Presentation slides from my seminar at Business Network South West, July 2015. H

1. SEMANTIC SEARCH
WHY FINDING THE BEST PIZZA IN
TOWN IS EASY
Richard Hussey

2. The £10 Note
People you know will happily exchange a £10
note for two fivers. But can’t tell you whose
picture is on the back.
Why?
Trust underpins our transactions in real life and
we need to replicate this online.
Trust is also a central component of the ‘new’
SEO.

3. Thanks to the semantic search I can type:
‘Where’s the best pizza in town’, and get the
result on the following slide.

5. Or I can type: ‘Marketing Agencies in Exeter’
and get the result on the next slide.

6. Marketing Agencies Exeter Search

7. Google is anticipating what I might want to
know. And it can understand the context of my
search.

8. SEO Used to be Easy(ish)
• Identify your highest volume keywords
• Use them often (and exactly)
• Get links (ideally with keywords in anchor
text)
• Refresh your content regularly
• EVEN SO – PAGE 1 RANKINGS WERE HARD TO
GET without paying money to somebody

9. The Temptation to Cheat was
Overwhelming

10. We used to want more links – now we need
better links.
Instead of crude keyword matching we need
semantically rich content.

11. OLD Style SEO was Inwardly Focused
• Talk about yourself and pack in the keywords
• Obsessed with structuring your site for spiders
rather than humans
• Led to over-segmentation of content and
complex navigation

12. ‘New’ SEO is Different
TRUST
REPUTATION
AUTHORITY
THESE CANNOT BE FAKED

13. Face the Facts
You may never get on page 1 for popular search
terms without paying
There are fewer places up for grabs and large
brands dominate
But don’t panic – the ‘concept’ of page 1 is
becoming less meaningful

14. What Google Wants
To deliver the most RELEVANT, TRUSTED, and
USEFUL answers to QUESTIONS created in
NATURAL LANGUAGE

15. Synonyms, Context and Meaning
• ‘Apple’ could mean a number of things.
• The rest of my content tells Google what sort it is.
• Google treats SEO ‘Specialist’, ‘Expert’ and
‘Consultant’ equally
• ‘Trademark’ and ‘trade mark’ are treated the
same in SERPs
• We don’t have to be obsessed with exactly how
the most popular search terms are written
• THINGS NOT STRINGS

16. The Knowledge Graph
• Plots links between data ‘entities’
• Delivers answers implied by the search.
• Pulls multiple sources of information, location
data, reviews and displays them in search
results.
• It’s how you find great pizza and Leonardo’s
birthday.

17. Google Search is Personalised
Location
Search History
Connections
Social Networks
Likes

18. One result on the following SERP is based
entirely on my social media connections. Can
you spot which one?

20. RELATIONSHIPS AND
NETWORKS MATTER MORE
THAN EVER!

21. Another example of personalised search. What
happens when I type ‘business’ into the search
box?

23. Google tries to predict what I’m searching for.
I may never get to type the keyword I might
have used.
The next slide shows what happens when I’m
logged out.

24. ‘Incognito’ Results

25. Back to that TRUST Word
• Is your brand trusted?
• Are you recognised as a topical authority?
• Did you EARN your links the hard way?

26. When Reputation was Everything
• We used to find the
best people by asking.
• No reputation meant
no business.
• Google is now
attempting to do this
on a massive scale.

27. How Does Google Measure Trust?
• Click through rate and pogo-sticking (bouncing
straight back to the search results from your
site)
• Earned links, in-content citations, shares
• Content depth, richness and quality
• Topical authority and consistency
• Relationships

28. Google ‘Rewards’ Rich Content (Real
Example)
• Client’s rankings were trashed by a penguin
update.
• Within 6 months main keywords
outperformed pre-penalty levels.
• Now ranks on page 1 for multiple terms
including ones where they were outside top
100.
• Content was not keyword focused!

29. Good Content Always Has Value
• Lead nurturing
• Converting traffic into enquiries and sales
• Pre qualification of leads
• Differentiation – if you create the content that
only you could have created.

30. Things to carry on doing
• Research high value keywords (not necessarily
highest volume)
• Use keywords, site structure and internal links to
help Google
• Earn backlinks
• Use intelligent keyword variations
• Understand and answer the questions your
customers are asking
• Google Business page and reviews

31. Things to stop doing
• Over using keywords
• Focusing on Google at the expense of user
needs and experience
• ‘Acquiring’ low value links from dodgy sources
• Publishing mediocre or thin content (web
pages, blogs, ebooks etc)
• Talking about yourself

32. The FRIEND Process
• FIX your online presence
• REACH OUT to prospects, advocates, influencers
• INVESTIGATE the questions ‘customers’ are really
asking
• EDUCATE, entertain and inspire
• NEXT – plot the pathway to becoming a customer
• DEVELOP and refine
GOOD content is not enough

33. Want to know more?
• Read Google Semantic Search by David
Amerland
• Follow accounts: Moz, Rand Fishkin, Eric Enge,
Stone Temple Consulting, Brian Dean, David
Kutcher, David Amerland.

34. A Final Thought
People don’t visit your website
to read about what you do!
Richard Hussey
@RichardHussey1