Darren Shaw - User Behavior and Local Search - Dallas State of Search 2014

User Behavior and Local Search

Darren Shaw

State of Search 2014

@DarrenShaw_ +DarrenShaw

Do clicks affect rankings?


Let’s test


Everyone, get out your phone,

disconnect from wifi,

and Google: dallas wedding dresses


Scroll down and click on

mockingbirdbridal.com in the

organic results.


Now, let’s amplify this via

social media

@DarrenShaw_ AND +DarrenShaw_


How I got obsessed with user

behaviors as ranking signals


bit.ly/11mkCru


http://bit.ly/11mkCru

bit.ly/1ureMjr


http://bit.ly/1ureMjr


bit.ly/1kxP9ar

http://bit.ly/1kxP9ar

slidesha.re/WdbkLK


http://slidesha.re/WdbkLK

Pull out your phones, search for “seattle

wedding dresses”, and click on Belltown Bride



Within 10 minutes they had moved up

from the bottom of the page to #2


They also moved into position B in the local pack,

and they still hold this spot today.

This demands further testing!


Test 1 – Hammer Time

Low competition market

Click website link 100 times per day

Repeat for 30 days



Starting position on

October 4th

E in the local pack

Search for “roanoke accountants”

Click on “Stanley G Boatwright”


Checked on November 15th

No change…


Checked from my

hotel room last

night. Again, no

change.

Test 2 – A Softer Approach



Repeat for 7 days




October 6th

G in the local pack

Search for “wilmington nc accountants ”

Click on “Joseph Guo CPA,PLLC ”


Checked on

November 15th

and look at this!


Checked from my

hotel room last

night…

Test 3 – Click Burst

High competition market


repeat for 3 days



Search for “los angeles personal injury lawyers”

Click on “The Torkzadeh Law Firm”


October 3rd

C in the local pack

Watch what happens

over the 3 days


Why did test 3 seem to work, but

the first test didn’t?


REMINDER

Test 1 – Hammer Time



Repeat for 30 days


Theory

The first test was way overboard. An

unnatural amount of clicks for that

city and keyword.


Test 4 – Slow and Steady



Repeat for 30 days



Search for “los angeles moving companies”

Click on “West LA Movers”


October 3rd

G in the local pack

Watch what happens

over the thirty days



I checked from my

room in Dallas last

night, and still

at position F

Hmm. Inconclusive.


Test 5 – Clicks on Google+ Link


Click “Google+ Page” 50 times per day

Repeat for 3 days



Search for “miami personal injury lawyer”

Click on the Google+ link for “The Altman Law Firm”


October 3rd

G in the local pack


Click this link, not the business name.


Over the course of the

3 days, not much changed.

This is the last screenshot

taken by our system


But I checked in my

browser from Denver

yesterday, and looky

here!

Theory

Like with the test on Linda’s forum,

perhaps it just needed some time to

“simmer” before rankings were

affected.


Burning Question

Can you do this with Mechanical

Turk?



Search for “plumbers san antonio tx”

Click on “Bryco Plumbing Co”



November 4th

G in the local pack


November 7th

No change


November 13th

Moved up one

position…


November 16th

They’ve now moved

up 2 spots


Search for “plumbers philadelphia”

Click on ORGANIC result “Sam Wexler Plumbing”


Started here on

November 4th


November 16th

No change

I’ve been checking

regularly, but not

seeing any change


Using your mobile phone and cellular network,

Search for “accountants cincinnati”

Click on “Mellott & Mellott”


I asked them to complete the task on our website

so I could track their user agent and make sure

they were actually using mobile.


Started here on

November 4th

Position E

A little early, but

possibly trending

towards higher

rankings?

Checking from different

IPs and browsers. Appears

to also be trending towards

improved rankings.


Using your mobile phone and cellular network,

Search for “electricians cincinnati ohio”

Click on “Queen City Electric”

So far, no ranking changes

with the click-to-call test, but it has

only been running for 6 days.


Pogo-sticking Test

Can we demote a listing through

automated pogo-sticking signals?



This locksmith spammer has

created a fake listing with

the angieslist category page.

I wonder if we can take

him out with microworker

pogo-sticking…


Search for “cincinnati locksmiths”, click on that

spammy listing, click back, then click on the top

ranked listing.

So far, 166 people have done it, and

no ranking changes, but I sure as

hell hope this doesn’t work.


Can you imagine?

Pogo-sticking Negative SEO…


Why no driving directions test?



Google has plenty of data to determine if you

actually drove to the location. Just searching for

directions isn’t a signal they need to use.

Ranking Fluctuations

What is going on?



October 4th

Position E

Remember the first test where we

didn’t see any ranking change?

November 16th

Position E

We captured over 1700 screenshots

from October 3rd through November

15th. There was a ton of variation.



Oct 24th


Oh, and look here

on Nov 12th

What’s causing the variation?

Different browsers?

Different data centers?



Notice that there wasn’t nearly as

much variation in the los angeles

personal injury lawyer results.


Theory

Google deliberately mixes up the

results to test if users like them


Google has much more data on “los

angeles personal injury lawyer” than

“willmington nc accountants” so

they already know the preferred

choices, and there is less variation.


Multi-armed bandits and the epsilon-greedy method

http://bit.ly/11cMyxt

http://bit.ly/11cMyxt


http://bit.ly/1ybvkLE

http://bit.ly/1ybvkLE


http://bit.ly/1wMyoMa

http://bit.ly/1wMyoMa

Let’s check our test…


Take Aways


1. Google *is* using click-through

data, and sadly, it *is* easy to

manipulate.


2. The ranking fluctuations since the

Pigeon update are deliberate

(I think)


3. Weekly or monthly rank tracking

data is useless. Need to track at

least daily to measure trends.


Thank you!

Any questions?


Darren Shaw - User Behavior and Local Search - Dallas State of Search 2014

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Transcript of Darren Shaw - User Behavior and Local Search - Dallas State of Search 2014