A brief summary of my top takeaways from the SMX Conference in San Jose, CA - Mar 21 - Mar 23, 2017 on voice search, serp-less search, amp, pwa, structured data (schema.org), and crawl-budget.

1. MYTOPTAKEAWAYS
FROM
SMX WEST
SAN JOSÉ, CA
CONFERENCE MAR 21 – MAR 23, 2017
ANDREA BERBERICH
3/30/17

2. 1
AUDIENCE FOR THE SMX CONFERENCE ARE FOR DIGITAL MARKETERS, SEO/SEM PROFESSIONALS,WEBSITE&
MOBILE DEVELOPERS, CONTENT MARKETING PROFESSIONALS, SOCIAL MEDIA PROFESSIONALS & ANALYTICS
PROFESSIONALS
SMXWEST – CONFERENCE - 2017
 User Focus
 Voice Search
 SERP-less Search
 Technical Essentials
 Mobile First Indexing
 Structured Data Markup
 AMP
 PWA
 Social Media Channel
 Quora
 Google
– Crawl Budget

3. USER FOCUS
2

4. 3
 FACTS
 GROWTH IN VOICE SEARCH
 VOICE QUERIES ARE CONVERSATIONAL
 DELIVERY OF PERSONALIZED RESULTS
 DEVICES ARE GETTING SMARTER
 API.AI IS USEFUL IN BUILDING CONVERSATIONAL
INTERFACES FOR CHATBOTS, SMART HOME DEVICES,
WEARABLES, ETC.
 SEAMLESS USER EXPERIENCE WHEN ENHANCING WEBSITES
WITH VOICE SEARCH CAPABILITIES
MORE AND MORE QUERIES ARE REQUESTED VIA SIRI, CORTANA, OR GOOGLE VOICE SEARCH
VOICE SEARCH
Sources:
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/03/21/google-smx-keynote
https://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo/optimizing-content-for-voice-search-and-virtual-assistants-by-benu-aggarwal
https://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-build-your-own-ai-assistant-using-api-ai/

5. 4
 FACTS
 VOICE SEARCH – SERP-FREE SEARCH IS EMINENT,AND IT IS
GROWING EXPONENTIALLY
 SEARCHES IS NO LONGER LIMITED TO LAPTOPS
OR MOBILE DEVICES
 SERP-FREE SEARCHES ARE POISED TO BE THE NEXT BIG THING
 BROWSERS WILL BE “OWNED” OR “POWERED” MOST LIKELY
BY SEARCH ASSISTANT DEVELOPERS
 SEARCH ENGINES WILL ALSO BE “OWNED” OR “POWERED BY
MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES
NO SERPS ARE VISIBLE WHEN USING SEARCH ASSISTANT SUCH AS AMAZON ALEXA, GOOGLE HOME, MOBILE PHONES, OR IN THE
CAR
SERP*-FREE SEARCHES
* (Search Engine Results Page)

6. 5
 YOU COULD BECOME PART OF “QUICK ANSWERS”
 YOU COULD COME UP AS ANSWERS IN THE SERP-LESS
SEARCHES
 INCREASE OF VISITS TO YOUR WEBSITE
 INCREASES BRAND AWARENESS
EFFECTIVE &VALUED CONTENT WRITTEN TO ANSWERS QUESTIONS ON WEBSITES IS
CRUCIAL NOW MORE THAN EVER
VOICE SEARCHES – SERP-LESS SEARCHES
Hey Alexa, tell
me about ABC,
the company
Ok Google,
What is
SEO?
The
abbreviation
SEO stands for
…
ABC
Company, is
located in
…
Source:
https://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo/seo-without-serps-by-bryson-meunier
https://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo/optimizing-content-for-voice-search-and-virtual-assistants-by-benu-aggarwa
https://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo/your-step-by-step-guide-to-testing-voice-search-by-purna-virjil

