#dsmmcm1516 guest lecture on Organic Search

Organic channels for Digital & Social Media Comms

The rules for today

1. You will learn something (hopefully)

2. Not everything is actionable

3. You may win something

4. Please ask questions

5. I am not always right (just most of the time)

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Who is Dan Bell ?

BigBrandIdeas©2015

My journey through Search

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Who are we…we’re Big Brand IdeasWe are much more than just a website design and marketing agency.

StrategyDataPositioningDesignDevelopmentContentSearchEngagementIdeas

Big Brand

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Team Experience

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Evolution of Search

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Not the death of SEO but the query ?

"My vision when we started Google 15 years ago was that eventually you wouldn't have to have a search query at all. You'd just have information come to you as you needed it. And [Google Glass] is now, 15 years later, sort of the first form factor that I think can deliver that vision.“

Sergey Brin (Google Co-founder)

BigBrandIdeas©2015

On-site vs Off-site

The way in which your website and content are crawled by search engines impacts on where you are displayed in the search engines.

The signals that get your content found and ranked are based on a number of off-site signals (links, likes, shares, citations)

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Getting technical

Build a great site and they will come:

– users and search engines

Important parts to concentrate on:

• Mobile Testing Tool

• Page Speed

• Schema

• CodingBigBrandIdeas©2015

Links still count but so do other signals

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Playing dirty happens in lots of niches

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Content, Content, Content

Content is not just the written word in 2015

Increased mobile bandwith allows for rich content to be

consumed on the go

Types of content:

Written, pictures, videos, games, interactive storytelling

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Search Engines reward brands

By building a brand through different channels you will return a

positive ROI

You will gain traction not only in search engines but also through

community building using social media

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Brands owning their real estate

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Hands up time

Apple

Android

Other

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Google Now and how it influences the user

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Google knows where you have been

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Google recognition of images

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Commonality in all of that

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Facebook constantly evolving its search

proposition

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Live video content on Facebook Mentions

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Twitter

Organic visibility dwindling but a lot of people’s go to choice for news

Ever more reliant on paid promotion to get organic visibility

Twitter firehose pulling into Google is a huge opportunity for brands or potential disaster waiting to happen

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Google+

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LinkedIn

• Fantastic for building influencer groups to test bed content

• Perceived as professional network, but feels like it is becoming more spammy

• Post as an influencer within your niche

• Be careful as content is indexable and ranks quite well –duplicate content

BigBrandIdeas©2015

The Future

Publishers such as Buzzfeed on aggressive hiring strategies for journalists

Niche publications really useful and good for our clients – eg. TechWeekEurope – whitepaper publications

Social Media and how I use it

Amplification of content for clients

Brand monitoring

My own learning – list of influencers

BigBrandIdeas©2015

BigBrandIdeas©2015

So I ran a little experiment

No point investing in any form of marketing if you cannot track & measure it

Google AnalyticsTwitter Analytics Facebook Audience InsightsSocial BroSocial Bakers

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Tracking Organic – Results driven

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Remember your search query may be seen by

someone somewhere

Any questions before we play a little

game ?

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Time for a Brucey Bonus

Disclaimer this game is in no way affiliated with Google and the data is representative of the Google Keyword Tool taken on 9th November

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Higher or Lower

Manchester Utd Liverpool FC

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Higher or Lower

1,830,000 823,000

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Higher or Lower

Home Insurance Pet Insurance

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Higher or Lower

60,500 90,500

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Higher or Lower

Bread Cheese

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Higher or Lower

27,100 49,500

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Higher or Lower

Divorce Weddings

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Higher or Lower

27,100 8,100

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Higher or Lower

SEO PPC

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Higher or Lower

33,100 12,100

What is Search in 2015 and into 2016 ?

I asked a few of my friends/peers/drinking buddies

(delete where applicable)

BigBrandIdeas©2015

"Organic Search in 2016 will be just like organic search in 2015. You'll want to ensure that your basics are set up correctly, your technical SEO is as flawless as possible, with no spider blockers, and that you've implemented everything that you should - i.e. schema data. Google has already stressed that with RankBrain they've been moving towards an entity based algorithm, so ensure that your main entities are fully represented on the page (in the metadata and in the content), assuming you actually want to have organic success in 2016“

Simon Heseltine, Senior Director of Audience Development – AOL@simonheseltine

BigBrandIdeas©2015

BigBrandIdeas©2015

"Often it can seem that doing SEO properly is the same as doing what Google wants. That would be a mistake. Google doesn't care about you, and you owe Google nothing. The only obligation you have is to make your client website successful. What Google wants and what SEO needs are not the same - they have much in common, but you need to recognise the differences as well.“

Barry Adams, Founder of Polemic Digital@badams

BigBrandIdeas©2015

"As Search moves forward, a new consumer is emerging. They want experiences, not products. That's what Millennials want. So...you no longer sell products. You sell experiences."

Duane Forrester, Sr. Product Manager - Webmaster Outreach at Bing@duaneforrester

BigBrandIdeas©2015

"Our concerns for 2016 are about device agnostic performance. Optimising for speed, crawl efficiency, content UX in a seamless experience however the searcher interacts with your pages"

Nichola Stott, founder of theMediaFlow@nicholastott

BigBrandIdeas©2015

“Organic search right now means having a technically sound website as your foundation, that provides just as good an experience on a mobile device as on a desktop (if not better). This foundation is then built on with useful content that is promoted via digital PR and social channels - all working as one.”

Paddy Moogan founder of Aira and author of The Link Building Book@paddymoogan

BigBrandIdeas©2015

“The future of SEO is all about cross-device visibility, and the tactics are changing. Apps, deep links and ASO are now a much more important part of ranking and driving traffic.”

Cindy Krum, founder of MobileMoxie@suzzicks

BigBrandIdeas©2015

“Search going into 2016 is more than just search engines, search engines are attempting to be an answer engine that helps you answer numerous questions as quickly as possible, if they cannot they attempt to display the best websites or apps to answer your query. Google, Baidu and other major market leaders are aiming to become your personal assistant integrating with your phone, providing you cards of information from email, calendar events, travel information and answers from friends.”

Danny Denhard, Digital Problem Solver; Consultant / Trainer & Advisor. Founder Denhard Media@dannydenhard

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Summary of Search in 2016

“provides just as good an experience on a mobile device as on a desktop” - Paddy

“The future of SEO is all about cross-device visibility” - Cindy

“a new consumer is emerging. They want experiences, not products.” - Duane

“seamless experience however the searcher interacts with your pages” - Nichola

“become your personal assistant integrating with your phone, providing you cards of information from email, calendar events, travel information and answers from friends.” – Danny

“they've been moving towards an entity based algorithm, so ensure that your main entities are fully represented on the page (in the metadata and in the content)” - Simon

“What Google wants and what SEO needs are not the same - they have much in common, but you need to recognise the differences as well.” - Barry

BigBrandIdeas©2015

“F$$k what Dan tells you in his lecture, it is still all about links - as Fiddy said, Get Links or Die Trying”

Andy Barr, founder of 10Yetis@10yetis

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Takeaway advice

• You will never know everything and can never stop learning

• Reach out to your network – they are your knowledge bank

• Start a blog/website and be active on Twitter – it will not only help you learn, it may also secure you a job

• Break a website/get it deindexed (disclaimer. Not a client’s website)

• Learn Excel (advanced)

BigBrandIdeas©2015

Pssssstttt we are Hiring

Thanks for listening

Prizes for the best questions