Every year, reports are published stating that Google is shifting more to on-SERP SEO, or publishing content for searchers right on the search engine results page (SERP). In this session, Diane Kulseth from Siteimprove will help you focus on three core tenets of your SEO strategy to fight against any drops in traffic coming from SEO, such as: Keyword intent, what it is and why it matters Looking to the SERPs for content direction Strengthening your content with structured data markup and other technical optimizations This intermediate-level session will provide a high-level SEO overview for marketers new to SEO and help attendees walk away with clear takeaways for their firm to reinforce their efforts for the future.

1. Diane Kulseth
SEO Consultant
Siteimprove
SEO 2020:
Building Your Strategy for On-SERP SEO & Beyond

2. Diane Kulseth
SEO Consultant
Siteimprove
• Specializing in SEO and digital
strategy for nearly 10 years
• At Siteimprove for over a year
• Has worked with State
Governments, Higher Education,
Start-Ups, Non-Profits, Agencies,
Fortune 500, Healthcare and
more

3. Agenda
Learning Outcomes What is a SERP?
The Core
Components of SEO
How to compete
against Google
Questions to
Answer

4. Learning Outcomes
UNDERSTANDING SEARCH INTENT
AND WHY IT MATTERS
DISCOVERING HOW TO LOOK TO THE
SERPS FOR CONTENT DIRECTION
UNLOCK THE BEST STRUCTURED
DATA FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION

5. What’s a SERP?
• Search Engine Results Page

6. The Core Components of
SEO

7. The Process Today
AUDIT TECHNICAL CONTENT AUTHORITY MEASURE

8. The Process Isn’t Enough
• More searches are
resulting in no-click,
meaning the searcher
is getting the
information directly off
the SERP

9. Intellectual
Property - Atlanta
• By putting what’s called the
“local pack” first in search
results, firms that have spent
efforts on standard Search
Engine Optimization may seen
themselves “below the fold”

10. Okay, but that’s not
too bad…

11. What about…?

12. How to compete against
Google?

13. Work WITH Google

14. Questions to Answer
HOW ARE PEOPLE SEARCHING
FOR THIS?
WHAT CONTENT ARE THE SERPS
SHOWING?
WHERE ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES
FOR STRUCTURED DATA?

15. How are
people
searching for
this?

16. Understanding
Search Intent
Google is learning more about what people
are looking for with a specific query and rank
the most relevant content

17. An Example
M&A Lawyer
What could
someone be
looking for?

18. Different Types of Intent = Different
Content
What is a M&A
lawyer?
1
How much do
M&A lawyers
make?
2
Do M&A
lawyers work
long hours?
3
Who are the
best M&A
lawyers?
4

19. Uncovering Search
Intent
• Review queries in Google Search
Console
• Use tools such as
AnswerthePublic.com to discover
common questions around a topic

20. Uncovering Search
Intent
• Review simple Google searches to
find types
• Review Analytics data
• Purpose: is the content
meeting their needs?
• Internal Site Search
• Behavior Tracking

21. What content
are the SERPs
showing?

22. Featured Snippets
• Quick answers, usually
at the top of a search
result
• Most commonly pulled
from content in the 1-3
spot

23. Related Questions
• Usually appears among
first few results
• Expanding provides a
quick answer to the
provided question

24. Local Pack
• Triggered by intent to find something
local
• Queries that include a region, or
“near me” often provide a local pack
result

25. Sitelinks
• Triggered by a brand specific query
• Provides top pages on the brand
website

26. Rich Snippets
• Reviews & Events are
the most common
forms of rich snippets
• Provides additional and
easy-to-understand
context from the SERP

27. Images/Video
• Featured throughout a
SERP, top, middle,
bottom
• Usually goes to the
video hosting platform
and not the website

28. Knowledge Graph
• Right side panel of Google Search
on desktop
• Compiled from multiple sources

29. Using an Incognito
Browser
• Going “incognito” on a browser allows
you to browse the web privately and
removes your search behaviors when
interacting with a search engine
• Ctrl + Shift + N for Google Chrome

30. Review your SERPs
Take your phone or laptop
Open an incognito browser
Search for some of the queries you uncovered in the previous step
What SERP features (if any) are present?

31. Ranking for SERP Features - Basics
Go for the questions!
Questions are some of the most common
featured snippets!
Ensure your content is engaging
and organized logically
Headings
Bulleted lists or paragraphs
Clean up excess code so your
content loads quickly
Provide supporting images and videos that are
compressed well and have captions and alt text
Use enticing text in close proximity
“Check below for our in-depth look at the Top
Lawyers in Atlanta”

32. Ranking for…
Featured Snippets
• Queries with question How:
• Write with a bulleted list
• Featuring all steps
• Structure every related question
• For example “How to prepare
for your first consultation AND
what will be covered?”
• All other questions:
Write paragraph content with about 40-50
words that directly answers the question
with an appropriate heading (H1, H2, H3).

33. What else can I
do to help my
content rank on
the SERPs?

34. Where are the
opportunities
for Structured
Data Markup?

35. What is
Structured
Data
Markup?
A method to format your web pages to
provide greater context to search engines
about the content found on the page

36. Organization
Common Types of Structured Data Markup

37. Person
Common Types of Structured Data Markup

38. Local Business
Common Types of Structured Data Markup

39. Resources
for
Structured
Data Markup
• For those super savvy with markup
language
• schema.org
• For the not-so-savvy – try Google’s
Structured Data Markup Helper
• Google.com/webmasters/markup-helper

40. Google’s Structured
Data Markup
Helper
• Select on-page elements to
tag for a specific schema

41. Google’s Structured Data
Markup Helper
• Receive HTML code to insert on your page

42. Recap
• Use Google Search Console, and tools like
AnswerThePublic to discover queries driving visitors
to your website
• Review analytics tools to assess if content is
meeting your visitors’ needs or if they’re “wandering”
about your website
• Use incognito browsers to see what content is most
commonly appearing for your top queries
• Keep your content simple and well-structured to
answer your visitor’s query
• Use Structured Data Markup to provide additional
context to your website content

43. Learning Outcomes
UNDERSTANDING SEARCH INTENT
AND WHY IT MATTERS
DISCOVERING HOW TO LOOK TO THE
SERPS FOR CONTENT DIRECTION
UNLOCK THE BEST STRUCTURED
DATA FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION

44. Thank you!
Questions?
Diane Kulseth
SEO Consultant
Siteimprove
dkul@Siteimprove.com