If you make frequent updates to your site, it is easy for mistakes to have a big impact on your SEO. Sometimes page titles will contain only the company name, the noindex tag gets carried over from the test environment, or you might find that all internal links within a specific category are nofollowed. Mistakes happen but integrating SEO into the project process can eliminate many of these problems and help you discover mistakes sooner rather than later.
There are four basic checkpoints where SEO should be integrated into the project process: the idea and planning phase, wire framing, dev review, and when a project goes live. While having those checkpoints is a good starting place, the optimal solution is to have an SEO on the project team, or meet regularly with the project team. Giving SEO advice throughout the entire project process is more efficient than having check points where you tell people to fix problems as continual input helps get the project done correctly the first time around.
Idea & Planning Phase
It is really important for you, the SEO, to get involved at this stage; it will help set the expectations for the rest of the project. Whether you are rolling out a new feature, redesigning your site, or simply adding some new content, there is a lot you can contribute to this phase of the project as you have an SEO mindset. Is there a clearly defined target audience that well benefit from this project? Will the project appeal to the Linkerati? If there is a "business development" project or "partnership" with other companies or sites, and how can you leverage this for SEO benefit?
The planning phase is a good point to go over some SEO best practices, if you haven’t already done so with the project team. Providing everyone involved on the project with a quick SEO checklist to use during the project can be a good way to remind people of all they need to take into consideration.
Wireframes
In the wireframes stage, you want to review the wireframes before they are handed off to designers or developers and make sure that SEO best practices are noted in the wireframes. It is a lot easier to change a note on a wireframe than to change an H3 to an H1 after the developers have created everything. Hopefully you have been able to work with the team and give input on the project so everyone is aware of the SEO elements that need to be noted on the wireframe. It can be a good idea to create a list of SEO elements that should be included in wireframes.
Before you sign off on the wireframes, you want to make sure that all the notations needed for the developers to correctly set up the page are included. This means specifying the page title, URL, H1 (and only one H1), the meta description, JavaScript shouldn’t be used for pagination, analytics tracking code is present, etc. This helps eliminate the need for developers to go back and fix problems. It will save them time and prevent you from getting stared down in the hallways.
It can be really helpful to have a quick meeting with the lead developer before the project gets passed off to them. As time can be a big issue facing projects, developers can have great ideas on how to slightly change a project and significantly cut down on the time estimate or ways to improve the project in general. While they might be pulled into a more inclusive meeting to go over the entire project, it can be beneficial to have a quick five minute meeting and run through the SEO elements. Keep it short though, both of your time is valuable. If the developer working on your project doesn't know much about SEO, you might want to refer them to the Beginner's Guide to SEO or the Web Developer's Cheat Sheet.
Dev Review
This step is pretty straight forward; you are going to want to review the project while it is on a dev server before it is released into the wild. You are checking that everything on your SEO checklist is implemented (where appropriate) and the SEO elements from the wireframes are present. It’s important to note that depending on how the dev environment is set up, it might not be possible to verify some elements such as a noindex,nofollow on all pages related to the project. When this happens, make sure to confirm with the developer that this is due to the dev environment and cannot be tested - you just have to take their word here. That said, when things can’t be tested it’s usually a good idea to get this confirmation via email (and get documentation).
If there are some issues that need to be fixed, go back to the developer with good documentation. Sometimes a well labeled picture is worth a thousand words, but it is still good to have a really clear description. If the developer stays in late or comes in early, it might be a good idea to say thank you with a six pack or a breakfast burrito.
Live
When the project goes live, it should be checked once more against your SEO checklist and site wide best practices, making sure that there aren’t any issues with the project that could negatively affect your SEO. This step is really important because even if everything is correct in the dev environment, things can get changed when deploying live. If you are able to catch problems right when the site is updated, the build can be rolled back and, in most cases, prevent a lot of SEO problems.
It is important to go through the entire checklist, and check all projects when a build goes live. While the projects that you were involved with may be good to go, a smaller project, which you weren't involved in, may be included in the build and cause problems. This step becomes really important when there are multiple dev environments.
Training
Integrating SEO into the project process is really important for big sites and sites with frequent updates as they can help improve the overall optimization of a site as well as catch errors, but shouldn’t replace education and training. Everyone who is touching code or running projects on your site should have at least a basic understanding of how SEO works. This means that as the in-house SEO, you need to provide training for your team members. Training developers and marketers will help reduce your SEO workload as people understand SEO concepts instead of simply following the “SEO rules” you have set out for them.
