How SEO Has Evolved and What Publishers Can Do to Stay Relevant

@hannah_bo_banna
@hannah_bo_banna
harder, better, faster, stronger
our work is never over
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
seo is harder than it used to be

@hannah_bo_banna
2011 - crackdown on ‘thin’ content

@hannah_bo_banna
2012 - crackdown on ‘low quality’ links

@hannah_bo_banna
2013 - moving from indexing to understanding

@hannah_bo_banna
fast forward to today:
search queries which shouldn’t work,
do work

this could be bad news if you’re a publisher
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
as google get smarter,
publishers are getting an increasingly raw deal

but we’re not just seeing this for informational queries
@hannah_bo_banna

we’re also seeing Google’s proprietary products for generic
@hannah_bo_banna
transactional queries

@hannah_bo_banna
SkyScanner rank
1st
this is the fold

@hannah_bo_banna
it’s getting to the point
that in order to survive you need to be a brand

but in some instances even that might not be enough
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
MoneySuperMarket’s
organic listing is
above the fold - but
Google are being very
aggressive

nevertheless organic search is still an important channel
@hannah_bo_banna
& brands still want to rank

they also want to decrease their reliance on search and
@hannah_bo_banna
gain traffic from other sources

to help them rank we need to get them links
@hannah_bo_banna

if they’re great links, they’ll also send traffic
@hannah_bo_banna

plus, if we create things which people want to share we’ll
@hannah_bo_banna
also get traffic from social sites

so all we need to do is create some content
@hannah_bo_banna
sounds pretty easy, right?

@hannah_bo_banna
it really isn’t easy

@hannah_bo_banna
it’s tough & it’s getting tougher

Feb 2012: 400 LRDs 1194 facebook ‘likes’ 1943 tweets
@hannah_bo_banna

you may see your efforts becoming less effective over time
@hannah_bo_banna

Oct 2013: 93 LRDs 187 facebook ‘likes’ 619 tweets
@hannah_bo_banna

getting content to work for you is hard today
& it’s likely to get even harder in the future
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
challenge accepted

@hannah_bo_banna
so, we’ve covered off
‘harder’

@hannah_bo_banna
publishing is changing

@hannah_bo_banna
today we have publishers that curate,
rather than create

@hannah_bo_banna
then this happened

@hannah_bo_banna
this corporate blog
stopped letting their awkward CEO post lame stuff
& skipped straight to awesome
this probably isn’t true, but writing headlines like this is kind of fun

@hannah_bo_banna
by replicating the upworthy model
this pet food retailer blog
attracted 20m unique visitors in June 2014
http://dis.tl/PetFlow-WSJ

what happened next will blow your mind
@hannah_bo_banna
yeah, so that’s hyperbolic in the extreme, I’ll stop now

today this is a stand-alone media business
selling banners & content recommendation ads
@hannah_bo_banna
http://dis.tl/PetFlow-WSJ

in a similar fashion we have publishers creating sub-brands
(which are pretty divorced from the parent brand)
@hannah_bo_banna

this british newspaper established in 1903...
@hannah_bo_banna

has created a ‘buzzfeed’ style sub-brand to
@hannah_bo_banna
reach new audiences

@hannah_bo_banna
whilst this is interesting,
this isn’t a great solution for many brands

@hannah_bo_banna
the vast majority of clients ask for this:

@hannah_bo_banna
get us links!

@hannah_bo_banna
or more accurately

@hannah_bo_banna
get us press coverage
& exposure on sites our target audience read
(oh & social shares would be nice too)

@hannah_bo_banna
if you want coverage on other sites,
you need to create things those sites will want to cover

@hannah_bo_banna
not curate stuff with clickbait headlines

@hannah_bo_banna
& those quizzes don’t always get as
many links as you’d hope

@hannah_bo_banna
945k facebook ‘likes’ 4.3k tweets 75 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna
that’s still reasonably impressive
& I don’t imagine they’re shooting for links
but
if you are shooting for links
then this might not be the way to go

@hannah_bo_banna
50k facebook ‘likes’ 1.6k tweets 54 LRDs

@hannah_bo_banna
it did generate 365k visits to the site
& the client was happy

@hannah_bo_banna
this also happened

@hannah_bo_banna
but how do we do things better?

