intelligent personal assistants, search & seo
TRANSCRIPT
A POST-PAGERANK WORLD: THE RISE OF
PERSONAL ASSISTANTS APPSTom Anthony
SMX Munich 2016
SMX 2019 will have more presentations focusing on non-web SEO than SEO for the Web.
PREDICTION
Hallo noch mal, München!
LONDON NEW YORK SEATTLE
@TomAnthonySEO
SMX 2015 - GOOGLE’S MISSION
The 5 biggest tech companies have all introduced an IPA.
GOOGLE NOW
MICROSOFT CORTANA
PROACTIVE SIRI
FACEBOOK ‘M’
AMAZON ECHO
HOUND
3 search concepts that relate to Intelligent Personal Assistants
What might the future look like?
Some challenges and initial tips.
1
2
3
CONTEXT, PASSIVE SEARCHES & SMARTPHONES
1
‘DAILY INFORMATION NEEDS’ STUDY
GOOGLE ASKED:
“What did you want to know recently?”
THEY FOUND:
25,000 needs 21 broad categories
GOOGLE PUBLICATION ON IPAS
Source: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2685309
EXAMPLE #1: CONTEXTUAL ASSISTANCE
“The personal assistant should be able to detect a change in the user context, and make useful recommendations for
that context.”
EXAMPLE #2: FULLY PERSONALIZED
“when suggesting restaurants, in addition to the spatio-temporal context, the
assistant personalizes the suggestions based on the user’s cuisine preferences and
price sensitivity.”
WE TALK ABOUT CONTEXT A LOT
Context
Current
Situation
Time
Personalisation
Search History
Current
Location
Mode of Travel
Likes/Dislikes
Schedule
Companions
Query
Ancestor
Queries
Implicit query
aspect
Explicit query
aspect
Keyword
Spoken phrase Image
Search ‘mode’
(regular / maps / images)
Search
settings
Device
Anticipated
Situation
Past activities
EstimatedIntent
Context
Current
Situation
Time
Personalisation
Search History
Current
Location
Mode of Travel
Likes/Dislikes
Schedule
Companions
Query
Ancestor
Queries
Implicit query
aspect
Explicit query
aspect
Keyword
Spoken phrase Image
Search ‘mode’
(regular / maps / images)
Search
settings
Device
Anticipated
Situation
Past activities
EstimatedIntent
“A context is a set of user actions corresponding to a single
information need.”
GOOGLE’S DEFINITION OF CONTEXT
EXAMPLES OF “EXTENDED CONTEXTS”
planning a trip to Paris
organising a wedding
buying a camera
CONTEXTS: NOT ALWAYS ABOUT NOW
Half of search queries belonged to contexts lasting longer than a month.
“top 10 things to do in Berlin”
“top 10 things to do in Paris”
“top 10 things to do in Zagreb”
“weather in Paris”
“easyjet Paris”
“louvre”
“airports in France”
“top 10 things to do in Berlin”
“top 10 things to do in Paris”
“top 10 things to do in Zagreb”
“weather in Paris”
“easyjet Paris”
“louvre”
“airports in France”
“top 10 things to do in Berlin”
“cheapest vacation deals Paris”
“best coffee near the Champs-Élysées”
“moulin rouge”
“Eiffel Tower entry price”
“top 10 things to do in Paris”
“top 10 things to do in Zagreb”
“weather in Paris”
“easyjet Paris”
“louvre”
“airports in France”
“top 10 things to do in Berlin”
“cheapest vacation deals Paris”
“best coffee near the Champs-Élysées”
“moulin rouge”
“Eiffel Tower entry price”
“top 10 things to do in Paris”
“top 10 things to do in Zagreb”2nd February
15th February
“weather in Paris”
“easyjet Paris”
“louvre”
“airports in France”
“top 10 things to do in Berlin”
“cheapest vacation deals Paris”
“best coffee near the Champs-Élysées”
“moulin rouge”
“Eiffel Tower entry price”
“top 10 things to do in Paris”
“top 10 things to do in Zagreb”
CONTEXT:
Planning a trip to Paris
2nd February
15th February
UPDATING YOUR CONTEXT IN REAL-TIME
“best time to visit France”
“cheap flights to Paris”
“what to see in Paris”
GOOGLE CAN LEARN CONTEXTS
“best time to visit France”
“cheap flights to Paris”
“what to see in Paris”
GOOGLE CAN LEARN CONTEXTS
Google might anticipate your searches weeks before you do them.