Another helpful tactic is to create SEO policies or an internal SEO guide based on your company’s SEO best practices and making it available on a wiki or intranet. This is really valuable as people can simply go to a wiki or document on the server and make sure that the project complies with the internal SEO best practices. When everyone is educated and can verify their projects against standards, there will be less work that needs to be redone for SEO reasons and there shouldn’t be surprises when a project goes through the SEO checkpoints.
Have a question? Drop me a line in the comments or follow me on twitter and ask away.
As an in-house SEO, my favorite part about this process is hearing IT condescend SEO.
Great Example:
SEO: Why are we changing the site?
IT: Because it's time for a change.
SEO: What are we trying to improve?
IT: I don't know.
SEO: The new site will most likely drop our rankings.
IT: So we should just do everything Google wants us to do?
SEO: Yes
I have found this as well - I put it down to the fact that the IT guys/girls feel they have to make changes to show that they are doing something, but as the results of their work i.e. the conversions are under the remit of marketing they're not too bothered about "future-proofing" by ensuring SEO best practise. Annoying isn't it - and then you get the blame because you're not getting enough organic traffic.
Hey buddy - very helpful post! Just wanted to throw this link in here as it is something I came across on Twitter the other day and it looks pretty amazing: https://www.volkside.com/tools/wirify/ it's a bookmarklet that instantly turns any page you're looking at into a wireframe. Can save loads of time faffing about with Balsamiq (particularly if you want something to start off with rather than starting from scratch).
This is really cool, thanks Sam.
Great article about how manage your project team ! Thank you Geoff.
That is good to see that the methodology you described is implemented in the company I work for :DTraining your team is, in my point of view, a really interesting element, involving people into your work = don't be afraid to communicate about what a SEO does, no one will replace you and as Geoff say in the article, that will lighten your work load.
You're right, I think most of the time there isn't much danger in training other people. When other people are contributing to SEO and helping you achieve your goals, they are making you, the expert who gave the training, look good. I really believe that training can only help you.
Any suggestions on how to best work with a development team who thinks they know everything? Basically you want to give them advice without patronizing them :)
I've managed a lot of tech teams and ran into a few of that sort myself. I've found that showing them results is key - keep opinions to a minimum - and ask for their take on it throughout. When possible, integrate at least one or two of their suggestions in the plan so they feel like they're part of the solution too and that they're not just implementing YOUR ideas.
Hey Dejan, our very own Jen (who comes from a dev background) had a post about developing relationships with devs that pertains to your question.
The link shared by goodnescowboy is really helpful and, as mentioned by jpirrello, showing them data/results is really helpful too. From my experience showing data from similar case studies was helpful as well as data (if you can find it) on the potential benefits.
The other lesson I learned in-house was that making friends is really important. After I was able to find a common ground to bond over with some of the devs, it seemed like they started to value where I was coming from a little more. It might take a lot of work on your part, but I think forming a friendship, even if not related to work/SEO, can help how you are received when talking about SEO.
Geoff I totally agree here. Making friends will get you everywhere. :)
And thanks for the shout-out GNC!
I run a virtual dev team and one of our focuses with every new website or any redesign is SEO. I have worked with other teams that only do it as after the fact thing and the results always show. It is hard but if you can bring the dev team on board with you to see the value in SEO - it will be a great win-win for all parties including the customer.
A good guide to the dev process - we are currently involved in one too.
Beyond this - and I had a meeting with my manager about this last week - I strongly believe SEO should be integrated into all aspects of the company's NPD/sales/marketing/PR strategy. Too often its actioned as an afterthough, but for max benefit you want to be involved at every step of the way.
Maybe we'll start to, over the coming years, see more senior managers with backgrounds in digital. I'm preaching to the converted, but I wanted to get that off my chest... :)
Good luck, I hope you get buy in from your manager. I really think you can build a better product if you think of SEO as a tool to improve your site rather than an after the fact fix.
I thought this article was very helpful.
What would be even more helpful: some boilerplate SEO business requirements and maybe some examples of in-house SEO guides or policies.
I'm attempting to write these myself, and it would be super awesome if I had something to reference.