@hannah_bo_banna
reactive real-time

@hannah_bo_banna
the takeaway here is not:
‘you need a bit of luck’

@hannah_bo_banna
the takeaway here is:
‘be ready, willing & able to take advantage of opportunities
as & when they arise’

@hannah_bo_banna
if @Arbys hadn’t tweeted that
someone else probably would have
& they wouldn’t have benefitted

@hannah_bo_banna
whilst you should put processes in place
to allow you to do this,
it’s probably not enough by itself

@hannah_bo_banna
what’s better?

@hannah_bo_banna
planned real-time

@hannah_bo_banna
when oreo turned 100, they created
100 pieces of content
over 100 days

the campaign got over 1m facebook ‘likes’
& thousands of pieces of press coverage
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
this highly topical content put the
cookie the centre of people’s conversations
without being self-serving

@hannah_bo_banna
what if you’re not a well known brand?

@hannah_bo_banna
ads that don’t feel like ads

http://dis.tl/wren-kiss @hannah_bo_banna

my desire was to create something that was
interesting to people beyond a fashion angle...
Melissa Coker - Wren
@hannah_bo_banna

[it’s] an interesting film that exists on its own, rather
than something that feels like a commercial...
Melissa Coker - Wren
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
92m YouTube views
& coverage from over 1300 sites

but that’s all content someone else has created…
@hannah_bo_banna
what about content we’ve created?

@hannah_bo_banna
content which breaks news

@hannah_bo_banna
961 LRDs 102k facebook ‘likes’ 4.4k tweets

@hannah_bo_banna
we made this to appeal to music fans
& music journalists

@hannah_bo_banna
we think publishers covered it because
it was a great story

we think that people shared it because it allowed them to
@hannah_bo_banna
express their opinions

@hannah_bo_banna
content which supports existing editorial

@hannah_bo_banna
308 LRDs 2.2k facebook ‘likes’ 1.3k tweets

we made this to appeal to the startup community
@hannah_bo_banna
(& tech journalists)

it supported the WhatsApp acquisition story
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
content people ‘look good’ sharing

@hannah_bo_banna
354 LRDs 19,4k facebook ‘likes’ 6.5k tweets

we made this to appeal to people working in
@hannah_bo_banna
the creative industry

@hannah_bo_banna
creativity is a hot topic
and
the piece has impact because the people
featured have devoted fans

@hannah_bo_banna
we think people shared this because it:
made them look smart
and/or
made them look interested & interesting
and/or
made them look literary

@hannah_bo_banna
so we’ve covered off
‘harder’ & ‘better’

I’m not necessarily saying we need to create content faster
@hannah_bo_banna
or
find ways to ‘scale’

an obsession with scaling is where we went wrong before
@hannah_bo_banna

but we are playing catch up in some areas
@hannah_bo_banna
& we need to get better, faster

@hannah_bo_banna
the new normal

@hannah_bo_banna
if you’re *still* ignoring mobile
you will be screwed

there will be more mobile search queries
@hannah_bo_banna
than desktop search queries
this year

@hannah_bo_banna
here’s google’s response

towards the end of last year we launched some
pretty big design improvements for search on
@hannah_bo_banna
mobile and tablet devices...
John Wiley, Google
http://dis.tl/john-wiley

today we've carried over several of those changes
@hannah_bo_banna
to the desktop experience
John Wiley, Google
http://dis.tl/john-wiley

@hannah_bo_banna
google are going mobile first

@hannah_bo_banna
and there’s this

@hannah_bo_banna
but it’s not just search;
social is mobile

77% of users access facebook via their mobile
http://dis.tl/fb-mobile-users
@hannah_bo_banna

80% of users access twitter via their mobile
http://dis.tl/twitter-mobile-users
@hannah_bo_banna

if you’re creating content that’s designed to be shared
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
you need to design it mobile first

@hannah_bo_banna
understanding the power of ideas,
as opposed to thinking in formats

@hannah_bo_banna
an idea is a novel combination
of previously unconnected elements
in a way which adds value

