The Changing SERPS and how to act on it - Bas van den Beld at A4U Expo Munich

A4U Expo EuropeMünchen 2010
Bas van den Beld
The changing SERPS and what to do with them

Who am I?

One sheet about me
NetTraject
Search & social strategy expert, blogger, trainer, speaker
Radioshow
Founder Searchcowboys
Founder Stateofsearch.com
International blogger

The SERPS are changing
How do we handle these changes?

What is a “SERP”?
Search
Engine
Results
Page

What are we going to talk about?
Understanding search engines
A look at the changes
Strategies on how to handle the changes
Extra:
Some specific tips
Q&A

To understand the changes…
You must understand how the search engines “think”

Search engines are like humans
If others say its good, they believe it
Therefore links matter…

How do search engines think?
User intent
Search Engines are trying to understand what the user really wants

How do search engines think?
Hand out the information as fast as you can

We live in a Google World

Google dominates Europe
97%
90%
94%
94%
97%
59%
97%
97%
95%
99%
97%
98%
95%
96%
95%
95%
98%
97%
97%

More than Google?

2nd largest search engine?
Another one…

2nd largest search engine?

Guess who owns YouTube…

Guess who integrates YouTube…

Focus on Google

Let’s take a look at the SERPS

1,8 + 1
How do users respond to this?
Users look at a page for max 1,8 second
Users only take 1 look

How do users respond to this?
Top results are important

Google is changing

Google is changing
Google is looking at the user
User intent

There was the design change

Google is changing
And its not about the films

Universal Search
Search results pages now include
Video
Images
PR/News Releases
Maps/Local Search
Products
Books
Finance
… AND MORE

Let’s take a good look at the changes

Google is changing
Research shows: images attract attention
NL

Google is changing
Image search
Google is not always right…

Google is changing
Video is becoming more important

Google is changing
Google responses to location

Local - Places

Google is changing
Newsrelated articles can change in the top of the SERPS
The placement of the News results can change, based on relevance

Google is changing
Users are tempted to use the suggestions
Suggestions are based on number of searches

Google is changing
Results from your friends in your ‘social circle’

Google is changing
All elements are shown within the SERPS

Changes in responses
Other results are getting more attention

More changes

More changes
“Realtime” becoming more important

Realtime going to specific places

More changes
Personalized Search
Rankings might change from one person to another!

Personalized search

Personalized search
They are spending more time on the Google pages

A little trick
Cd=1

Google’s redesign

Google’s extra sidebar
Different types
Time differences
Social or not
Already visited pages

Google’s extra sidebar
In images other options
Sizes
Types
Colors

What does that mean for response?

What does that mean for response?
Source: http://www.explido-webmarketing.de

Shopping results

Music
Playing songs in the results

Brands
Vince Update: Brands

Not all is good for Brands

Search in search
Local results

Mobile
Mobile is not the future, its here already

Mobile Universal

Mobile Suggest

Google Goggles

We have to change with the SERPS
Changing the way you think is hard but important

Don’t change and you will be lonely…

Dare to look in different directions

Dare to step away from your site

Listen to your audience

Communicate with your potential visitor
Communicate at their place

Make sure it fits both you and your target audience
Go where your visitors go, but only if it fits

Twitter is not sacred but handy
But Twitter is being indexed by the engines…

Use YouTube

Use images, both on and off your site
They will recognize you

Use bloggers
Blogs are well indexed and found
Get in touch with 'influentials'
If they talk about you they will find you

The Sony example
New LCD TV launched, pre-informed bloggers

The Sony example
Optimized video’s

The Sony example
At the launch they dominated the SERPS

But I’m an affiliate, not Sony!

Can Affiliates do this?

The affiliate way
Think outside of the box
Be creative

Dominate the results

Next Steps?
Be creative
Listen to your audience
Look outside your own site
Look what fits you
Dominate the SERPS!!

Tip
Check what Tom Critchlow said on Universal Search

Questions?
www.stateofsearch.com
www.basvandenbeld.com
www.nettraject.nl
twitter.com/basvandenbeld
linkedin.com/basvandenbeld
Thanks to @jondmyers for some of the examples

Image optimisation
Ensure image has keyword relevant name or it is game over at the start
Include Alt Attribute (alt=“keywords”) – bit dated but works!
Use a title/headline by your image
If possible, place it on separate page
Inbound links are always a good option
Include relevant text to surround it
Use dashes rather than underscores in multiword images names – seems to work!
Source: @jondmyers

Local optimisation
Can appear in first position pushing almost all results below fold
Submission to Google Local Business (Places) is a must
Use unique phone number as identifier
If you have Multiple Locations use a bulk upload sheet or XML Feed
Use Tracked URL on the Ad
Don't forget SEO of content as well!
Think Local optimise keywords to include location including on Tags image, Page and within URL
Get local links to local pages with related locality anchor text
Ensure high degree of relevancy in all submissions of content for local
Source: @jondmyers

Shopping optimisation
Utilise standard on page optimisation techniques
Construct feeds in XML (Google needs data feeds for Google Products to work)
Inclusion within 24 hours
Listings only Live for 30 days
Resubmit maybe once per week in bulk
Detail descriptions a big positive
Make sure the images are high quality
So how does Google Products work?
Source: @jondmyers

News optimisation

News Optimisation
Craft using standard SEO techniques
Ensure newsworthy
Write for it to be posted and picked up by authority sites
Very powerful SEO for large content sites such as Newspaper Groups
Sites Crawled every 5 mins for content
Pick and promote against buzz search from archives and submit to Google News
In News index within 15 mins
Leverage the tie 1 wires to be picked up by Reuters etc
And finally……submit to Google News!
Source: @jondmyers

Video developments
Google has opened their APIs to also include specific sitemaps for videos
It’s no longer just restricted to just YouTube and Google Videos in the SERPs
Can get your video (that’s hosted on your site) included in SERPs
Includes thumbnail of video
YouTube is creating a Video Site search to leverage being Number 2 Search Engine
Can choose to display content against specific brand channels and sites
Source: @jondmyers

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The Changing SERPS and how to act on it - Bas van den Beld at A4U Expo Munich

by Bas van den Beld on May 19, 2010

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