SMARTPHONES & CONTEXT
Screen size and keyboard type are not important.
It can take photos
It can take photos
It knows where it is
It can take photos
It knows where it is
It knows who your friends are
It can take photos
It knows where it is
It knows who your friends areIt knows
if you are walking, running,
etc.
It’s personal, signed-in, and taken
everywhere
It’s personal, signed-in, and taken
everywhere
It interacts with the
world (beacons, pay, NFC)
It’s personal, signed-in, and taken
everywhere
It has natural
multi-
touch
It interacts with the
world (beacons, pay, NFC)
It’s personal, signed-in, and taken
everywhere
It has natural
multi-
touch
It has notificationsIt
interacts with the
world (beacons, pay, NFC)
It's actually the PC that has the limited, basic, cut-down version of the internet… it only has the web.
‘mobile first’ via Ben Evans
IPA’S VS BROWSER SEARCH
Apps can tap into more of these than the browser can.
Context is important for better search results, and for anticipatory searches.
Smartphones are better for context, especially when using an IPA.
INSIGHT
Smartphone IPAs will be the best search device.
CONCLUSION
IPAS WANT ANSWERS, NOT WEBSITES
2
SEARCH CATEGORIES
TRANSACTIONAL
INFORMATIONAL
NAVIGATIONAL
GOOGLE SAY: DO-KNOW-GO
50-80% OF QUERIES ARE INFORMATIONAL
Statistic reference: 1, 2, 3
SHIFT AWAY FROM ‘WEB SEARCH’: DIRECT ANSWERS
SHIFT AWAY FROM ‘WEB SEARCH’: GOOGLE NOW
KNOW SIMPLE
OTHER IPAS ALSO GIVE DIRECT ANSWERS
Reference: 1, 2, 3
WHAT CATEGORIES CAN IPAS SERVE
INCREASINGLY ANSWERS NEED TO BE DYNAMIC
Time Based Location Based
GOOGLE NEED DATA FOR THESE QUERIES
Knowledge
GraphData
Partnerships
Everything Else
?
WEBSITES ARE JUST AN INTERFACE TO YOUR BUSINESS
3RD PARTY INTEGRATION WITH IPAS
(probably)
A broader array of direct answers will require IPA providers to get data from us.
Integrating your app into IPAs is a way to connect your data into the IPA interface.
IPAs will prefer this model to sending users to a website - you can jump the queue!
INSIGHT
1NATURAL LANGUAGE WILL INCREASE QUERY COMPLEXITY
3
VOICE SEARCH IS INCREASINGLY POPULAR
Source: https://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/omg-mobile-voice-survey-reveals-teens.html (Oct 2014)
Source: /u/UpboatOarKnotUpboat
NATURAL LANGUAGE: GRANULAR SEARCHES
NATURAL LANGUAGE: FACETED SEARCH
SEARCH QUERIES VS. COMMANDS
Requests to IPAs are not just search queries.
Commands as well.
A single interface for all your requests.
Natural language search removes the friction for performing complex queries.
Encourages compound queries and query revisions.
Ties into leveraging your context and tapping directly into data.
INSIGHT
THE FUTURE
4
WHAT PEOPLE WANT TO DO
CONVERSION VIA IPAS
?
‘COMPUTATIONAL’ SEARCHES
FACEBOOK ‘M’
AMBIENT IPAS
CHALLENGES & TIPS
5
How do we check Rankings?
How does Attribution work?
Will there be Analytics?
BUILD AN APP
IPAs are the new interface to your service - build an app to leverage this.
RANK FOR 0
http://www.slideshare.net/crumplezone/seo-for-answers-ranking-0
OPERATE EARLIER IN THE FUNNEL
http://www.slideshare.net/jonoalderson/searching-higher-up-the-funnel-54123155
We are in a Post-PageRank world.
Web search will no longer be the dominant model.
DANKESCHÖN!@TomAnthonySEO
DISTILLED NEWS
Our SEO Split Testing Platform is now live:
https://distilled.net/odn/