Semantic SEO: Evolved Query Results

Bill SlawskiMarch 17, 2015

Lotico San Diego Semantic Web meetup

Once Upon a Time…10 Blue Links

Google Query Results are Evolving because of Semantic Data

• Direct Answers

• Structured Snippets

• Rich Snippets

• Knowledge-Based Trust?

Many Results now come in the shape of Direct Answers

Or a mix of Hybrid Results

Direct Answers are mentioned in Google’s 2014 Financial Statement!

Now we are increasingly able to provide direct answers -- even if you’re speaking your question using Voice Search -- which makes it quicker, easier and more natural to find what you’re looking for.

Google FORM 10-K for 2014 (For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2014)

Direct Answers are from Authoritative Sources

• In some implementations, the search system may perform offline processing of authoritative sources to determine and store answers to common clear-intent non-factual questions.

• ~ Natural Language Search Results for Intent Queries

Direct Answers are Extracted from pages, as described in this patent

Natural Language Search Results for Intent QueriesInternational Application No WO/2014/197227Published:11.12.2014International Filing Date: 23.05.2014Applicant: GoogleInventors: Tomer Shmiel, DvirKeysar, and Yonatan Erez

Authoritative Sources are:

• Sites that are frequently selected in Search Results for a query involved in the Direct question

• Site Contains high ranking query terms related to the query

Answer pages are found using Intent Templates

• How do I treat $X

• $X treatment

• How is $X treated

• How to cure $X

A Headings/Answers DataStore is Collected from those sources

The Formatting of Answers Matters

• The format of the Answer helps determine which answer is being presented

• Does it answer the question?

• Does it fit in the space allotted? (like a query snippet does on a results page.)

The Benefits of Having a Direct Answer

• An Additional Chance to be in Search Results

• Being Seen as “authoritative” by being an answer

• An Answer is formatted differently than other results; more likely to draw attention

Extractable Resources

http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en/us/pubs/archive/34460.pdf (This paper was the provisional patent for the natural language search results Patent)

Two Column Tables (Wiki Infobox)

Relational Tables

Colon Delimited Pairs

Tables as Extraction Sources

http://yz.mit.edu/papers/webtables-vldb08.pdf

Structured Snippets

Google Table Search

https://research.google.com/tables

Facts from Tables appear in Snippets

Applying WebTables in Practice: http://www.cidrdb.org/cidr2015/Papers/CIDR15_Paper3.pdf

Help w/ Structured Snippets

• Use Tables on your pages filled with data

• Use markup like Table Headings<th> for rows of the tables

• Use Titles and captions descriptive of the Table’s data

• Use Associated text on the Page the table is about to help Google better understand it.

Rich Snippets

About rich snippets and structured data

To Be eligible for Rich Snippets, you need to use Markup on your pages.

Rich snippets guidelines

There are a limited number or markup types for Rich Snippets

• Reviews

• People

• Products

• Businesses and organizations

• Recipes

• Events

• Music

Schema Markup

http://schema.org/Restaurant

Marked up Search Results

Schema Markup Customizes Results

Generating specialized search results in response to patterned queries

Adding Data to Get Evolved Results

• Semantics adds meaning to Search Results resulting in richer Search Results

• Google may Extract Data from Sources on the Web like Web Pages, knowledge bases, and Tables

• Some Data can be added to pages using Schema markup to provide rich snippets

A Shift in the Air?

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.03519v1.pdf

Authoritative Answers

• Presently use link signals to identify highest ranking pages those sources are found at.

• What if they used correctness of facts on pages instead – a knowledge-based Trust?

A New Way to Choose Authority Sources?

The quality of web sources has been traditionally evaluated using exogenous signals such as the hyperlink structure of the graph. We propose a new approach that relies on endogenous signals, namely, the correctness of factual information provided by the source. A source that has few false facts is considered to be trustworthy.

Knowledge-Based-Trust Not a factor Yet.

“We have lots of people doing research…”

Google webmaster Evangelist John Mueller speaking about Knowledge-based Trust.