This document discusses strategies for optimizing search engine results for time-sensitive queries around holidays. It uses a case study of optimizing for Father's Day searches on Google to illustrate how search engine result pages (SERPs) change over time as the holiday approaches and passes. Key factors that can affect SERP placement include knowledge graphs, news listings, image optimization, and in-depth article content. The document also provides recommendations for identifying peak search times for holidays and creating relevant content to target those periods in order to achieve high SERP rankings.

1. Time-Sensitive Searches
A Quick Holiday Search Strategy
Guide
victor.pan@catalystsearchmarketing.com
@victorpan

2. Agenda
• Search Gets Caffeinated
– Examples of query deserves
freshness
• A Father’s Day Case Study
– An analysis of an evolving
Holiday SERP
• Takeaways
– How to be proactive about
time-sensitive SERPS
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3. I’m that SEO Samurai Dude
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4. Google Caffeine 101
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• Caffeine is Google’s index system to serve queries that
require time-sensitive information.

5. Queries Deserve Freshness (QDF)
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6. Father’s Day
Case Study
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7. Google 6/3/2014
• Knowledge Graph
• Google News
• Google Images
– Pixel dimensions are
450±50 X 450±50
• Pinterest influencer’s
board?!
#BarnacleSEO
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8. Google 6/6/2014
• Google News
keeps refreshing
• Google Images
remain the same
• A news site with
high domain
authority (97) but
low page authority
(1) can hit page 1
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9. Google 6/10/2014
• PPC Ads show up
on the right
• Google News
Shifts to “Gift
News”
• Google Images
remain the same
• Sites about gifts
start ranking on
page 1.
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10. Google 6/11/2014
• Ads temporarily
pop above the
Knowledge Graph
• Askmen.com’s 1
page authority
content gets tons
of links.
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11. Surprise! Google 6/12..13…14/2014
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• News Results keep
rotating
• Ad bids relatively
similar
• Organic SERPS
remain constant
• Image Search results
remain unchanged…

12. Father’s Day! (6/15/2014)
• Knowledge Graph
• PPC ads on the
right
• Only Google News
approved sites can
play in this box.
• Top Google
images results
remain stagnant.
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13. Post Father’s Day! (6/18/2014)
• Knowledge Graph
• No PPC ads
anywhere
• Google News box
falls down.
• Image results
remain stagnant
after position 4
• We start seeing in-
depth articles!
• Top SERPS don’t
change much
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14. Summary: Theses Factors Matter In
Time-Sensitive SERPS
• Knowledge Graph
• Google News Listing
– Most recent article/Most cited article gets listed
• Keyword relevancy, DA and PA
• Image optimization
• In-depth articles
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15. The Bigger Picture
• 81% of search now
shows “universal
SERPS”
– Don’t forget image
and video SEO!
Full Study:
http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/k
nowledge-base/universal-search-
study/
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16. COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 16
Takeaways

17. Does Your Brand
Want To Be A
Part of the
Holiday
Conversation?
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18. • You want to win the SERPS before the peak
ends. Planning is key.
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Step 1: Identify The Peaks (When Possible)
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19. Step 2: Potential opportunities for time-
sensitive SERPS
• News Outlets (Hard)  PR & Social
– Newsjacking
• Text Ads (Expensive)  PPC
– Display Ads on SERPS you don’t own (Cheaper)
– Retargeting on display ads (Cheaper)
• Images (Easy)  SEO
– Optimize images and obtain links with keyword-rich anchor text
Make image sharing easy so you can win links with image attribution emails.
• Knowledge Graph (Hard)  SEO
– Pray that Wikipedia editors cite your website as a source.
– Edit Freebase and hope Google believes the information is accurate
To dominate a news-sensitive SERP, all digital channels need to be involved.
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20. BONUS SLIDE
• Social is part of this
as well!
– (Most people don’t
search “Father’s
Day” incognito or on
Tor)
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21. Step 3: Create Content To Those
Winning Verticals To Win!
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• If your brand has time-sensitive content, you can take the lead!
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22. Examples from Another Life
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23. Thank You!
victor.pan@catalystsearchmarketing.com
@victorpan

24. Appendix
(For Bing Lovers)

25. Bing Also Gets Freshness
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26. TLDR; SERPS DON’T CHANGE MUCH IN BING
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• Bing Snapshot
• SERP with
sitelinks
• Image Results
• Related Search
(multiple sections)
• News results
• Ads

27. A Different Format: Bing it On?
• Bing features
Fathers day news
after the images.
• Bing Snapshot
(their Knowledge
Graph equivalent)
is on the top right
• Suggested Search
takes up quite a bit
of real estate on
Bing
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28. Sometimes the News Doesn’t Cut It
• - We’re not sure why,
but Bing SERPS are
more volatile than we
think.
• - Bing Boards shows
up on this date.
Feature is kind of in
Beta.
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29. If A Search Engine Changes Its SERP
And Nobody Notices…Did it Happen?
- 4 Days went by with
pretty much no
change in the
SERPS. Bing doesn’t
update its index as
often (no surprise).
- Can you spot the
URL position swap in
this image?
- Did you notice an
image search
change?
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30. Hey… who else tested ads on June 11th?
• Not the first time
Bing has been
caught “copying”
Google on things.
• Notice how News
results are back,
but on the very
bottom of this
screenshot.
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31. Questions… But No Intuitive Answers
• News section gets
pushed slightly
higher (Pos 5)
– Thumbnails
determined by
whether source
uses it.
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32. • Nothing special happens on
Father’s Day. What a
disappointment!
• Factors that matter:
– Bing News
– Bing Image Search
– Bing Related Searches
– Bing Ads
– Bing Snapshot
– Bing Board (Beta)
– Typical SE ranking factors.
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Bing it On!