One of the challenges faced at enterprise SEO level is often the legacy platforms and tech stacks that you inherit. Finding a cost-effective way of implementing international SEO best practice is often a barrier to internationalisation. Edge technology is creating new opportunities to optimise websites independently of the inherited technological barriers. In this session, SALT.agency’s Dan Taylor will explore their findings from implementing Hreflang using cutting edge technology to remove these barriers.
TechSEO Boost 2018: Implementing Hreflang on Legacy Tech Stacks Using Service Workers, Does it Work?
1.
2. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Implementing
Hreflang on
Legacy Tech
Stacks Using
Service Workers,
Does it Work?
–
Can we really bypass legacy stacks &
DevOps altogether?
4. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
If there is no struggle,
there is no progress.
5. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Legacy issues, Devs…
When working with a lot of big brands and
enterprise clients, they often come with a lot
of baggage, such as:
• Congested development queues/long lead
times
• Gatekeeper devs who are, unhelpful
• Old platforms/servers not scalable
• Builds not originally scoped properly
• Code freezes
• Duct tape fixes preventing changes
6. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Case Study
• International travel client with 15
international sites (including English for
the US, English for AU, English for the
UK…)
• Running a very legacy stack (physical
servers)
• Unable to implement Hreflang due to
platform restrictions through the HTTP
Header or the XML sitemap…
• Unable to implement Hreflang in the
<head> due to developer resistance in
changing the <head>
7. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Problems Faced
• Content duplication across the multiple
English alternate versions
• Built on separate databases, so effectively
15 different URLs and websites with no
real connection (aside from a header
dropdown)
• Incorrect versions ranking and competing
in incorrect Googles (leading to users
inquiring to the wrong sales team,
increased costs of handling leads)
• Tracking and attribution all over the place
• And using an IP redirect…
8. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Solution. Cloudflare Workers.
9. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Cloudflare Workers provide a
lightweight JavaScript execution
environment that allows
developers to augment existing
applications or create entirely new
ones without configuring or
maintaining infrastructure.
10. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Why Cloudflare
Workers?
• Cloudflare Workers allow us to take
control of the DOM before the website is
served, and layering new technology
without need to change old (edge tech)
• Accessible from Cloudflare’s free account
and cost effective to implement, and
scalable
• Taking back control from development
restrictions
11. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Hreflang Service Workers
12. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Requirements
• Placement within the <head> to prevent
accidental issues with head-parsing
• Needs to appear within the rendered
HTML for Google to pick-up (Mobile
Friendly Test)
• Needs to work (duh)
• Needs to be able to be validated easily
• Accessible, scalable and manageable by
non-developers/those with working code
competency
• Complimentary, and not cause conflicts or
issues with existing infrastructure
14. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Is it picked up in the
rendered HTML?
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test (as advised by
John Mueller)
This shows that you can inject Hreflang to
a legacy page through Workers, without
server or CMS access, and it will be
picked up by Googlebot.
15. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Does it work?
Test markets:
• English (primary)
• French
• Russian
Tested through NordVPN in:
• Google Chrome
• YaBrowser
Google.fr – Query “Dan Taylor SEO”, French homepage
Google.ru – Query “Dan Taylor SEO”, Russian homepage
Yandex.ru – Query “Dan Taylor SEO”, Russian homepage
16. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Can it be validated &
monitored?
Validated through third-party Hreflang
validation tools:
• Hreflangchecker.com
• Technicalseo.com
• Hreflang.ninja
• Flang.dejanseo.com.au
• SiteBulb
17. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
Accessibility & Scalability
18. Dan Taylor | @TaylorDanRW | #TechSEOBoost
How do we make this work for everyone?
Accessible
• Generators for Hreflang (and Redirects), either ”one by
one” or CSV upload (https://sloth.cloud) for free.
• Documentation available on how to setup Cloudflare
Workers
Scalable
• Able to be implemented through Cloudflare’s free plan at a
cost of $5 for 10m requests, then 50c per 1m requests
thereafter (can limit requests to bots only)