"The future of SEO: Become a D-E-O." Presentation from SearchStars - Swedens largest search marketing conference.

1. 10/7/18 1
@hannahjthorpe
THE FUTURE OF SEO:
BECOME A D-E-O.
HANNAH THORPE

2. 10/7/18 2
@hannahjthorpe
I THOUGHT
BRAND IS A
RANKING
FACTOR.

3. 10/7/18 3
@hannahjthorpe
WE KNOW THAT THE
GOOGLE ALGORITHM USES
MACHINE LEARNING…

4. 10/7/18 4
@hannahjthorpe
MACHINE LEARNING HAS
HELPED BUILD AN
UNDERSTANDING AROUND
SYNONYMS.

5. 10/7/18 5
@hannahjthorpe
SO WHAT IF BRAND IS
JUST A TYPE OF
KEYWORD?

6. 10/7/18 6
@hannahjthorpe

7. 10/7/18 7
@hannahjthorpe
THESE BRAND
NAMES ARE
INTERCHANGEABLE
FOR ANY OF THEIR
PRODUCTS.

8. 10/7/18 8
@hannahjthorpe
IF GOOGLE
UNDERSTANDS
SYNONYMS, THEN IT
CAN UNDERSTAND
‘SYNONYM BRANDS’.

9. 10/7/18 9
@hannahjthorpe
I THINK THE WAY YOUR
BRAND IS SEARCHED FOR /
SPOKEN ABOUT /
LINKED TO IS A RANKING
FACTOR.

10. 10/7/18 10
@hannahjthorpe
BRAND, BRAND, BRAND,
SYNONYM, SYNONYM,
SYNONYM – THIS IS ALL WE
SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON.
Me, One week ago

11. 10/7/18 11
@hannahjthorpe
THEN GOOGLE HAD A
BIRTHDAY…

12. 10/7/18 12
@hannahjthorpe
NEURAL
MATCHING?!

13. 10/7/18 13
@hannahjthorpe
URM…
WHAT’S
THE WORD
FOR IT..?

14. 10/7/18 14
@hannahjthorpe
30%
OF ALL QUERIES NOW
UTILISE NEURAL
MATCHING,
THROUGH AN AI
LEARNING
STRUCTURE.
10/7/18 ‹#›10/7/18 ‹#›
@hannahjthorpe

15. 10/7/18 15
@hannahjthorpe
ONE STEP BACK. WE
GOOGLE WHEN WE DON’T
KNOW SOMETHING…

16. 10/7/18 16
@hannahjthorpe
IF WE DON’T KNOW THE
WORD TO GOOGLE, IT WILL
HELP US…

17. 10/7/18 17
@hannahjthorpe
GOOGLE IS GIVING US
WHAT WE WANT, BEFORE
WE KNOW IT OURSELVES…

18. 10/7/18 18
@hannahjthorpe
GOOGLE IS
BECOMING A
DISCOVERY ENGINE.

19. 10/7/18 19
@hannahjthorpe
SO HOW IS GOOGLE
CHANGING?

20. 10/7/18 20
@hannahjthorpe
QUITE LITERALLY IN THE CASE OF
THE GOOGLE FEED.

21. 10/7/18 21
@hannahjthorpe
THE TOPIC LAYER
• Single search
• Most relevant sub-
topics
• Sits above the
knowledge graph layer

22. 10/7/18 22
@hannahjthorpe
ACTIVITY CARDS
• Personalisation in
the SERPs
• Stores previous
pages & queries
• Suits longer research
journeys

23. 10/7/18 23
@hannahjthorpe
ENTITY AS A RANKING FACTOR.
The idea that we can push our
rankings forward through entity
associations, and not just links,
is incredibly powerful and
versatile.

24. 10/7/18 24
@hannahjthorpe
OUR STANDARD METHODS
DON’T WORK.

25. 10/7/18 25
@hannahjthorpe
STANDARD SEO TOOLS
STRUGGLE TO PREDICT
MORE THAN 15% OF
RANKING POSITIONS.

26. 10/7/18 26
@hannahjthorpe
34% OF SEARCHES
RESULT IN NO CLICK
FROM THE SERP.

27. 10/7/18 27
@hannahjthorpe
HIGH TRAFFIC IS THE RESULT OF
BEING THE TOP PAGE.

28. 10/7/18 28
@hannahjthorpe
UNLESS THERE’S A CLEAR ANSWER.
Keyword Search Vol Total
Traffic
Page
pustule 14,000 1,350 webmd.com
intemperate 6,000 289 dictionary.com
equiangular 3,600 92 wikipedia.org
december in
spanish
3,500 135 spanishdict.com

29. 10/7/18 29
@hannahjthorpe
WE ARE OPTIMISING FOR
SEARCH, NOT DISCOVERY.

