How SEO works in 2020: An in-depth inquiry into Google's algorithm

1. How SEO Works in 2020: An in-depth inquiry into Google’s algorithm Online Marketing Sydney Conference 2020

2. http://bit.ly/omsyd-seo Get your copy and follow along

3. Bernard Huang Co-founder at Clearscope Partner at Mushi Labs @bernardjhuang bernard@clearscope.io Bio

4. How Google determines where your content initially ranks A simpliﬁed view on Google’s algo (2020) Relevant backlinks Subject matter authority Search Query Deserves X User engagement signals How Google decides whether you rank up or down } { Technical considerations { Helps Google access, understand, and crawl content

5. HelpsGoogleaccesscontent How Google decides whether you rank up or down A simpliﬁed view on Google’s algo (2020) Determines where Google initially ranks your content } } }

6. Help Google access, understand, and crawl content

7. Technical considerations

8. Understand * <title>, <h*>, alt img, etc. * schema.org * hreﬂang Crawl * page-load speed * site “cleanliness” (broken links, 404s, 500s, everything not 200) Access * robots.txt * sitemap.xml * internal linking + information architecture Other * mobile friendliness * secure (https://) Technical considerations

9. (+) Positive factors + 50 (good click-through-rate) + 100 (relevant backlinks) + 100 (subject matter expertise) + 200 (high user engagement) (-) Negative factors - ∞ (can’t crawl/access page)* - 25 (not secure) - 50 (slow page load) - 100 (not mobile friendly) How to think about technical SEO (example) +175 total “score”

10. + 525 (winner) How to think about technical SEO (example) + 490 + 465 + 400 + 395

12. How Google determines where your content initially ranks

13. Relevant backlinks WebMD article on [keto diet] * How “authoritative” is WebMD in general? Example: 82 * How “authoritative” is WebMD in `health`? Example: 94 * How “authoritative” is WebMD in `health` > `ketosis`? Example: 92 NY Times article on [keto diet] * How “authoritative” is NY Times in general? Example: 93 * How “authoritative” is NY Times in `health`? Example: 72 * How “authoritative” is NY Times in `health` > `ketosis`? Example: 54 What about `health` > `ketosis` > `diets`?

14. Links from pages that perform well in the SERPS = highly relevant links Backlinks + machine learning (ML) signal

15. Subject matter authority https://youtu.be/mmQl6VGvX-c

16. Subject matter authority (knowledge graph)

17. Subject matter authority (knowledge graph)

18. How does your content compare against Google’s knowledge graph? Subject matter authority (knowledge graph)

19. How are your other pieces of content around this subject matter performing? Subject matter authority (your site)

20. Relevant backlinks + subject matter authority Improve Google’s willingness to “seed” your content for the range of keywords it could rank for higher in the SERPs.

21. What’s the range of keyword permutations you could deserve to rank for? Subject matter authority (knowledge graph)

22. Relevant backlinks + subject matter authority Increase your range of keyword combinations you could rank for within a piece of content on Google.

23. Why content pruning? * say you have 10 pages talking addressing [XXXX health benefits] * all 10 pages pull in 10,000 organic hits per month * shouldn’t the next page you publish about [XXXX health benefits] be worth ~1,000 hits? Why topic clustering? * “land and expand” * prove to Google’s algo that your content within a subject matter is engaging and satisfies the searcher * makes winning another topic within a similar category much easier Subject matter authority (ML signals)

24. HelpsGoogleaccesscontent How Google decides whether you rank up or down A simpliﬁed view on Google’s algo (2020) } } } Determines where Google initially ranks your content

25. [live example] * example search query from audience? * Google + Google Cloud NLU

26. How Google decides whether you rank up or down

27. Ahrefs keyword explorer for [wine health beneﬁts], what’s happening? How Google decides whether you rank up

28. Associations EAT (quality) multimedia recency locality trust ugc (reviews / photos) +++ lots more +++ Search query deserves X Content type article request a quote product listing features page review / video catalog / directory Searcher intent topics subtopics

29. [coronavirus] Recency & media authority

30. [how to surf] Multimedia

31. [plumbers in sydney] Locality & reviews

32. [vacuum cleaners] Quantity & brand

33. [wine health beneﬁts] EAT & content quality

34. What does your search query deserve?

38. Why expertise / authority / trust (EAT)? * Your money your life (YMYL) searches have signiﬁcant impact on people’s lives * Google’s algo looks for higher signals of “EAT” for certain queries * search query deserves EAT Why content refreshes? * topics change over time * Google’s algo weights “fresh/recent” content more for certain queries * search query deserves recency Search query deserves X (ML signals)

39. Why backlinks? * search query deserves medical authority / domain authority Why PR? * search query deserves brand Why UGC? * search query deserves trust Why video embeds? * search query deserves multimedia Why local citations? * search query deserves locality Why widgets? * search query deserves tool Search query deserves X (ML signals)

40. What does your search query deserve? “ Serve and optimize for the most relevant associations that match what the search query deserves. ”

41. Concluding the search journey * Google is serving a search engine results page (SERP) that has the highest likelihood of concluding the search journey ✅ no additional search on google ✅ no additional click on another search result Leading signals * subject matter authority (other content you’ve produced) * domain authority (relevant links) * click through rate * avg. time on page * bounce rate User engagement signals

42. User engagement signals (leading) No clickey? No likey.

43. + User engagement signals (conclude journey)

44. Start search journey > [how to get rid of pimples]: 40,500 1. How to get rid of pimples ← 2. How to get rid of pimples ← … 10. How to get rid of pimples “Not wanted I wanted….” Conclude search journey > [how to get rid of pimples fast]: 22,200 1. How to get rid of pimples fast ← 2. How to get rid of pimples fast … 10. How to get rid of pimples fast User engagement signals (conclude journey)

45. User engagement signals (conclude journey)

48. Why single target intent content > topic clusters? * Topic clusters (eg. Ultimate Guide to X) are too broad (in most cases). * If you were searching for [how to get rid of pimples], clicked on a topic cluster (“Ultimate Guide to Getting Rid of Pimples), and got the ﬁrst section that said “What is a Pimple?” -- what would you do? Why search intent > keywords? * Google is understanding searcher journeys and doing a much better job serving relevant content * Search intent with little to no monthly search volume can and will rank for head topics Search query deserves X (ML signals)

49. User engagement signals “ Identify and create content around the searcher intent that users actually care about for the topics you’re targeting. ”

50. [live example] * example search query from audience? * search intent classiﬁcation exercise

52. Data-driven SEO (article) * A step-by-step walkthrough of how to approach SEO. Recording of a Clearscope kickoff call (video) * My best practices of all the things to consider in a content workﬂow using Clearscope. Additional resources Clearscope (SaaS) * Modern SEO software using NLP to help content teams create higher quality content (example analysis). Programmatic SEO (presentation) * Yelp/Zillow SEO takes a different approach. Best practices on managing 1M+ URLs.

53. Questions? bit.ly/omsyd-seo bernard@clearscope.io @bernardjhuang