Mike King - Futureproofing your SEO

Futureproofing Your
Search Engine
Optimization
Michael King (@iPullRank)
Founder/Managing Director, iPullRank

IPULLRANK.COM @ IPULLRANK
“WHAT’S THE
FUTURE OF
SEARCH?”
A question that plagues me around
this time of year every year.
This again?!

THE FUTURE OF SEARCH
The pragmatic business answer

MY REAL ANSWER
Is that future of search looks a lot like this…

The Future of Search is a predictive and interactive Assistant
that takes something like this and knows enough about you
to pick exactly what you’d want

Seriously, how
did you choose
anything?Thanks for coming to this session, though.

Far-fetched?
You tell me.

Well, what do we need?
Location Persistent
User
Context
The World’s
Information
An always
on device
Natural
Language
Processing
Machine
Learning +
Computing
Power

And what else?
Speed Good User
Experience

Google has long tracked your location.

Google leverages its database of affinity to develop user
contexts and segment us into them.

Google’s whole purpose is to store and make the world’s
data accessible.

150,000,000,000,000
The estimated number of megabytes of data
that Google stores. (or just 15 exabytes)
Cirrus Insight

Perhaps you have heard of Android, Google’s mobile
operation system.

87.5%
Of smartphones worldwide run Android.
Strategy Analytics

Natural Language Processing has long been something
Google has looked to conquer.

They’ve been nice enough to open source their NLP modules
so we can all leverage them.

Google has been working on quantum computing to
accelerate Moore’s Law

100mm
times faster than a classical computer by
using a D-Wave quantum computer
NewScientist.com

Google’s got the machine learning thing covered

So much so that they open sourced their machine learning
tech in hopes other people would catch up.

Google Fiber is one of the many drastic things that Google
has done to increase the speed of the Internet.

Material Design is Google’s “visual language” to develop
streamlined and effective user experiences.

GOOGLE IS JUST ABOUT
READY TO BE THE STAR
TREK COMPUTER
It’s already here.

Google Now was the first tool to truly go in that direction.

Google Assistant is V1 of Google’s “Star Trek computer”

Google Home is “Assistant” in a box…

WHERE HAVE WE BEEN?
As it pertains to Organic Search

10 Blue Links

UNIVERSAL
SEARCH
Google moved away from 10 blue
links towards integrating different
media into the SERP. Google needed
more media types to answer your
query.

Caffeine Update – Google needed speed to get you the best
results all the time.

Personalized Search – Google made the results more
relevant to the specific user’s context.

Google Instant – Google needed to answer your question
faster by helping you formulate it

2-5 seconds
Can be saved per search using
Google Instant.
Gizmodo

Panda Algorithm – Google needed to get the bad content
outtahere!

Google Penguin – Google needed to discourage you from
manipulating the link graph.

Structured Markup – Google needed help understanding the
nuances of your content better.

Google Hummingbird – Google needed to get a better
understanding of entity relationships in indexation.

Rankbrain – Google needed a better understanding of your
query so they use machine learning to normalize it.

Mobile-first Index – Google needs to put the context that’s
most valuable in front of the one that is more limited.

Go Mobile or Die
If you’re site is not mobile-friendly,
you will lose big.

TYPES OF SEARCH YOU
SHOULD KEEP TOP OF
MIND

Spotlight Search and Safari search try to bypass search
engines altogether.

SUGGESTED
WEBSITE
SEARCHES
iOS looks to predict a result that
you’re looking for before you would
go to a search engine for a variety of
formats including content on your
phone.

Smart Mirror Search – imagine the advertising implications.

In-Car Search – How long until Tesla recognizes that it needs
its own Search appliance?

App Store Search

OLD SCHOOL
SEO
App Store Optimization is built on
old school SEO practices of
metadata optimization and
engagement metrics such as
downloads and reviews.

SensorTower for research

Optimize your “on-page” and use a low cost paid media
channel to get your downloads up.

Vocal Search

1
The number of results returned in
most vocal search queries.

The Vocal Search answer is the Featured Snippet

Vocal Search is convenient

Other assistant devices like Alexa matter because they cut
Google out of the e-commerce loop.

Search everywhere.
I anticipate that search will become
the common interface in the future of
technology, but it will evolve to more
natural and conversational language.

This is the future of technology.

Not this.

SEARCH SCIENCE
How does the future of Search Work?

