SES Chicago 2010 - SEO and the Development Life Cycle

Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO

© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 1


SEO and the Development Life Cycle

Jessica BowmanSEOinhouse.com



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.



THE PROCESS INTEGRATION



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?







Who knows what happens in detail in the design phase?







Who knows what happens in detail in the development phase?







Who knows what happens in detail in the design phase?







Who knows what happens in detail in the launch phase?






When SEO is 1st brought into projects: or or

Where SEO needs to be incorporated into the Development Life Cycle



Extremely Expensive

Opportunity Costs & Rework

InexpensiveSEO requirements met

within scope & budget




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



For each phase you should know

Deliverables

Meetings

Conversations

Collaborations

Approvals

Etc.



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



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



Project Inception

Business sponsors talk about the idea



Project Inception

Business sponsors reach out to SEO to get their take on SEO opportunities



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



Scope Document

SEO contributes to the Scope document

– SEO success factors to the document

– Potential SEO traffic lift

– Potential SEO revenue gain



Project Approval

Project is approved and scheduled

SEO is contributes to the project plan



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.



Requirements Gathering – Project Plan

SEO and the Project Manager incorporate SEO into the project plan:

– SEO action items

– SEO contributions

– SEO reviews of documentation



Integrate SEO into the Project Plan



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



Front-End Development

SEO QA’s HTML Code for search friendliness

It’s Quick, Easy & Cheapto make search friendly html code tweaks here



Back-end Development

SEO is involved as needed

Development pro-actively reaches out to SEO for input and clarification



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



OTHER INTEGRATIONS



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



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



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]”



Integrate SEO into Documentation



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.



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



Roles & Responsibilities Grid

Responsibility/Task Role 1 Role 2 Role 3 Role 4



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



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



Training Mentoring




Lessons Learned



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.




Thank youJessica Bowman

[email protected]

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SES Chicago 2010 - SEO and the Development Life Cycle