30. 10/7/18 30
@hannahjthorpe
WHAT
WE
ARE
GOING
TO
COVER.
SEARCH.
DOMAIN
HOLDS THE
VALUE
QUERY
BASED
SINGLE
ANSWERS
DISCOVERY.
ENTITY
HOLDS THE
VALUE
QUERYLESS
JOURNEYS

31. 10/7/18 31
@hannahjthorpe
Entities can be
domains or non-
domains (e.g.
TV/Music/Actors/B
rands)
Every entity can
have a sub-entity.
So a domain can be
a sub-entity of the
main non-domain
entity (e.g.
celebrities’
personal sites)
Why are we only
optimising sub-
entities?

32. 10/7/18 32
@hannahjthorpe

33. 10/7/18 33
@hannahjthorpe
SO WE
NEED
TO
FOCUS
ON…
BEING FRONT
OF MIND.
BEING USEFUL.
BEING BETTER
THAN
COMPETITORS.
BEING A
BRAND.

34. 10/7/18 34
@hannahjthorpe
THINK BIG MARKETING
CAMPAIGNS, OFFLINE AND
ONLINE, PRIME TIME TV,
ADVERTISING IN THE BIGGEST
PUBLICATIONS AND BEING SEEN
EVERYWHERE. SPEND ALL OF THE
MONEY.

35. 10/7/18 35
@hannahjthorpe
THAT’S NOT
REALLY
PRACTICAL
ADVICE.

36. 10/7/18 36
@hannahjthorpe
WHAT
WE
ARE
GOING
TO
COVER.
THINK HIGHER UP
THE FUNNEL
SIMPLIFY YOUR
CONTENT
MARK UP ALL THE
THINGS
DESERVE TO RANK
BE USER-CENTRIC
FOR REAL
REPEAT. REPEAT.
REPEAT.

37. 10/7/18 37
@hannahjthorpe
THINK
HIGHER UP
THE FUNNEL.

38. 10/7/18 38
@hannahjthorpe
THERE IS NO SUCH
THING AS A TRULY
ACCURATE SEARCH
VOLUME.

39. 10/7/18 39
@hannahjthorpe
FOR EXAMPLE.
Keyword Search Vol
Cheap windows laptop 2,900
Cheapest windows laptops 2,900
cheap windows lapptop 2,900
windows laptop cheap 2,900

40. 10/7/18 40
@hannahjthorpe
UNDERSTAND THE
CONSUMER’S JOURNEY
AND THE MOMENT
THEY’RE IN INSTEAD.

41. 10/7/18 41
@hannahjthorpe
LOOK AT THE MOMENT.
WHAT ARE YOUR
CUSTOMERS DOING?
WHAT TYPE OF
INFORMATION DO
THEY NEED?

42. 10/7/18 42
@hannahjthorpe
SIMPLIFY
YOUR
CONTENT.

43. 10/7/18 43
@hannahjthorpe
START BY
THINKING ABOUT
FORMAT.

44. 10/7/18 44
@hannahjthorpe
WHAT
WE
ARE
GOING
TO
COVER.
POINT. COMMENT.
POINT.
STRUCTURE
YOUR
CONTENT.
EXPANDED
EXAMPLES.

45. 10/7/18 45
@hannahjthorpe
POINT
EXPANDED
EXAMPLES
COMMENT

46. 10/7/18 46
@hannahjthorpe
TABLES.
Be clear
Keep number of
columns limited (no
more than 5)
Define what’s in the
table

47. 10/7/18 47
@hannahjthorpe
LISTS.
Use numbers or
bullets
No double spacing
Keep points short

48. 10/7/18 48
@hannahjthorpe
USE
STRUCTURED
DATA.
10/7/18 ‹#›10/7/18 ‹#›
@hannahjthorpe

49. 10/7/18 49
@hannahjthorpe
A STANDARDIZED
FORMAT OF PROVIDING
INFORMATION ABOUT
A PAGE AND
CLASSIFYING PAGE
CONTENT.

50. 10/7/18 50
@hannahjthorpe
IMAGES AND PRICES.

51. 10/7/18 51
@hannahjthorpe
CLARITY IN ARTICLES.

52. 10/7/18 52
@hannahjthorpe
WHAT ABOUT
WHEN THERE’S
ZERO SEARCH
RESULTS?

53. 10/7/18 53
@hannahjthorpe
EITHER WE HELP GOOGLE
TO UNDERSTAND, OR WE
ACCEPT THAT WE WON’T
WIN CERTAIN TYPES OF
RESULTS.

