The Pragmatic Future of Search

#INBOUND16@iPullRank
THE PRAGMATIC
FUTURE OF SEARCH
What’s changed, what’s next and
how you can capitalize on it
Michael King @(iPullRank)

DOWNLOAD THIS DECK
http://bit.ly/pragmatic-search

#INBOUND16@iPullRank@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…

#INBOUND16@iPullRank #INBOUND16
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…

1
WHERE HAVE WE BEEN?
(AS IT PERTAINS TO THE
FUTURE)

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 discourage you from
manipulating the link graph.

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

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.

2
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.

3
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.

4
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.
…but AMP has advantages over other
means.

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.

5 WHAT TOOLS SHOULD YOU
USE TO WIN AT 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

Botify – http://www.botify.com

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

STAT – http://www.getstat.com

6 WHO AM I?

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 THE DECK
http://bit.ly/pragmatic-search

The Pragmatic Future of Search

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