In the complex world of enterprise SEO, a well-devised strategy can shield expansive websites from expensive missteps. This article explores three practical instances where enterprise SEO didn’t hit the mark and offers potential solutions for more effective SEO management at scale.
The Indexing Riddle in Large Websites
Case Study 1: Over-indexing Low-Quality Content – The Downside
Google utilizes its resources strategically for web crawling and processing, prioritizing user-relevant content. Widespread low-quality content may result in Google ignoring entire page types or most site content. In this case, an e-commerce marketplace discovered that millions of its listing pages were impacted by selective crawling and indexing, posing a significant business challenge. The solution required regulating both the volume and quality of indexable content.
Case Study 2: The Unintended Consequences of Ceased Crawling
Ceasing crawling can result in unwanted content persisting in Google’s index, even if it has been altered, redirected, or removed. An instance is presented where a global marketplace accidentally exposed sellers’ private information on their listing pages.
Because Google didn’t recrawl these pages, they continued to exist in Google’s index even after being deleted, compromising user privacy. In such situations, the onus falls on the marketplace to resolve the issue and liaise with Google to remove sensitive content from search results.
Case Study 3: Over-indexing Search Results Pages – The Risks
Indexing large volumes of thin, low-quality pages can have adverse effects, as can indexing search result pages. This tactic can backfire, as demonstrated by a local auction site that lost a significant portion of its search page rankings and a considerable chunk of its SEO traffic overnight. Few sites implementing this tactic impose hard limits or rules on the indexing of search pages, which can pose major issues.
The Key to Success: Managed Indexing
Large enterprise sites can benefit from scaling down through managed indexing to evade these issues. Transitioning from a keyword-focused approach to a data-driven one, supported by rules and automation, is essential for sites containing millions of pages.
Utilizing Data-Driven Indexing
Large sites’ access to extensive internal search data is a significant advantage. This can be harnessed to gain detailed insights into regional and seasonal search demand and trends. When mapped to an existing content inventory, this data is a robust guide for efficient indexing.
Duplications and Consolidations
It’s more beneficial to have a small number of authoritative, high-ranking URLs than a large volume of pages scattered throughout the top 100. Consolidating similar pages using canonicals can prove worthwhile, with rules and automation aiding this process.
Addressing Thin and Empty Content Pages
Present in massive volumes, thin and empty pages can significantly harm site hygiene and performance. If improving or consolidating these pages is challenging, they should be noindexed or disallowed.
Managing Infinite Spaces with Robots.txt
Overindexing of filters, sorting, and other combinations of parameters continue to trouble many e-commerce sites, even years after Google first acknowledged “infinite spaces.” This can be easily remedied through robots.txt.
Considering Client-Side Rendering
For on-page components you don’t want indexed by search engines, client-side rendering could be an option. However, this should be considered carefully.
Increasing Stakes with Scaling
While SEO is often deemed a “free” traffic source, this perception is somewhat deceptive. It incurs costs to host and serve content. While the costs per URL might be negligible, at the scale of hundreds of millions or billions of pages, even pennies can add up to significant amounts.
A pragmatic approach to SEO – driven by well-managed crawling and indexing, informed by data, rules, and automation – can safeguard large websites from expensive mistakes.
Enterprise-level SEO
Navigating the terrain of enterprise-level SEO requires a careful and strategic approach. Missteps, particularly in crawling and indexing, can lead to significant losses, as illustrated by the case studies discussed. The crux of successful SEO management at an enterprise level lies in adopting a data-driven approach underpinned by rules and automation. This shift allows for effective scale management, reduces the risks associated with over-indexing, and optimizes the cost efficiency of maintaining large sites.
Employing managed indexing strategies, including data-driven indexing, content consolidation, and appropriate handling of thin or empty content pages, can significantly enhance SEO performance and protect enterprise websites from costly errors.
As the scale of operation increases, the stakes rise, too, making it essential for enterprises to employ sound, efficient, and strategic SEO practices.
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