Google has evolved into “Multimodal Search” which uses
the query and the user context to determine the right result
set.

Google is far better at
understanding the context
of your search.

Google develops a set of contexts on the user leveraging
months of queries + click data. (h/t @willcrithclow &
@tomanthonyseo)

Queries Become Entities

Entities inform Google’s result set.

HOW DO YOU CAPITALIZE
ON THESE SEARCH
OPPORTUNITIES?

Make Hyper-
targeted
Content

Segmented Content Strategies

Align with the User Journey
“Multichannel custom publishing.”
You’ll want to develop the right KPIs to match up with the right types of videos. Top of funnel videos should be measured by awareness KPIs,
whereas bottom funnel videos like how-tos and guides are more likely to lead to conversions that are closer to the business objective.

This Requires Content Strategy

Persona-driven keyword research is where you should start
http://www.slideshare.net/ipullrank/persona-driven-
keyword-research

Build robust utility
driven content for
specific audiences.

Use
Structured
Data

If you don’t markup your content, Google will drive traffic to
other sites with Featured Snippets.

Rich Cards

Keep an eye on what’s available to you.
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/search-
gallery

Here too:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/mark-
up-content

Question based queries heavily feature featured snippets.
h/t @statrob https://getstat.com/blog/featured-snippets-
track-more-things-win-more-snippets/

While tables and lists trigger featured snippets, paragraph
content is more likely to do so. (also @statrob)

You Don’t Have to be #1

Make Explanations “Snip-able”

Research your query space and structure your content for
featured snippets. https://builtvisible.com/answer-boxes/

Be Mobile-
friendly

The implication of mobile-first indexation is that desktop-
driven sites will lose visibility.
I suspect this was
Google testing the
mobile-first index

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), for many sites, is the
quickest way to ensure mobile-friendliness in a mobile-first
world.

Google understands that “paired” sites are a nuisance.
Ideally, they want people to move to “Canonical” AMP.

This suggests that pages that validate as AMP are definitely
fast while other methods of building pages may not be.

However you do it, make
sure your site is mobile-
friendly.

Speed

Code Order Matters. It impacts
site speed dramatically.

The Critical Rendering Path
https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/perform
ance/critical-rendering-path/analyzing-crp?hl=en
Critical Rendering Path

HTTP/2 speeds up some of HTTP
1.1 performance issues.

Learn more about HTTP/2
https://moz.com/blog/http2-a-fast-secure-bedrock-for-the-
future-of-seo
Read Up On HTTP/2

If you want to dig into more of the technical details, check
out my latest on Moz. https://moz.com/blog/the-technical-
seo-renaissance

Make your
site faster
already.

Integrate the
Search
Channels

There will always be more value in having SEO and PPC work
together than in a silo.

There are Dozens of Studies Like This

Google uses CTR
And being in Paid and Organic
increases CTR for both. Integrating
the channels increases visibility.

Users don’t think of paid
and organic as different
places. Maximize
visibility using them
together.

How to Find the Right SEO
Partner
Spoiler Alert: It’s not your Creative agency

Network Agencies do
not prioritize SEO, many
of them actually
outsource it to smaller
shops.

Modern SEO is not
transactional. It’s
strategic and requires
cross-functional
execution.

At Minimum Your SEO Firm Should Have All Of These People
Paid
Media
Outreach
Content Strategist
Strategist / Analyst
Developer
Designer
SEO

On Your End, You Should Have
Paid
Media
Copywriter
Strategist / Analyst
Developer
Designer
SEO

Your SEO firm should be
able to make effective
business cases.

How Much It Would Cost to Buy the Links Pointing to 302s
$14,526,451,500

Missed Ticket Sales from that Lost Organic Search traffic
$221,052,152

SO Y’ALL WANNA
MAKE SOME MONEY
OR NAH?

