The SERP is the front-end to Google's multibillion dollar consumer research machine. They know what searchers want. In this data-heavy talk, Rob will teach you how to uncover what Google already knows about what web searchers are looking for. Using this knowledge, you can deliver the right content to the right searchers at the right time, every time.
8. [NAME OF BAD GUY
FROM HUDSON HAWK]
Google isn’t good at this query. They totally suck, right?
@STATrob
9. GOOGLE IS A VICTIM OF
THEIR OWN SUCCESS.
They have changed our expectations for information
retrieval and they have to adapt to those changes.
@STATrob
10. GOOGLE IS CHANGING THE RULES.
BUT, THEY ALSO HAVE TO PLAY BY
THE NEW RULES.
@STATrob
11. IT’S LIKE A GIANT DRAWING A
MAP WHILE ITS FOOTSTEPS
ALTER THE LANDSCAPE.
@STATrob
12. SERPS ARE THE FRONTEND TO
GOOGLE’S MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR
CONSUMER RESEARCH MACHINE.
@STATrob
13. BY PAYING ATTENTION TO THE
SERPS, WE CAN SNOOP ON
GOOGLE’S RESEARCH.
And we can learn what our customers are
looking for when they search for something.
@STATrob
21. AT EACH STAGE OF THE FUNNEL,
THE SEARCHER HAS A
DIFFERENT INTENT.
@STATrob
22. “…demographics don't help us
understand what we really need to
know — what consumers are looking
for in an exact moment or where
they are looking to find it.”
THINK WITH GOOGLE
@STATrob
46. BE THERE. BE USEFUL. BE QUICK.
The core organic algorithm does an amazing job of
determining which results are most useful to a given
searcher’s intent.
@STATrob
69. CAN YOU DISPLACE AN
INCUMBENT LIKE WIKIPEDIA?
They dominate the featured snippets in this stage.
Is there really room for us to win there?
@STATrob
70. LESSON 3
LOOKING AT THE SERP TOPOLOGY
TELLS US WHAT GOOGLE THINKS
THESE SEARCHERS WANT.
@STATrob
71. IN THIS STAGE, WE SAW
SEARCHER NEEDS BEING MET BY
NEWS, IMAGES, AND ORGANIC.
This is what Google has determined is the best
outcome for these searches.
@STATrob
76. WHO HAS THE MOST SHARE OF VOICE
IN THIS STAGE?
SHAREOFVOICESCORE
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
CONSUMER REPORTS TECHRADAR AMAZON CNET PCMAG
308K321K
352K
374K376K
77. BUT WHO HAS THE MOST RANKINGS?RANKINGS
0
1,750
3,500
CONSUMER REPORTS TECHRADAR AMAZON.COM CNET PCMAG
204230
3,117
138299
78. WHO IS WINNING WHERE?
SHAREOFVOICESCORE
0K
100K
200K
300K
400K
CONSUMER REPORTS TECHRADAR AMAZON.COM CNET PCMAG
NEWS
VIDEO
ANSWERS
ORGANIC
79. SEGMENT BY THE QUERY
MODIFIER TO SEE WHICH
RESULT TYPES GOOGLE LIKES.
@STATrob
80. SERP TOPOLOGY FOR
“BEST” QUERIES
29%
12%
5%
50%
SHOPPING
IMAGES
NEWS
VIDEOS
PEOPLE ALSO ASK
ANSWERS
PLACES
81. SERP TOPOLOGY FOR
“COMPARE” QUERIES
8%
6%
42%
10%
34%
SHOPPING
IMAGES
NEWS
VIDEOS
PEOPLE ALSO ASK
ANSWERS
PLACES
82. SERP TOPOLOGY FOR
“NEW” QUERIES
4%
12%
7%
27%
50%
SHOPPING
IMAGES
NEWS
VIDEOS
PEOPLE ALSO ASK
ANSWERS
PLACES
84. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED
ABOUT THE SERPS FOR OUR
COMMERCIAL KEYWORDS?
@STATrob
85. LESSON 1
BY USING SHARE OF VOICE,
MEASURE WHICH DOMAINS ARE
WINNING.
@STATrob
86. WITH ALMOST 3,000 FEWER
RANKINGS, TECHRADAR STILL
BEAT AMAZON.
Focusing on share-of-voice winners makes the
analysis easier.
@STATrob
87. LESSON 2
PERFORM SHARE OF VOICE
ANALYSIS ON RESULT TYPES TO
ASSESS THEIR POTENTIAL.
@STATrob
88. WE CAN REVERSE ENGINEER
TECHRADAR’S WINNING STRATEGY:
FEATURED SNIPPETS.
@STATrob
89. LESSON 3
SEGMENT EVEN DEEPER ON
QUERY MODIFIERS LIKE “BEST”
TO SEE HOW THE SERPS ADAPT.
@STATrob
90. FOR “BEST” SEARCHERS WANT
SNIPPETS. FOR “COMPARE” THEY
WANT VIDEOS.
This is where you get some of the most actionable insight
into searcher intent.
@STATrob
93. WHO HAS THE MOST SHARE OF VOICE
IN THIS STAGE?
