The full presentation from ReadingSEO on the 5th of September. Talks from Nick Wilsdon, Roxana Stingu & Luci Wood.

1. ReadingSEO
The only Reading SEO Meet-up
@ReadingSEO
Hosted by Blue Array
Organisers: Matt Williamson (@MattWSEO) & Nicky Elson (@nickynoises)
Speakers: Luci Wood (@incorgnito_mode) / Roxana Stingu (@RoxanaStingu) / Nick Wilsdon (@nickwilsdon)

2. 6:40 pm: Take your seats
6:45 pm: The rise of 'pre-search’: tips for
optimising for Google Discover
7:05 pm: *Break*
7:15 pm: Product Image Optimisation
7:35 pm: *Break*
7:45 pm: Using Google Data Studio and Big
Query to create your own SEO tools and
reporting
8:05 pm: *Questions/Networking/Drinks/Food*
Schedule: Luci Wood - SEO Director
(Blue Array)
@incorgnito_mode
Roxana Stingu - Head of SEO
(Alamy)
@RoxanaStingu
Nick Wilsdon - Group Search
Programme - Project Lead
(Vodafone)
@nickwilsdon

3. Understanding the problems
Special Offer: £10 discount on early bird tickets
for:
Website: Unboxed.events
Date: October 16th
Time: 1-6pm
Venue: Oxford CURZON cinema (In the Westgate)
Tickets: Earlybirds are £99 ending 15th Sep, then £139 -
ti.to/unboxed/2019
Use discount code: READING10

4. Understanding the problems
Reading SEO
Up First: The rise of 'pre-search’: tips for
optimising for Google Discover
Luci Wood - SEO Director
(Blue Array)
@incorgnito_mode

5. Hi, I’m Luci Wood
(and this is Milo >)
@incorgnito_mode
Allow: /corgis🐕
Allow: /archery🏹
Disallow: /meat🏹
SEO Director @ Blue Array

7. “I would
congratulate you
darling but I’ve no
idea what you
actually do”
- My mum, 2019

8. What is Discover?
Corgi illustrations by Radio

9. Google Discover uses AI
to recommend content to
users based on their
interests and
interactions.

10. Essentially Google snoops on
your activity to deliver you more
relevant content
@incorgnito_mode

11. Where can I find Google
Discover?
Google homepage on mobile
Google Search app

13. Sports scores
Entertainment news
Events
Videos
Brand updates
Stock prices
Weather & traffic info
Recipes
New products

14. I don’t see
Discover in my
Search Console…
WTF?!
Corgi illustrations by Radio

15. 🏎🏎 High performing
content in the
Discover feed
⏱️ How frequently
your site appears
in Discover
📊 Comparison of
data from Discover
to Traditional Search
Results
🚦Total traffic
generated from
Discover

16. ‘The Discover report is
shown to websites
that have accumulated
meaningful visibility in
Discover.
http://bit.ly/search-console-discover

17. Why should I
care about
Google
Discover?
Image by The Pawster

18. Quick show of hands...
Corgi illustrations by Radio @incorgnito_mode

19. Who has bought
something on
Amazon
this month?
Corgi illustrations by Radio @incorgnito_mode

20. Who’s used
Google Discover
in the
last month?
Corgi illustrations by Radio @incorgnito_mode

21. 197 million
Amazon.com
visitors

22. 800 million
Discover users

23. More than
double
the US
population

24. With Discover, you can
reach and influence
potential customers
before they’ve even
begun searching
@incorgnito_mode

25. This is a big,
delicious
‘search pie’™
@incorgnito_mode

26. How in the hell do
we optimise for this?
Corgi illustrations by Radio @incorgnito_mode

27. “The two best ways to
boost the ranking and
performance of your
Discover content are:

28. “1.) To post
content that you
think users would
find interesting…”

29. “2.) To use high-
quality images in
your content.”

