Google is falling into a familiar pattern. First, they offer web publishers in a sector (flights, recipes, local, video, e-commerce) increased visibility and SERP display options. Next, they incent participation in specific formats and data structures. And, finally, they take that data for themselves, changing the SERPs to favor advertising, their own properties, and/or instant answers that can reduce publisher traffic. For web marketers, it’s a prisoner’s dilemma — do we give Google what they want now so a competitor doesn’t cave first, or do we hold back and miss out on traffic potential for fear of losing out long term? In this presentation, Rand will show data on how Google is being used today, and how it’s changing, then dive into strategic initiatives and specific examples of how savvy players can build a moat to protect against long-term risk. Included will be tactical wins every site can take advantage of to drive more traffic and improve their content and web marketing strategies. A collaborative process for marketing teams, designed to create high-performance digital experiences that solve real, observed customer pains.

1. Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com
How to Survive
Google’s Trojan Horsing of the Web

2. What Has Google
Been Up To?

3. Breaking Into Job Listings

4. Breaking Into Reservations

5. Breaking Into Cultural Content

6. Disintermediating Lists

7. Penalizing vs. Ignoring Spam

8. Facing their 1st Real Threat in Years

9. Losing their First Big Case vs. the EU

10. Facing
Potential
Regulation of
Results in
Canada

11. Paying Professors to Have Their Back

12. But Google is Still the
Unquestionable
Behemoth

13. Where Do People Search?

14. Breakdownof
SearchesonMajor
WebProperties
(October2016)

15. Breakdownof
SearchesonMajor
WebProperties
(May2017)

16. GoogleCore
Oct2016 May2017
GoogleImages
Yahoo
Bing
GoogleMaps
Amazon
Facebook
Gained/Lost
58.9%
27.7%
2.6%
2.3%
2.2%
1.9%
0.7%
YouTube 3.8%
64.8%
21.8%
2.4%
2.4%
1.2%
2.3%
1.5%
3.6%
+5.9
-5.9
-0.2
+0.1
-1.0
+0.4
+0.8
-0.2

17. GoogleCore
Oct2016 May2017
GoogleImages
Yahoo
Bing
GoogleMaps
Amazon
Facebook
Gained/Lost
58.9%
27.7%
2.6%
2.3%
2.2%
1.9%
0.7%
YouTube 3.8%
64.8%
21.8%
2.4%
2.4%
1.2%
2.3%
1.5%
3.6%
+5.9
-5.9
-0.2
+0.1
-1.0
+0.4
+0.8
-0.2
We think this is
Halloween

18. GoogleCore
Oct2016 May2017
GoogleImages
Yahoo
Bing
GoogleMaps
Amazon
Facebook
Gained/Lost
58.9%
27.7%
2.6%
2.3%
2.2%
1.9%
0.7%
YouTube 3.8%
64.8%
21.8%
2.4%
2.4%
1.2%
2.3%
1.5%
3.6%
+5.9
-5.9
-0.2
+0.1
-1.0
+0.4
+0.8
-0.2This is compensated for by a rise in
web search clicks to local results

19. GoogleCore
Oct2016 May2017
GoogleImages
Yahoo
Bing
GoogleMaps
Amazon
Facebook
Gained/Lost
58.9%
27.7%
2.6%
2.3%
2.2%
1.9%
0.7%
YouTube 3.8%
64.8%
21.8%
2.4%
2.4%
1.2%
2.3%
1.5%
3.6%
+5.9
-5.9
-0.2
+0.1
-1.0
+0.4
+0.8
-0.2
I’m keeping an eye on these two

20. Google’s Growth
So far, 2017 is trending ~10-15% higher than
2016, not including voice or Apple devices

21. Total Searchers vs. Active Searchers
UnitedStates
Canada
UnitedKingdom
AverageSearches/
Month
%ofSearchersw/10+
Searches/Month
103-119
120-139
120-135
~39%
~40%
~41%

22. Google CTR Breakdown
Relatively flat excluding seasonality = SEO not
being cannibalized by Google’s own results

23. What are the Web’s
Top Traffic Referrers?

24. Google.com
Oct2016 May2017
Facebook.com
Reddit.com
YouTube.com
Imgur.com
Bing.com
Wikipedia.org
Gained/Lost
59.2%
6.5%
5.4%
4.5%
2.2%
2.2%
1.4%
Yahoo.com 6.0%
62.6%
5.9%
4.1%
4.7%
1.5%
2.1%
1.4%
5.0%
+3.4%
-0.6%
-1.3%
+0.2%
-0.6%
-0.1%
+0%
-1.0%
Amazon.com 1.3% 1.4% +0.1%

25. Google.com
Oct2016 May2017
Facebook.com
Reddit.com
YouTube.com
Imgur.com
Bing.com
Wikipedia.org
Gained/Lost
59.2%
6.5%
5.4%
4.5%
2.2%
2.2%
1.4%
Yahoo.com 6.0%
62.6%
5.9%
4.1%
4.7%
1.5%
2.1%
1.4%
5.0%
+3.4%
-0.6%
-1.3%
+0.2%
-0.6%
-0.1%
+0%
-1.0%
Amazon.com 1.3% 1.4% +0.1%
This is when Reddit stopped using
Imgur for all its image hosting

26. Google.com
Oct2016 May2017
Facebook.com
Reddit.com
YouTube.com
Imgur.com
Bing.com
Wikipedia.org
Gained/Lost
59.2%
6.5%
5.4%
4.5%
2.2%
2.2%
1.4%
Yahoo.com 6.0%
62.6%
5.9%
4.1%
4.7%
1.5%
2.1%
1.4%
5.0%
+3.4%
-0.6%
-1.3%
+0.2%
-0.6%
-0.1%
+0%
-1.0%
Amazon.com 1.3% 1.4% +0.1%
In 7 months, Google gained
more share than all but the
top 5 even have ☹

27. Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally
(databelowfromMay2017)

28. Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally
(databelowfromMay2017)
Google distributes traffic pretty evenly

29. Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally
(databelowfromMay2017)
Facebook is strongly biased to the top

30. Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally
(databelowfromMay2017)
Reddit & YouTube even more so

31. Web Marketers Live in
Google’s World…

32. And That’s Becoming
More Dangerous

33. This is Celebrity Net Worth’s Story…

35. Via TheOutline

36. DICK MOVE!

37. Here’s Google
Trojan Horsing…

38. Local Events
Eventbrite and Meetup… Huh.
Via TheVerge

39. Job Listings
Via Techcrunch
Something tells me this will
not go well for them…

40. Weather

41. Sports
Seems like a fair deal…

42. The Model’s Pretty
Consistent

43. Google: “Do a great
job answering the
searcher’s query &
we’ll rank you high*”
*Unlesswehaveourown
results;thenwegettobefirst.

44. Google: “Structure data like this & we’ll
make your listings more visible!”
Via Google

45. Google: “These results are best for our
users. (They fell for it again!)”
NBC has, BTW, put the
proper video markup on
their pages.

46. Site Operators Face a
Prisoner’s Dilemma

47. Give Google Your Content…

48. …and risk Google using your data to
build a feature that kills your traffic

49. Or, Hold back your unique value…

50. …And risk a
competitor
benefiting
from Google’s
opportunities
instead

51. Fear Isn’t the Only Thing
Stopping Publishers

52. Some Queries Deserve More than a
Simple Answer (evenifthat’swhatsearcherswant)

53. e.g. Climate change searches
Via Quartz

54. e.g. Politically-charged content

55. e.g. Dangerously incomplete answers

56. e.g. Misleading “instant solutions”
I do have some feedback;
this sucks! It’s
incomplete, wrong, &
frustratingly reductive.

57. This is what a mortgage
calculator should do:

58. What’s the Solution?

59. The 5-Part Path:
An SEOstrategy thatsegmentssearcherintent
Contentstrategy thatprioritizescomplextasks
Businessgoalsthatsynchw/yourSEO+content
Atrafficstrategy thatdiversifiessources
Incorporation ofGoogle’sfutureinto yourplans
1
2
3
4
5

60. Measured by: Traffic Driven
Examples in Action:
Howsomesitesavoidthedangerous dancewith
Google’sdevilishproposition

61. Index.co

62. Segmenting Searcher Intent

63. Redfin

64. Prioritizing Complex Tasks

66. Eater

67. Diversifying Traffic Sources

69. Shutterstock

70. Synching Business Goals w/ SEO + Content

71. TheMuse

72. Incorporating Google’s Future In Your Plans

73. 10 Tactical Tips to
Thrive in Google’s World

74. #1: Prioritize buckets of KWs w/
complex task completion requirements
These are easy to
answer. Google could
do it with a snippet or
a voice answer.

75. #1: Prioritize buckets of KWs w/
complex task completion requirements
But underwater
zombies? That’s a
query that demands
more attention.

76. #2: Serve “instant answer” content while
simultaneously enticing the click
“and heck…” what? I
must know!

77. #3:InvestincontentGoogleeither
can’tshowinSERPsor thatbuilds
your brandwhentheydo
Even if Google launches their own
Lyft competitor, being included
here builds Lyft’s brands &
customers in the meantime.

78. Interactive content is deviously hard to steal in a SERP, & immensely
valuable to those who are seeking to solve this problem.
Via LetsCrunchIt

79. #4: Make your internal search + nav as
good or better than Google’s path

80. This should scare the
$#%^ out of Eater

81. Memeorandum offers
a navigational UX that
Google can’t truly
compete against

82. By serving conscious & unconscious
needs, Etsy provides a UX that Google
can’t compete with

83. #5: Drive visitors to owned,
subscription channels
For as long as Google offers
ways to drive traffic to your
site (vs. host content with
them), we’ll take it!

84. No matter what channel you use to broadcast or distribute, make sure
the traffic always goes back to a domain & UX you own+control

85. #6: Leverage RLSA to
outrank Google for the
searchers who matter most

86. #7: Bias search suggest in your favor
through linguistic branding

87. Hat tip to Gianluca
Fiorelli for spotting
this campaign & its
influence on search
suggest + related

88. #8: Use influencer marketing to
become the brand searchers recognize

89. Mainstream Foodies
Fancy-
Pants
Types
Sous Vide Aficionados Paleo Foodies
Relevant
Locavores

91. #9: Innovate at the problem-level vs.
the solution-level (b/cGoogledoesthereverse)
Google solves this query
at the solution level

92. Youwantahigh%ofvisitorstocomeaway
fromyourexperiencethinking:
Why would I ever Google ___________
when ___________ solves this problem
so completely and elegantly?
search query
your site

93. Dribbble solves it at
the problem level

94. Before your audience needs a solution,
they have a problem.
Beat Google to the punch.
Be there for the problem’s discovery.

95. SolutionLevel ProblemLevel

96. SolutionLevel ProblemLevel

97. #10: If Google’s already in your space, find
what they fail to deliver & double-down
Fine for a quick
answer, but
lacks depth…

98. What are all those deeper, next questions folks have AFTER they
search for weather? Wunderground knows, and nails ‘em.

100. Measured by: Traffic Driven
Don’t Just Fight Off
the Dragon…

101. Measured by: Traffic Driven
Make it bring you to
the skies.

102. Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com
You Got This!