PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL brought to you by... Rob Ousbey Attracting Visitors Through SEO Converge 2015 @RobOusbey www.distilled.net I’ve added these boxes to the presentation, to elaborate on the sides, and make some of the points I discussed when presenting this deck.
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Transcript
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
brought to you by...
Rob OusbeyAttracting Visitors Through SEO
Converge 2015
@RobOusbey www.distilled.net
I’ve added these boxes to the presentation, to elaborate on the sides, and make some of the points I discussed when presenting this deck.
Since everyone else got to mention their institution, here’s mine. The University of Cambridge just celebrated its 800th anniversary; it’s weird to see my bedroom (circled) in countless tourist photos.
The Distilled team – spread across London, New York & Seattle – delivers strategy & execution for SEO, content marketing, paid media, digital PR and much more.
We’ve just celebrated our 10th anniversary; we’re small but make a big impact. We blog at www.distilled.net/blog/, about cutting-edge digital marketing trends.
Converge invited me to come and geek out about SEO with you, and share what’s important now & what’s trending in this space.
There are really important sessions at this conference about persona development, marketing strategy & analytics. These things are important groundwork to think about before SEO strategy can be determined.
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Small
@RobOusbey www.distilled.net
This data comes from research by Google. Exploring it helps us understand and appreciate the variety of available channels, and where organic search sits.
Google discovers the webpage was published – perhaps because the website told them. Googlebot analyses the page and stores it in their gigantic database.
Google finds pages from their database that are relevant to the query, then selects which to present to the user & in what order. The ‘algorithm’ they use to do this is their secret sauce.
Historically, Google’s Search Quality Team would debate & test the weight of different ranking factors in order to keep the search results improving towards Google’s goal…..
Portal to the Internet… of giving people a fantastic internet experience. For example: if you follow a search result link to a site that gives your computer a virus, you’ll be particularly mad at Google for sending you to the site. For this reason, sites that host malware/viruses will immediately be removed from search results, until the site is cleaned up.
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Bad User Experiences
• Malware & viruses• Paywall / registration-wall on landing
page• Out of stock products• Out of date information• Pages that make it hard to find
information• Pages that are full of advertising
@RobOusbey www.distilled.net
All of these things would constitute a ‘bad user experience’ – and Google would rather not have sites with these features ranking highly.
So how do Google assess whether a search result page deliver a good experience for users?
SERP = ‘search engine result page’.IE: the results for a particular keyword.
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Quality Rater Surveys
@RobOusbey www.distilled.net
One of Google’s tactics is to use contactors to review websites. They don’t use these reviews to explicitly raise or lower the rankings of that site – but they want to make sure that their algorithm tends to give good rankings to well-rated sites, and less to the poorly-rated ones.
The guides that Quality Raters use do get leaked from time to time. Reading these guides gives you a great insight into what Google values in a page/site..
Consider reviewing (or have someone review) your site using these criteria, and then work to improve in any areas you score poorly on.
If one page is getting a higher-than-expected CTR (maybe because it has a very appealing title, description or brand) then this is a data point of insight for Google.
If searches on a particular search term regularly refine their query to a new term, and find more satisfaction there…. it’s another data point for Google.
Beyond just watching the interactions with search results, Google could have access to all the browsing habit data from Chome & Android, and from the Google+ tags which sit on many (most?) webpages.
I’m stepping well into the territory of speculation here, but all of these data points would essentially allow Google to give a rating to every single search query, based on whether they provided a good experience and satisfying set of results.
Machine LearningAt that point, Google’s then able to use machine learning to improve those numbers.
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Algo Generation
Ranking factor 1
Ranking factor 2
Ranking factor ...Ranking factor n
Algorithm A
Algorithm B
Algorithm C
Algorithm D
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All the thousands of factors that Google knows about a webpage can be combined and weighted in different ways, to create different alternate algorithms. They answer roughly a million searches every 10 seconds, which lets them run tests really quickly to see how well an alternate algorithm scores.
.. and a winner selected. This can be a constant, iterative process of improvement.This process leads to a situation where no-one actually knows the algorithm. Instead, the results are simply a reflection of things that users love, and things that correlate with what they love.
People prefer pages without too many ads.This is a screenshot of MovieMistakes.com, which I would assume has a higher bounce rate because of the adverts.
This Searchmetrics report shows the declining search visibility for MovieMistakes over the last two years. From an SEO perspective, the first test I’d run would be to try removing all those above-the-fold ads on landing pages.
People like easy to use websites that are easy to use. The University of Advancing Technology has an animated navigation, making user interaction more difficult…
Users don’t explicitly prefer sites that have lots of links, though the sites that people like also seem to attract links,
When it comes to ‘linkbuilding’, my focus these days is to build links that will drive real, relevant traffic to a site. This helps you drive the right behavior, and also tends to be well rewarded by Google.
?In this case, a lot of schools rank well. (The search was done in New Orleans – one audience member guessed that a local school would rank, and Presidio is there at #5.)
