Learn about how Google's shift to Mobile-First Indexing is making it easier for Google to crowd search results, especially mobile search results with 'hosted inclusions' which are part of the Knowledge Graph. Google hosts these assets, and uses the click information to hone their algorithm about how to best match searches and questions with answers. Unfortunately, 'Hosted Inclusions' such as: Knowledge Graph, People Also Ask, Found on the Web and Related Searches generally do not drive people to your site. Instead, they keep people in Google's universe. The lack of clicks from search results in SEO's making major decisions on only 38.5% of the data.
15. THAT CAUSES PROBLEMS!
Desktop search
results are not
visible in the
mobile SERP
31% 11%
Only
(10.68%)
URLs keep their
positions in
both SERPs
16. THAT CAUSES PROBLEMS!
Desktop search
results are not
visible in the
mobile SERP
31% 11% 13%
Only Only
(12.86%)(10.68%)
URLs keep their
positions in
both SERPs
Domains keep
their positions
in both SERPs
17. “Hey – this
wasn’t in the
SERP last
week was it?
When did this
thing show
up?”
18. This Happens a Lot in
Mobile SEO
MobileMoxie.com
@Suzzicks
44. iOS & Android Results
for Each Keyword
Maps, Apps, KG & Ads
for Each Keyword
Panic Room Supplies Survival Provisions
Helena,
MO
New Orleans,
LA
KG/FS
KG/FS
45. Google is an
Answer Engine
– Not just a
Search Engine
MobileMoxie.com
@Suzzicks
98. Industry
Average CTR
(Search)
Average CVR
(Search)
Advocacy 4.41% 1.96%
Auto 4.00% 6.03%
B2B 2.41% 3.04%
Consumer Services 2.41% 6.64%
Dating & Personals 6.05% 9.64%
E-Commerce 2.69% 2.81%
Education 3.78% 3.39%
Employment Services 2.42% 5.13%
Finance & Insurance 2.91% 5.10%
Health & Medical 3.27% 3.36%
Home Goods 2.44% 2.70%
Industrial Services 2.61% 3.37%
Legal 2.93% 6.98%
Real Estate 3.71% 2.47%
Technology 2.09% 2.92%
Travel & Hospitality 4.68% 3.55%
So Keep
These
Numbers
in Mind –
They Also
Impact SEO
104. CONSIDER THE MATH
Is the Traffic Drop
Attributable to an
Decrease in Mobile
CTR or an Increase in
Paid CTR?
Did Top Keywords
Drop in Search
Volume in Google
Trends?
105. CONSIDER THE MATH
Is the Traffic Drop
Attributable to an
Decrease in Mobile
CTR or an Increase in
Paid CTR?
Did Top Keywords
Drop in Search
Volume in Google
Trends?
Did the Average
Number or size of
Featured Snippets
Increase?
111. OLD SEO BASICS
STRONG HEADLINES
HEADING & SUB HEADING TAGS
SCHEMA & HREFLANG
ALT TEXT
LINK RELATED CONTENT
MobileMoxie.com
@Suzzicks
112. NEW SEO BASICS
STRONG HEADLINES
HEADING & SUB HEADING TAGS
SCHEMA & HREFLANG
ALT TEXT
LINK RELATED CONTENT
OPTIMIZE FOR HOSTED INCLUSIONS
GMB & POSTS
GOOGLE MERCHANT CENTER
AUDIO, VIDEO & IMAGE ASSETS
SPEAKABLE SCHEMA
MobileMoxie.com
@Suzzicks
113. • Track Mobile Keyword Rankings
from ANYWHERE IN THE
WORLD
• -Specific Address
• -Service Area
• -City Centers
• -Address CSV Upload
• PROMO CODE:
ENGAGE2019
--TRY OUR TOOLS–
1 MONTH FREE
PROMO CODE:
ENGAGE2019
Editor's Notes
Mobile-First Indexing & the Story Your Data isn’t Telling You
MFI is a fundamental shift in Google’s Indexing and it enables a much stronger, more forward-thinking business model that will carry them into the future. I don’t want to talk about what is in the documentation. You should read it, but I think it intentionally misses the larger point that I am going to talk about today. I am showing you a pretty picture to soften the blow ----
Because the cost of you doing the same old shit for your customers is only increasing, and my goal today is to change the way you are thinking about SEO as a whole. Sorry IN ADVANCE!
But before we start with that, lets review some basic facts about ostriches – just what you need first thing in the morning!
