trends in search - danny sullivan
TRANSCRIPT
BIGGEST SEARCH STORY
OF THE YEAR SO FAR?
BIGGEST SEARCH STORY
OF THE YEAR SO FAR?
Trends In Search #MKTGNATION14
SURPRISE: GOOGLE IS STILL HUGESURPRISE: GOOGLE IS STILL HUGE
Read: Yahoo Search Share Falls Below 10 Percent For “All-Time Low”
17.8 billion explicit core searches total
SO LET’S TALK GOOGLE…SO LET’S TALK GOOGLE…
SEO developments
Knowledge Graph & quick answers
Google+ dead or alive?
Beyond Google: changes that mobile is bringing
Q&A on anything
SEO developments
Knowledge Graph & quick answers
Google+ dead or alive?
Beyond Google: changes that mobile is bringing
Q&A on anything
PANDA? PENGUIN? HUMMINGBIRD?PANDA? PENGUIN? HUMMINGBIRD?
Is Google out to get people with all these animal actions?
And what are these animal actions?
The goal is really to improve search results because ultimately, Google works for searchers not publishers
Behind the zoo….
Is Google out to get people with all these animal actions?
And what are these animal actions?
The goal is really to improve search results because ultimately, Google works for searchers not publishers
Behind the zoo….
PANDA: TARGETING THIN CONTENTPANDA: TARGETING THIN CONTENT Launched Feb. 2011,
designed to keep low-quality or “thin” content from ranking
Roughly every month,Google filters everything though Panda to trap new stuff & free others
Focus on real quality to survive (always the answer for any search success)
Launched Feb. 2011, designed to keep low-quality or “thin” content from ranking
Roughly every month,Google filters everything though Panda to trap new stuff & free others
Focus on real quality to survive (always the answer for any search success)
PENGUIN: TARGETING SPAMPENGUIN: TARGETING SPAM
Launched April 2012, meant to fight spam, especially bad links
Every six month or so,Google filters everything though Penguin to findspam regular systems miss
Don’t think link building; think audience building….
Launched April 2012, meant to fight spam, especially bad links
Every six month or so,Google filters everything though Penguin to findspam regular systems miss
Don’t think link building; think audience building….
LINK RULE INSANITYLINK RULE INSANITY
Paid links have long been warned against… But more complicated as native advertising
and native ads have grown Widgets get popular, so Google warns against them Infographics get popular, so Google warns against them Guest posting gets popular, so Google warns against
“blogging for links” Feels safer now not to link to anyone or to “nofollow”
everything Feels insane Google punishes for bad links rather than simply
discounts credit
Paid links have long been warned against… But more complicated as native advertising
and native ads have grown Widgets get popular, so Google warns against them Infographics get popular, so Google warns against them Guest posting gets popular, so Google warns against
“blogging for links” Feels safer now not to link to anyone or to “nofollow”
everything Feels insane Google punishes for bad links rather than simply
discounts credit
HUMMINGBIRD: THE NEW SEARCH ENGINEHUMMINGBIRD: THE NEW SEARCH ENGINE
Announced in Sept. 2013,this is an entire rebuild ofGoogle’s search engine
Panda, Penguin are just parts of that engine
The new engine can better tap into “signals” or “fuel”to rank results
A major change is improved support for “entities” and “entity search”
Announced in Sept. 2013,this is an entire rebuild ofGoogle’s search engine
Panda, Penguin are just parts of that engine
The new engine can better tap into “signals” or “fuel”to rank results
A major change is improved support for “entities” and “entity search”
ENTITIES & ENTITY SEARCHENTITIES & ENTITY SEARCH
Google (and Bing) are learning to search not just for matching patterns of letters but people, places and things
A search for “obama” in the past would look for those letters in that order
With entity search, Obama is understood as a person that can be connected to other people and various facts….
Google (and Bing) are learning to search not just for matching patterns of letters but people, places and things
A search for “obama” in the past would look for those letters in that order
With entity search, Obama is understood as a person that can be connected to other people and various facts….
FACTS & KNOWLEDGE GRAPH GROWTHFACTS & KNOWLEDGE GRAPH GROWTH
Read: Google's Knowledge Graph
GROWTH OF QUICK/DIRECT ANSWERSGROWTH OF QUICK/DIRECT ANSWERS
Read: Tweet Showing How Google Itself Is A “Scraper Site” Goes Massively Viral
GROWTH OF QUICK/DIRECT ANSWERSGROWTH OF QUICK/DIRECT ANSWERS
Read: Google’s Knowledge Graph Is Showing Step By Step Instructions
LOCAL SEARCH & THE CAROUSELLOCAL SEARCH & THE CAROUSEL
Read: Google Local Carousel Spinning Out Of Control
What Matters?