These examples demonstrate just how well brands rank in search Google have been explicit about this for years, but it’s having a bigger impact than ever right now.
What is a brand? Firstly, they are the names that people guess when playing that game. Google can identify brands by looking at what we are searching for, who we are talking about & who we’re sharing/linking to.
Rand Fishkin, who introduced me to playing this game, pointed out that “If you want the best way to rank in 2018, find a way to be the first name on everyone’s mind.”
I’ve been talking so far as if the search results are just a list of ‘ten blue links’. But there is constant change in the presentation of results. I’ll begin with where we’re at right now.
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Local search results appear in a variety of different ways. In this example, we see Google interpreting the query as one that needs a local pack.
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More local integration.
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Even more local integration.
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Video thumbnails are still a fantastic benefit to sites, since they attract clicks away from other pages.
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Image search results have been pulled into the web search results for a long time.
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News results are also bubbled up into web search when Google think it’s appropriate.
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In-depth articles were a subtle addition to the results.
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More recently, custom integrations take specific data sets, such as team schedules & scores.
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Some integrations dominate the space above-the-fold.
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Many position Google as a new competitor to well established sites.
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Some integrations pull in real-time data
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Many provide a richer, more interactive experience than other sites deliver.
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Trending
@RobOusbey www.distilled.net
Here are some enhancements we’ve seen trending upwards recently.
The new Twitter integrations are a great way to have people interact with your content more directly, and own more of the search result page for your brand.
This integration is likely to get deeper & richer as Twitter & Google get closer, especially when Google complete their acquisition of Twitter ;-)
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Google is constantly tinkering with how G+ posts and pages appear in SERPs.
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Event listings are an interesting opportunity for higher-ed, given the number of events & important dates at every school.
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Further Questions
@RobOusbey www.distilled.net
Google are pushing searchers down the long tail, with auto-complete, related searches and these new ‘further questions’ boxes. This is a huge opportunity for any site – investing in creating content that answers these queries will drive an increasing amount of traffic.
These medical sidebars are deliberately created by Google. The content is either written or manually curated from elsewhere.
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This may hint that Google is more open to manual curation of content on the results page.
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Knowledge GraphGoogle doesn’t just have a big database full of information about webpages. They also understand the relationships between the different entities that people have written about.
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For some queries, there’s a clear answer. Google doesn’t even list a citation for the answer.
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Often, Google find a clear answer from a particular page, and they cite the page as the source of information.
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Unspecific AnswersSometimes, there’s not even a specific answer, but Google will still add an answer box here.
This is a huge opportunity for sites that are answering questions clearly. In this example, web-japan.org ranks at #3, but gets to appear at the top of the page in an answer box.
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No Right Answer
No ‘Correct’ Answer
Even if there’s no single right answer, a knowledge graph carousel might be appropriate.
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Future of the SERPs
What else is happening to the search results?
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App Indexing
@RobOusbey www.distilled.net
iPhone / Android apps are appearing in search results
Google Now will bring up cards that it thinks will be relevant to you, based on lots of contextual clues, combined with the personal data they’ve developed about you.
All sorts of things may eventually be possible. Right now, you could already add cards to Google Now for people who’ve reserved visits to a campus, etc.
The Accelerated Mobile Pages project is an open source initiative allowing publishers to create mobile optimized content once and have it load instantly everywhere.
I’m going to change direction a little now, to talk about the technical process of SEO, broken down into four main areas that you should know how to focus on.
A lot more of the nitty-gritty detail of technical SEO implementation will be covered in the session by Zac Vineyard & Jay Kelley.
This is the process of determining which keywords you are going to try to rank for. This must happen after you’ve developed your broader marketing strategy, identified personas, and determined at what stage of the funnel you would like to target them with search.
It’s a bad idea to make a page work too hard, but trying to have it rank for too many different terms, I’ll often ask “what concept should this page rank for?” If the answer is a list of five different terms, then five different pages might be more appropriate.
Keyword Research1/ create & expand a list of potential keywords2/ review the volumes & intent3/ do you have the metrics to be there?4/ do you deserve to be there?5/ do you have the content to be there?
Google AdWords Keyword Planner will help you do this for free (because they want you to invest in PPC.)adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
Beginning with some relevant terms, user tools such as Keyword Planner to expand the list to multiple additional terms.
Keyword Research1/ create & expand a list of potential keywords2/ review the volumes & intent
3/ do you have the metrics to be there?4/ do you deserve to be there?5/ do you have the content to be there?
Moz’s Keyword Difficulty Tool is a quick way to compare the authority of the pages & domains that rank for any particular keyword.moz.com/researchtools/keyword-difficultyWhen I find terms that look like they have potential,
I’ll run then through Moz’s keyword difficulty tool. This allows us to compare the domain & page authority from our site to that of the pages that already rank for the term.
Keyword Research1/ create & expand a list of potential keywords2/ review the volumes & intent3/ do you have the metrics to be there?4/ do you deserve to be there?
5/ do you have the content to be there?
And so begins a process of identifying & improving existing content, or scheduling new pages for creation.
