Post on 12-Apr-2017
PERFORMANCE MARKETING SUMMIT AUSTIN 2017
Surprising Facts about Google and 2017 SEO
By Scott True
In that same 5 seconds…11.5 million searches were performed in Google
25% (2.88 million) of those searches returned a knowledge graph answer or boxOver half (over 5.75 million) of those searches were on mobile20% (1.15 million) of the mobile search were voice searches2 reconsideration requests have been sent to Google
Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-now-handles-2-999-trillion-searches-per-year-250247
Welcome to Surprising Facts about Google and 2017 SEOBy Scott True – Quick about me• Ran my own firm for several years focusing
on small business SEO• Now I’m an SEO Consultant and Director of
Business Development at Apogee Results
Over the course of 8 years, I’ve seen what works for both small
and big business
So what works…1996
TODAY IN 2017
Total indexable HTML urls:
75.2306 Million
Indexed Pages: 130 Trillion!
…now that we have trillions of pages to stand out from?
Good Marketing!• Strong Purpose• Differentiated Value• Compelling Messaging• Reaching the right audience• Etc
It’s kind of that simple!
“I believe people who own their ideas Inspire the world” – Scott True
What’s this have to do with
SEO???
“I believe people who own their ideas Inspire the world” – Scott True
What’s this have to do with
SEO???Everything!!“I believe people who own their ideas Inspire the
world” – Scott True
“I believe people who own their ideas Inspire the world” – Scott True
Own Ideas InspireTake
responsibility
Drive the initiative instead of
outsourcing
Differentiation
Why
Purpose
When people like it, they link to it!
This is what Search
Engines want to show!
The reason why most people don’t create and drive great ideas is because they’re too busy creating excuses!
Google hates us!
Google is evil!
Google only
likes big brands!
Google only wants to rank companies that pay them! It’s just technicalitiesYou have to have
a lot of content
The reason why most people don’t create and drive great ideas is because they’re too busy creating excuses!
Google hates us!
Google is evil!
Google only
likes big brands!
Google only wants to rank companies that pay them! It’s just technicalitiesYou have to have
a lot of content
These are just excuses!
although this one is a little important
So let’s start from the beginning
The progression of Search
In the beginning, there was Keyword Density
Early 90s – Pre Google
And then there was PageRank by Google
1996
Google started in 1996named after Googol10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
This is when manipulation, as we know it today, started.
This is when manipulation, as we know it today, started.
By the way, the rules have not changed! Google never wanted you to do these things!
What was important in the late 90s Create Content that people will like and share Outreach Find keywords your audience is using Use them in the Title tag Meta description H1 Alt text URL Meta keywords
For sustainable growth
continuing on…
1997 – Development of structured data beginsEarly 2000s – Keyword stuffing, Google removes sites from index2003
Boston – more frequent crawlingCassandra – Google goes after hidden and disguised keyword linksDomonic – Analyzed quality of backlinks
2004Fritz – Daily crawling and indexingSupplemental Index – weeded out redundant, spam, and low quality contentFlorida – Importance on synonyms and supporting vocabulary throughout the pageAustin – Targeted free for all pagesBrandy - Latent Semantic Indexing and link relevancy (“neighborhoods”)RDFa
2005 – Microformats2009 – Microdata2011 – Google, Bing, and Yahoo develop schema.org
Some Important Dates in the progression of Search
1997 – Development of structured data beginsEarly 2000s – Keyword stuffing, Google removes sites from index2003
Boston – more frequent crawlingCassandra – Google goes after hidden and disguised keyword linksDomonic – Analyzed quality of backlinks
2004Fritz – Daily crawling and indexingSupplemental Index – weeded out redundant, spam, and low quality contentFlorida – Importance on synonyms and supporting vocabulary throughout the pageAustin – Targeted free for all pagesBrandy - Latent Semantic Indexing and link relevancy (“neighborhoods”)RDFa
2005 – Microformats2009 – Microdata2011 – Google, Bing, and Yahoo develop schema.org
Some Important Dates
This is right about when I started paying attention
Elements from:http://searchengineland.com/guide/seo/personalization-search-engine-rankings2005
2007
Knowledge GraphIntroduced in 2012
Things, not strings
As of 2012, its semantic network contained over 570 million objects and more than 18 billion facts
This had to do with qualityThin content
Content farmsad heavy sites
Picture from http://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-panda-update
2011
This had to so with spam
Over-optimizationkeyword stuffing
Bought linksPicture from http://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-penguin-update2012
2013
Image src: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-d-atkinson-phd/5-myths-about-the-future-_b_10819602.html & https://www.seroundtable.com/google-rankbrain-new-ranking-signals-21797.html
2015
Will SEO die?
No
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it
universally accessible and useful.
As long as Search Engines are trying to give the best result for your queries…
there will always be the art of trying to be the best result for your queries…
That’s SEO
and aligning technicalities to assist the Search Engines in “seeing” the best…
That’s technical SEO
On to some more recent news…
Penguin is friendlier!
