seo in 2018 and beyond | seattle interactive 2017

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Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | [email protected] The SEO World in 2018 How SEO is affected by Google’s changes, searcher behavior, new technology, and the marketing world

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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

Bit.ly/seoin2018

Some Remarkable Data

On Searcher Behavior…

Where Do People Search?

Breakdown of Searches on

Major Web Properties

(May 2017)

Google Core

Oct 2016 May 2017

Google Images

Yahoo

Bing

Google Maps

Amazon

Facebook

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

Facebook

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

Facebook

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

Facebook

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

What are the Web’s Top

Traffic Referrers?

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

Mobile CTR

2.0% on Paid

40.9% on Organic

57.1% Don’t Click

2.8% on Paid

Desktop CTR

62.2% on Organic

35% Don’t Click

CTR on Google Mobile vs. Desktop

There may be more traffic opportunity from desktop

STILL due to higher CTRSource

The move from SERP ranking to

SERP Features

SERP Features Are Near-Universal

SERP Features Massively Impact CTR

Many Features Remove SEO Opportunity

But, in 2017, There’s Also

More Feature Opportunity

Than Ever Before

You can do SEO to

show up here

And here

And here

Here And here Here too Also here Yup!

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

The move from results

to answers.

Many Queries Get

No Clicks at All

According to our clickstream data, <25%

of searchers will click from a result like

this.

This is so common that, according to our data, 49% of

searches results in 0 clicks!

Why Sacrifice Ad $$ for

Answers?

These are high CPC ads,

with high ROI

Why is Google hurting ad CTR w/

these answers?!

Google’s willing to lose a lot of short-term revenue in exchange for

addictive search behavior

Answers More Searches

The addiction of search is powerful, i.e.

“Google always knows just what I mean!”

Ads Can Be Answers Too…

In Organic, Featured Snippets Are Google’s Primary “Be the

Answer” Bet.

These Snippets Also Power Voice Search

Extracted, Card-Style Answers

are Also on the Rise

The move from expressed to

implied intent.

Past: Query Terms Determined Results

Today: Google Knows What You Want Better Than (& Before)

You Do

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

Different Devices/People; Different Results

Seattle, WA Northampton, MA

It’s Not Just Search Suggestions; It’s Rankings Too

In San Diego,

comics rule:

I stumbled across an article

mentioning this resort in Japan

early in my trip-planning research

By searching for & clicking the site in Google, I biased the

engine to show me more results from that domain in the

future.

By the time I reached evaluation stage, it

was too late to convince me to stay

anywhere else…

If Google Becomes a Suggestion Engine, Marketers Will Be

Left With Two Choices:

Capture attention here Or compete, unaided, here

But Rand, How Do I Rank

My Site in Google?

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!