The evolution of the web and the rise of the latest technologies has created a whole new level of complexity for SEOs, making it difficult to be able to crawl, analyse and understand their websites. If the more traditional elements of SEO such as internationalisation and faceted navigation weren't hard enough to get right already, we now have frameworks like JavaScript and configurations like AMP and PWAs to deal with as well. In this talk, Rachel will walk you through exactly how to analyse the full scale of your website and collect data on all of the pages it has available, even those served by advanced technologies. She will also provide best practice advice on how to optimise and configure your website to make sure only its most valuable pages are being served to users and search engines.
Tackling an Evolving Web | SMX London 2019 | Rachel Costello
1.
2. 3. Consolidating your pages for
better performance in search.
1. New web technologies that impact
SEO and how to handle them.
2. How to make your pages crawlable
and accessible.
WHAT WE’LL COVER
17. “JavaScript allows you to add complex
animations, fetch customer data, use
open APIs to integrate with popular
technologies, and enhance user
experience. JavaScript will never
disappear.”
Emma Wedekind
UX Engineer at LogMeIn
22. Challenge:
Most search engines can’t render JavaScript or
crawl links generated by JavaScript.
Solution:
Implement pre-rendering or server-side rendering
for improved link discovery.
CRAWLING JAVASCRIPT
24. Solution:
Prioritise important resources for rendering and
optimise the critical rendering path.
Challenge:
Processing JavaScript is an expensive and
time-consuming process.
PROCESSING JAVASCRIPT
26. Solution:
Use a headless browser and DOM comparison
tools to analyse contents of output code.
Challenge:
Testing JavaScript rendering can be difficult, but we
need to see how search engines are impacted.
TESTING JAVASCRIPT
28. If your website relies on JavaScript
to power its content and
navigation, search engines could
end up seeing a blank screen with
nothing to crawl or index.
39. Focuses on the core content of a
page, then progressively adds
more technically advanced
features on top if the conditions
of the client allow for this.
PROGRESSIVE ENHANCEMENT
40.
41.
42.
43. Challenge:
PWA pages can generate content dynamically, but
search engines can’t interact like a user can.
CRAWLING PWAs
44. Solution:
Make sure key content can be accessed from a
unique URL and is served in the HTML.
Challenge:
PWA pages can generate content dynamically, but
search engines can’t interact like a user can.
CRAWLING PWAs
45. Challenge:
PWAs are often built using complex JavaScript
frameworks which can cause rendering issues.
RENDERING PWAs
46. Solution:
Perform thorough rendering testing with tools like
the Mobile-friendly Test and Chrome DevTools.
Challenge:
PWAs are often built using complex JavaScript
frameworks which can cause rendering issues.
RENDERING PWAs
66. DIFFERENT SIGNALS DETERMINE GOOGLE’S
CANONICAL SELECTION
Rel canonical, redirects, internal
linking, URL parameters and
sitemaps are all signals Google
uses to decide which page is the
canonical from a group of pages
that have been folded together.
John Mueller, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst
Source: https://www.deepcrawl.com/blog/news/google-webmaster-hangout-notes-june-26th-2018/
67. If you sit back and
do nothing, Google
will do its best to
pick preferred URLs
for you.
72. Links in to canonicalized vs canonical pages.
Redirecting canonical pages.
Non-200 canonical pages.
Inclusion of canonical pages in sitemaps.
Non-indexable pages being shown in the SERPs.
Some areas to investigate:
73. The best way to see
Google’s URL selection for
yourself is through the
cache and Google Search
Console.
76. YOU CAN SEE WHICH CANONICAL GOOGLE
HAS CHOSEN IN THE NEW SEARCH CONSOLE
In the new Search Console you
can select individual URLs which
takes you to the info query,
showing you the canonical that
Google has chosen.
John Mueller, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst
Source: https://www.deepcrawl.com/blog/news/google-webmaster-hangout-notes-january-9th-2018/
78. The key reports in Google Search Console
for canonicalisation analysis...
79.
80. “This page is marked as canonical, but
Google thinks another URL makes a better
canonical which has been indexed instead.”
Source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7440203?authuser=0#google_chose_different_canonical_than_user
81.
82. “The URL is one of a set of duplicates
without an explicitly marked canonical
page. Google did not index this URL.
Instead, we indexed the canonical that we
selected.”
Source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7440203?authuser=0#submitted_url_not_selected_as_canonical
84. Make website signals
clear and consistent for
Googlebot so it doesn’t
need to make decisions
on your behalf.
85. Checking the site isn’t broken,
leaving search engines with
nothing to crawl and index.
Improving the site’s chances of
ranking in search.
86. 3. Use consistent signals to ensure
your pages perform in search.
1. Keep up to speed on the latest
technologies devs are building.
2. Make sure key content and links
are accessible for search engines.
KEY TAKEAWAYS #SMXInsights