Download - #dsmmcm1516 guest lecture on Organic Search
Organic channels for Digital & Social Media Comms
The rules for today
1. You will learn something (hopefully)
2. Not everything is actionable
3. You may win something
4. Please ask questions
5. I am not always right (just most of the time)
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Who is Dan Bell ?
BigBrandIdeas©2015
My journey through Search
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Who are we…we’re Big Brand IdeasWe are much more than just a website design and marketing agency.
StrategyDataPositioningDesignDevelopmentContentSearchEngagementIdeas
Big Brand
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Team Experience
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Evolution of Search
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Not the death of SEO but the query ?
"My vision when we started Google 15 years ago was that eventually you wouldn't have to have a search query at all. You'd just have information come to you as you needed it. And [Google Glass] is now, 15 years later, sort of the first form factor that I think can deliver that vision.“
Sergey Brin (Google Co-founder)
BigBrandIdeas©2015
On-site vs Off-site
The way in which your website and content are crawled by search engines impacts on where you are displayed in the search engines.
The signals that get your content found and ranked are based on a number of off-site signals (links, likes, shares, citations)
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Getting technical
Build a great site and they will come:
– users and search engines
Important parts to concentrate on:
• Mobile Testing Tool
• Page Speed
• Schema
• CodingBigBrandIdeas©2015
Links still count but so do other signals
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Playing dirty happens in lots of niches
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Content, Content, Content
Content is not just the written word in 2015
Increased mobile bandwith allows for rich content to be
consumed on the go
Types of content:
Written, pictures, videos, games, interactive storytelling
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Search Engines reward brands
By building a brand through different channels you will return a
positive ROI
You will gain traction not only in search engines but also through
community building using social media
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Brands owning their real estate
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Hands up time
Apple
Android
Other
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Google Now and how it influences the user
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Google knows where you have been
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Google recognition of images
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Commonality in all of that
BigBrandIdeas©2015
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Facebook constantly evolving its search
proposition
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Live video content on Facebook Mentions
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Organic visibility dwindling but a lot of people’s go to choice for news
Ever more reliant on paid promotion to get organic visibility
Twitter firehose pulling into Google is a huge opportunity for brands or potential disaster waiting to happen
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Google+
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• Fantastic for building influencer groups to test bed content
• Perceived as professional network, but feels like it is becoming more spammy
• Post as an influencer within your niche
• Be careful as content is indexable and ranks quite well –duplicate content
BigBrandIdeas©2015
The Future
Publishers such as Buzzfeed on aggressive hiring strategies for journalists
Niche publications really useful and good for our clients – eg. TechWeekEurope – whitepaper publications
Social Media and how I use it
Amplification of content for clients
Brand monitoring
My own learning – list of influencers
BigBrandIdeas©2015
BigBrandIdeas©2015
So I ran a little experiment
No point investing in any form of marketing if you cannot track & measure it
Google AnalyticsTwitter Analytics Facebook Audience InsightsSocial BroSocial Bakers
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Tracking Organic – Results driven
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Remember your search query may be seen by
someone somewhere
Any questions before we play a little
game ?
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Time for a Brucey Bonus
Disclaimer this game is in no way affiliated with Google and the data is representative of the Google Keyword Tool taken on 9th November
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Higher or Lower
Manchester Utd Liverpool FC
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Higher or Lower
1,830,000 823,000
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Higher or Lower
Home Insurance Pet Insurance
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Higher or Lower
60,500 90,500
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Higher or Lower
Bread Cheese
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Higher or Lower
27,100 49,500
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Higher or Lower
Divorce Weddings
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Higher or Lower
27,100 8,100
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Higher or Lower
SEO PPC
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Higher or Lower
33,100 12,100
What is Search in 2015 and into 2016 ?
I asked a few of my friends/peers/drinking buddies
(delete where applicable)
BigBrandIdeas©2015
"Organic Search in 2016 will be just like organic search in 2015. You'll want to ensure that your basics are set up correctly, your technical SEO is as flawless as possible, with no spider blockers, and that you've implemented everything that you should - i.e. schema data. Google has already stressed that with RankBrain they've been moving towards an entity based algorithm, so ensure that your main entities are fully represented on the page (in the metadata and in the content), assuming you actually want to have organic success in 2016“
Simon Heseltine, Senior Director of Audience Development – AOL@simonheseltine
BigBrandIdeas©2015
BigBrandIdeas©2015
"Often it can seem that doing SEO properly is the same as doing what Google wants. That would be a mistake. Google doesn't care about you, and you owe Google nothing. The only obligation you have is to make your client website successful. What Google wants and what SEO needs are not the same - they have much in common, but you need to recognise the differences as well.“
Barry Adams, Founder of Polemic Digital@badams
BigBrandIdeas©2015
"As Search moves forward, a new consumer is emerging. They want experiences, not products. That's what Millennials want. So...you no longer sell products. You sell experiences."
Duane Forrester, Sr. Product Manager - Webmaster Outreach at Bing@duaneforrester
BigBrandIdeas©2015
"Our concerns for 2016 are about device agnostic performance. Optimising for speed, crawl efficiency, content UX in a seamless experience however the searcher interacts with your pages"
Nichola Stott, founder of theMediaFlow@nicholastott
BigBrandIdeas©2015
“Organic search right now means having a technically sound website as your foundation, that provides just as good an experience on a mobile device as on a desktop (if not better). This foundation is then built on with useful content that is promoted via digital PR and social channels - all working as one.”
Paddy Moogan founder of Aira and author of The Link Building Book@paddymoogan
BigBrandIdeas©2015
“The future of SEO is all about cross-device visibility, and the tactics are changing. Apps, deep links and ASO are now a much more important part of ranking and driving traffic.”
Cindy Krum, founder of MobileMoxie@suzzicks
BigBrandIdeas©2015
“Search going into 2016 is more than just search engines, search engines are attempting to be an answer engine that helps you answer numerous questions as quickly as possible, if they cannot they attempt to display the best websites or apps to answer your query. Google, Baidu and other major market leaders are aiming to become your personal assistant integrating with your phone, providing you cards of information from email, calendar events, travel information and answers from friends.”
Danny Denhard, Digital Problem Solver; Consultant / Trainer & Advisor. Founder Denhard Media@dannydenhard
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Summary of Search in 2016
“provides just as good an experience on a mobile device as on a desktop” - Paddy
“The future of SEO is all about cross-device visibility” - Cindy
“a new consumer is emerging. They want experiences, not products.” - Duane
“seamless experience however the searcher interacts with your pages” - Nichola
“become your personal assistant integrating with your phone, providing you cards of information from email, calendar events, travel information and answers from friends.” – Danny
“they've been moving towards an entity based algorithm, so ensure that your main entities are fully represented on the page (in the metadata and in the content)” - Simon
“What Google wants and what SEO needs are not the same - they have much in common, but you need to recognise the differences as well.” - Barry
BigBrandIdeas©2015
“F$$k what Dan tells you in his lecture, it is still all about links - as Fiddy said, Get Links or Die Trying”
Andy Barr, founder of 10Yetis@10yetis
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Takeaway advice
• You will never know everything and can never stop learning
• Reach out to your network – they are your knowledge bank
• Start a blog/website and be active on Twitter – it will not only help you learn, it may also secure you a job
• Break a website/get it deindexed (disclaimer. Not a client’s website)
• Learn Excel (advanced)
BigBrandIdeas©2015
Pssssstttt we are Hiring
Thanks for listening
Prizes for the best questions