Trends In Search - Danny Sullivan

BIGGEST SEARCH STORY

OF THE YEAR SO FAR?

BIGGEST SEARCH STORY

OF THE YEAR SO FAR?

Trends In Search #MKTGNATION14

SURPRISE: GOOGLE IS STILL HUGESURPRISE: GOOGLE IS STILL HUGE

Read: Yahoo Search Share Falls Below 10 Percent For “All-Time Low”

17.8 billion explicit core searches total

SO LET’S TALK GOOGLE…SO LET’S TALK GOOGLE…

SEO developments

Knowledge Graph & quick answers

Google+ dead or alive?

Beyond Google: changes that mobile is bringing

Q&A on anything

SEO developments

Knowledge Graph & quick answers

Google+ dead or alive?

Beyond Google: changes that mobile is bringing

Q&A on anything

PANDA? PENGUIN? HUMMINGBIRD?PANDA? PENGUIN? HUMMINGBIRD?

Is Google out to get people with all these animal actions?

And what are these animal actions?

The goal is really to improve search results because ultimately, Google works for searchers not publishers

Behind the zoo….

Is Google out to get people with all these animal actions?

And what are these animal actions?

The goal is really to improve search results because ultimately, Google works for searchers not publishers

Behind the zoo….

PANDA: TARGETING THIN CONTENTPANDA: TARGETING THIN CONTENT Launched Feb. 2011,

designed to keep low-quality or “thin” content from ranking

Roughly every month,Google filters everything though Panda to trap new stuff & free others

Focus on real quality to survive (always the answer for any search success)

Launched Feb. 2011, designed to keep low-quality or “thin” content from ranking

Roughly every month,Google filters everything though Panda to trap new stuff & free others

Focus on real quality to survive (always the answer for any search success)

PENGUIN: TARGETING SPAMPENGUIN: TARGETING SPAM

Launched April 2012, meant to fight spam, especially bad links

Every six month or so,Google filters everything though Penguin to findspam regular systems miss

Don’t think link building; think audience building….

Launched April 2012, meant to fight spam, especially bad links

Every six month or so,Google filters everything though Penguin to findspam regular systems miss

Don’t think link building; think audience building….

LINK RULE INSANITYLINK RULE INSANITY

Paid links have long been warned against… But more complicated as native advertising

and native ads have grown Widgets get popular, so Google warns against them Infographics get popular, so Google warns against them Guest posting gets popular, so Google warns against

“blogging for links” Feels safer now not to link to anyone or to “nofollow”

everything Feels insane Google punishes for bad links rather than simply

discounts credit

Paid links have long been warned against… But more complicated as native advertising

and native ads have grown Widgets get popular, so Google warns against them Infographics get popular, so Google warns against them Guest posting gets popular, so Google warns against

“blogging for links” Feels safer now not to link to anyone or to “nofollow”

everything Feels insane Google punishes for bad links rather than simply

discounts credit

HUMMINGBIRD: THE NEW SEARCH ENGINEHUMMINGBIRD: THE NEW SEARCH ENGINE

Announced in Sept. 2013,this is an entire rebuild ofGoogle’s search engine

Panda, Penguin are just parts of that engine

The new engine can better tap into “signals” or “fuel”to rank results

A major change is improved support for “entities” and “entity search”

Announced in Sept. 2013,this is an entire rebuild ofGoogle’s search engine

Panda, Penguin are just parts of that engine

The new engine can better tap into “signals” or “fuel”to rank results

A major change is improved support for “entities” and “entity search”

ENTITIES & ENTITY SEARCHENTITIES & ENTITY SEARCH

Google (and Bing) are learning to search not just for matching patterns of letters but people, places and things

A search for “obama” in the past would look for those letters in that order

With entity search, Obama is understood as a person that can be connected to other people and various facts….

Google (and Bing) are learning to search not just for matching patterns of letters but people, places and things

A search for “obama” in the past would look for those letters in that order

With entity search, Obama is understood as a person that can be connected to other people and various facts….

FACTS & KNOWLEDGE GRAPH GROWTHFACTS & KNOWLEDGE GRAPH GROWTH

Read: Google's Knowledge Graph

GROWTH OF QUICK/DIRECT ANSWERSGROWTH OF QUICK/DIRECT ANSWERS

Read: Tweet Showing How Google Itself Is A “Scraper Site” Goes Massively Viral

GROWTH OF QUICK/DIRECT ANSWERSGROWTH OF QUICK/DIRECT ANSWERS

Read: Google’s Knowledge Graph Is Showing Step By Step Instructions

LOCAL SEARCH & THE CAROUSELLOCAL SEARCH & THE CAROUSEL

Read: Google Local Carousel Spinning Out Of Control

What Matters?

