Category: Search Engine Optimization

For years many developers have paid little or no attention to page load times and optimization. Network speeds kept constantly increasing and sites became more complex which means more code got loaded etc. This trend finally started to change a couple of years ago. One reason could be seen in the rise of mobile internet which is still not as fast as cable connections and has a different pricing model attached to it (e.g. data plans that charge for transmitted data). It suddenly became important to reduce unnecessary bloated code and become more efficient. Moreover, speed is now seen as an important usability factor for users and has implications for conversions and to some extend on Search Engine Optimization.

I recently presented to the UBC Communication Cardinals about Search Engine Optimization. I knew before the presentation that I was overly ambitious to try tackling all the topics I wanted to discuss in just 90 minutes. I probably would have needed the whole morning to really get into the topic, including demonstrating tools such as Google Webmastertools. Consequently, I did not get to the important topic of International SEO. Here is the promised follow-up…

SEO is already a complex topic that needs to be optimized across a variety of areas such as content creation (e.g. placement of keywords), CMS configuration (e.g. URL alias rewrite rules, metatags, redirects), server optimization (e.g. speed through various caches), page design, usability aspects and so on. But it is going to get a lot more complicated. UBC has ambitious internationalization goals which means that it will be important to make sure that our content performs well internationally to achieve the best possible organic search results. We want international media to pick up on our news releases, the academic community to find out about our research findings and prospective students to realize that we might have to offer programs for them.

What are the additional difficulties?

The typical assumption is that well optimized content will perform equally on a global scale. When I speak to colleagues about SEO, often the first comment is that their site is ranked on the first results page for their desired keyword, ie. no action is required. However, they have tested it only on their own computer at their own location and in their own language. In reality though, search results might be personalized and localized.