SHAREOFVOICESCORE
0K
125K
250K
375K
500K
AMAZON.COM WALMART.COM OVERSTOCK.COM BESTBUY.COM SEARSOUTLET.COM
104K
165K
205K
397K400K
94. WHO IS WINNING WHERE?
SHAREOFVOICESCORE
0K
100K
200K
300K
400K
AMAZON.COM WALMART.COM OVERSTOCK.COM BESTBUY.COM SEARSOUTLET.COM
ORGANIC
NEWS
VIDEO
ANSWERS
101. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED
ABOUT THE SERPS FOR OUR
TRANSACTIONAL KEYWORDS?
@STATrob
102. LESSON 1
THE DEEPER YOU GO IN THE
FUNNEL, THE MORE YOU HAVE
TO RELY ON ORGANIC RANKINGS.
@STATrob
103. ORGANIC RESULTS WERE THE BEST
WAY TO PUSH TRAFFIC IN THIS STAGE.
Catering content towards universal results isn’t going to win
the day when searchers are this low in the funnel.
@STATrob
105. THE MAJORITY OF PAGES WE
SAW RANKING HIGHEST WERE
CATEGORY PAGES.
We also identified a few potential areas, like coupons,
where we might be able to develop new content.
@STATrob
108. HOW TO “BE THERE”
QUALITY KEYWORD RESEARCH
AND THOROUGH SEGMENTATION
BY INTENT STAGES IS CRUCIAL.
@STATrob
109. HOW TO “BE THERE”
YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE “THERE”
BY MEASURING SHARE OF VOICE.
You can break this out by stage or result type.
@STATrob
110. HOW TO “BE USEFUL”
LOOK AT SERP TOPOLOGIES TO
FIND OUT WHAT GOOGLE THINKS
IS USEFUL TO SEARCHERS.
@STATrob
111. SERP TOPOLOGY FOR
“COMPARE” QUERIES
8%
6%
42%
10%
34%
SHOPPING
IMAGES
NEWS
VIDEOS
PEOPLE ALSO ASK
ANSWERS
PLACES
112. HOW TO “BE USEFUL”
CREATE STRATEGIC CONTENT
EXPERIENCES THAT SATISFY
SEARCHERS’ IMMEDIATE NEEDS.
@STATrob
113. HOW TO “BE QUICK”
OPTIMIZE SITE SPEED AND
GET RIGHT TO THE POINT.
Omit everything that distracts from the immediate
needs of the searcher.
@STATrob
114. HOW MANY UNIVERSAL RESULTS
ARE THERE IN EACH STAGE?
0%
50%
100%
INFORMATIONAL COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONAL
10%11%15%
118. WHICH RESULT TYPE HAS
THE HIGHEST AVERAGE SHARE OF VOICE?SHAREOFVOICESCORE
0
1,500
3,000
4,500
6,000
ORGANIC SHOPPING EVERYTHING ELSE
2,997
5,312
1,992
119. KEY TAKEAWAY
OPTIMIZING FOR UNIVERSAL
RESULTS IS THE BEST WAY TO
ENSURE YOU’RE SATISFYING
SEARCHER INTENT.
@STATrob
120. KEY TAKEAWAY
WE CAN SNOOP INTO GOOGLE’S
FINDINGS ON SEARCH INTENT BY
LOOKING AT SERP TOPOLOGY.
@STATrob
121. KEY TAKEAWAY
AS WE MOVE DOWN THE INTENT
FUNNEL, DIFFERENT RESULT TYPES
RISE AND FALL IN VALUE.
@STATrob
122. KEY TAKEAWAY
WITH KNOWLEDGE OF INTENT, WE
CAN CRAFT THE RIGHT CONTENT
FOR THE RIGHT MOMENT OF THE
SEARCHER’S JOURNEY.
@STATrob
123. THIS ANALYSIS IS EASY TO DO.
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED:
• A SERP tracking tool that can break out result types
• Search volume data
• A share of voice model of your choosing
• Excel or SQL
@STATrob
126. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE SOME FRESH
FEATURED SNIPPET RESEARCH?
@STATrob
127. WE WERE CURIOUS ABOUT FEATURED
SNIPPET VOLATILITY.
So, naturally, we ran the numbers!
@STATrob
128. THREE TYPES OF VOLATILITY
• Featured snippet disappearing
• Featured snippet reappearing after it’s disappeared
• Featured snippet URL changing
@STATrob
129. WE TRACKED THE DATA FOR 20 DAYS
• 232,451 keywords that showed snippets on day one
• Tracked on a smartphone device
• Tracked in Los Angeles, California
@STATrob
132. 89% OF QUERIES HAVE SNIPPETS
THAT APPEARED EVERY DAY.
89%
@STATrob
133. MOST OF THE VOLATILITY WE SAW
WAS DUE TO URL CHANGES.
When SERPs have a snippet, it looks like they stick around.
@STATrob
134. SNIPPETS ARE SELECTED FROM UP TO
THREE DIFFERENT SOURCE URLS
98% of snippets are sourced from up to three different URLs.
@STATrob
135. STABLE SNIPPETS PULL MOSTLY FROM
RANKS THREE & FOUR.
If you spot a snippet pulling from below rank four, you have a
better chance of stealing it.
@STATrob
136. PARAGRAPH SNIPPETS ARE THE MOST
STABLE FORMAT.
Table snippets are Google’s least favourite format.
@STATrob
137. KEY TAKEAWAY: TRACK THE SNIPPETS
IN YOUR SPACE.
See how snippet appearance and formats are changing, track
their volatility, and see what three URLs are your competition.
@STATrob