Case Studies

Fixing HTML Markup for Organic Search

When a company creates a website, they may not be aware of the role HTML (HyperText Markup Language) plays in getting their site noticed.

• Organizing your page using hierarchical headings like H1, H2, and H3 tags helps users navigate your content in both display and ability to search.

• For troubleshooting search performance, the first item on your SEO checklist should be checking the site’s markup.

A large membership website had been migrated from a commercial to an open source Content Management System (CMS). After the migration, the pages and posts were stripped of their H1 tags without them being flagged.

When reviewing this website, I noticed the absence of H1 tags on all pages and posts. Fortunately, there were great developer resources available, and a fix was put in place programatically.

Here’s a breakdown of the project:

• Development Team
  Encoded page and post titles as H1; pushed changes live in under two weeks.
• My Part
  Created Web Publishing Guide emphasizing the importance of H2 tags, and trained content creators.
• Outcome
  14% improvement in Organic Search one month after H1 and H2 tags correctly encoded.

Improved User Data –

In my post “Taxonomy Team Effort – Part One“, I described the enormous undertaking by multiple teams to implement a keyword-based taxonomy of over 200 terms. Soon thereafter, I realized the new taxonomy provided opportunities for improved user reporting:

• Each piece of content was now assigned to one category only eliminating duplicate category data.
• Each piece of content showed the new category in the post markup.

From the course I completed on Google Tag Manager, I knew data could be retrieved from site markup and aggregated into Google Analytics and custom reports in Google Data Studio.

Here’s a breakdown of the project:

• Development Team
  The development team created custom ID and variable to retrieve category text from post markup.
• My Part
  I created tags in Google Tag Manager to record the post category text as a custom dimension on DOM complete. I then created category rollup reports in Google Data Studio using Google Sheets and Google Analytics for a broader look at the topics members were reading.
• Outcome
  Ad Operations can now report on most popular categories on website to better sell and target ads.

Launching a New Website Taxonomy –

In response to feedback from users, a membership website undertook a large project to implement a keyword-based taxonomy of over 200 terms with the goal to:

• Create a more intuitive subject grouping
• Improve organic search
• Improve ad targeting

This website, however, contained over 4,000 pieces of content that needed to be reorganized into the new taxonomy – not a job for one person or even one team!

Ultimately, the new taxonomy was successfully launched through the coordination of both the content and development teams. Here’s a breakdown of the project:

• Content Team
  Reviewed over 4,000 pieces of content and assigned each to a new keyword-based taxonomy of over 200 terms.
• Development Team
  Created an import script to update the 4,000 pieces of content to their new taxonomy, then implemented new taxonomy on site including category filters.
• My Part (Development Team)
  Created, optimized, and migrated the existing site taxonomy to a new keyword-based taxonomy of over 200 categories.
• Outcome
  10% increase in organic search traffic and improved user experience.