seo in 2018 and beyond | seattle interactive 2017
TRANSCRIPT
Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | [email protected]
The SEO World in 2018How SEO is affected by Google’s changes, searcher behavior, new
technology, and the marketing world
Google Core
Oct 2016 May 2017
Google Images
Yahoo
Bing
Google Maps
Amazon
Gained/Lost
58.9%
27.7%
2.6%
2.3%
2.2%
1.9%
0.7%
YouTube 3.8%
64.8%
21.8%
2.4%
2.4%
1.2%
2.3%
1.5%
3.6%
+5.9
-5.9
-0.2
+0.1
-1.0
+0.4
+0.8
-0.2
Google Core
Oct 2016 May 2017
Google Images
Yahoo
Bing
Google Maps
Amazon
Gained/Lost
58.9%
27.7%
2.6%
2.3%
2.2%
1.9%
0.7%
YouTube 3.8%
64.8%
21.8%
2.4%
2.4%
1.2%
2.3%
1.5%
3.6%
+5.9
-5.9
-0.2
+0.1
-1.0
+0.4
+0.8
-0.2
We think this is
Halloween
Google Core
Oct 2016 May 2017
Google Images
Yahoo
Bing
Google Maps
Amazon
Gained/Lost
58.9%
27.7%
2.6%
2.3%
2.2%
1.9%
0.7%
YouTube 3.8%
64.8%
21.8%
2.4%
2.4%
1.2%
2.3%
1.5%
3.6%
+5.9
-5.9
-0.2
+0.1
-1.0
+0.4
+0.8
-0.2This is compensated for by a rise in web search
clicks to local results
Google Core
Oct 2016 May 2017
Google Images
Yahoo
Bing
Google Maps
Amazon
Gained/Lost
58.9%
27.7%
2.6%
2.3%
2.2%
1.9%
0.7%
YouTube 3.8%
64.8%
21.8%
2.4%
2.4%
1.2%
2.3%
1.5%
3.6%
+5.9
-5.9
-0.2
+0.1
-1.0
+0.4
+0.8
-0.2
I’m keeping an eye on these two
Google’s Growth
So far, 2017 is trending ~10-15% higher than 2016, not
including voice or Apple devices
Google CTR Breakdown
Relatively flat excluding seasonality = SEO not being
cannibalized by Google’s own results
Google.com
Oct 2016 May 2017
Facebook.com
Reddit.com
YouTube.com
Imgur.com
Bing.com
Wikipedia.org
Gained/Lost
59.2%
6.5%
5.4%
4.5%
2.2%
2.2%
1.4%
Yahoo.com 6.0%
62.6%
5.9%
4.1%
4.7%
1.5%
2.1%
1.4%
5.0%
+3.4%
-0.6%
-1.3%
+0.2%
-0.6%
-0.1%
+0%
-1.0%
Amazon.com 1.3% 1.4% +0.1%
Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally(data below from May 2017)
Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally(data below from May 2017)
Google distributes traffic pretty evenly
Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally(data below from May 2017)
Facebook is strongly biased to the top
Top 10 11-100 101-1K 1K-10K 10K+
Google 22.2% 14.9% 18.0% 18.7% 26.2%
Facebook 42.7% 17.7% 15.3% 12.9% 11.3%
Yahoo 39.2% 15.8% 15.6% 14.0% 15.4%
Reddit 75.2% 11.0% 7.2% 4.4% 2.2%
Youtube 80.1% 7.2% 5.4% 4.1% 3.2%
Not All Referrers Send Traffic Equally(data below from May 2017)
Reddit & YouTube even more so
CTR on Google Mobile vs. Desktop
There may be more traffic opportunity from desktop
STILL due to higher CTRSource
But, in 2017, There’s Also
More Feature Opportunity
Than Ever Before
You can do SEO to
show up here
And here
16 Features Every SEO Should Consider:
Video units
SERP Feature Type How to Get In
“People Also Ask”
Featured Snippet
Maps Box
Knowledge Panel
Top Stories (News)
Images
Apps
Create & optimizeon YouTube (or, rarely, Vimeo)
Branding –get searched for with/after the query
Phrasing & positionof short answer in content
Claim GMB, get links, earn citations, be nearby
Earn brand association, use structured markup
Get in Google News, earn links, title w/ KWs
Relevant images, alt attributes, & direct embeds
KWs in title/description, get popular in app stores
Books
Related Searches
Tweets
Search Suggest
Sitelinks
Section Sitelinks
In-Depth Articles
Carousels/List Results
Write a book, use KWs in the title, have an ISBN
Be searched+foundcommonly w/ the KWs
Verified accounts help, use KWs in tweets
As w/ related searches, also geo-sensitive
Get links & visits to several pop pgs; use markup
Grow popular subsections w/ popular subpages
Author longer pieces that receive attention/links
Be listedalongside common sets on the web
16 Features Every SEO Should Consider:
SERP Feature Type How to Get In
Many Queries Get
No Clicks at All
According to our clickstream data, <25%
of searchers will click from a result like
this.
Why Sacrifice Ad $$ for
Answers?
These are high CPC ads,
with high ROI
Why is Google hurting ad CTR w/
these answers?!
Answers More Searches
The addiction of search is powerful, i.e.
“Google always knows just what I mean!”
More on How to Become the Answer:
Via Dr. Pete (and more Dr. Pete)
Elements We Believe Google Uses in Predictive Intent:
Location & Prior Behavior of Users in That Location
Device Attributes: Type, O/S, Speed, Installed Apps, etc
Search, App, & Browser History
Gmail Behavior (& possibly all keyboard behavior)
Temporal Elements & Time-Based Patterns
By searching for & clicking the site in Google, I biased the
engine to show me more results from that domain in the
future.
If Google Becomes a Suggestion Engine, Marketers Will Be
Left With Two Choices:
Capture attention here Or compete, unaided, here
8 Broad Areas of Google’s Ranking Algorithm
(for classic, ten-blue-links style results):
Links
Quality of Host
Domain
Query
Satisfaction
User
ExperiencePersonalization
Technical &
Crawl
KeywordsContent
Does the text match what Google’s ML systems calculate to be
relevant, high-quality, & a match for the searcher’s intent?Content
Editorially-given, anchor-text-rich, followed links from high
quality sources still matter to Google (esp. in competitive results)Links
If Google sees high rates of pogo-stickingor other signals that
your page/site isn’t solving search queries, they’ll likely rank you
lower
Query
Satisfaction
Via WB Friday
Using the searcher’s keywords intelligently on your page still
matters for rankings (and for CTR in the results)Keywords
Ring failed to rank
until they changed
their page title to
include “video
doorbell”
Domains accrue signals of quality & value. Powerful domains
may give the pages they host a boost in ranking ability.Quality of Host
Domain
Via OSE
Google wants to see sites provide an easy-to-use, intuitive
experienceon every device, at every speed, without
impediment.
User
Experience
Speed & accessibility to crawlers still matters, and Google still
doesn’t handle non-text, or non-HTML-link accessible pages
well.
Technical &
Crawl
The geography, device, search history, and timing of a
searcher’s query can all change Google’s results significantly.Personalization
Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | [email protected]
Thank You!