{"id":236,"date":"2024-09-09T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/2024\/09\/09\/the-oops-that-proves-seo-basics-still-matter\/"},"modified":"2024-09-09T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T11:00:00","slug":"the-oops-that-proves-seo-basics-still-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/2024\/09\/09\/the-oops-that-proves-seo-basics-still-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Oops That Proves SEO Basics Still Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I asked today\u2019s HubSpotter to share an SEO tactic, he asked if he could share a cautionary tale instead.<\/p>\n

And I accepted because his story proves <\/em>that technical SEO basics still matter \u2014 even in the face of major search changes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the scary story of how we lost, and then recovered, 41% of targeted organic traffic and conversions.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Presented for the approval of you masters in marketing, I bring you a story I call \u2026 The Tell-Tale Tag. (The Cask of the Canonical? I\u2019ll find the joke eventually.)<\/p>\n

A Scary Day in Search<\/h2>\n

Our story begins with a call over to France, and a coworker whose technical skills are outmatched only by his wicked Gallic accent.<\/p>\n

(To get the most out of this post, I suggest you read his lines aloud in your very best French.)<\/p>\n

Sylvain Charbit, our senior technical SEO strategist, has been in SEO\/content marketing for 15 years, so it takes a lot to rattle him \u2014 an 82% drop in daily organic traffic is just such a thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discovered the problem in the most common way possible,\u201d Sylvain laughs. \u201cConversion and traffic were in freefall all of a sudden.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

As you can see from the graph above, pants were soiled on or around July 25th. The drop was first noted by our conversion optimization team, who immediately called over to SEO. (I like to imagine it like a disaster movie, where the ragtag scientists inexplicably have a direct line to some high-ranking general.)<\/p>\n

The timeline matched closely with the start of a new CRO test.<\/p>\n

The affected URLS matched perfectly to those being tested.<\/p>\n

But there was no reason why this test\u2014a minor content change\u2014should completely annihilate<\/em> those pages from the search results.<\/p>\n

With no obvious culprit, the SEO team began an audit of the technical basics.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we have that tag here? Yes. Did the title tag change? No,\u201d Sylvain ticks off a mental list. \u201cBut when I checked the canonical tag? That\u2019s when I saw that they were duplicates, and they were giving crawl bots different instructions.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s been a hot minute since you took SEO 101, here\u2019s what that means: whenever you have multiple versions of the same page you add a canonical tag\u2014a bit of HTML code that tells search engines which page is the \u201creal\u201d one.<\/p>\n

The test required two versions of each page and each pair had a canonical tag that referenced each other.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s still confusing, imagine each page pointed to the other like the Spider-Man meme.<\/p>\n\n

The result? Complete removal of all test URLs from the search results.<\/p>\n

Sylvain explains: \u201cWhen Google has a doubt, it will decide to just drop the URL altogether. Saying, \u2018Hey, that doesn\u2019t make sense at all. Just in case, I will remove it because that doesn\u2019t sound like a result I want to present to visitors.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, even if your overall brand is as trusted as HubSpot, messing up the basics can make individual pages look untrustworthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that could seem as trivial as a duplicate tag could have a really devastating impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Technical Takeaways<\/h2>\n

So how did a simple content test impact our underlying HTML code?<\/p>\n

The rogue tags were created when we activated a third-party A\/B testing tool, which shall remain nameless to protect the innocent.<\/p>\n

Seriously, they\u2019re innocent this time. Turns out, we were using an old version of a software integration.<\/p>\n

Once the problem was identified, and the duplicate tags fixed, it took several days for the pages to return to their rightful place in the search results.<\/p>\n

By that time, the damage averaged up to a 41% loss in traffic and leads.<\/p>\n

But that fast recovery time isn\u2019t something that everyone can count on. Search engine crawl bots tend to visit large sites like ours often. That means small brands are likely to recover more slowly.<\/p>\n

Which makes it that much more important to be cautious with your technical basics.<\/p>\n

I asked Sylvain if that\u2019s the main lesson of this story. Is it \u201cSEO basics still matter?\u201d Is it \u201cKeep your software up to date?\u201d<\/p>\n

He offers this: \u201cLet\u2019s not wait for a problem to surge before doing the regular checks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

And that manifests in three ways:<\/p>\n

1. QA tests and software-integrations before launch.<\/h3>\n

\u201cBefore I would say \u2018keeping your software up to date\u2019\u2014yes, this is something you definitely should be doing\u2014but first is not launching a test before reviewing everything is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any time you\u2019re planning a test on your existing website, be sure to give time to quality assurance.<\/p>\n

If you can, loop your SEO and conversion teams together to make sure each interest is represented.<\/p>\n

And while you\u2019re at it \u2026<\/p>\n

2. Regularly audit sample pages for SEO basics.<\/h3>\n

SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it game, unfortunately.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegularly test or review samples of your website,\u201d Sylain recommends. \u201cLike a few blog posts, a couple of category pages.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t have to be an overwhelmingly deep task. It really can be a quick survey of the foundational basics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a tendency of saying you need to dive into fine analysis, you need to check all the lines of code that are deep in the system, but sometimes the most common things are forgotten, because, well, you know, SEOs get accustomed to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Consider an SEO auditing tool.<\/h3>\n

\u201cOr even easier,\u201d he adds. \u201cHave a tool like Content King that will check for you and flag right away if something is out of the ordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

SEO auditing tools<\/a> regularly audit your site for you, and many will track changes to the underlying content or code.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause even if the testing software was up to date, you don\u2019t know what kind of conflicts can occur with whatever third-party tool or extension you\u2019re using,\u201d Sylvain adds.<\/p>\n

But if that\u2019s not in the budget, you\u2019re not out of luck. Below, I\u2019ll run through how HubSpot users can check their canonical tags in just a few seconds.<\/p>\n

How to Check Canonical Tags in HubSpot<\/h2>\n

By default, most pages and posts are automatically set as canonical in HubSpot. (The exception is blog listing pages, but the reason for that could be a post in itself. For now, just trust that it\u2019s a good thing.)<\/p>\n

If you want to change that, or if you\u2019re concerned that something has already changed\u2026 well\u2026 ask your own Sylvain before you go messing around.<\/p>\n

If they say it\u2019s okay, here\u2019s what you do:<\/p>\n

1. Navigate to Content <\/strong>and then Website Pages, Landing Pages, <\/strong>or Blog <\/strong>depending on the type of page you\u2019re checking.<\/p>\n

2. Hover over the existing page and then click Edit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. In the editor, click Settings > Advanced. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

4. If the canonical tag is set to anything other than the original page, you\u2019ll see it displayed under \u201cCustomize Canonical URL<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

If that field is blank, chances are that your canonical tag is set to the original page, and you\u2019re good to go.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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