Google's machine learning technology Rank Brain is personalizing search results based on users' interests and behaviors, while site speed, user experience, and engagement are becoming increasingly important ranking factors. Voice search is growing rapidly through smart speakers and assistants, requiring brands to understand changing search habits and generate conversational, intent-based content. Marketers need to map functional content to search intents, mark up data for discovery, and use structured data to control search engine results pages.

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#DigitalPriorities Digital Marketing Priorities 2018 brought to you by
How to develop a customer-centric SEO
strategy in 2018
Mike McDougall,
Organic Search Director of Stickyeyes

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Before we start… house keeping
• A recording for the webinar will be sent via Email
• Slides will be available via Smart Insights Slideshare
• Please get involved with the interactions:
• Give your views in the votes
• Do ask questions at any point via the Questions panel

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Recommended Smart Insights toolkit update

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SEARCH IS EVOLVING

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Google
got
smart.

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What Users want What search engines want
• Great Content
• Content Depth
• Fast Loading on any device
• Clear & concise messaging
• Excellent UX
• Logical Navigation
• Great Content
• Content Depth
• Fast Loading on any device
• Clear & concise messaging
• Excellent UX
• Logical Navigation

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WhatisRankBrain?
• Google’smachinelearningtechnology
• Futureofit’srankingalgorithm
• “Diallingdown”humanelements
• “ThingsnotStrings”
• Thiswillchangeandpersonalisethesearchexperience

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Rank Brain in Action
NAME:
JILLMCDOUGALL
OCCUPATION:
RETIRED/MYMUM
INTERESTS:
ORNATHOLOGY(BIRDWATCHINGTOTHELAYMAN),
FOOTBALL
GOOGLEVITALINFO:
BIRDSPOTTINGAPPSDOWNLOADED,OWNS
UNFATHOMABLYEXPENSIVEBINOCULARS

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Rank Brain in Action
NAME:
MIKEMCDOUGALL
OCCUPATION:
DIGITALMARKETER
INTERESTS:
TRAVEL,MOUNTAINBIKES,SNOWBOARDING,COOKING
GOOGLEVITALINFO:
TORONTOBASEDSEARCHES,LIKESBASEBALL&BEER

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ENGAGEMENT NOW KEY TO THE ALGORITHM

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Less Reliance on Links
70%
75%
80%
85%
90%
95%
100%
Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14 Jan-15 Feb-15 Mar-15 Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15 Jul-15 Aug-15 Sep-15
AverageCorrelationScore
Changing Algorithmic Patterns - Links
Links & Authority

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More focus on good User Experience
240
260
280
300
320
15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
AverageTimeonSite(s)
Ranking Position
Average Time on Site – Ranking Correlation

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“Blinds” Keyword Set – Time on Site & Bounce Rate
4:49
5:54
5:22 5:20
4:07 4:15
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
0:00
0:30
1:00
1:30
2:00
2:30
3:00
3:30
4:00
4:30
5:00
5:30
6:00
6:30
247blinds.co.uk directblinds.co.uk blinds-2go.co.uk dunelm.com blindsuk.net hillarys.co.uk
BounceRate
TimeonSite(m:s)
Time on Site & Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate Time on Site

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Site Speed Increasing in Importance
75
80
85
90
95
100
Mar-16 Apr-16 May-16 Jun-16 Jul-16 Aug-16 Sep-16 Oct-16 Nov-16 Dec-16 Jan-17
Roadmap Page Load Speed Correlation (all Sectors)
Non-HTML Page Load Speed HTML Page Load Speed Page Load Speed

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Hosting Keyword Set – Site Speed Data
72% 72%
75%
62% 61% 61%
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
40%
45%
50%
55%
60%
65%
70%
75%
80%
godaddy.com 123-reg.co.uk 1and1.co.uk tsohost.com fasthosts.co.uk hostgator.com
Aggregated Site Speed Score vs. Search Visibility

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UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE SEARCHING

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Understand Microments
I WANT TO
KNOW
Exploring or
researching but not
yet in purchase mode.
Users want useful
information and
inspiration.
I WANT TO
DO
Before or after
purchase, these are
those key ‘how to’
moments when people
want to get things
done .
I WANT TO
GO
The user is actively
looking to visit
somewhere – they’re
looking for ideas and
inspiration.
I WANT TO
BUY
Someone’s actively
ready to make a
purchase and may
need help – we need
to be there to help
them.
INFORMATIONAL SEARCH COMMERCIAL SEARCH
These different segments will use search very differently – we need to use insights to
understand the search ‘micro-moments’ which are relevant to each one.

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Understand Seasonal Trends – the “When”
Category Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Generics 108.9K 91.8K 109.4K 107.0K 91.9K 79.2K 92.8K 95.1K 93.8K 91.5K 87.1K 75.6K
Accessories 206.1K 168.8K 192.7K 159.0K 170.2K 144.3K 145.1K 154.1K 149.7K 136.8K 140.1K 149.9K
Amino Acids 56.9K 47.9K 59.8K 65.2K 56.6K 53.5K 53.4K 50.2K 47.2K 46.3K 50.3K 49.0K
Blends & Formulas 12.7K 10.4K 11.4K 10.3K 10.4K 10.9K 9.8K 10.5K 9.0K 8.0K 8.1K 6.4K
Carbohydrates 143.3K 141.4K 116.9K 116.6K 116.8K 79.9K 65.9K 96.3K 206.8K 170.0K 114.6K 114.8K
Clothing 235.5K 209.1K 229.9K 198.7K 169.8K 160.6K 178.7K 191.5K 162.7K 148.4K 171.6K 180.0K
Creatine 252.9K 250.3K 253.4K 243.2K 252.4K 206.6K 207.2K 245.8K 209.5K 202.4K 199.9K 171.2K
Food & Drink 205.7K 182.8K 204.7K 181.9K 169.0K 150.1K 150.7K 152.3K 150.0K 126.2K 112.8K 110.8K
Pills & Tablets 669.0K 640.7K 646.9K 627.4K 583.0K 477.7K 497.4K 539.3K 638.5K 531.6K 476.4K 437.9K
Protein Powders 499.8K 425.6K 452.5K 426.8K 398.5K 376.1K 366.4K 389.8K 346.3K 304.7K 293.2K 286.4K
Vitamins & Minerals 439.2K 435.0K 463.5K 395.9K 375.9K 328.4K 324.7K 338.0K 389.5K 387.3K 382.5K 334.1K

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VOICE SEARCH

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Smarthome speakers Smartphone Assistants

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Voice Search Soundbites
• “50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020” according to comScore
• “About 30% of searches will be done without a screen by 2020.” via Mediapos
• “We estimate there will be 21.4 million smart speakers in the US by 2020”
according to Activate
• “By 2019, the voice recognition market will be a $601 million industry”,
according to a report from Technavio via Skyword.
• “This year (2017), 25 million devices will be shipped, bringing the total number
of voice-first devices to 33 million in circulation.” based on a new study
by VoiceLabs via Mediapost

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Apart from being THE SEO hot topic
for 2018 what does this actually
mean for your search strategy?

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Changing the Language of Search
• We talk to search engines
different to how we type
• This will change the make
up of search queries
• QA formatting &
conversational queries will
increase

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MAP YOUR CONTENT TO INTENT

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Functional Content Mapped to Search

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Generate Unique Content Relevant to Query

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MARK-UP YOUR DATA FOR SEARCH

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USE STRUCTURED DATA TO CONTROL SERP REAL ESTATE
This code snippet…. Will give you this!

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