how to develop a customer-centric seo strategy in 2018 | stickyeyes
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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@Stickyeyes @mikeymcdougall
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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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What is Rank Brain?
• Google’s machine learning technology
• Future of its ranking algorithm
• “Dialling down” human elements
• “Things not Strings”
• This will change and personalise the search experience
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Rank Brain in Action
NAME: JILL MCDOUGALL
OCCUPATION: RETIRED / MY MUM
INTERESTS: ORNITHOLOGY (BIRD WATCHING TO THE LAYMAN), FOOTBALL
GOOGLE VITAL INFO:BIRD SPOTTING APPS DOWNLOADED, OWNS UNFATHOMABLY EXPENSIVE BINOCULARS
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Rank Brain in Action
NAME: MIKE MCDOUGALL
OCCUPATION: DIGITAL MARKETER
INTERESTS: TRAVEL, MOUNTAIN BIKES, SNOWBOARDING, COOKING
GOOGLE VITAL INFO: TORONTO BASED SEARCHES, LIKES BASEBALL & BEER
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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
Ave
rage
Co
rrel
atio
n S
core
Changing Algorithmic Patterns - Links
Links & Authority
Source: Stickyeyes Proprietary tool “Roadmap”
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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
Ave
rage
Tim
e on
Site
(s)
Ranking Position
Average Time on Site – Ranking Correlation
Source: Stickyeyes Proprietary tool “Roadmap”
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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
Bo
un
ce R
ate
Tim
e o
n S
ite
(m:s
)
Time on Site & Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate Time on SiteSource: Alexa Time on Site and Bounce Rate data
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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
Source: Stickyeyes Proprietary tool “Roadmap”
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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
Source: Aggregated data from Pingdom, GTMetrix & Google Developer Tools
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Understand Micro-moments
I WANT TO
KNOWExploring or
researching but not yet in purchase mode.
Users want useful information and
inspiration.
I WANT TO
DOBefore or after
purchase, these are those key ‘how to’
moments when people want to get things
done .
I WANT TO
GOThe user is actively
looking to visit somewhere – they’re looking for ideas and
inspiration.
I WANT TO
BUYSomeone’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
Source: Seasonal Search Volume from Stickyeyes tool Ad Hoc Metrics
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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
differently to how we type
• This will change the make
up of search queries
• QA formatting &
conversational queries will
increase
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For more SEO insight and free, in-depth intelligence reports:
https://www.stickyeyes.com/intelligence/