What Happens What a Flightless Bird gets scared?
Sometimes they run like crazy…
Sometimes they hide…
Or maybe they hide like this…
And sometimes when SEO’s are a bit nervous, they do this too, but not just one at a time….
They do it as a group, reassuring everyone else that everything is ok. And if they are doing anything with their heads in the sand, it is looking at analytics, because who in their right mind would argue with data and numbers. Right?!?!
But what if Your Analytics Are Not Giving You the Full Story?
What if they are wrong? What if they are causing you to make bad decisions on incomplete data? That is a problem – right. At MobileMoxie, we see this a lot. We tend to be the SEO’s of SEO’s – and I can’t even remember the last time that we worked with a client that didn’t already have an SEO team. And these are smart SEO’s who are good at looking at data. The problem is…
Sometimes the data just doesn’t make sense. How do you explain something like this?
Who has been in a situation like this? You are getting weird data that doesn’t make any sense, and your bosses demand answers about what is going on, data to back it up. Look – in this example Average Position Improved but total clicks plummeted – WHY? Stuff like this happens all the time, and we just shrug our shoulders because the numbers don’t explain it. But that is not how it has to be.
In this presentation, I am going to show you that the data that most SEO’s base their decisions on might be leading them to the wrong conclusions, and I am going to show you what to do about it.
What a lot of great SEO’s are forgetting is that world wide, mobile represents more than half of the searches –
But the problem is that most SEO’s and SEO tools still focus heavily on Desktop results. They look at it in the data, and use it for testing and talking about during meetings.
There is a gap between what SEO’s do and know in their real life, and what they are advising their clients to do. Statistically, SEO’s are searching on mobile, and their behavior is not THAT different than regular people. Using Desktop results to test for SEO causes problems….
That causes problems - SEMRush took top 50 000 high volume keywords in the US and compared mobile and desktop organic search results: 31% of desktop results are not visible in the mobile SERP.
Only 11% of URLs keep their positions in both SERPs
And Only 13% of Domains keep their positions in both SERPs
When Google adds something new to the SERP – especially the mobile SERP, it takes SEO’s awhile to realize it - but by the time they realize it, (And say something like “Hey – this wasn’t in the SERP last week was it? When did this thing show up?” they often have no way of seeing what the result used to be, to help quantify the impact of the change.
Or, maybe they are being super diligent, and taking mobile screen shots, of SERPS every now and then, but then they only have a portion of the result, and it – of course, is impacted by all of their location and history information. So…. The reality with all of the recent changes in the SERP is that…
So it is hard to manage, and consequently, This Happens a Lot in Mobile SEO
Lets start with the basics: Mobile Results are Changing Drastically!
We know this. It seems like Barry Schwartz has not gone more than a week without announcing something new in the SERP or in the algorithm this year, and the later part of last year. And he focuses on SEO, but things are changing in paid too!!! Results are changing so fast that no one can keep up!
… I want you NOT to be one of the SEO’s Just Pretending this stuff Isn’t Happening!
….and FYI – there is no indication when something like this changes your traffic – BUT how could something like this NOT change your traffic?
But it’s ok. I BELIEVE in you!
If you have read anything that we have published at MM recently, you know that we believe that MFI is really EFI.
-What does that mean? It means that Google has re-organized it’s brain around entities, rather than keywords. It is a fundamental shift, because it means that language and keywords are one-step removed from rankings. They are used to modify larger, language agnostic concepts called entities.
Entities are concepts that persist across all languages. The entity relationships are the same in every language, so Google can learn something once, and then assume it to be true in all languages. This is powerful, and it changes the game.
Two Kinds of Results: Hosted Inclusion from the Knowledge Graph and Organic Blue Links
Even if you never work with international clients or sites, it changes how SEO is done, and it means that there will be an increasing cost to your clients of you doing the same old shit – an increasing loss because the game has changed.
We believe that there are now 2 kinds of results – Hosted Inclusions and Organic Blue Links. Hosted inclusions are assets that have been incorporated into the KG and blue links are, to some degree, relics from the previous iteration of Google’s indexing.
