What does SEO strategy mainly include?

What does SEO strategy mainly include? A few years ago, I discussed with my boss the several stages that Alibaba SEO went through, and it suddenly occurred to me that these stages are actually universal, so I combined some cases from Alibaba and Tuniu, sorted them out and shared them. These strategies are applicable to most SEO projects, whether it is large website SEO, third-party SEO company, or enterprise website SEO. These strategies also go from the simplest to the most complex, starting with the first level of strategy and then gradually going deeper. It is divided into 4 levels: SEO basic optimization; website architecture optimization; content construction; technology upgrade;

What does SEO strategy mainly include?

First level. SEO basic optimization
Basic SEO optimization means complying with SEO guidelines. The overall goal is to build a website that meets basic SEO standards, which must be crawlable, indexable, have standardized URLs, and have stable access.

The following specific aspects are involved:
1. The web page can be crawled. Noindex is added to the web page, and the robots settings are reasonable; 2. Sitemap is generated and submitted. Generate a sitemap and submit it to search engines to improve crawling efficiency; try to use a dynamic file so that data can be automatically updated; 3. Normalize URLs. The URL must be unique and make good use of canonical; 4. The server is stable. Reasonable crawler access rules are set on the server side; other rules include TDK settings, ALT tag settings, structured data, etc.

Don’t think that the above rules are too simple. It is really difficult to truly implement them and do them in a sustainable and stable manner. I have fallen into some of these traps, and they were quite serious.

Case 1: Alibaba’s crawling is restricted

In 2017, Alibaba's traffic suddenly dropped by hundreds of thousands. We checked various data but couldn't find the reason. Later, we discovered that a developer had modified the access threshold on the server, causing the crawler to be suddenly and continuously restricted when crawling. And the return code is not 503, but a verification code page is accessed.

Case 2 AE canonical

Another positive example is that AE (aliexpress.com) increased its traffic by tens of thousands with a simple canonical setting. Because we found that there are two conflicting channels in AE. The content of these two channels is exactly the same, and both have a certain amount of traffic. They will compete for the same keywords, and the inclusion rate is not high. So, we decided to add canonical to ensure the uniqueness of the URL, and the results were very significant, and we saw the effect within 1 week.

The second level. Website architecture optimization. Website architecture optimization mainly involves sorting out the hierarchical structure of the website, including the link structure, keyword positioning of each channel, and clarifying the main channel and sub-channels.

Sorting out the link structure to ensure that the main channel is close to the homepage and has a large number of link resources (the links here refer to internal links);
When combing through, you will find many problems, such as a certain channel is missing relative to competitors, or the main channel is too deep;
Keyword research and determine the keyword positioning of each channel;
Keyword research is mainly to understand the search situation of the industry;
Usually, keywords with high search volume have fixed patterns. For example, in the tourism industry, "[region] + travel guide" and "[attraction] + ticket" are fixed patterns.
For the main channel, you need to target the pattern with the largest search volume or the highest value, while other channels cover other patterns;
Avoid keyword positioning conflicts and avoid situations where multiple channels compete for the same keywords;
Identify the main channel and sub-channels;
Usually, there will be one or more main channels, targeting the most valuable or most searched keywords; other channels can be considered sub-channels;
To ensure that the main channel and sub-channels have reasonable link resource allocation, the main channel occupies relatively more resources;

Case: Before Tuniu's architecture upgrade, when we sorted out Tuniu's architecture and its competitors' architecture, we found that Tuniu's architecture was still incomplete and a large number of user needs were not covered.
So we decided to set up channels of the same type to cover more user needs. The final effect was significant, and the traffic increased by tens of thousands.

The third layer: Content construction is actually a continuation of structural adjustment. Because after the structural adjustment, one situation is to create a new channel, and the other situation is to focus on building a certain channel. Both require content construction. This usually leads to 3 problems.

How to obtain keywords, how to set templates, and how to organize content. First of all, keywords can be generated in batches and captured.
Batch generation is to generate according to the pattern template, such as "[attractions] + [tickets|price|student tickets]", which can generate a large number of keywords;
Crawl can be obtained from competitors, search engines, or third-party tools.
Secondly, the template settings should meet the user’s main needs.
The most basic and critical factor is that web pages meet users' search needs. User needs are also divided into primary needs and secondary needs. Priority should be given to meeting users’ primary needs, and then meeting their secondary needs if conditions permit.
Finally, the content does not necessarily have to be original. It is also acceptable if it can bring benefits to the content and site.
Content gain means that the content is richer, for example, integrating several related contents also creates added value.
Site gain means that the weight of your own website is higher.

Case Study: Tuniu's Strategy Information Channel

After studying the keywords, we found that there are many long-tail keywords that cannot be covered by only a few current channels.
For example, "What time does Xuanwu Lake open?", "Introduction to the Eight Scenic Spots of Hangzhou", "Schedule of the Nanjing Auto Show". Therefore, we decided to create an information channel mainly to cover the long-tail needs of users.
Content mainly refers to the form of the article; articles have specific standards, such as more than 500 words, practicality, accuracy, originality, subheadings, etc.
Keywords are mainly used to capture search engine prompts and related words, as well as competitors' keywords.
Since the output speed of articles is limited, the growth rate of the channel is not fast, but with accumulation, the average daily traffic has reached more than 100,000, and even more than 300,000 during the holidays.

The fourth level. Technical upgrade is to use the power of technology to improve the technical level of the website, thereby increasing SEO traffic, including the following aspects:

With the help of terminal technology. It is mainly about building mobile sites, whether it is adaptive, independent, or other forms.
With multilingual technology. It is to create a multilingual site and obtain traffic from other countries and optimize the web page speed. Improve page speed, thereby improving page ranking (speed is one of the factors that determine page ranking)
Keep up with new technologies. You can use your technical capabilities to keep up with new search engine technologies and enjoy the benefits of new technologies, such as AMP mentioned in the previous article.
Case Alibaba and AE's multi-language site and AMP project

The AMP project was mentioned in the previous article. With the help of AMP technology, Alibaba and AE have significantly increased their traffic. The main thing is to utilize the technological dividends of AMP.
In addition, Alibaba and AE have also launched multi-language sites to cover traffic other than European and American countries. The potential space for global traffic is enormous.

The next level of strategy?

What is the next level strategy? I don’t have a definitive answer yet.
Some people say it is experience optimization. But the impact of experience on SEO is indirect, and Google has just confirmed that CTR is not a core ranking factor.
Some people say it is RankBrain. Gary IIIyes of Google said that RankBrain is based on historical search data to predict what web content users may need. It is mainly based on historical data and has nothing to do with the landing page, so webmasters cannot directly influence it. Some people say it is voice search. John Muller said that voice search is to read the content of the web page, which does not generate actual traffic and has no direct help to webmasters.