SES Chicago 2010 - SEO and the Development Life Cycle
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Transcript of SES Chicago 2010 - SEO and the Development Life Cycle
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 1
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
SEO and the Development Life Cycle
Jessica BowmanSEOinhouse.com
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 2
About
Former in-house SEO.
Advocate for in-house SEO.
In 2008 started SEOinhouse.com.
• The agency I wanted as an in-house SEO, but couldn’t find.
• Someone who understood the in-house challenges and dynamics.
• Someone who could infiltrate the rest of the organization on my behalf to get them to do SEO as part of their job.
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 3
THE PROCESS INTEGRATION
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
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Project InceptionRequirement
GatheringDesign Development QA Testing Live on Site
Typical Development Life Cycle w/SEO
How to Incorporate SEO into the Development Life Cycle
Who knows what happens before project inception?
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 5
Project InceptionRequirement
GatheringDesign Development QA Testing Live on Site
Typical Development Life Cycle w/SEO
How to Incorporate SEO into the Development Life Cycle
Who knows what happens in detail in the design phase?
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 6
Project InceptionRequirement
GatheringDesign Development QA Testing Live on Site
Typical Development Life Cycle w/SEO
How to Incorporate SEO into the Development Life Cycle
Who knows what happens in detail in the development phase?
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 7
Project InceptionRequirement
GatheringDesign Development QA Testing Live on Site
Typical Development Life Cycle w/SEO
How to Incorporate SEO into the Development Life Cycle
Who knows what happens in detail in the design phase?
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 8
Project InceptionRequirement
GatheringDesign Development QA Testing Live on Site
Typical Development Life Cycle w/SEO
How to Incorporate SEO into the Development Life Cycle
Who knows what happens in detail in the launch phase?
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 9
Project InceptionRequirement
GatheringDesign Development QA Testing Live on Site
Typical Development Life Cycle w/SEO
When SEO is 1st brought into projects: or or
Where SEO needs to be incorporated into the Development Life Cycle
Project InceptionRequirement
GatheringDesign Development QA Testing Live on Site
Extremely Expensive
Opportunity Costs & Rework
InexpensiveSEO requirements met
within scope & budget
How to Incorporate SEO into the Development Life Cycle
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 10
Typical Roles & Deliverables
Phase Roles Involved Common Deliverables
Inception (idea created)
Upper ManagementBusiness Sponsor
Scope DocumentProject CharterPRD (product release document)
Requirements Gathering
Business SponsorProduct ManagerProject ManagerUser Experience DesignersSr. Programmers
Requirements documentsPRD (product release document)Wireframes may get started
Design Business Sponsor (review/approve only)Product ManagerUser Experience DesignersProject ManagersSr. Programmers
Finalized WireframesFinalized Visual DesignsPage SpecificationsFinalized Use Cases
Development Product Managers (minimal)Project managersAll Programmers
QA Test ScriptsLogged Bugs/Defects
Launch Development TeamQA TeamSystem Administrators
Changes Live Thumbs up – Everything is GoodLogged Bugs/Defects
SEO SEO
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For each phase you should know
Deliverables
Meetings
Conversations
Collaborations
Approvals
Etc.
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Project Inception
Requirements Gathering
Phase
Design Phase
Development Phase
Final QA Testing
Go Live
SEO Project Involvement Pyramid
Best of Class SEO Programs:Involve SEO intensely at the beginning of any release, and SEOs involvement declines as the project progresses.
Project Inception
Requirements Gathering Phase
Design Phase
Development Phase
Final QA Testing
Go Live
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WHAT IT’S LIKE WITH FULL SEO INTEGRATION
Example Project:
We’re adding a new section to the site
to meet the needs of a new niche target audience
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Project Inception
Business sponsors talk about the idea
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Project Inception
Business sponsors reach out to SEO to get their take on SEO opportunities
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Project Inception
SEO Team does research for SEO requirements:
– Brainstorms potential opportunities
– Looks at competitor sites for their SEO Strategies
– Identifies what people are typing into search engines related to this subject area
– Identifying requirements to make the new section maximize opportunities
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Scope Document
SEO contributes to the Scope document
– SEO success factors to the document
– Potential SEO traffic lift
– Potential SEO revenue gain
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Project Approval
Project is approved and scheduled
SEO is contributes to the project plan
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Bang for Money is Here
Requirements Gathering - Meetings
Everyone gives requirements
SEO sits as a key stakeholder in all sessions.