I Made the Case, we Got our 301s, they Got Their Money
The project was at an implementation stand still until I put those numbers in front of the client. Shortly
thereafter, they made the push for 301s and traffic went up pretty dramatically despite seasonality.
August 27th
301 redirects
11,039,188
10,455,517
11,348,902
12,049,481
11,250,148
12,902,847
11,040,192
13,158,296
11,287,790 12,203,998
12,508,164
13,158,296
14,041,313
15,609,390
0
2,000,000
4,000,000
6,000,000
8,000,000
10,000,000
12,000,000
14,000,000
16,000,000
18,000,000
April May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct
Organic Visits
2014 2015

Your SEO firm should be able to tell a compelling story
Mapping keyword data back to the consumer insights

BUILD BETTER
BUSINESS CASES
Your keyword research in context conversion data and search traffic through the lens of a specific persona
yields a far better business case than “hey, I have this cool idea”

A better SEO business
case means better
keyword research

Great Keyword Research Maps to Need States and Personas
Mapping keywords to the phases of the consumer decision journey provides more granularity to the understanding of what
users are actually looking to do with their search.
[flowers]
[when do roses bloom]
[what flowers for a first date]
[buying chrysanthemums]
[flower a month club]

Good Keyword Research Visualizes Opportunities
Visualizing the data makes it easier to digest.

Your SEO firm Should Build CTR Models Based
on Your Own Data
Anecdotal CTR models are not as valuable as using data about your own site.

Your SEO firm needs to not
take screenshots of Google
tools and call them a
deliverable.

They should Prioritize
Recommendations
Give priority scores to your
recommendations. People
want to know what the
impact will be so they can
determine what to go after.

They Should Give
Context
Your recommendations will
go across many people’s
desk before it potentially
gets implemented. Be sure
to give business and
technical context.

In Other Words They Should be More Like Us ☺

How to Make the Right SEO
Hire
Spoiler Alert: It’s not your Creative agency

First, they should have a
fundamental understanding
of marketing. Stop thinking
of SEO as not a marketing
function.

Skills Your SEO Staff
Should Have
HTML/CSS
JavaScript
JavaScript Frameworks
One Backend Language (PHP,
NodeJs, Ruby, et al)
Understanding of How Browsers
Work
Understanding of Web Hosting
Excel
MySQL
Outreach
Content Ideation

They Should Understand the Document Object
Model
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document_Object_Model/Introduction

They Should Understand Structured Markup
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data

They Should Understand the Critical Rendering Path
https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/critical-rendering-path/analyzing-crp?hl=en

They Should Understand What Impacts Page Speed
https://www.portent.com/blog/design-dev/ultimate-site-speed-guide-what-impacts-site-speed.htm

They Should Know How to Do Log File Analysis
https://builtvisible.com/log-file-analysis/

They Should Understand SEO for JavaScript Frameworks
https://builtvisible.com/javascript-framework-seo/

They Should Know Chrome DevTools
http://ipullrank.com/6-things-you-should-know-about-in-chrome-devtools/

They Should Understand Accelerated Mobile & Instant Pages

They Should Understand Networking Trends
https://moz.com/blog/http2-a-fast-secure-bedrock-for-the-future-of-seo

Most importantly, these people need
to comfortable working across
teams to get things done.

WHAT TOOLS SHOULD YOU
USE TO WIN AT SEARCH?
As it pertains to Organic Search

A Device Library – You’ll want to experiment with all
contexts, devices and operating systems.

Google Search Console -
https://google.com/webmaster/tools

Structured Data Testing Tool -
https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool

AMP Validator - https://validator.ampproject.org/

Mobile-friendly & page speed tests -
https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/

Chrome DevTools – It’s a part of Chrome.

Google Analytics Demographics & Interests – Set this up in
Google Analytics.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider -
https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Screaming Frog Log File Analyzer -
https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/log-file-analyser/

Searchmetrics – http://www.searchmetrics.com

On-Page.org – http://www.on-page.org

Linkdex – http://www.linkdex.com

Botify – http://www.botify.com

Moz Keyword Explorer - https://moz.com/explorer/

STAT – http://www.getstat.com

WHO AM I?
Thought you’d never ask.

I’M
#ZORASDAD
First and foremost.

MY NAME IS
MIKE KING
Razorfish, Publicis Modem alum
Full Stack Developer
Full Stack Marketer
Moz Associate

I Run a Better Marketing Agency Called iPullRank

We Do These Things
Content
Strategy
SEO Paid Media Machine
Learning
Marketing
Automation
Measurement
& Optimization

THANK YOU
MICHAEL KING
FOUNDER &
MANAGING DIRECTOR
IPULLRANK
mike@ipullrank.com
http://Ipullrank.com
Download: http://bit.ly/pragmatic-search

Mike King - Futureproofing your SEO

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