Data driven SEO with free tools: with the help of some simple tools you'll get easy to implement actions back in just a few steps.

1. 07-09 Data Driven SEO
Using Free Tools to get detailed
insights
Jan-Willem Bobbink
International Freelance SEO
@jbobbink – https://www.notprovided.eu

4. Jan-Willem Bobbink
International Freelance SEO
Brand Ambassador Majestic
Cycling & Skating
Science: Physics in particular
@jbobbink
NotProvided.eu

6. Simplicity is key
Define questions
Links still tell something about relationships
between pages but also between entities.
Collect data
Collect as much data as possible. More is not
always better but filtering is easier than a
shortage of data.
Visualize
Answering and explaining outcomes can be
difficult, so make sure you present data in a
understandable way
We checked it all!
DATA DRIVEN SEO METHODOLOGY

7. FACTS I WANT TO KNOW
Top X pages
What are the pages that are
already ranking well and how
are they performing?
Link data Content quality
Best linked pages, high
potential pages without links
etcetera.
SEO relevant elements filled
in? Amount of content per
page vs performance

8. First step to make
Identify every URL within
the website

9. MAIN IDENTIFIER IS URL
Make sure you master the Vlookup function
in Excel: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/excel-
tips/how-to-use-excels-vlookup-function

10. WEBSITE CRAWLING
Lets start with some

11. Favorite tool: ScreamingFrog

12. Favorite tool: ScreamingFrog

13. Visual SEO: http://visual-seo.com/

14. IIS SEO Toolkit: link

15. Oldskool
Xenu: http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

16. You’re using a Mac?

18. Integrity: http://peacockmedia.software/mac/integrity/free.html

19. Java Based: DRKSpiderJava http://www.drk.com.ar/spider.php

20. Python LinkChecker: http://wummel.github.io/linkchecker/

21. Use the sitemap.xml files

22. Result: a list of all live URLs

23. Next step is
Enriching the dataset
Of URLs

24. Download SeoTools for Excel
Link: http://seotoolsforexcel.com/

26. Use standard functions
• =HtmlTitle(string url)
• =HtmlMetaDescription(string url)
• =HtmlH1(string url)

27. Page specific data ready

28. Next step is
Indication of URL based
Performance data

29. Download data from Google Search Console

30. Big website? Verify individual folders
Nice post from Martijn Scheijbeler: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/03/08/marketing-
tnw-way-10-google-search-console-master-855-properties/

32. ALL HAIL THE API
• https://developers.google.com/webmaster-
tools/search-console-api-original/
• Just use command line to mass add
properties 

33. Specific Desktop vs. Mobile data

34. GA: landing page performance data

35. ACTUAL PERFORMANCE DATA
• Segment data for organic (if the website is
international, I suggest you segment per unique
search engine)
• Segment data for mobile and desktop traffic
separately to analyse difference between
Google’s indices
• Download sessions, % new sessions, bounce
rate, session duration, conversion or e-
commerce data to start with.

36. Next step is
Indication of URL based
Performance data

37. Use Majestic for free link data

38. Go to Majestic.com and verify via GSC

39. Always think about the real user
So check if the page is
of social value

40. https://socialcrawlytics.com/

42. Final result
Complete tutorial at http://www.stateofdigital.com/data-driven-seo-
getting-detailed-insights-using-free-tools/

43. FINDING QUICK WINS 1/7
Create a list of page URLs that already
established visibility (but don’t have the top
positions yet) in Google but lack internal
links.
Action: Add more internal links to those
pages.

44. FINDING QUICK WINS 2/7
Built a list of pages with a good amount of
organic traffic but with a high bounce rate.
Action: Ask yourself the question: is the
content relevant to the used queries?
Enrich, update or remove content
accordingly.

45. FINDING QUICK WINS 3/7
Find pages that are not ranking well in
Google, but getting valuable, good
converting traffic via other sources.
Action: Content matches the brand or
website obviously so try to get to rank those
pages in the organic search results.

46. FINDING QUICK WINS 4/7
Look for pages that are visible, have great
onpage metrics but no top 3-10 positions.
Action: get more external or internal links
pointing to that page.

47. FINDING QUICK WINS 5/7
Pages with low amount of internal links, but
a lot of external links and having top 10
positions.
Action: Add internal links, additional content
and move towards to the top 3 positions!

49. FINDING QUICK WINS 6/7
Create an overview of pages that are
ranking well, but not having a great click
through rate.
Action: Optimize your meta data to increase
the CTR. If it doesn’t improve your results,
ask yourself if your websites is expected to
be ranked

50. BONUS
• Automate this proces, getting e-mails with
low performing pages:
• http://searchengineland.com/alert-
abnormal-organic-ctr-detected-automatic-
detection-poorly-performing-meta-data-
280290

51. FINDING QUICK WINS 7/7
Create a list of URLs that are visible in
search results and getting impressions
(GSC data) but are not having any real
content targeting a specific query space.
Action: Optimize the on page content and
your site will benefit from it in most cases.

52. Need to convince stakeholders?

53. Now… Let’s be honest
THAT IS
A PROBLEM

54. UNDERSTANDABLE DATA!
The key of data driven SEO is

57. OPTIMIZING INTERNAL LINK
STRUCTURES
• Crawl a website
• Download all internal linking relations
• Use Gephi or NodeXL to visualize the relations
between pages
• Use Gephi to calculate PageRank
Tutorials:
• http://www.vpascual.org/blog/visualization/visualize-the-link-structure-of-
your-website-using-free-tools/
• http://www.stateofdigital.com/using-pagerank-internal-link-optimisation/
• http://www.stateofdigital.com/visualize-your-sites-internal-linking-structure-
with-nodexl/

58. Important page?

59. Site has 6 languages, what is that 7th
cluster?

60. CONTENT OPTIMISATION?
Need to get more budget for

62. Our average website page has only
200 words of content

64. DEEP DIVE? 1/5
Similar to high bounce rates, look for pages
with good traffic numbers and bad
conversion rates.
Action: try testing a new layout, different
content or different pricing for example.

65. DEEP DIVE? 2/5
Next to conversion rates, have a look at the
average value per user.
Action: Prioritising can be done according to
the best performance page in terms of
revenue or the average number of
conversions per unique user.

66. DEEP DIVE? 3/5
Fighting the Panda: does your website has a
lot of pages that don’t receive any organic
traffic at all?
Action: If the majority of your pages is not
receiving any traffic at all, start removing old,
irrelevant pages.

67. DEEP DIVE? 4/5
Try clustering your pages in themes. For e-
commerce platform you can sum up metrics for
specific product categories for example.
Are there any specific folders or clusters of
pages that are relevant to each other not receiving
any traffic? This could be a sign of a link penalty or
Google not finding your website relevant enough
for that specific query space.

68. Y U no monk?!

69. AUTOMATIC CLASSIFICATION?
Checkout my Slideshare about Free
Machine learning:
https://www.slideshare.net/11internet/use-
free-machine-learning-apis-for-seo-smx-
munich-2016
Or check Monkeylearn.com to start already!

70. DEEP DIVE? 5/5
Pages that perform well (good conversion
rate) in AdWords but not ranking yet in the
organic results?
Action: Push them harder 

71. Questions?

72. Thanks for listening
Any questions after
the session?
Visit my website at Notprovided.eu or
tag me via @jbobbink