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
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 2

3.
I’m that SEO Samurai Dude
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 3

4.
Google Caffeine 101
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 4
• Caffeine is Google’s index system to serve queries that
require time-sensitive information.

5.
Queries Deserve Freshness (QDF)
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 5

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
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 7

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
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 8

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.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 9

10.
Google 6/11/2014
• Ads temporarily
pop above the
Knowledge Graph
• Askmen.com’s 1
page authority
content gets tons
of links.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 10

11.
Surprise! Google 6/12..13…14/2014
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 11
• 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.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 12

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
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 13

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
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 14

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/
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 15

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?
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 17

18.
• You want to win the SERPS before the peak
ends. Planning is key.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 18
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.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 19
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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)
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 20

21.
Step 3: Create Content To Those
Winning Verticals To Win!
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 21
• If your brand has time-sensitive content, you can take the lead!
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22.
Examples from Another Life
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 22
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23.
Thank You!
victor.pan@catalystsearchmarketing.com
@victorpan

24.
Appendix
(For Bing Lovers)

25.
Bing Also Gets Freshness
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 25

26.
TLDR; SERPS DON’T CHANGE MUCH IN BING
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 26
• 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
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 27

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.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 28

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?
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 29

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.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 30

31.
Questions… But No Intuitive Answers
• News section gets
pushed slightly
higher (Pos 5)
– Thumbnails
determined by
whether source
uses it.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 31

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.
COPYRIGHT 2014 CATALYST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. JUNE 24, 2014 | PAGE 32
Bing it On!