7. TECHNICAL ESSENTIALS
6

8. 7
 DO
 ANY NEW WEB DESIGNS: FIRST ON MOBILE DEVICES
 USE 16 PX AS BASE FONT SIZES TO SCALE RELATIVELY AS NEEDED
 LEVERAGE HTML5 FOR VIDEO & RICH MEDIA CONTENT
 ACCOMMODATE BOTH LANDSCAPE & PORTRAIT DEVICE
ORIENTATIONS
 CHECK META VIEWPORT TAG
CRUCIAL FOR WEBSITES: HAVE ALL CONTENT SHOW ON THE MOBILE VERSION, HIDDEN CONTENT WILL NOT BE
INDEXED, PAGE RANKING DEPENDS ON IT (INFO ONLY FOR RESPONSIVE WEBSITES)
MOBILE FIRST INDEXING COMING SOON
Sources:
https://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo/is-it-the-year-of-mobile-yet-by-leslie-to
https://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo/impact-of-the-mobile-first-index-by-eric-enge
 DON’T
 BURY CONTENT SO DEEPLY THAT SITE SEARCH IS ABSOLUTELY
NECESSARY FOR MOST USERS
 CONVERSION-FRIENDLINESS: REQUIRE MORE THAN 3 TOUCHES BEFORE
A USER CAN CONVERT
 USE RENDER-BLOCKING JAVASCRIPT, ESPECIALLY FOR EXTERNAL
SCRIPTS
 USE INLINE CSS ATTRIBUTES AND LARGE CSS FILE
 ALLOW VIDEO ELEMENTS TO BIGGER THAN THE VIEWPORT. CONTROL
VIDEO DIMENSION USING MEDIA QUERIES OF JAVASCRIPT

9. 8
STRUCTURED DATA IS A MUST HAVE ON WEBSITES, NOW. STRUCTURED DATA IS ADDED DIRECTLY TO A PAGE’S HTML MARKUP. SEARCH ENGINES, PERSONAL
ASSISTANTS ARE USING STRUCTURED DATA TO GENERATE RICH SNIPPETS,WHICH ARE SMALL PIECES OF INFORMATION THAT WILL THEN APPEAR IN SEARCH
RESULTS OR WILL BE CALLED OUT BY SERP-LESS DEVICES SUCH AS AMAZON ALEXA OR GOOGLE HOME.
STRUCTURED DATA
Sources:
https://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo/winning-at-organic-search-by-taking-serp-market-share-by-garrett-mehrguth
 STRUCTURED DATA IS ESSENTIAL IF YOUR WEBSITE SHOULD
 SHOW UP IN QUICK ANSWER SECTION
 SEAMLESS AND READILY SEARCHABLE BY SEARCH ENGINE (SE) ALGORITHM &
OTHER SEARCH OPERATIONS
 SE UNDERSTAND INFORMATION CONTAINED OF EACH WEB PAGE FASTER
 SE ARE ABLE TO RETURN MORE OF THE WEBPAGE CONTENT SUCH AS URLS,
IMAGES,VIDEOS, PRODUCT INFO, SUB-NAVIGATIONS, CHAT BOXES, PHONE
NUMBER, CONTACT INFO, EVENT-LOCATION, ETC.
 HIGHER CTR (CLICK-THROUGH-RATE)
 BOTTOM LINE: MORE EXPOSURE TOYOUR WEBSITE

10. 9
 INCREASE VISIBILITY OF YOUR PRESS RELEASES
 YOUR PRESS RELEASES TO SHOW IN TOP POSITION OF SERPS VIA AMP
CAROUSEL
 OR YOUR PRESS RELEASES CAN SHOW UP IN RELATED PICKS
 SPEED DRIVES REVENUE
 80% OF AMP PUBLISHERS REPORT HIGHERVIEW-ABILITY
 85% OF AMP PUBLISHER SEE HIGHER CTRS (CLICK THROUGH RATE)
 MAJORITY OF AMP PUBLISHERS SEE HIGHER CPMS (COST-PER-THOUSAND)
ACCELERATED MOBILE PAGES – A WAY FOR YOUR COMPANY TO SHOW UP ON THE TOP SPOTS IN THE
SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGE (SERP) ON MOBILE DEVICES
AMP
Sources:
https://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo/amp-one-community-one-goal-by-ranna-zhou
Related picks
AMP Carousel