30. Cool, done.
Corgi illustrations by Radio @incorgnito_mode

31. No, but really. What do we do?
Corgi illustrations by Radio

32. How does Discover rank
content?
Content is ranked algorithmically
according to what Google thinks a user
would find most interesting

33. A few tips

34. Shift your
mindset from
keywords to
people

35. Search volume is
out. Relevancy is in.
Keywords are out
(ish). Topics and
audiences are in.

36. Learn all you can about
your audience’s lifestyles
and preferences

37. YouGov profiler: bit.ly/YG-profiler

38. Use Google Analytics
Affinity
Categories
Site Search

39. Creating content
for Discover

40. Create both fresh and evergreen
content to maximise reach

42. Understand the different
stages of a customer
journey to guide your
content creation

43. Why?
Discover can predict your
level of expertise on a
topic and will offer
content based on this.
bit.ly/search-journeys

44. Let’s get specific
The stronger the match between
your article's content and your user's
interests, the better your chances of
ranking.

45. Look at the SERPs
📝 Featured snippets
🏹 PAAs
🔎 Search intent
💬 Auto suggest

47. Useful content tools

48. Optimising for
click through
rate
@incorgnito_mode

49. Optimising for CTR (the good)
● Concise headline
● Clearly outlines
article content
● Eye-catching images

50. Optimising for CTR (the good)
● Very closely aligned
to the user’s interests
and what’s important
to them
😱

51. Optimising for CTR (the bad)
● Headlines which are
too long and wordy
(or vice versa!)
● Potentially sensitive
or alienating

52. Optimising for CTR
(the downright illegal-ish)
● Fake news
● Sensationalist or
misleading headlines
● Clickbait

53. This is not cool people...

54. What the
fluffing heck
hooman?!
DON’T THROW
CORGIS OUT OF
PLANES!

55. Oh, iz
snow.
Thank furk
for that!
...OR USE CLICKBAIT!

56. Trustworthy, original,
authoritative content
only.
By order of Her Maj 👑
#UltimateCorgiLady

57. The visual
side of things

58. Images should be at least
1,200 px wide

59. Why?
When Discover cards feature
large images instead of
thumbnail images...

60. Large image
Thumbnail

61. 🏎🏎5% increase in click through rate

62. 🏎🏎5% increase in click through rate
⌛ 3% increase in time spent on page

63. 🏎🏎5% increase in click through rate
⌛ 3% increase in time spent on page
👍 3% increase in user satisfaction

64. Happy
meals all
round.
bit.ly/discover-for-webmasters

65. You’ll need to either use AMP or
complete an opt-in form to give
Google the rights to display your
hi-res images.

66. Engagement

67. Sites with content that
users have liked, shared
and interacted with
before are first in line
for visibility on Discover.
Engage your users

68. Great user experience
Valuable content
How to build loyalty

69. How to build loyalty
Rewards & points schemes
VIP exclusivity
Gamification

70. Let’s get (a bit) technical
Satellite
receivers
Chicken
drummies
Shnack
detector

71. Mobile friendly site

72. Pages are indexed by
Google
(and meet Google News
content policies)

73. No need for
structured
data markup

74. AMP is
not required
(but it definitely
helps!)

75. AMP Stories
Visually-driven, fast-loading,
immersive content, designed
for mobile (and ideal for
Discover!)
Example: bit.ly/discover-amp
How to create AMP Stories: bit.ly/create-amp-stories

76. Final tip:
Review your Discovery
ads for performance
insights.
bit.ly/discovery-ads

77. tl;dr
Let’s
recap

78. 800 million
Discover users

79. Rip up your
keyword planner,
Discover’s all
about audiences
and relevancy
It was the cat

80. Personalisation
is at the heart
of Google
Discover

81. Understand your
audience and their
individual journeys,
challenges and
values
Are we
there yet?

82. 800 million
Discover usersWrite content that’s
new, and new for
users (trending,
seasonal, evergreen)
Can dogs
eat
pumpkin?!

83. 800 million
Discover usersClear, concise
headlines,
authoritative
content and no
clickbait

84. 800 million
Discover usersSpeedy site that
offers users a
great experience
on mobile
Fast & Fur-
ious

85. 800 million
Discover usersHopefully with
these tips, you
can go forth and
discover!