I am agree with it. I am working on eCommerce website & website is ranking in top 10 with root keyword. Now, I want to make home page attractive as current one. But, I am little bit worried about organic performance. Will changes mesh up my performance or not? I drill down all process which I have done on this project from scratch to current one. Why I am not able to make some necessary changes on current level? I also found answer of it & projection or SEO campaign design is not short term goal. We have to think for long term & draft it. What you think about it?
Thankd for the wonderful tips.. I dnt have any idea about this but finally after read this valuable article I got little bit idea regarding same
Thanks for sharing such a nice and useful article ..
I always find that first impressions with Google are really important. Hosting the site locally before launching definitely makes a lot of sense because it can be a long time (in SEO terms) before the site gets crawled again if things aren't done properly. Also from a UX standpoint if a visitor comes to a site and it's incomplete they often form permanent impressions about the site.
When it comes to the site architecture I always build an SEO Blueprint for my clients because everyone needs a marketing plan. 301 redirects can lose search equity when you rename urls, and canonical tags in many circumstances are not effective. For that reason if you're going to do a job make sure it's well planned out and done right the first time. This comes with well planned out competitive research, KW analysis, relevant content, links, and effective ad copy to actually do something with the traffic once it's there.
When I visit most sites it becomes quickly apparent that it's just content on the web and there's no clear KPI. In todays market ranking #1 and having tons of traffic isn't enough. It's having the focus to effectively communicate a call to action so the end-user knows what they're supposed to do. Can you close the sale, will you get more click throughs or will you have a high bounce rate? It all comes down to having a strong marketing plan.
Manuscript review is also part of the process. Most of the agencies I work with don't look for tag and copy recs within wires.
Good Post! Well done!
Just wanted to add a few questions about the link building process once after the initial onsite SEO is done?
What do you do if you need to update the phrases that you target with the specific article for example. Do you go through the same process again? Do you use some kind of a platform where you can log all those changes? How do you manage your link building management later?
We search for relevance via the search engine. By learning and manipulating the system to accomplish its goal, SEO makes it more likely that you will come upon a target that is irrelevant. Thereby,
Really helpful information Geoff, just wondering is there any tool which we can use to maintain these steps?
Thanks
Ash
WhiteLogicSolutions.com
Much of this is providing SEO training for your company and then trying to change the project process. The are several project management software packages available but I haven't had much experience with these. One really popular software package is Basecamp. Excel can also be helpful in keeping track of where different projects are, who is responsible, and the current status.
Great post - is it just me or does anyone else find that unbelievably SEO is still not taken seriously a lot of the time, even by developers but particularly by clients. It's accepted that you need good content and a 'pretty' website but when you start talking about meta tags and backlinks people switch off.
I can understand creatives not being bothered about it because once a site looks good then that's their job done but I often find that it's a real struggle to get people to accept that SEO is a viable consideration and is worth spending time and money getting right prior to a project. I am regularly amazed that people build sites and feel that because they have existing clients they will be fine - next thing you know they're on the phone complaining that they're not seeing any new leads coming through the site.
This post should be printed off and hung on the walls of anyone thinking of building a new site.
I guess it's an invalid complaint really because if everyone was super optimised there wouldn't be so much demand for SEO services.
Unfortunately many people believe "if you build it, they will come", which we know isn't true in almost all cases.
Thanks Geoff for a intersting post. I liked it. The way in which you had intergrate the SEO was the awesome one . It helps us to understand SEO steps by steps & also we can easily recognise our mistakes. As we all know SEO is not as easy as it seems to be but by doing or following the above steps it makes possible to undestand the SEO process easily.
Totally agree with everything people have said in response to Dejan's question! I tell developers about my ideas early in the process, and then ask how it could get done. During the conversation, there is usually one or two "teaching opportunities", and since it's a conversation rather than an email string or feedback on a requirements doc, it goes over much better.
Geoff, you forgot one huge point - measurement for evangelizing! I have seen that the developers are the ones who never hear the awesome stats that came from the change they made - by giving them kudos when evangelizing the change, that helps a lot for future projects. Great post!
That's a good point - tracking your results is super important as it not only validates what you have done but will help get you buy in the next time around. And you're right, it's important to make sure the devs see the data; it's easy for these numbers to get stuck in marketing.