Hosted Inclusions:
---Found on the Web
---People Also Ask
---Related Searches
Featured Snippets are The Hosted Inclusion with the Most Rapid Growth
April 2018 – August 2018 The Number of Featured Snippets on a SERP grew 6x
Featured Snippets & Hybrid Featured Snippets
And Double-Featured Snippets
Other Hosted Inclusions are Part of the Knowledge Graph Too
Hosted Inclusions: Growing in Frequency, Variety & Functionality
Hosted Inclusions: Growing in Frequency, Variety & Functionality
Hosted Inclusions: Growing in Frequency, Variety & Functionality
Hosted Inclusions: Growing in Frequency, Variety & Functionality
There are Now Way More Links in One SERP – and they are more interesting than ever before
There are Now Way More Links in One SERP
More clickable than ever before
Rob Bucci – Answer Carousels
Answer Carousels
What Does Position 1 in Organic Even Mean Now? Especially when it is Halfway Down the Page!
So lets look at a Case Study. When an ostrich is scared, they might panic, and if they can’t bury their heads in the sand, they might want to install a panic room. The problem is, panic rooms are –very confusing for Google,
There is a movie with a Movie KG
An in some places, Google confuses the concept of a Panic Room with the concept of an Escape Room – when actually these things are very different – One is for fun and games, and the other is a literal bunker stocked for the apocalypse.
So if you sell Panic Room supplies, you have a hard job, and lots of companies have to rely heavily on PPC. Top organic results are below PLA’s, a long Featured Snippet and PPA’s. Then, if you have added the word ‘supplies’ to the end of the query, you start to get good results, but they are less good, if you use less tactical terms like ‘snacks’ or even ‘food.’
So in looking at a company that sells supplies for bunkers and panic rooms, we thought it was necessary to see – how often map packs for Escape Rooms were pushing organic web results down – and for what keywords, and which keywords were triggering the Knowledge Graph for the movie Panic Room. We looked at the lowest performing cities where we knew we got orders, but organic was under-performing, and paid was more needed to support traffic.
And we generated a color coded spreadsheet, to help illustrate what was going on.
So each query showed the top 4 ranking sites, and if there were ads, KG or Featured Snippets, and maps.
Where do ostriches live?
Google is an Answer Engine – Not just a Search Engine
[STOMP] Google is an Answer Engine – Not just a Search Engine
This is a Really Big Deal! And ignoring all the stuff that is not even showing up in your data is a habit that is not serving your clients.
Google is an Answer Engine – Not just a Search Engine
How fast can Ostriches run?
Ostrich sound called
Google is an Answer Engine – Not just a Search Engine
How tall is an Ostrich?
Google is an Answer Engine – Not just a Search Engine
How to hatch ostrich eggs
Google is an Answer Engine – Not just a Search Engine
How long do ostriches live?
Google is an Answer Engine – Not just a Search Engine
With FS at the top PPA in the middle and Related Searches at the bottom – Answers are now all throughout the SERP
And one new, important part of EFI is Fraggles. Knowledge Graph is ok for an Answer, but we think, the only way that your website can be a voice result – if it not a FS or a KG result is Fraggles.
Fraggles is a word that I am borrowing from Jim Henson, to describe a new asset in search results that combine a fragment and a handle.
This is what that process looks like:
Video Fraggle
Audio Fraggle
Audo Fraggle
AMP Highlighting for Featured Snippets
They Can Re-Mix Content they Host in AMP Stories & Knowledge Graph Navigation Sometimes Persist – Steve Irwin Again
These are all Examples of Entity-First Indexing
[Cheetah] And They Are generally NOT Represented in Your Analytics
Rand – Google Searches with Zero Clicks
61.5% of the Mobile Search Data IS NOT Represented in Your Analytics
So Mobile SEO decisions are based on only of the 38.5% Data
So I interpret the JumpShot data this way – It is No Website Clicks – not necessarily no Clicks. Some of that 61.% percent is clicking – but they are clicking on Google stuff. Knowledge Graph, Disambiguation, PAA’s, Related Searches, Maps, Apps, PPC, Images. Basically – hosted inclusions.
Google & Their Users LOVES Hosted Inclusions!
Once you get past the pretty pictures, it feels a bit like this for a user.
We know users like the fancy formatting from something that happened just recently in the EU.
This is not a loading issue – it is intentional by Google, because there was a law suit against Google, saying that showing news assets in a search was a violation of intellectual property rights. So they stopped showing titles, images, and any description or synopsis.
So what happened?
Overall traffic to the sites dropped 45%. So that tells us that we want the pretty treatments that Google is offering – whenever we can get them.
As SEO’s we need to start to think like Google, to Predict what Google will do - And the key to this is APIs
Google Indexing API lets you get pages in or out of their Index in 24 hours.