86. That’s it from me
Read the blog:
https://www.bluearray.co.uk/news/author/luci/
Tweet: @incorgnito_mode
Work with me: bluearray.co.uk/jobs/

87. Thank you!
P.S. - You can also follow Milo on
Instagram (@the_corgasaur)

88. Understanding the problems
5 Minute Break
Up Next: Product Image Optimisation
Roxana Stingu - Head of SEO
(Alamy)
@RoxanaStingu

89. PRODUCT
Image
Optimisation
ROXANA Stingu
@RoxanaStingu

90. @RoxanaStingu

91. @RoxanaStingu

92. @RoxanaStingu

93. @RoxanaStingu

94. @RoxanaStingu

95. @RoxanaStingu

96. @RoxanaStinguTimeline created with https://www.officetimeline.com/

97. @RoxanaStingu

98. @RoxanaStingu
Before After

99. @RoxanaStingu

100. @RoxanaStingu

101. @RoxanaStingu

102. @RoxanaStingu

103. @RoxanaStingu

104. @RoxanaStingu
Shoppable ads Showcase Shopping ads

105. @RoxanaStingu

106. @RoxanaStingu

107. @RoxanaStingu

108. @RoxanaStingu
IMAGES

109. @RoxanaStingu
How Google understands the subject matter of an image
Computer
Vision Algos
Contents on
the page
ALT tag

110. @RoxanaStingu
Computer
Vision

111. @RoxanaStingu
Good UX
Make pages primarily
for users, not for
search engines.
Good context Optimise placement
Don’t embed text in
images
Create informative
and quality sites
Create device-
friendly sites
Create good URL
structure for your
images

112. @RoxanaStingu
Content on the page
Title & Description
Place near relevant text
on relevant pages
Add a caption or image
title
Use descriptive file
names

113. @RoxanaStingu
ALT tags
Use descriptive
ALT text
Used as anchor
text
Useful,
information-rich
Uses keywords
appropriately
In context with the
content of the
page
Avoid keyword
stuffing

114. @RoxanaStingu
ALT tags for products
SKUs ISBNs Model numbers

115. @RoxanaStingu
SPEED

116. @RoxanaStingu
Shamelessly stolen from https://www.hobo-web.co.uk/your-website-design-should-load-in-4-seconds/
QUOTE:
“2 seconds is the
threshold for
ecommerce website
acceptability. At Google,
we aim for under a half
second.”
Maile Ohye, from Google

117. @RoxanaStingu

118. @RoxanaStingu

119. @RoxanaStingu
https://www.thinkwithgoogl
e.com/feature/testmysite/
United Kingdom
on 4G
networks

120. @RoxanaStingu
Eliminate images that are not needed
CSS effects Web fonts

121. @RoxanaStingu
Choose the right image format

122. @RoxanaStingu
Remove unnecessary image metadata
Geo information Camera information

123. @RoxanaStingu
Image compression
LOSSY
Eliminates some pixel data
LOSSLESS
Compresses the pixel data

124. @RoxanaStingu
Delivering scaled image assets
Don’t resize in CSS and HTML Resize on the server

125. @RoxanaStingu
Use a CDN
cdn.yoursite.com No canonicalisation

126. @RoxanaStingu
Lazy Loading

127. @RoxanaStingu
Progressive JPEG and WebP

128. @RoxanaStingu
Responsive Images

129. @RoxanaStingu
AMP-img

130. @RoxanaStingu
Structured Data for Products

131. @RoxanaStingu
Image Sitemaps
Each <url> tag can contain
up to
1,000 <image:image>tags.
<image:loc> Can be from
different domains as long
as both domains are
verified in Search Console.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1">
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/sample.html</loc>
<image:image>
<image:loc>https://example.com/image.jpg</image:loc>
</image:image>
<image:image>
<image:loc>https://example.com/photo.jpg</image:loc>
</image:image>
</url>
</urlset>

132. @RoxanaStingu
Image and Web search indexation
Images added via an img
tag using a src attribute
get indexed in both
CSS background images
get indexed in Web
search only