@RobOusbey www.distilled.net
For each term you want to target, you’ll either be creating a new page or optimizing an existing one.
If you ever need convincing, take a look at the pages ranking for any term. The more competitive the term, the better targeted the pages are likely to be.
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Internal Competition
4
@RobOusbey www.distilled.net
Various types of duplicate content can often be the downfall of an otherwise well-optimized website.
If multiple pages target the same keyword then users may spread their links/likes/shares more thinly between the different pages. Meanwhile, Google may struggle to understand which page from your site it should rank for this term – and may not rank any of them.
When exactly the same page is available at multiple URLs, we refer to this as ‘duplicate content’. There are a number of technical solutions to this; use of the canonical tag is often the right answer.
SEO & AnalyticsThere are a bunch of activities that are not strictly SEO-only, but not doing some of these things can invalidate all your efforts. Getting on top of your site’s analytics is one of these tasks.
You’re driving traffic through loads of sources. Do you know where it’s all coming from, or how much is coming from SEO? Which channels are delivering engaged users or conversions? How are the different marketing channels working together? For starters,. someone in your SEO/marketing team must be comfortable with working inside your analytics.
Once your analytics are well set up and delivering useful insights, you can give thought to conversion rate optimization (CRO) – a practice that benefits all channels, though is still often overlooked..And what’s easier: adding another 20% traffic from all channels, or moving conversion rate from 5% to 6%? If you’ve never invested in CRO, there may be great opportunity for quick wins.
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Krista Seiden is delivering a session about Google Analytics on day two of Converge 2015.
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SEO & Content
Two particular reasons that content is so relevant & important for SEO: pages will rank for a keyword, or attract the likes/links/shares that raise your site’s authority. Ideally, great content will do both, and often more besides.
A lot of other people talking in more depth about content at this conference.
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Don’t miss Matt Brown’s session to get an insight on how the team at Moz think about ‘10x content’.
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SEO & Links
Links are still a crucial ranking factor, not least for the reasons addressed earlier. Again, you can’t lose if you’re investing effort in creating links that send real traffic from engaged visitors – you get all the benefit of traffic through another channel, and the extra bump that Google will give you because of them.
Link building is a huge – and interesting topic – that I’ll share a few observations on.
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Promoting your content to the people who may link is a strategy that still works very well. There’s absolutely no shame in putting your best content in front of influencers, bloggers & journalists.
One trend we’ve seen is that more bloggers are becoming professionals, and their blog is their business. This makes them extra protective of their audience (so less likely to share sub-par content/stories on their site) and very aware of the commercial side (so more likely to ask for payment in return for coverage.)
At the same time, journalists are busier than ever – and can be extremely open to covering content or a story where you have done a lot of the hardest work for them. Journos still need content that is well researched, credible and has a very timely aspect to it. If you’ve researched their beat & the articles they write (to make sure you fit) and given them everything they need to get an article up without so much effort on their part, then you have a much greater chance of getting covered.
Of all the advice I can share about the process, I’d recommend this: tackle it with a long term attitude. Primarily, aim to build a relationship with each influencer you target. Beyond that, try to get coverage or a mention for your brand. Finally, try to get a link to your site. By not putting ‘get a link’ first, you can instead focus on growing your black book of warm contacts – and keep them happier for the long term.
SEO & BrandI mentioned this earlier on as a ranking factor, but you will only change what you measure.
If you want prompted/unprompted brand awareness, brand affinity or brand associations to be improving for your organization, begin measuring these things! Advocate for one of those metrics to be a marketing objective, or make sure that the numbers are reported publicly internally – you’ll suddenly get a lot more people caring about them.
And again: what if I’m wrong, and Google doesn’t recognize ‘brand’ as a ranking factor? Then you’ll have built a strong brand that people share, talk about and search for…. all for nothing!
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SEO & Everything ElseMy common thread here is: if someone is responsible for increases in organic traffic, there are a great many things they’re invested in beyond some technical best practice.
They have to be interested in brand strength, but are often not empowered to move that needle. They’re interested in how many people are talking about the site on Twitter & sharing it on Facebook – but there’s a social media team responsible for improving those numbers. They want journalists to link to interesting articles and papers from your institution, but that steps on PR people’s toes. The same goes for so many other marketing activities and advertising channels.
None of this works in isolation. SEO people can’t be sat in a corner doing SEO tasks. If UX is a thing Google is judging you on, your SEO person needs to be face-to-face with your UX people, regularly. If social shares & brand are a signal, then SEO/social/PR people all need to be close. Or on the same team.
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THANK YOU@RobOusbey
@RobOusbey www.distilled.net
I’m grateful to the team at Converge & the audience at the 2015 conference for giving me the chance to speak to you all. Keep in touch!
A number of images came from the Moz Beginner’s Guide to SEO – a fantastic resource for people trying to learn more about the space – as well as their Google Glossary.
Image of Google’s team meeting via the video: How Google makes improvements to its search algorithm
Network graph image is CC by-sa licensed on Wikimedia