NEW: PIGEON, NEW LOCAL SEARCH ALGONEW: PIGEON, NEW LOCAL SEARCH ALGO
Revealed last week,designed to improve local search results
Factors still beinganalyzed but makesreview directories likeYelp, TripAdvisor stronger
Integrates web search ranking factors (such as links) along with Knowledge Graph data & local search factors (distance, ratings)
Revealed last week,designed to improve local search results
Factors still beinganalyzed but makesreview directories likeYelp, TripAdvisor stronger
Integrates web search ranking factors (such as links) along with Knowledge Graph data & local search factors (distance, ratings)
Read: Google “Pigeon” Updates Local Search Algorithm
WHAT ABOUT GOOGLE+ BEING DEAD?WHAT ABOUT GOOGLE+ BEING DEAD?
Exec change in Aprilled to rumors/leaks(which Google denies)that Google+ would die
More likely social sharingsite continues but “Google+ification” of YouTube & elsewhere will ease up
Authorship images already dropped But use of social signals for personalized
rankings continues….
Exec change in Aprilled to rumors/leaks(which Google denies)that Google+ would die
More likely social sharingsite continues but “Google+ification” of YouTube & elsewhere will ease up
Authorship images already dropped But use of social signals for personalized
rankings continues….
Read: Google+ Will Not Die But May Change & What Would Happen If Google Did Kill Google+?
MOVING ON TO MOBILEMOVING ON TO MOBILE
Everyone’s talking about a “mobile first” world
You don’t need a mobile site to rank better, but…
A site with problems for smartphone searches on Google may not rank as well
More important: knowing how to react in “Always On” mobile search world….
Everyone’s talking about a “mobile first” world
You don’t need a mobile site to rank better, but…
A site with problems for smartphone searches on Google may not rank as well
More important: knowing how to react in “Always On” mobile search world….
WHAT ABOUT GOOGLE+ BEING DEAD?WHAT ABOUT GOOGLE+ BEING DEAD?
Click-to-call?
Mobile-friendly version of site?
App for repeat visitors?
Click-to-call?
Mobile-friendly version of site?
App for repeat visitors?
Read: Google+ Will Not Die But May Change & What Would Happen If Google Did Kill Google+?
THE NEXT SEO FRONTIER?THE NEXT SEO FRONTIER?
via: Kerry Dean, SMX Advanced June 2014
Google Now Sending Searches to Apps
“we’re expanding it to work for English content worldwide. And we’re including 24 more apps…
THE NEXT SEO FRONTIER?THE NEXT SEO FRONTIER?
via: Kerry Dean, SMX Advanced June 2014
– Google Search Blog Apr. 3, 2014
PREDICTIVE SEARCH GROWINGPREDICTIVE SEARCH GROWING
Read: Google Now – When Google Searches Before You Think To
MICROSOFT HAS IT, TOOMICROSOFT HAS IT, TOO
Read: Cortana, Microsoft’s Predictive Search Challenger To Google Now & Siri
THE WEARABLE SEARCHTHE WEARABLE SEARCH
Notifications on your phone
On your wrist
And even inyour eyes…
Notifications on your phone
On your wrist
And even inyour eyes…
WHERE WEARABLES MAY GOWHERE WEARABLES MAY GO
People may not flock to Glass but nearly half likeidea of smartwatches
“Agents” like Google Now& Cortana getting smarterat predicting our search needs
Stay tuned; location “gating” likely key in future
People may not flock to Glass but nearly half likeidea of smartwatches
“Agents” like Google Now& Cortana getting smarterat predicting our search needs
Stay tuned; location “gating” likely key in future
TAKEAWAYS / Q&ATAKEAWAYS / Q&A
Quality content rules, so invest for the long-term Build an audience, not links Search is shifting from keywords to concepts;
be that concept, that entity, esp. through structured data Surviving shift to direct answers means being the
essential answer; can Google live without you? Search will continue to get personalized, social likely a
key factor, so be social Are you thinking about the mobile visitor with your landing
pages? Predictive search, wearables mean new opportunities
Quality content rules, so invest for the long-term Build an audience, not links Search is shifting from keywords to concepts;
be that concept, that entity, esp. through structured data Surviving shift to direct answers means being the
essential answer; can Google live without you? Search will continue to get personalized, social likely a
key factor, so be social Are you thinking about the mobile visitor with your landing
pages? Predictive search, wearables mean new opportunities