133. @RoxanaStingu
Images and Local SEO
580,853 images
15,191 Google
My Business
listings

134. @RoxanaStingu
IMAGE Search WEB Search
≠

135. @RoxanaStingu
IMAGE Search WEB Search
≈

136. @RoxanaStingu
Thank You!
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/114016?hl=en
https://blog.google/products/search/get-more-useful-information-captions-google-images/
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2017/08/badges-on-image-search-help-users-find.html
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/product
https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/optimizing-content-efficiency/image-
optimization
https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/design-and-ux/responsive/images
https://amp.dev/documentation/components/amp-img/
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/178636

137. Understanding the problems
10 Minute Break
Up Next: Using Google Data Studio and
Big Query to create your own SEO tools
and reporting
Nick Wilsdon - Group Search
Programme - Project Lead
(Vodafone)
@nickwilsdon

138. Dashboard Strategy
Presented by Nick
Wilsdon
24th April 2019

139. Insert Confidentiality Level in slide footer 139 *
Why should you listen to me?
Search Product Owner
Vodafone Group
Manages SEO programme
deployment across 22
international markets to 516m
mobile customers

140. 5 Challenges we faced

141. *141
1. Needed a single report for multiple stake-holders

142. Malta Spain Germany Netherlands
Greece Hungary Turkey Ireland
UK Italy Romania Czech Republic
India
Qatar
Egypt
South Africa
Australia
New Zealand
Ghana
Europe Asia Africa Oceania
Portugal Kenya
2. Needed to standardise SEO reporting across multiple OpCos

143. *143
3. Need to be data-driven and automated

144. *144
4. Lack of internal, specialist resource to deploy

145. *145
5. Budget needs to be spent creatively and efficiently

146. So what did we do?

147. Insert Confidentiality Level in slide footer 147 *
Why we decided on Google Data Studio
Common data
sources could be
added, such as
Google Search
Console (GSC)
and Google
Sheets
DS comes with
many pre-made
connectors to pipe
data into reports,
there are native
connectors for
GSC and Google
Sheets
Are reusable and
sharable so
building data
pipelining would
win us support with
other teams on
same platform
Reports are easy
to build, this
approach would
not require data
specialists or
developers
(initially). Plus the
platform is free!

148. Visualisation
Data
Data Pipelining

149. Your first data set -
Google Search Console
(GSC)

150. *150
Why GSC first?
Free, accessible data
Poor native UI
New domain properties

151. *151*Data from Deepcrawl.com domain
Sam Marsden – http://bit.ly/next-level-gds

152. *152
Sam Marsden – http://bit.ly/next-level-gds
*Data from Deepcrawl.com domain

153. *153
Sam Marsden – http://bit.ly/next-level-gds
*Data from Deepcrawl.com domain

154. *154

155. *155
Add and blending more data sources
Data can be pulled into
GDS via 3rd party tool (no
programming required)

156. Reporting structure and
strategy

157. Clear reporting sections across each GDS report
*157
Control Action
Performance Planning

158. *158
Traffic
Orders
Revenue
CPA
Ambition for reporting KPIs

159. *159
Must align with current
team reporting KPIs to
ensure report adoption

160. How do current KPIs fit into our reporting structure?
*160
Control Action
Performance Planning

161. Performance
*161
Examples:
•Traffic
•Orders
•Activations
•Revenue
•Sales
•CPA (SEO CPA)
•Call centre deflection savings
•Conversion rate (CVR)
•Rankings (reluctantly!)
What should go in these sections
Lag metrics that track performance
against targets to:
•Shown against time, so we can
correlate positive SEO activity to
commercial lead metrics
•Aligned to commercial objectives
•Only contain metrics that are not subject
to interpretation by SEO specialists
These sections should be for senior
stakeholders to support internal
reporting

162. *162
Performance - sample
Performance
Changing our
dashboards into an
application

