understanding next-generation search

UNDERSTANDING

NEXT-GENERATION

SEARCHAndrew IsidoroGocompare.com

A LOT HAS CHANGED…

SEARCH HAS BEEN RUBBISH FOR A.

WHILE…

Search [was] mostly based on matching words and phrases, and not what they actually mean

Shashidar Thakur, Knowledge Graph tech lead

MORE THAN 1/5 OF ALL BING QUERIES SUBMITTED ARE PURELY NAMED ENTITIES

Named Entity Recognition in Query – Microsoft (2009)

71% OF BING SEARCH QUERIES CONTAIN NAMED ENTITIES

THAT’S OVER 84 BILLION SEARCHES* EVERY MONTH THAT CONTAIN NAMED ENTITIES!

http://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/*Google and Bing combined volume

UNDERSTANDING ABOUT ‘THINGS’

UNDERSTANDING AN ENTITY

Which famous film was released on March 15,1972?

UNDERSTANDING AN ENTITY

“I'm going to make him an offer he can’t refuse”

Ratings:IMDB,Rotten Tomatoes

CastAl Pacino,Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, James Caan,Diane Keaton

Initial release: March 15, 1972

Featured songs: I Have But One Heart,Speak Softly LoveDirector:

Francis Ford Coppola

Writer:Mario Puzo

UNDERSTANDING AN ENTITY

UNDERSTANDING AN ENTITY

Which film was released on March 15, 1972?

UNDERSTANDING “CONTENT”

Content

● Linked data

● Search queries

● Schema.org

● Co-occurrence

● Co-citation

LINKED OPEN DATA.

SEARCH QUERY DATA

See your history data: https://history.google.com/history/

SCHEMA.ORG

Schema.org is a microformat that allows you to tell search engines what (or who) your content is exactly about.

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><span itemprop="name">Andrew Isidoro</span><meta itemprop="birthDate" content="2014-11-28"></div>

Gocompare.com Car Insurance

CO-OCCURRENCE

● Frequently matched terms + entities = relationship

Example:

Entity (Brand) Common query

CO-CITATION

A B

C D

UNDERSTANDING “CONTEXT”

Personalisation

● Social layer

● Implicit queries

● Hummingbird

● Web assistants

“THE SOCIAL LAYER”

Social’s a ranking factor, right? Well not really, but kinda.

● Personalised to the users search history

● Personalised based on a users social connections

● Personalised based on +1’s

Rankings are based on neutral search...but does that exist anymore?

IMPLICIT vs EXPLICIT

“Pizzeria”explicit aspect of query

“Android user, geolocatedto Cardiff”

implicit aspect of query

HUMMINGBIRD

SEMANTIC SEARCH

More personal

More engaging

More interactive

More predictive

WEB ASSISTANTS

Tim Berners Lee’s vision is getting close...

SEMANTIC WEB

Even more personal

Even more engaging

Even more interactive

Even more predictive

A little frightening...

TAKEAWAYS

NEXT GENERATION SEO

"Answer," "Converse," and "Anticipate".

- Amit Singhal .

TAKEAWAYS - ANSWER

● Focus on the customer intent● Invest in technical SEO● Add to your semantic footprint:

Schema.orgLinked Data - hint: check out Freebase

TAKEAWAYS - CONVERSE

I hate to say it but…“Content Marketing”

● Talk to your customers● Interact through social - (Google+ / Youtube anyone?)● Investigate co-citations

Help to facilitate the “Social Layer” through meaningful interactions

TAKEAWAYS - ANTICIPATE

● Deliver “SEO as philosophy”

‘Off-site’ SEO needs to become the output of great marketing communications.

Public

Relations

SEO

ContentSocial

Media

Creative &

Brand

Marketing Communications

TAKEAWAYS - ANTICIPATE

ANTICIPATE THE FUTURE

THE FUTURE

ANY QUESTIONS?

Thank you for listening...

Andrew IsidoroGocompare.com

@andrew_isidoro

Slides available at:http://www.andrewisidoro.co.uk/blog/digital-marketing-show-2014/