SEO listens for:
– Content areas that can be leveraged for SEO
– Functionality being requested that may not be search engine friendly
SEO Contributes:
– SEO requirements – what needs to happen and not happen to make the site search engine friendly once.
– How to take ideas further with SEO
– Potential functionality being requested that may not be search friendly, how to make it search friendly and what to review in more detail during analysis
Most Companies Live here
Most SEO programs go
wrong here.
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Requirements Gathering – Project Plan
SEO and the Project Manager incorporate SEO into the project plan:
– SEO action items
– SEO contributions
– SEO reviews of documentation
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Integrate SEO into the Project Plan
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Analysis & Design – Wireframes & Design Comps
User Experience and SEO meet on wireframes BEFORE they are presented to the project team
Graphic Designers and SEO meet on design mockups BEFORE they are presented to the project team
How it works:
– Discussion at the beginning, review at 80% completion
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Front-End Development
SEO QA’s HTML Code for search friendliness
It’s Quick, Easy & Cheapto make search friendly html code tweaks here
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Back-end Development
SEO is involved as needed
Development pro-actively reaches out to SEO for input and clarification
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Quality Assurance Testing
SEO QA’s for SEO Requirements & Search Engine Friendliness
SEO enters bugs in the same system IT.
Some SEO bugs need to be fixed pre-release:
It can take months to a yearto clean up a mess in the SERPs
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OTHER INTEGRATIONS
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Integrate SEO to Existing Standards
All development projects abide by company standards and guidelines.
Goal: Get SEO Best practices and standards included into these existing documents
NOTE: Many sets of standards exist within a company
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Integrate SEO into Wireframes
Do not put text in image
Make h1 on homepage, no header tag on interior pages
No header tag on homepage, h1 on interior ages
H2 tag, include keywords always in this textNo header
tags
No header tags
For rotating banner text, use html text over the image and when user has CSS turned off, stack the
images/text on top of each other so that search engines can read it all
Use <me> not CSS class name
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Access to Change Management Tool
SEO should have access to the SEO tool.
SEO should review every change requested and going live.
SEO should incorporate to change requests:
– Initial requirements.
– Notation if SEO needs final review.
– Why it is an SEO issue and you are requesting specific requirements.
– This is a few sentences only, not a book.
Establish a naming convention that allows you to flag things you need to know:
– “Add new section to target baby market”
– Should be
– “Add new section to target baby market [SEO]”
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Integrate SEO into Documentation
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You want Ambassadors to become proficient enough to do this for you…
Long-Term Plan: SEO team merely reviews and
provides oversight and input on the complex issues so that SEO can focus on the big picture and
not the nitty-gritty details.
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 32
Set up Accountabilities
Who is responsible for making sure SEO is involved?
Create SEO champions
SEO
Website Product
Manager
User Experience
Design
Graphical Design
Programmers
QA Testers
Project Managers
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Roles & Responsibilities Grid
Responsibility/Task Role 1 Role 2 Role 3 Role 4
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Everyone Needs to Make SEO a Success
Role Responsibility
Execs Ultimately responsible if projects have SEO FailuresHold people accountable for working with SEO properlyDon’t approve things if SEO wasn’t involved (ask SEO to find out)
Product Manager Involve SEO in prioritization decisionsInvolve SEO in SEO requirements for every changeEnsure SEO is involved in all projectsEnsure SEO requirements are in documentationGet SEO input BEFORE things go to the business
Project Manager Get SEO input in the project plan tasksInvolve SEO in the right places of the projectEnsure SEO is involved in all projects
Usability Create search engine friendly user experiencesCreate information architecture optimal for SEO
Programmers Create search engine friendly technologiesSpeak up when it appears SEO hasn’t been involved
QA Testers Test every release for SEO best practicesEnsure SEO QAs each release
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 35
IT’s usually best when SEO is hip-to-hip with the product manager and product manager of the website.
SEO
Product Mgmt
Project Mgmt
User Exp.
Integrate SEO with the Right Roles
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 36
Training Mentoring
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Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
Lessons Learned
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
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Lessons Learned
Speak like the natives - learn the IT acronyms and terminology.
– PPM, CQ, PM, PRD, BD, UE, QA…
When requesting a change be ultra specific, as though you are telling a robot.
– “I need a permanent, 301 redirect.”
Know every single change going live on the site.
– Identify which have SEO impacts and need SEO to review the technical documentation.
Get into the release planning meetings.
Review both business requirements AND technical specifications.
Bring in help if you’re not making progress.
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 39
Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO
Thank youJessica Bowman
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