163. Planning
*163
Examples:
•SEO Forecasting
•SEO Development queue
•Key upcoming events
(migrations/launches)
•Team holidays (tip picked up from previous
ReadingSEO! Thx Daniel Cartland)
•Google Trends
•CPSV data
What should go in these sections
Planning shows how the team is thinking
ahead and matching resources and
activity to meet the challenges within the
program
•Forecast work
•Planned activity
These sections should be for team
leaders

164. Control
*164
Examples:
•Little Warden Alerts
•GSC alerts (new API 🤞)
•SEO tool alerts
What should go in these
sections
Metrics that require technical
SEO governance to allow the
team to be more effective
•Process confirmations
•Technical checks
•Automated metrics
These sections should be for
technical practitioners only

165. Action
*165
• Various data mash-ups that
provide insight to SEO teams
and allow them to perform their
job more effectively
What should go in these sections
This section is a repository for actionable
data to address specific SEO challenges
•Charts containing data that can be
downloaded and worked on
•Lead metrics that are measuring
progress on resolving these outputs, i.e.
reducing number of thin content pages
over time
These sections should be for
technical practitioners only

166. *166
Sam Marsden – http://bit.ly/next-level-gds
*Data from Deepcrawl.com domain

167. *167
Action – sample report

168. Using CrUX API to assess page speed against
competitors
*168
Icon shows the
intention and
audience for
each report.
Action reports
are for technical
practitioners
COMPETITOR AVODAFONE SITE
http://bit.ly/
crux-report

169. And remember, all DS charts can be downloaded to
excel/csv
*169
Allows our DS
report to
become an
actionable
toolset

170. Taking GDS to the
next level
170 *

171. Visualisation
Data
Data Pipelining

172. Data Storage
Visualisation
Data
Data Pipelining

173. 173 *
Why do we need to use data storage?
Bringing data into our data storage layer allows us
to develop a more mature, robust data
management solution. Some use cases included:
•Solving data storage restrictions of original
sources, i.e. 16 months of viewable data from
GSC
•Allowing us to aggregate data from multiple
sources. Combining data to create useful
visualisations and output
•Supporting custom attribution models and
funnels, outside the scope of individual platforms
or data sources
•Building our SEO data lake
Data Storage
Visualisation
Data

174. How did we deliver on
our 5 challenges?
174 *

175. *175
1. Needed a single report for multiple stake-holders
Application rather than a
report gives us a
roadmap and adoption

176. Malta Spain Germany Netherlands
Greece Hungary Turkey Ireland
UK Italy Romania Czech Republic
India
Qatar
Egypt
South Africa
Australia
New Zealand
Ghana
Europe Asia Africa Oceania
Portugal Kenya
2. Needed to standardise SEO reporting across multiple OpCos
Framework has allowed
us to standardise
reporting and raise
reporting standards

177. *177
3. Need to be data-driven and automated
Data now available and
process/business case in
place to drive automation
and pipelining

178. 178
4. Lack of internal, specialist resource to deploy
Community-driven data
analysis and mashups w/
DS cookbook

179. *179
5. Budget needs to be spent creatively and efficiently
Data-first approach to
SEO tools has reduced
costs & increased usage

180. Where do we go next?
180 *

181. 181
Data ecosystem between group and
opco’s
SEO becomes a use case
for data pipelining
around the organisation

182. 182 *
Data pipelining and portability between teams
Sharing footfall, Cost per
store visit (CPSV),
internal search and
Google Ads data

183. 183 *
We’ve only just begun

184. Thank You
184 *

185. Understanding the problems
Final Questions?
Luci Wood - The rise of 'pre-search’: tips for
optimising for Google Discover
Roxana Stingu - Product Image Optimisation
Nick Wilsdon - Using Google Data Studio and
Big Query to create your own SEO tools and
reporting
Luci Wood - SEO Director
(Blue Array)
@incorgnito_mode
Roxana Stingu - Head of SEO
(Alamy)
@RoxanaStingu
Nick Wilsdon - Group Search
Programme - Project Lead
(Vodafone)
@nickwilsdon

186. Understanding the problems
Stay Up-to Date
@MattWSEO
Matt Williamson
@nickynoises
Nicky Elson
Website Coming Soon!
@ReadingSEO