What is the future of SEO?
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What is the Stephen Kenwright | Head of Search at | @stekenwright Photo: gratisography.com
Transcript of What is the future of SEO?
What is the
Stephen Kenwright | Head of Search at | @stekenwrightPhoto: gratisography.com
Photo: Forbes
“Many people think our main competition is Bing or Yahoo. But, really, our biggest search competitor is Amazon.”
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
Source: Forrester
Google is investingin search
Photo: Forbes
SEO is starting to be seenas real marketing, not
Photo: gratisography.com
just nuts and bolts
The biggest challenge for CMOs?
Photo: gratisography.com / SapientNitro survey of 114 CMOs
Photo: Google/Connie Zhou
It’s hard to get moredisruptive
change that forces marketing organizations to undergo signification transformations, as
opposed to incremental changes.Source: McKinsey
Photo: gratisography.com
“500+ algorithm launches a year……means 1-2 a day”
Matt Cutts (via Search Engine Land)
We take notice when Googleannounces an update
…we should take notice whenconsumer behaviour changes
Consumers now use
to make a purchase
Source: Marketing Magazine
Source: Google
Tablets and desktops use the same ranking factors
Being “mobile friendly” doesn’tmean you’re tablet friendly
Sources: Jonathan Velasquez / Flurry
We spend 2 hours 57 minutes each day on mobile devices*
*including tablets
0%
10%
20%
30%
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50%
60%
70%
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2013 2014
Time Spent on Apps vs. Mobile Web
Mobile WebApps
Source: Flurry Analytics
“Mobile users who search for content related to your app can see an install button in search
results.”
Source: Google Developers
“When mobile users with your app installed search for something relevant…Search results
can link directly to content in your app.”
Source: Google Developers
Google just purchased Agawian app ‘streaming’ startup
Photo: TechHive
Soon you’ll see content from appsyou haven’t installed
Apps are for lifenot just for
Photo: 9to5mac.com
smartphones
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Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
My job is to provide information……and make it accessible and useful
Accessibility
SEO ≠ getting more visitorsSEO is about retention
Google may switch results dependingon where searchers click
Google may demote results if searchersleave and search again
SEO
Technical optimisation
Keyword research
Meta data
Reporting
Content writing
Link building
My job in
The important bits
2010
Content and linksare still important
2015:
“Only focusing on links is probably going to cause more problems for your website [than
it] actually helps”John Mueller, Google
2015:
Guest posting
Press releases
Blog comments
Infographics
Widgets
Giveaways
You have to be worthtalking about
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readinglinking to
You have to be worthtalking about
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readinglinking tosharing
Ultimately you have tobe worth searching for
Worth searching for
SEO
Technical optimisation
Keyword research
Video
Structured mark-up
Mobile
Local
So my job in2015 is
Being technical is becomingmore important
Google doesn’t just disruptit facilitates disruption
Technical canbeat brand
Businesses drown in silos
If your PR and SEO teamsdon’t talk you won’t win
Photo: Matthew Wiebe
Getting things done will be the singlebiggest SEO challenge
Does Google still careif you publish fresh
Photo: Glen Carrie
content everyday?
Photo: Glen Carrie
“It can be difficult to assess how relevant something is…then as more information becomes available, we incorporate that.”
Matt Cutts, Google
Photo: Glen Carrie
“Some queries deserve freshness (QDF)…some are better served by evergreen content.”
Matt Cutts, Google
Google will be able to assess qualityand relevance more quickly
Penguin and Panda are endangeredquality has to be constant
UK Travel Insurance Industry: April
UK Travel Insurance Industry: May
47% of consumers expect a website toload in 2 seconds or less
Source: Relentless Technology
40% of consumers will abandon a websitethat takes more than 3 seconds to load
Source: Relentless Technology
A reminder
Source: Google
Only 8% of CMOs are happy that campaigns are well executed on a local level
Source: CMO Council
Local pages are often the first experience acustomer will have with your business
Photo: Caleb George
“Eventually you wouldn’t have a search query at all. You’d just have information come to you as you needed it.”
Sergey Brin via TED
Search has been personalised for signed-out users since 2009
Source: Google
Google+ won’t work……but it didn’t have to
“Google doesn’t care about websites, it cares about data.”
Marcus Tandler via Search Engine Land
Like Google, we have to obsess overwho our customers are
This is why social won’tbe a ranking factor
Photo: Dogancan Ozturan
Do you judge number of shares to be a measure of success?
Neither does Google
Sources: gratisography.com / Search Engine Land
88% of people say they trust online reviewsas much as personal recommendations
Reviews will be a ranking factor
Photo: Pawel Kadysz
“Long-term SEO = well-served users.”Jakob Nielsen
We won’t just have to optimise forconversion rate, but all interactions
19.5% of search queries now return a rich answer
Sources: splitshire.com / StoneTemple Study
“[With the knowledge graph] we’re at 1% of where we need to be.”
Larry Page via VentureBeat
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“Brands are the solution, not the problem…brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
Google won’t need links to judge accuracy and popularity
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Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
A reminder