Image src: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-penguin-4-live-22737.html
Google Market Share64 to 75% of total Mark Share depending on what data you look atDesktop Market Share – 63.8%Mobile Market Share – 89%
Universal Search and Extended Search Data
Source: http://pages.searchmetrics.com/Universal-Search-Thanks.html?aliId=15446888
Some Research Suggests: 56 Percent Of “On The Go” Searches Have Local Intent
Ok, so now that we’ve seen where the progression of Search
What do we do now?
Create something
worth sharing and align your technical SEO
with it
Some take-awaysGoogle is getting extremely sophisticated, but we are still a long ways away from them being able to understand things like we do.
In other words, being technical is still very important.
Tactical take-aways
The importance of the basics
What was important in the late 90s Create Content that people will like and share Outreach Find keywords your audience is using Use them in the Title tag Meta description H1 Alt text URL Meta keywords
For sustainable growth
What’s important in 2017 Create Content that people will like and share Outreach Find keywords your audience is using Use them in the Title tag Meta description H1 Alt text URL Meta keywords
For sustainable growth
New!Mobile FriendlyFast web experience
Develop for speed
Consider AMPStructured data
Some tactical things Great content – There is more competition, therefore the bar for quality is up!
Choose a Focused Keyword for each page (A keyword can be a phrase)
Title tag – About 65 characters. Use the keyword. Make it compelling
Meta description – About 155 characters. Use the keyword. Make it a compelling.
Headings and Subheadings (H1s and H2s) – Be creative. Use keywords when you can.
Alt text – Use keywords when it makes sense. Good URLs – Keep them short and descriptive of what’s on the page.
More tactical thingsBlock less in robots.txt, not moreCreate an XML sitemapVerify on Google Search ConsoleSet a preferred domainSubmit sitemap and check indexationGet Google Analytics set upMake sure the site is mobile friendlyUse Google’s Mobile Friendly Test
Add structured data – at least to the business infoGet listed in major directoriesGet on Google plusUse rel=“publisher”Use open graphMake sure there are a few good share buttonsDesign commenting to remove barriersTest for crawlability and indexabilityReduce redundant taxonomies and content
Tools to help you outStructured Data Testing Tool https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/u/0/ Speed and Mobile Frindliness https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/Crawlabillity http://www.browseo.net/Google Fetch and Render https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/googlebot-fetch?pli=1Moz Chrome Extention (to check on page) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mozbar/eakacpaijcpapndcfffdgphdiccmpknp?hl=en To crawl your site: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/Link Research http://www.linkresearchtools.com/ AMP Validator https://validator.ampproject.org/
Strategic take-aways
Some strategic take-aways
Category 1 Category 2 Category 3
1520
65
Series1Technical
FoundationOn-Page SEO What the rest of
the web says about you
How Google Ranks your content
Some strategic take-awaysJust because you have good content, doesn’t mean people will automagically find it right away.
Content Creation - 85%Content Promotion - 15% Content Creation - 15%Content Promotion - 85%
Do this!
Don’t do this!
Some strategic take-aways
Series1
Content Quality vs Content Quantity
Content Quality
Don’t do this!
Do this!
Optimize for Mobile and SpeedGoogle Recommendations:
Markup your content using structured data from schema.org Via JSON-LD: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data
Optimize via responsive design: https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/
Optimize by creating great content!1. Provides a uniquely positive user experience through the user interface, visuals,
layout, fonts, patterns, etc.2. Delivers content that is some substantive combination of high-quality, trustworthy,
useful, interesting, and remarkable3. Is considerably different in scope and detail from other works on similar topics4. Loads quickly and is usable on any device or browser5. Creates an emotional response of awe, surprise, joy, anticipation, and/or admiration6. Has achieved an impressive quantity of amplification (through shares on social
networks and/or links)7. Solves a problem or answers a question by providing comprehensive, accurate,
exceptional information or resources.
Source: Rand Fishkin’s 10X Content
Examples of Great Content https://www.theatlantic.com/projects/inside-jobs/ http://mapinseconds.com/ http://www.city-data.com/city-compare/ http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/travel/places-to-visit.html http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150709-the-curious-truth-about-belly-button-fluff https://betterexplained.com/articles/an-interactive-guide-to-the-fourier-transform/ https://visualhunt.com/ http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/05/food-lab-how-to-grill-steak-cuts-of-steak-marbling-salting-charcoal-technique-resting-tips.html
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron.html http://ny.eater.com/maps/best-new-york-restaurants-38 http://www.patagonia.com/footprint.html https://imgur.com/gallery/mpUge https://www.typeform.com/blog/human-experience/cui/
Source: Rand Fishkin’s 10X Content
The bar for quality content is up, but…
…it’s actually not that difficult to create
The Idea – That’
s You!!
Tons of great
content writers
Tons of great
graphic designe
rs
Tons of great
developers
Start with the idea – Start with purpose
Own your ideaInspire the World
PERFORMANCE MARKETING SUMMIT AUSTIN 2017Surprising Facts about Google and 2017 SEOBy Scott TrueTwitter - @scott_trueLinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/scotttrue/scott@scotttrue.com
Own your Idea – Inspire the World