Analytics platforms give us an insight into how customers engage with content, but in order to understand why our content is working we need to go deeper with our users. We know that user signals are becoming more intrinsic to Google’s algorithms, but how do we influence users to do what we want on our website? Stephen discusses what we should be looking at and how we should be measuring it without the big budgets required for lab testing.

1. Content Marketing
@stekenwright|#CMMasters15|28thMay15

2. Stephen Kenwright | Head of Search @Branded_3

3. Brand
Customer
Offer
Respond
Convert
All marketing used to look like this

4. Brand
Customer Moment
Relevance
Engage
This is what content marketing should look like

5. There are some big players in content marketing

6. …but they’re not invincible

7. It’s time for us to look deeper than data

8. User signals top Searchmetrics’ 2014 ranking factors

9. …because UX is what Google really cares about

10. So add ‘Designer’ to the list of jobs SEOs do now

11. Think Google doesn’t measure the exact same thing?

12. They don’t just measure it…

13. …and they’re not just doing it

14. Return to SERPs =

15. We know all about click through rates
Source: NetBooster

16. So when you rank check 125,000 keywords a day

17. You can estimate the keyword traffic you’re getting…

18. …and start to understand where users traffic goes

19. 125,000 keywords = 200,000,000 position changes…

20. You can understand where traffic changes hands

21. …and where it doesn’t

22. But Click Through Rate is easy to scale

23. Google uses UX to ‘improve’ searches so…

24. UX isn’t just for designers…

25. What is the most important factor in the design of a website?
The website makes it easy for me to find what I want
The website offers a cutting edge interactive experience
The website has a beautiful appearance
Other
First, we have to know where we need content

26. …but how do you find out what users want?
Google
Analytics
Social
Listening
Market
Research
Hitwise
Existing
Contacts

27. ‘Instinct is always a great starting point
and data is often incredibly powerful but
qualitative research, the beliefs, attitudes
and stories of real people, told directly to
the planner is the umbilical cord between
agency and consumer.’
Richard Huntington / @adliterate

29. Econsultancy User Experience Survey Report 2013

30. Guerrilla testing is cheap, so why is it last priority?

31. ‘…low cost method of user testing…
…‘guerrilla’ refers to its ‘out in the
wild’ style, in the fact that it can be
conducted anywhere…
…output is typically ‘qualitative’ so
insight is often rich and detailed.’
GOV.UK
What is guerrilla user testing?

33. What you need: ~5 volunteers

34. Silverback for Mac (2.0 is free)
silverbackapp.com
UX Recorder for iOS ($59.99)
uxrecorder.com
Camtasia for PC (£236)
techsmith.com/camtasia
What you need: cheap software

35. What you need: a quiet room

36. Scenario:
What you need: a task

38. Let’s look at the content marketing case study

39. The UK’s biggest breakdown cover providers

40. …and how much keyword search traffic they get

41. Expertise
Authority
Trust
What do Google’s search quality raters look for?

42. Source: BrandAsset Valuator (BAV) 2014
# Brand
1 The AA
2 The Post Office
3 Boots
4 Google
5 Johnson's Baby
6 Fairy
7 RAC
8 Marks & Spencer
9 Dulux
10 Kellogg's Corn Flakes
It doesn’t matter if you’re the most trusted brand

43. It doesn’t matter if you have more links

44. It doesn’t matter if you have better links

45. If you don’t add to the user experience with content

46. …and someone else does

48. Thin content ≠ low word count

49. How to format content for the web

50. …what most web content looks like

51. …because this is how users read web content

52. It’s time to look at your (content) team
Source: Getty

53. You can’t win playing only goalkeepers and strikers
Source: Goal.com

54. How are you going to feed the funnel?
Source: GettySource: Goal.com

56. Awareness
Consideration
Conversion
Googlebot falls out of the funnel just like users do

57. Thank you!
@stekenwright
stephen.kenwright@branded3.com