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to one of my recent posts, read through the article and then clicked on a link to find it's broken or I had mis-typed it. Ack! Check all your links!
Thanks again for the info.
Super cool post, Why don't you also add Html code check up in the strategy. This will a good point.
Great post Geoff!
I'm glad you have absolute and https issues on the list. Often, staging / development versions are copied to production and the https version of the entire site sticks around, causing duplicate content (and maybe even accessibility) issues. Probably one of the top priority items for ecommerce websites, or any website with a checkout page.
This posts explains relative and absolute links in greater detail - https://yoast.com/relative-urls-issues/
really nice post very useful.
Nice :)
Just a quick typo alert for you --> "Content exits and is correct"
Thanks for the heads up - working on getting it fixed :)
Hahaha
Thanks for great tips and guidelines... It will be very useful for beginners.
I've never thought of taking this approach. QA has always seemed like an extension of Engineering and not a safety net for the entire company. After reading this, it all seems so clear. Well done.
To me, the beauty of this approach is in the reduction of revisiting Engineering / IT / QA with, "Hey, I need you to go back and fix X because Y is missing / broken / changed." Every one of those requests undermines the critical relationship building paramount to successful inbound marketing programs.
Beyond that, this approach removes much of the manual QA that can't be scaled.
Great post! The checklist is great, and I really like that you listed some of the recurring issues you've come across. Having a list like this allows you to be sure you've got your bases covered and be able to prevent future issues from cropping up. Love it!
Great post and the image itself is a great example of all the elements and jobs that effect SEO.
Great stuff as always Geoff.
Great post, thanks! I think I will be doing a training session with a similar theme in the near future. I now want to get the devs to put some automated tests together :) One tool I have used before is Launchlist - you can create lists for development, copy writing, design and SEO all in one place and have the key managers sign off each stage. https://launchlist.net/
That's a cool resource, thanks for sharing!
Simple and pretty straight forward checklist for SEO's to run through before launching a website
Question. What do you mean by "All title tags being set to the homepage"? You mean all titles the same as the home page?
All of the page titles on the site had the same page title as the home page :)
Geoff, this post came at the right time. I was on our website https://www.orange-county-seo.com and came across a similar issue. If I hadn't stumbled across it during my routine SEO, it could have gone unnoticed.
I am going to be implementing a checklist today.
Is anyone else using a similar checklist? Is there an automated software that will check these elements?
Screaming Frog SEO Spider will pull all the elements but you'll still have to manually review.