David Sottimano and Richard Baxter
Start to think XML & Schema as API’s for Google.
Now start to ALSO think of GMB, AMP & Google News APIs to Google.
Some hosted inclusion, like the new one from the Merchant Center – is like a Free PLA. It is just from an XML feed, and it will drive purchases, but potentially not website traffic.
And Google appears to be a bit greedy about building out their KG – More often than before, they are either showing Featured Snippets too often, when they are not appropriate, or including entries for in the KG that are fake, false or misleading.
Anything Google Hosts or Ingest as a Feed Seems to Have An Advantage
They Can Speak Them on a Google Home, or with Google Assistant
And remember, Entity ID’s from the Knowledge Graph are Numeric. Language Agnostic
And they can even translate it. Notice here how the KG is in one language – determined by the search settings or phone settings – is not the same as the language of the query or the blue links below it. So far, this is only happening with KG and reviews in GMB, but we expect this to expand to FS and other Hosted Inclusions. But you might not notice it, if you are not testing with different language settings that you would never use on your personal phone.
Here is a zoom – where the query is in English but the KG is in Hindi.
And all that is made possible by this – The Google Cloud Natural language API. And you can use this to evaluate text from your site – to see how Google understands it and what the entities are.
So lets quickly fit in another Case Study – this time, instead of hiding in a Panic Room, lets talk about running.
In preparation for Nike opening a new store in Australia, they wanted to know how they were doing, and how the new store might compete or add to organic traffic and sales from the area. So we did some basic searches, and found something surprising.
Found on the Web Results – that show competition, and host Featured Snippet Carousels in expanders. Now these are not really FRAGGLES because they link to full pages without a jump link, but they could soon include Fraggles. But how would you know if stuff like this was happening, or when it started, if you are not looking at real mobile SERPS or tracking them over time. It is very unlikely that your rank tracking software is getting these, but it is VERY likely that they are getting clicks. Doing something like this doesn’t help you rank better directly – it helps you understand and interpret drops in traffic and problems in your analytics when things don’t make sense.
So we followed basically the same process – looking at top keywords, but in a much more dense area, defined by a radius around the new store location.
So this is what that looked like
And we translated the data into a spreadsheet like this – that focused more on the Map pack, and highlighted, but also showed if Found on the Web results were there. And this helped them know more about which keywords they should expect traffic to change for, how the existing map packs looked, and when they should not worry about certain keywords because the Found on the Web Inclusion was pushing the kinds of rankings that we were optimizing for down too low to be impactful.
But, there is Something Else….
Paid is Getting More Compelling for Ostriches
This is especially true in PPC. The JumpShot sata showed that mobile CTR has been as high as 9.8% in June of 2018.
And in some industries, this is has more impact than others.
I know that none of this changes how much your bosses and clients want to see SEO growth, but it should.
But CEO’s are notorious for ignoring major changes in the industry until it is too late. Just think about Music recording companies, newspapers and cable TV. They were not immune from larger changes to the market, and neither are you or your clients.
But it still sucks to face those unreasonable expectations.
So it might be important to do some research and show some people the math. Start with the basics – did the search demand for the things that you are marketing go down? Look in Google Trends for the larger terms, where they will have data.
Is the Traffic Drop Attributable to an Decrease in Mobile CTR or an Increase in Paid CTR?
Did the Average Number or size of Featured Snippets Increase?
Next – do everything you can to Get into the Knowledge Graph – even if you are not driving a traditional KG result – FS and other Hosted Inclusions are a great start.
Do some research and find out how you relate to stuff that is already in the KG – Use tools like Search the KG
Look at Google’s KG API
https://developers.google.com/apis-explorer/#p/kgsearch/v1/kgsearch.entities.search?query=dog&_h=1&
Use the MarketFinder Tool to see how you are already classified - This, and the deeper integration of PPC into maps and GMB makes us believe that PPC is also part of the Knowledge Graph
We Need to Reconsider what IS & what IS NOT SEO…
Old SEO Basics
Strong Headlines
Heading & Sub Heading Tags
Schema & HrefLang
Alt Text
Link Related Content
New SEO Basics –
Optimize for Hosted Inclusions
GMB & Posts - OneUp let you schedule Google Posts.
Google Merchant Center – Just an XML feed
Audio, Video & Image Assets – Hard to game stuff like this
Speakable Schema – FAQ, Q&A, How To