This year marks 10 years in SEO for Patrick who will be reflecting on some of the (many) mistakes he’s made over the years, and what he’s learnt from each and every one. He’ll be openly sharing the realities of managing and growing an agency with the audience, showing warts and all the challenges he’s faced in the last 10 years. The audience can learn the lessons from these mistakes and take away some actionable tips too.

1. 10 Mistakes in
10 Years in SEO
Patrick Langridge | Screaming Frog
slideshare.net/patlangridge
@patlangridge

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4. 10 Mistakes in
10 Years in SEO
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6. 1. Thinking I’ve
completed it,
mate
10 Mistakes in
10 Years in SEO
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https://www.coastdigital.co.uk/2011/09/13/
brighton-seo-2011-search-marketing-
grows-up/
September
2011

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17. 1. Thinking I’ve
completed it,
mate
10 Mistakes in
10 Years in SEO
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18. “Over a DECADE of experience”
“A DEEP knowledge of SEO”
“An expert KEYNOTE speaker”
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19. 2. Failing to set
expectations
10 Mistakes in
10 Years in SEO
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https://seono.co.uk/2012/04/14/my-top-10-
takeaways-from-brightonseo-april-2012/
(@steviephil – Steve Morgan)
April
2012

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Original

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Original
Update

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Original
Update
Whoops!

24. 3. Talking SEO
instead of
normal language
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10 Years in SEO
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2013

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“SERP”
“DA / Domain Authority”
“Google algo
update”
“Long tail”
“E-A-T”
“YMYL”
“RankBrain”
“AMSV”
“Canonical”
“DOM”
“Hreflang”
“nofollow”
“Rankings”
“Backlinks”

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This graph shows the site has seen
some big visibility drops around
Google updates. They’ve dropped
around 70% in visibility comparing
their most visible point to now.

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This graph shows the site has seen
some big visibility drops around
Google updates. They’ve dropped
around 70% in visibility comparing
their most visible point to now.
What is ‘visibility’?
Is that a score I need to
improve? What is a good
score?

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They look to have been hit by
Panda, Medic and Penguin in
the past, so their content and
links need investigating.

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They look to have been hit by
Panda, Medic and Penguin in
the past, so their content and
links need investigating.
WTF are Panda,
Medic and
Penguin?!

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More recently they’ve been
affected by several core
updates, so we’d want to audit
their E-A-T, especially if they
are a YMYL site.

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@patlangridge #brightonSEO
More recently they’ve been
affected by several core
updates, so we’d want to audit
their E-A-T, especially if they
are a YMYL site.
I don’t know what a core
update is, nor what those
acronyms mean…

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Without knowing their
backlink profile, they
probably need better links
to improve their own DA.

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@patlangridge #brightonSEO
Without knowing their
backlink profile, they
probably need better links
to improve their own DA.
What are better
links and WTF is
DA?!

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@patlangridge #brightonSEO
Without knowing their
backlink profile, they
probably need better links
to improve their own DA.
What are better
links and WTF is
DA?!

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@patlangridge #brightonSEO
https://seomba.com/
@tomcritchlow

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@patlangridge #brightonSEO
https://www.chris-
green.net/post/becoming-senior-
agency-seo - @chrisgreenseo

39. 4. Listening to
SEO Twitter
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10 Years in SEO
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2014

41. “You’re not an SEO unless you code”
/ “unless you understand X”
/ “until you’ve done Y”
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42. “This is nothing new.”
“These are very basic ideas.”
“This has been covered before.”
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44. 5. Assuming a
client won’t
noindex their
entire site
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10 Years in SEO
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2015

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https://proranktracker.com/

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50. 6. Blaming
Google for
everything
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10 Years in SEO
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2016

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“We’re paying you
thousands of £ per month to
get us more organic traffic.”

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61. 7. Being afraid to
challenge clients
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10 Years in SEO
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2017

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Me
Clients

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1. Be nice, and polite!
• I would love to but…
• I appreciate that but…
• That would be great but…

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2. Offer an alternative
• We could, or how about…
• Another approach is…
• We’ve done this before…

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3. Back up with evidence
• This data confirms that…
• As per the feedback from…
• We can see from X that…

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4. Be clear and on why
• We can’t do this because…
• We can only do this by…
• We can’t do this unless…

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5. Other!
• Prepare well
• Be honest
• Be confident

71. 8. Form over
function
10 Mistakes in
10 Years in SEO
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2018

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74. SEO Strategy =
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75. SEO Strategy =
Let’s make an infographic / interactive!!
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79. 9. Taking things
personally
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10 Years in SEO
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April 2019

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83. No pictures.
Boring
Too standard looking
Text not exciting.
All over the page.
Far too wordy.
Would never read that lot.
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84. I am not happy with the levels of work or
service we are getting and would like to
give notice that we will be ending our
contract at the end of the month.
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85. The fact that they don't ask themselves
any questions when it comes to this is
just facking mindblowing (sry for the
language but I don't have any other
words for it)
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86. Thanks for coming back to me today.
The performance is very disappointing
and quite frankly your comment about
usefulness in future years is a joke.
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87. Thanks.
Now you show your real face.
Stop your services right now.
Our lawyers are working on your
proposal.
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89. 10. Bullet points
(apparently)
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10 Years in SEO
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September
2019

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• I

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• I
• Love

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• I
• Love
• Bullet

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• I
• Love
• Bullet
• Points

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• I
• Love
• Bullet
• Points
• (the end)

98. THANKS!
You can find me at @patlangridge
patrick.langridge@screamingfrog.co.uk
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