Be more organised

Adelina says: “Have better organisation when it comes to tasks. Don’t only go for the super big tasks, and be aware of the impact that smaller actions can have within an SEO strategy.”

What small changes can have an impact?

“On-page optimisation, for example, can include a lot of small changes. We often think about the macro task called "on-page optimisation", but you can start by enhancing the title, the H1, improving the order of the content, or putting a better image or video into that content.

You don’t want to have that on-page optimisation as an ongoing task that is never going to finish, and that you are not going to be able to track correctly because you are doing a lot of other changes. With that approach, you are not going to know which of the smaller tasks and smaller changes has actually had an impact.

You need to make sure that you have a roadmap. For example, if you are changing the H1 of several pages, you need to give it time before making a new change. Give it two weeks or a month and see if that little change has affected how the main keywords are ranking or the traffic on those pages.”

How do you know roughly how long to wait?

“It’s not necessarily related to the traffic on that page. It’s more to do with how many times your page is crawled. Of course, that will depend on how big your project is because smaller projects aren't crawled as often as bigger ones.

It really depends on your project. No one knows better than you exactly when to check if something has affected things and made a change, or if it's done nothing.”

How do you know which elements to test initially, and what’s likely to have the biggest initial impact?

“I prefer testing in blocks by selecting specific URLs or sections of the site, so you’re not stuck running a single micro-test and then waiting weeks to see its impact on the entire website. Instead, you focus on smaller sections and test within those.. Then, if it has worked, you can implement it on the whole page. If not, you just discard that test.

I’d begin with content tests, focusing on elements like titles and main content, along with technical optimizations. First, aim to understand what’s working and what can be improved before launching any additional tests.”

What metrics are you looking at to determine whether or not your implementation has been a success?

“It can be keywords, or it can be the traffic that you brought to that page, but it can also be changes in the behaviour of your users.

This isn’t 100% SEO, but we always work with other teams, like product and marketing, so not all the changes that we make are solely for the purpose of SEO.

The impact that it’s going to have can be on keywords, on traffic, on new rankings, or on user behaviour inside of that page.”

Is there any software that you favour in order to track the changes that you've made?

“For me, Google Search Console is number 1. Then we have tools that the IT team has developed for us.

Mainly, we extract data from the basic SEO tracking tools. I love Google Search Console, and then we have Google Analytics 4, which are the main tools that everybody uses.”

You're also a fan of regularly testing and improving web pages, so what are you looking for when you do that?

“It really depends. When it comes to content, you can look for a change in the search intent, for example.

Imagine you want to improve one of your blog posts. When you wrote that post, six months or a year ago, it had a search intent which may well have changed by now. That's an implementation and optimisation that you can do.

Maybe you have issues with the WPO or the code, where you have conflicts with the JavaScript and the HTML. That can all be tested to see whether or not it’s the real problem that has caused a drop in traffic or keyword rankings.

To identify a change in search intent, you should be aware of the metrics that you should be expecting from a page and, if those metrics change significantly, then you want to check it.

The most basic one is the bounce rate. When you first launch that content, the bounce rate is going to tell you whether the user is actually finding what you thought they would find when you were writing it. Then, when it comes to optimisation, the bounce rate gives you a very good idea of whether the user is still finding what they are looking for, whether the search intent has changed, or when Google has moved things around with your keywords.

We know that Google is always working on that. If, all of a sudden, you drop to the second page or the third page, then you are probably doing something wrong in terms of search intent.”

Should you seek guidance from other teams to help you determine which pages to focus on first?

“Absolutely. If it's an SEO test, and it's purely related to traffic, then of course the SEO team is going to select those pages. However, if you want to make any other changes that will impact purchases, downloads, etc., then you need to speak to other teams and see what is going on, how you can improve, or what the next step they are going to implement will be.

You need to know that in order to do a good job because you are not separate teams. You don’t want everyone to work on their own. That's not the way a product actually works.

You can have a monthly conversation with those teams, or you can just knock on someone’s door. We try to have a mixed strategy, where we satisfy the user, but we also satisfy the search engines as well. If you don't work like this, you should definitely start improving these workflows.”

What does an effective roadmap look like?

“I'm an organisation freak and I love using roadmaps. They can be used for a specific project, a specific launch, a specific month or week, or an entire year. It really depends on what you are pursuing when you are using them.

For me, roadmaps should have some basics, which are the main tasks that are going to be split up into smaller ones. Once you have that, you are going to add deadlines, as well as who is going to be in charge of each initiative. That should include the team that is going to be in charge, but also the main person that you can reach out to. It's easier to have one person in charge of communicating, and then everyone else is working and focusing on the smaller tasks.

In terms of software, I use Airtable. It's like a dynamic version of Excel. You can do it on Excel, but Airtable is great because you can have different views. You can start with a roadmap view and take that initial information to create listings, calendars, Kanban boards, etc. I'm a big Airtable enthusiast. You can colour-coordinate it and invite people, and it's super dynamic and easy to use.

It’s primarily an app-builder, so it allows you to create your own bespoke features for what you require as an organisation. I even have a free account, because I like using it for my personal projects as well.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2025?

“Focus on fixing what you already have on your website, and improving and optimising that, instead of creating new stuff.

Sometimes, we have a lot of trash on our blogs that nobody's reviewing. It's time for us to stop and look for errors and easy changes. Once you have done that, then you can continue growing your content.

If you've got posts that aren't bringing in any traffic or don't have any noticeable rankings on the SERP, that doesn't necessarily mean that they’re 100% trash. Something can often be done with it. Maybe it is not bringing traffic because it's duplicating other content that is already ranking, or the search intent has changed, and nobody has reviewed that.

If it brings some traffic but it’s duplicate content, the easiest way to deal with that is to redirect that to the main blog post. If it doesn't bring any kind of traffic, do a quick review of the content and see if anything can be saved, then make it a 410.

You don't have to redirect everything on your webpage. That's a mistake. Sometimes, you need to show Google that this content is not going to be there anymore. It's not useful, so you’re just getting rid of it.

A 404 is for when that content is probably going to be available again, at some point. Right now, perhaps it's not showing because of a mistake or an error. If you are going to erase that, it's a 410.”

Adelina Bordea is an SEO Specialist, and you can find her over on LinkedIn.