54. 10/7/18 54
@hannahjthorpe
DESERVE TO
RANK.
10/7/18 ‹#›10/7/18 ‹#›
@hannahjthorpe

55. 10/7/18 55
@hannahjthorpe
IF YOU DO THE SAME
PRODUCT, FOR THE SAME
PRICE, WHY DO
CONSUMERS CHOOSE YOU?

56. 10/7/18 56
@hannahjthorpe
GOOGLE NEEDS EVIDENCE
YOU’RE THE PREFERRED
BRAND.

57. 10/7/18 57
@hannahjthorpe
WHAT
WE
ARE
GOING
TO
COVER.
THINK ABOUT
YOUR BRAND.
TALK ABOUT
YOUR BRAND.
SEARCH FOR
YOUR BRAND.
CLICK ON YOUR
BRAND.
PEOPLE
NEED
TO…

58. 10/7/18 58
@hannahjthorpe
FOCUS ON
USERS.
10/7/18 ‹#›10/7/18 ‹#›
@hannahjthorpe

59. 10/7/18 59
@hannahjthorpe
THE PERFECT SEARCH ENGINE
WOULD REALLY UNDERSTAND
WHATEVER YOUR NEED IS. IT WOULD
UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING IN THE
WORLD DEEPLY, GIVE YOU BACK
KIND OF EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED.

60. 10/7/18 60
@hannahjthorpe
THE PERFECT SEARCH ENGINE
WOULD REALLY UNDERSTAND
WHATEVER YOUR NEED IS. IT WOULD
UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING IN THE
WORLD DEEPLY, GIVE YOU BACK
KIND OF EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED.

61. 10/7/18 61
@hannahjthorpe
WHO IS ‘YOU’?

62. 10/7/18 62
@hannahjthorpe
GOOGLE IS CHANGING
FOR CONSUMERS, NOT
WEBSITES.

63. 10/7/18 63
@hannahjthorpe
MEASURE
SUCCESS.
10/7/18 ‹#›10/7/18 ‹#›
@hannahjthorpe

64. 10/7/18 64
@hannahjthorpe
WHAT
WE
ARE
GOING
TO
COVER.
BRAND
AND
PRODUCT
SEARCH
VOLUME.
AVERAGE
POSITION
VS. CTR.
SCHEMA/
MARK-UP
CHANGES.
MEASURE
WITH…

65. 10/7/18 65
@hannahjthorpe
[BRAND] + [PRODUCT] SEARCH.

66. 10/7/18 66
@hannahjthorpe
AVERAGE POSITION VS. CTR.

67. 10/7/18 67
@hannahjthorpe
TRACK STRUCTURED DATA.

68. 10/7/18 68
@hannahjthorpe
FINAL
THOUGHTS.

69. 10/7/18 69
@hannahjthorpe
WE NEED TO SEE OUR
OPTIMISATION AS FOR
DISCOVERY, NOT JUST FOR
SEARCH.

70. 10/7/18 70
@hannahjthorpe
WHY?

71. 10/7/18 71
@hannahjthorpe
THE WAY PEOPLE INTERACT
WITH GOOGLE IS CHANGING.
THE WAY GOOGLE INTERACTS
WITH PEOPLE BACK IS ALSO
CHANGING.

72. 10/7/18 72
@hannahjthorpe
WHAT
WE
ARE
GOING
TO
COVER.
THINK HIGHER UP
THE FUNNEL.
SIMPLIFY YOUR
CONTENT.
MARK UP ALL THE
THINGS.
DESERVE TO RANK.
BE USER-CENTRIC
FOR REAL.
REPEAT. REPEAT.
REPEAT.
WHAT
YOU
NEED TO
DO.

73. 10/7/18 73
@hannahjthorpe
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING.
HANNAH.THORPE@FOUND.CO.UK
@HANNAHJTHORPE

74. 10/7/18 74
@hannahjthorpe
REFERENCES.
Slide Source
12-14 https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-neural-matching/271125/
20 https://www.blog.google/products/search/introducing-google-discover/
21 https://www.seroundtable.com/google-topic-layer-knowledge-graph-dynamic-
26421.html
22 https://www.engadget.com/2018/09/24/google-search-activity-card-collections/
23 https://searchengineland.com/google-patent-on-related-entities-and-what-it-means-for-
seo-295727
25 https://www.vervesearch.com/blog/seo-metrics-study/
27-28 https://ahrefs.com/blog/keyword-traffic-estimation/
32 https://twitter.com/randfish/status/1045634641250734080
39 https://www.vervesearch.com/blog/fixing-googles-keyword-search-volume-aggregation/
59-60 http://fortune.com/2012/12/11/fortune-exclusive-larry-page-on-google/