11. 10
ADVANTAGES TO INTEGRATE PWA
PROGRESSIVE WEB APPS – AWAY FOR YOUR COMPANY BE VIEWED LIKE A MOBILE APP
PWA
Sources: https://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo/what-seos-need-to-know-about-pwas-by-cindy-krum
Why shouldYou integrate PWA?
What doYou need to add PWA?
Push Notifications
Your Company could push
notifications to your
audience such as PRs, Events,
special deals or special prices
 DISADVANTAGE TO INTEGRATE PWA
 BROWSER SAFARI REFUSES TO SUPPORT SERVICEWORKER
 GOOGLE ALREADY HAS A WORK-AROUND!

12. SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNEL
11

13. 12
 VISIBILITY FORYOUR COMPANY IN QUICK ANSWERS
 CREATE Q&AS IN QUORA.COM
 TOP POSITION IN GOOGLE SERPS (SEARCH ENGINE
RESULTS PAGES) AND LINK BACK TO YOUR COMPANY
 IS ADDING THE OPTION TO ADVERTISE
QUORA
Consider Quora as a
valued Social Media
Channel!

14. GOOGLE SIDE NOTE
(NOT PART OF THE SMX-WEST PRESENTATIONS)
13

15. 14
 CRAWL RATE LIMIT
 CRAWL HEALTH: IF THE SITE RESPONDS REALLY QUICKLY FOR A WHILE,
THE LIMIT GOES UP, MEANING MORE CONNECTIONS CAN BE USED TO
CRAWL. IF THE SITE SLOWS DOWN OR RESPONDS WITH SERVER ERRORS,
THE LIMIT GOES DOWN AND GOOGLEBOT CRAWLS LESS.
 LIMIT SET IN SEARCH CONSOLE: WEBSITE OWNERS CAN REDUCE
GOOGLEBOT'S CRAWLING OF THEIR SITE. NOTE THAT SETTING HIGHER
LIMITS DOESN'T AUTOMATICALLY INCREASE CRAWLING.
“PRIORITIZING WHAT TO CRAWL,WHEN,AND HOW MUCH RESOURCE THE SERVER HOSTING THE SITE CAN ALLOCATE TO CRAWLING IS
IMPORTANT FOR ALL SITES, ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE THAT AUTO-GENERATE PAGES BASED ON URL PARAMETERS,” GARY ILLYES – GOOGLE
SEARCH, SAID.
LET’STALK CRAWL BUDGET
Sources:
http://searchengineland.com/google-explains-crawl-budget-means-webmasters-267597
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2017/01/what-crawl-budget-means-for-googlebot.html
 Just saying
 Frequently updated web pages & new pages
 Web performance
 Tidy up code
 NewTechnologies
Is the way into the “heart” of any crawler…
 FACTORS AFFECTING CRAWL BUDGET
 FACETED NAVIGATION AND SESSION IDENTIFIERS
 ON-SITE DUPLICATE CONTENT
 SOFT ERROR PAGES
 HACKED PAGES
 INFINITE SPACES AND PROXIES
 LOW QUALITY AND SPAM CONTENT
 CRAWL DEMAND
 POPULARITY: URLS THAT ARE MORE POPULAR ON THE
INTERNET TEND TO BE CRAWLED MORE OFTEN TO
KEEP THEM FRESHER IN OUR INDEX.
 STALENESS: OUR SYSTEMS ATTEMPT TO PREVENT URLS
FROM BECOMING STALE IN THE INDEX.

16. THANKYOU!
15
Sources of images & information are publicly available.