seo case study: a hootsuite search success story

#SEJThinktank@zramdani

With over 10 years of SEO experience, Zak has consistently delivered impactful results to clients. Specializing in enterprise SEO, Zak has led organic search programs for big brands like Avis and Budget, and has supported search strategies for Cigna, ToysRus, and many more. Currently Zak leads the SEO strategy at Hootsuite, the world's largest social media management platform, as their Great SEO Owl.

• Hootsuite is the most widely used social media management platform, used by over 15 million people around the globe and trusted by more than 800 of the Fortune 1000. Hootsuite's battle-tested technology, extensive ecosystem, and social DNA help organizations to champion the power of human connections at scale.

• 15M Users Worldwide • Used by 80% of the Fortune 1000 companies • 919 employees worldwide

About Hootsuite


Poll Question

What Type of Search Intent is Most Important to Your SEO Goals?a) Navigational

b) Informational

c) Transactional


1. SERP Landscape Continues to Evolve 2. Ocean of Opportunity for Informational Queries 3. Techniques to Catch That Wave

3 Takeaways


Hootsuite was the world’s largest social media marketing platform, yet we were getting beat out by much smaller competitors.

• Lacked an integrated SEO strategy throughout the organization • Host of technical liabilities • They took 7 months to find me...

The Problem


New Search Landscape Being Developed We’re in the midst of yet another transition that affects the way we produce and consume content.

May 2012Google launches the

Knowledge Graph

Jul 2012Google Now launches on Android Jellybean

May 2016Google releases Allo with AI bot & Home support soon after

Aug 2013Google deploys Hummingbird

Dec 2016SERP Update increasing desktop Google cards


Google’s Featured Snippets are a result at the top of a SERP that attempts to answer a user’s query without having to visit a website.

On December 7th, 2016 Google updated their desktop results to more closely reflect mobile results, which introduced a higher propensity for Google cards to be surfaced.

What is a Featured Snippet?


What Changed?STANDARD ORGANIC

RESULT FEATURED SNIPPET RESULT


What Changed?Google will read the featured snippet out loud when using Google Home, Android Auto, or from your mobile device.

This change represents a new opportunity for SERP ownership not seen since domain crowding updates in 2012/2013.


Relevant Types of Featured Snippets for Hootsuite

Ordered Lists

Standard

Unordered Lists


This chart illustrates the presence of featured snippets for search queries where Hootsuite ranks within the top 100; as you can see, this type of result has exploded, growing 31kX YoY.

Ocean of Opportunity

Featured Snippet Frequency for Hootsuite


Poll Question

Do you track your Featured Snippet Presence?a) Yes

b) No


Rules: 1. Must rank on page 1

a) Don’t have to rank in position 1, just have to be on page 1 2. When writing a post, perform a search for the target keyword for the

following: a) Is there a Google Answer present? b) If so, what format does Google prefer based on the query

3. Structure your content in a succinct way to clearly show the answer and steps to get to that answer a) Craft your heading/subheading so it closely reflects the user’s

question (ie. How to read faster…)

How to Optimize for Featured Snippets


How to Optimize for Featured Snippets Cont.

Notice how Google’s most relevant, authoritative results aren’t being selected for Google’s Knowledge Graph..

This presents an opportunity

This text isn’t present on the page, meaning this result isn’t optimized for this position


+73%YoY

+79%YoY

+46%YoY

+74%YoY

+84%YoY

+96%YoY

How did we do? Organic Prospect Entrances


Zak RamdaniThe Great SEO Owl

@zramdani


seo case study: a hootsuite search success story

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