NEW: PIGEON, NEW LOCAL SEARCH ALGONEW: PIGEON, NEW LOCAL SEARCH ALGO

Revealed last week,designed to improve local search results

Factors still beinganalyzed but makesreview directories likeYelp, TripAdvisor stronger

Integrates web search ranking factors (such as links) along with Knowledge Graph data & local search factors (distance, ratings)

Revealed last week,designed to improve local search results

Factors still beinganalyzed but makesreview directories likeYelp, TripAdvisor stronger

Integrates web search ranking factors (such as links) along with Knowledge Graph data & local search factors (distance, ratings)

Read: Google “Pigeon” Updates Local Search Algorithm

WHAT ABOUT GOOGLE+ BEING DEAD?WHAT ABOUT GOOGLE+ BEING DEAD?

Exec change in Aprilled to rumors/leaks(which Google denies)that Google+ would die

More likely social sharingsite continues but “Google+ification” of YouTube & elsewhere will ease up

Authorship images already dropped But use of social signals for personalized

rankings continues….

Exec change in Aprilled to rumors/leaks(which Google denies)that Google+ would die

More likely social sharingsite continues but “Google+ification” of YouTube & elsewhere will ease up

Authorship images already dropped But use of social signals for personalized

rankings continues….

Read: Google+ Will Not Die But May Change & What Would Happen If Google Did Kill Google+?

THERE ARE NO NORMAL RESULTSTHERE ARE NO NORMAL RESULTS

MOVING ON TO MOBILEMOVING ON TO MOBILE

Everyone’s talking about a “mobile first” world

You don’t need a mobile site to rank better, but…

A site with problems for smartphone searches on Google may not rank as well

More important: knowing how to react in “Always On” mobile search world….

Everyone’s talking about a “mobile first” world

You don’t need a mobile site to rank better, but…

A site with problems for smartphone searches on Google may not rank as well

More important: knowing how to react in “Always On” mobile search world….

SEARCHING ON THE MOVESEARCHING ON THE MOVE

CALLS NOT CLICKS: YOU READY?CALLS NOT CLICKS: YOU READY?

WHAT ABOUT GOOGLE+ BEING DEAD?WHAT ABOUT GOOGLE+ BEING DEAD?

Click-to-call?

Mobile-friendly version of site?

App for repeat visitors?

Click-to-call?

Mobile-friendly version of site?

App for repeat visitors?

Read: Google+ Will Not Die But May Change & What Would Happen If Google Did Kill Google+?

THE NEXT SEO FRONTIER?THE NEXT SEO FRONTIER?

via: Kerry Dean, SMX Advanced June 2014

Google Now Sending Searches to Apps

“we’re expanding it to work for English content worldwide. And we’re including 24 more apps…

THE NEXT SEO FRONTIER?THE NEXT SEO FRONTIER?

via: Kerry Dean, SMX Advanced June 2014

– Google Search Blog Apr. 3, 2014

PREDICTIVE SEARCH GROWINGPREDICTIVE SEARCH GROWING

Read: Google Now – When Google Searches Before You Think To

MICROSOFT HAS IT, TOOMICROSOFT HAS IT, TOO

Read: Cortana, Microsoft’s Predictive Search Challenger To Google Now & Siri

THE WEARABLE SEARCHTHE WEARABLE SEARCH

Notifications on your phone

On your wrist

And even inyour eyes…

Notifications on your phone

On your wrist

And even inyour eyes…

WHERE WEARABLES MAY GOWHERE WEARABLES MAY GO

People may not flock to Glass but nearly half likeidea of smartwatches

“Agents” like Google Now& Cortana getting smarterat predicting our search needs

Stay tuned; location “gating” likely key in future

People may not flock to Glass but nearly half likeidea of smartwatches

“Agents” like Google Now& Cortana getting smarterat predicting our search needs

Stay tuned; location “gating” likely key in future

TAKEAWAYS / Q&ATAKEAWAYS / Q&A

Quality content rules, so invest for the long-term Build an audience, not links Search is shifting from keywords to concepts;

be that concept, that entity, esp. through structured data Surviving shift to direct answers means being the

essential answer; can Google live without you? Search will continue to get personalized, social likely a

key factor, so be social Are you thinking about the mobile visitor with your landing

pages? Predictive search, wearables mean new opportunities

Quality content rules, so invest for the long-term Build an audience, not links Search is shifting from keywords to concepts;

be that concept, that entity, esp. through structured data Surviving shift to direct answers means being the

essential answer; can Google live without you? Search will continue to get personalized, social likely a

key factor, so be social Are you thinking about the mobile visitor with your landing

pages? Predictive search, wearables mean new opportunities

BIGGEST SEARCH STORY

OF THE YEAR SO FAR?

BIGGEST SEARCH STORY

OF THE YEAR SO FAR?