This document discusses optimizing websites for search engine optimization (SEO) using consumer content like reviews. It identifies the six main types of searches and five themes Google focuses on. It recommends scoring pages based on these themes and prioritizing SEO projects accordingly. The document also presents data showing significant traffic increases from highlighting relevant consumer reviews on category pages and adjusting the approach based on results.

1. The leading industry event by digital marketers for digital marketers
powered by BRIGHTEDGE
Consumer Content Search Optimization
Michael DeHaven
Head of SEO, Bazaarvoice
@stormseo

2. How do we search?

3. 70XHT780070 inch LED TV70 inch 1080p Smart LED TVLED TV for my poolside deck[brand]LED TV[brand] LED TV
There are only 6 types of searches. Homepage
Intent
Branded
Category
Generic
Category
Modified
Category
Product
Name & ID
Extreme
Long Tail
@stormseo #share15

4. Homepage
Intent
Branded
Category
Generic
Category
Modified
Category
Product
Name & ID
Extreme
Long Tail
Brand
Advertising
Homepage
Traffic70% 30%
There are only 6 types of searches.
Discovery Consideration
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5. Where do we click?

6. @stormseo #share15
Search position still matters.
36.3%
19.8%
13.3%
9.3%
6.9% 6.1%
5.0%
4.1% 3.7% 3.8% 4.6%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11+
Increase traffic by
4x to 9x by moving target
keywords into the top 3.
Source: Consolidated cross-client
Google Search Console data,
July 2015

7. How does Google invest?
Confidential and Proprietary. © 2015 Bazaarvoice, Inc.7

8. Five investment themes:
• Content
• Markup
• Reputation
• User Experience
• Freshness
26 Panda and JavaScript Indexing
Schema.org and Rich Snippets
PageRank and 7+ Penguin
Hummingbird and Page Layout
Caffeine and Freshness

9. Where is the greatest SEO opportunity?

10. @stormseo #share15
Score your site based on these themes.
Category-level pages
typically lack unlinked
content, freshness,
structured markup, and
social content.
Source: Bazaarvoice page quality
analysis, August 2015
2.5
0.8
4.7
3.4
0.7
3.8
4.6
2.5
4.24.3
2
3.4
2
1.3
4.8
HOMEPAGE CATEGORY PRODUCT
Content Markup Reputation User Experience Freshness

11. @stormseo #share15
Prioritize investments based on the themes.
Stack rank your SEO
project backlog using
these themes. Do the
projects first that map to
the greatest number of
Google investment
themes.
Cont. Mark Repu. UX Fres. Total
Project A Y Y Y Y Y 5
Project C Y Y Y 3
Project B Y Y 2
Project D Y Y 2
Project E Y Y 2

12. Do reviews belong on category pages?

13. @stormseo #share15
Highlight products loved by the community.
Highlight well-loved products.**
Display relevant reviews.**
Include proper schema.org markup.
Optionally include page-level aggregate
rating schema.org markup.
** Bazaarvoice innovation, patent-pending UX.

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Intelligently select content – Spotlights.
Select relevant review content.**
Hunt for target keywords.**
Randomize to ensure freshness.**
Update content selection algorithms
based on industry-wide analysis.
** Bazaarvoice innovation, patent-pending algorithms.

15. What’s the impact?

16. 25% increase in traffic to pages where Spotlights was deployed.
This data was seasonally adjusted and relative to a control group of similar pages.
24% decrease in traffic to pages when Spotlights was removed.
This data was relative to a control group of similar pages.
Significant increases in traffic from untargeted keywords.
Source: Google Search Console data representing an add then remove experiment.
@stormseo #share15

17. Does this method work everywhere?

18. @stormseo #share15
Optimize with the refinement period.
Adjust the contract and configuration
based on the pages where you have
decided to keep the content.
Post-Refinement
Using BrightEdge tools, internal and
Bazaarvoice data, group pages into:
must stay
possible expansion
minimal impact
Refinement Period
Deploy Spotlight Instances on
AT LEAST 3x the number of pages
purchased in the initial contract.
Initial Deployment

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1 6 Search Types: target keywords and UX
2 5 Google Themes: score and prioritize using perspective
3 Consumer Content: achieve a constant flow
4 Consumer Content: leverage broadly for SEO gains

20. The leading industry event by digital marketers for digital marketers
powered by BRIGHTEDGE
Consumer Content Search Optimization
Michael DeHaven
Head of SEO, Bazaarvoice
@stormseo