My personal reflections on where search is going and how money is driving Google to clean up link spamming and so make natural search results less laden with commercial results, making adwords more attractive to users and thus Google makes more Bank.

1. 2014. The year of Online Reputation
Nick Garner
CEO 90 Digital

2. An equation for online reputation
Right/Wrong: Content | Time | Place | Source
=
Reputation

3. Trust across media
Below is the Edelman ‘trust barometer’. In the developed world, social media is about
half as trusted as Search results.
And search results are nearly as trusted as traditional media.
Search gives you information you trust, when you ask for it.

4. Search + Trust
73% of users think search engine results are very / reasonably trustworthy
Source: Pew Internet | http://pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2012/PIP_Search_Engine_Use_2012.pdf

5. Search + Trust
66% of users think search engines are fair and unbiased
Source: Pew Internet | http://pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2012/PIP_Search_Engine_Use_2012.pdf

6. In the UK 90% of use:

7. Ecosystems
Think of Google on an ecosystem level and things makes sense.

8. Money

9. Biggest middle man on the internet
£££

10. Hands up if you are a Google user?

11. Every one of you is worth...
£25.02
… to Google

12. Google Q2 ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)
Facebook’s ARPU is 16% of Google’s

13. Google earnings over time

14. By the way...
PPC only accounts for about 7% of clicks. The other 93% of clicks go to natural search.
http://www.smartinsights.com/search-engine-optimisation-seo/seo-analytics/comparison-of-google-clickthrough-rates-by-position/

15. Fear / Uncertainty / Doubt
“If we understand the mechanism
and motives of the group mind, it is
now possible to control and
regiment the masses according to
our will without them knowing it.”
Edward Bernays. Founder of modern PR

16. Webmaster tools messages
Records Stop 01 / 2013

17. Manual action by month
template
10 / 2007
Records Stop 09 / 2012

18. Reconsideration requests by week
The chart is missing...

19. Disavow
Give Penguin the ‘human’ interpretation of spam...

20. Penguin: Nuke any ‘gaming’ of links.
Of that link spam, the following represent the culprits:
●
Forum spam: This includes comments in forums with exact match anchor text links.
●
Forum bio spam: Biographies of forum users containing exact match anchor text links.
●
"Do follow" blogs: Blogs that don't add nofollow to the links posted. "Let's face it," Gabe said. "Being listed on dofollow resource sites can absolutely send Google a signal that you are trying to game links."
●
Blogroll spam: Watch for blogroll links gone wrong. "Some may be fine," Gabe said. "If you are unsure which ones
are bad versus good, ask for help from a seasoned SEO."
●
Spammy directories: If you've used spammy directories in the past, and still have links out there, Gabe said "nuke
them, have them nofollowed, or disavow them."
●
Blog comment signature spam: Google seems to be targeting these links even when they're not followed.
Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2299665/Google-Penguin-2.1-Who-Got-Hit/

21. Money
Reputation

22. The only organic result competing with Adwords...
‘Galaxy note 3’

23. Upshot: Google is killing aggressive, easy, offsite SEO

24. If you can’t beat them, join them
Enter... Google’s ZMOT.

25. ZMOT (Online reputation)
We now use Google to ask
buyer questions:
●
●
●
●
reviews
analysis
trusted opinions
detail

26. So do people ask ‘consideration’ questions on Google?
Google wanted the answer, so they commissioned Shopper Science to investigate
and make sense of online ‘consideration’ behaviour. 5,000 panellists were used.
(that is 5,000 people below)
5,000

27. The results were very interesting
Google found searching online for ‘shopper information’ was as popular as asking friends
and family for buying advice.
Google group these
information
sources as ‘Zero
Moment Of Truth’
(odd name I know)

28. Users touch lots of information sources when in ‘consideration’
On average users look at 10.4 sources of information, mostly online before buying. And the
percentage of people influenced by ZMOT by sector ranges from 61% (Grocery) to 99%
(Travel)
Category: Sector
Sources: No. of different sources of info i.
e. Amazon, a blog and so on
% ZMOT: People mainly using online
sources

29. ZMOT influence heatmaps

30. Keywords are mostly questions, or implied questions.
BRAND AWARENESS
phones long battery life
smartphone reviews
iphone battery life
galaxy note 4 battery life
phones removable batteries
galaxy 4 prices
galaxy 4 spare battery
Cart

31. Now what?
Consideration is asking questions.
As a brand, answer those questions.
Why should I buy your
[product/service] ?
?

32. Your No1 consideration phrase...
BRAND

33. 306% CTR on Brand SERPS using Google WMT data
If you think of a brand query as a ‘consideration question’, then the CTR rates make sense
because people jump around looking at results to help them answer those questions.
http://moz.com/ugc/click-through-rates-in-google-serps-for-different-types-of-queries

34. Creme de la Mer

35. Nivea Creme

36. Searches/M : Nivea Creme 14,800 | Creme de la Mer 27,100

37. Phrase mentions over time

38. Recap
Positively Influence
consideration and you will:
●
●
●
sell stuff
build reputation
improve WOM

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