Nadia & Geoff you are both spot on in regards to measurement for evangelizing. The power of results is an amazing one. I'd also add a post mortem to the list. Often you can only see underlying issues in hindsight. Its easy to get caught up in to the "push it out and start another project" groove, but if you can find 30 minutes for a project post mortem, you can usually see how mistakes made it to the live environment and better plan for upcoming projects.
Great list those Geoff! Def one that we are constantly working on in-house as well :)
Great timing! I've just completed a workshop day with a client working on their 'Style Guide' for SEO... A good deal of this post will help revamp our follow up document, which is looking quite tired. Thanks!
Timely article for me. Working for a news organization I have to deal with constant changes and ensure SEO is kept in mind throughout the process. Staying on the topic, I have a rather simple but important question, what do you do, when you have multiple content on one page, like the home page of a news website. Where do you place the H1 tag?
That's a great question and I've found there is no simple answer to it. Any site where the homepage features an array of diverse changing content faces the tough issue of deciding how to optimize the page. One potentially optimal solution is to target broad, overarching keywords in the title and H1 that would drive relevant traffic to the page, no matter what the content mix happens to be at any given time. Whether or not that strategy works really depends on the specifics of the business, but it is certainly one that can work.
Of course in that scenario the H1 tag would ideally appear near the top of the page.
In situations like that, I have made the title of the site (or the keyword rich tagline) the H1 for the page. When you have a lot of changing content on the homepage, your goal is to rank for head terms rather than the headlines (as the articles should be ranking for the headlines)
Working in-house, it's always great to see articles from an this perspective. Although it varies greatly depending on the size of the organisation you work for I pretty much follow these steps on a daily basis. I particularly agree with the training side of things, a little bit of education really does help oil the gears in the workplace, especially as us SEOs are often the go-between from the wider marketing department and the dev teams. That's why I like working in-house way more than when I was at an agency, I find there are more opportunities to really get involved with a site from the ground up if you manage to build the right working relationships.
Good tips, I really do agree with trying to get it right the first time round where possible. It means we don't have to wait again for the search engines to cache the site and reflect the changes.
That's another good point. If something goes live you're issue remains until it's re-cached which can be a long time, even if you were able to fix the problem quickly.
Ive just started keeping my notes on a public but not publicised wiki so I can have lots of well referenced stuff to share. Ive done it on in house wikis a few times and then when Ive left the company its all gone. Just wish Id been making the wiki for the last few years, would be awesome resource by now, but better late than never
Ive also had the misfortune of working in an environment where the product was the website and 7 out of 40 staff were VP or higher + a very active Board. Its like a mating call for HiPpOs, everyone wants their bit to take precedence and the SEO is at the bottom.
Any chance you'd be willing to share this wiki with us?
I'm so glad you mentioned talking with developers. It's a critical step but one that's all too often skipped. Like anything else, if developers understand the goals and the needs they'll much more likely to be productive and supportive. A good developer can make or break SEO on a site.
Geoff is right when he says about maintaining a constant contact with the website programmers. It can become a real hell on Earth if you are on different continents with them and speak different languages and you need them to implement something. You can draw schemes for them in Paint - this hardly helps. The only thing that works is when you tell them to be in Skype and you both talk voice and you tell them: "Please, do this. Thank you. Now please do that." So if you guys have communication problems with the developers like I used to have you'd better use the method I've described. ;)
Thanks for the tips. I once made a mistake to overwrite the robots.txt from the dev to live and all it had was "disallow: /" :) Lucky I saw that in time. I also recommended the SEOMoz's SEO cheat sheet to my coleagues and i'm planning to keep a sort of a presentation to explain then most important on-page factors they should have in mind, so they can build the perfectly optimized page (Rand, great article, by the way) :)
Glad you caught it early. Training can be really helpful for catching issues like this. When more people understand even the basics of SEO, problems tend to be found much faster.
wow this is all new stuff to me, but it's sorta sticking way better now that I'm only focusing on learning SEO from you guys and seobook.
This idea of using the wire frame definitely makes everything a lot more clear.
Thanks, Wilson
I like the idea of using wire frames to send to developers. The SEO agency I work for has a lot of wasted time because of developers who have no experience in SEO. A wire frame and the SEO cheat sheet would definitely help them out.
Thanks for the article Geoff. We are developing a new cool look for www.meetinglocals.com and your advice is just in time.