@hannah_bo_banna
this is tricky to parse
so let’s shoot straight to an example

http://dis.tl/axis-chords @hannah_bo_banna

ever wondered why all pop songs sound the same?
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
they all use the same four chords

they could have just created a list of all the songs that use
@hannah_bo_banna
the same 4 chords

@hannah_bo_banna
but it’s not until you hear it
that you really get it

@hannah_bo_banna
why do pop songs sound
the same?
they use the same
4 chords
bring it to life with
a mash up
combining
previously
unconnected
elements
execute in a way
that adds value

@hannah_bo_banna
an video is not an idea
it’s a format

@hannah_bo_banna
an infographic is not an idea
it’s a format

@hannah_bo_banna
you need a great idea

@hannah_bo_banna
then you need to communicate the idea
by using an appropriate format

@hannah_bo_banna
but focus on the idea first

@hannah_bo_banna
further reading:
how to produce content people will share
http://dis.tl/MJ-share
how to produce better content ideas
http://dis.tl/MJ-idea
lessons in virality from axl rose
http://dis.tl/HS-axl

@hannah_bo_banna
pitching for bigger budgets

@hannah_bo_banna
the worst thing we ever did
was claim organic search traffic was ‘free’

@hannah_bo_banna
we then made
similarly foolhardy claims about social traffic

we need to stop positioning what we do as
@hannah_bo_banna
‘free’ or ‘cheap’

@hannah_bo_banna
cheap is rarely synonymous with great

@hannah_bo_banna
& in order to gain traction
the content you’ll need to create
will require bigger budgets

@hannah_bo_banna
so don’t sell yourself short

@hannah_bo_banna
so we’ve covered off
‘harder’, ‘better’ & ‘faster’

how has this affected how we work at distilled today?
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
we’re trying to create things that
break news
and/or
support existing editorial
and/or
people ‘look good’ sharing

we’re seeing success with that approach
@hannah_bo_banna

@hannah_bo_banna
& it’s opening doors for us

we’re getting access to people higher up in the
@hannah_bo_banna
organisations which we work with

& we’re able to do better work as a result
@hannah_bo_banna

I believe that those in the search industry today are in a
@hannah_bo_banna
great position for the future

@hannah_bo_banna
those currently chasing our tails
have not evolved much in the past 70 years

@hannah_bo_banna
whereas we’ve evolved to the extent
that we’re barely recognisable

@hannah_bo_banna
& we’ll continue to evolve

@hannah_bo_banna
our work is never over

@hannah_bo_banna
good luck out there x

@hannah_bo_banna
thank you ☺

Hannah Smith
Content Strategist, Distilled
caffeine addict; book worm;
would really like a unicorn...
send cat pictures or questions to:
hannah.smith@distilled.net
@hannah_bo_banna

credits
Images:
daft punk - http://www.gq.com/images/style/2013/05/daft-punk/daft-punk-630.jpg
panda - http://radiofreethinker.com/2013/04/19/pandagate-panda-primer/
penguin - http://www.aktifmag.com/wacky-waddlers-10-penguin-facts-things/
hummingbird - http://ibc.lynxeds.com/photo/anna039s-hummingbird-calypte-anna/male-annas-hummingbird-hovering
hydrant - http://giveupinternet.com/2009/01/14/mitchell-kapor-getting-information-off-the-internet-is-like-taking-a-drink-from-a-fire-hydrant-
pic/
filter bubble - http://www.popuppoems.com/2011/05/19/whos-afraid-of-the-big-bad-algorithm/
daily mirror - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B2Rj9mQCEAEc8WC.jpg
pharrell - http://www.ibtimes.com/arbys-blasts-pharrells-grammys-hat-twitter-can-we-have-our-hat-back-1548140
future of marketing - https://plus.google.com/112310499813770104747/posts/JBesS2cnAGo
danbo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadic_lass/6889892777/in/set-72157629144987013
unicorn - http://queenofheartsonthesleeve.tumblr.com/post/58736423727/ok-not-much-but-here-it-is-3

How SEO Has Evolved and What Publishers Can Do to Stay Relevant

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