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2011-11 Chennai Social Media Summit Keynote
The document discusses the evolution of search engines from 2001 to 2011, highlighting significant changes in algorithms, the importance of social signals, and the growing complexity of search result pages. It emphasizes the shift from traditional SEO practices, like link building, to a focus on content freshness and social media engagement. The author advocates for adapting marketing strategies to the new landscape where search and social media increasingly overlap.
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2011-11 Chennai Social Media Summit Keynote
- 1. The Evolution ofSearch The Merging of Search and Social Gillian Muessig – Chennai Nov, 2011
- 2. The King isDead! Long live the king!
- 4. 2001: A CrazySearch Landscape Via Bruce Clay’s classic search engine relationship chart: http://www.bruceclay.com/serc_histogram/histogram.htm
- 5. The Algorithm: (Keyword Use+ Anchor Text) X PageRank Simpler times. Spammier times, too.
- 6. SERPs All LookedLike This: Via Google’s 10th Birthday post: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-time-machine- web-in-2001.html
- 7. SEO Meant aFew Fundamentals Make good content, make it accessible, target the right keywords… That was pretty much it!
- 8. And a Lotof Link Building Links were pretty much everything once you got a crawlable, keyword-targeted page set up.
- 9. Hello Spam! Even Randbought some of these back in the day…
- 10. Fast Forward 7Years Google celebrated the year with a TCP/IP protocol reference: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-01-n53.html
- 11.
- 12. Local/Maps is onthe Rise Matt McGee charted the astounding rise of Google Maps/Local starting in 2008: http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/charting-the-undeniable-growth-of-google-maps/1046/
- 13. There’s a FewNew Protocols The Sitemaps.org homepage literally hasn’t changed since February of 2008!
- 14. But Not MuchElse Has Changed In early 2009, I wrote a post about the shift in importance of algorithmic factors at Google: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-googles-rankings-algorithm-has-changed-over-time-
- 15. Jump Ahead… to2011
- 16. It’s a WholeNew World Image via http://gizmodo.com/5478787/the-most-accurate-highest-resolution-earth-view-to- date (which is pretty cool, BTW)
- 17. SERPs Rarely LookLike This Anymore It took me serious time to find a query this sparse
- 18. They Look LikeThis: Google’s instant answers are getting more detailed and sophisticated, as illustrated by http://www.google.com/search?q=nfl+schedule+2011
- 19. And This: News results,shopping results and video snippets + the new, shrunken sitelinks for the top result
- 20.
- 21. And This: Personalization andsocial sharing dominate the page because I’m logged in.
- 22. Rich Snippets &Schema.org There’s a good post by Rich Baxter on Schema here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/schemaorg-a- new-approach-to-structured-data-for-seo
- 23. Rel=Author Good advice onhow to get it set up here: http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/how-to-implement- rel-author
- 24. Video Results Google onhow to create video XML sitemaps and appear in these results: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=80472
- 25. And Social Annotations Notonly are the results annotated with the share / social data; they also outrank the top result
- 26. SERPs Are AlmostAlways Personalized Search history, social networks, previous clicks and more impact personalization + rankings
- 27. And Geographically Biased,Too Geography impacts both search result ordering and search suggestions/instant
- 28. Search Barely RequiresTyping BTW – I tried this same search from Portland vs. Yoder, and “Fox News” is not a top suggestion, but “Firefox “and “Fred Meyer” both are
- 29. Misspellings are aThing of the Past A few years back, there would be entire sessions at conferences on SEO for misspellings
- 30. Instant Answers areEverywhere Google even offered instant answers as to the sexual orientation of celebrities: http://gawker.com/5844769/google- will-now-tell-you-which-celebrities-are-gay (but the feature appears to have been removed)
- 31. The Algorithm HasChanged Check out Dr. Pete’s Algorithm History guide: http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change
- 32. We Had Vince AaronWall did some excellent analysis on Vince here: http://www.seobook.com/google-branding
- 33. And May Day BarrySchwartz summarized the impact as described by Matt here: http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/022293.html
- 34. And the Pandas Somegood analysis from Cyrus Shephard here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/beat-google-panda
- 35. Brands Can NowDominate Entire Pages Nothing but Apple.com from top to bottom
- 36. Some are Dominatedby Google Itself http://www.seobook.com/google-eats-their-organic-search-results
- 37. Social is onthe Rise Like Never Before Via http://searchengineland.com/top-internet-activities-search-email-once-again-88964
- 38. Why Social SignalsTrump Links Via http://www.michael-jackson-photos.com/
- 39. We Know WhoRules the News That Day
- 40.
- 41. Social Is TheImmediacy Signal
- 42. Social Signals RoseAgain Yesterday http://mashable.com/2011/11/03/google-tweaks-search-ranking-algorithm/
- 43. We Want News,Not Ancient History http://mashable.com/2011/11/03/google-tweaks-search-ranking-algorithm/
- 44. We Want Today’sReviews http://mashable.com/2011/11/03/google-tweaks-search-ranking-algorithm/
- 45. It Means You’veGot Work • Websites need fresher content • Comment Marketing increases • Facebook, Orkut & Twitter increase in power… again http://mashable.com/2011/11/03/google-tweaks-search-ranking-algorithm/
- 46. Social Fragmentation AppearsCertain Users: 50mm 750mm 200mm 120mm 10mm Users: 14mm Millions 14mm 6.5mm This growth is a big reason why I’ve changed my tune on social media marketing and now strongly endorse it for almost every business: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/everyone-should-hire-social-media-experts
- 47.
- 48. Search No LongerWorks in a Vacuum Earning a click in the SERPs is merely one step in a greater process.
- 49. It Lives inthe Broader Inbound Funnel Eloqua’s content grid does a great job exploring where content sits in the marketing funnel: http://media.eloqua.com/images/The-Content-Grid-v2.jpg
- 50. But is NearlyUseless By Itself Via http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media
- 51.
- 52. Make the SiteSearch-Engine Friendly Via http://www.seomoz.org/blog/4-essential-seo-infographics
- 53.
- 54.
- 55. Good Enough Yep; itreally used to work.
- 56.
- 57. You Might Rank Beforeyou even do that, make sure you’re choosing the right goals: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-6-goals-of-seo-choosing-the-right-ones-for-your-business
- 58. You Probably Won’tConvert Well Unless the rest of the funnel rocks, SEO is in a rough spot: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/winning- the-seo-battle-at-every-step-of-the-purchase-path
- 59. The New Lookof Search http://www.indiazooms.com/?p=137846
- 60. Top Ten Tipsfor Chennai SEOs!
- 61. #10: New Heirarchyof Social Credibility
- 62. #9: Info-graphics Arethe New Linkbait http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-is-a-reverse-proxy-and-how-can-it-help-my-seo
- 63.
- 64. #7: Branding isBaaaaa-ack!
- 65. #6: Leverage Allthe Social Networks Users: 50mm 750mm 200mm 120mm 10mm Users: 14mm Millions 14mm 6.5mm
- 66. #5: Recommend Sitesto Searchers
- 67. #4:Build Links WithYour Social Followers
- 68.
- 69. #2: Thought Leadership= CTR Bump
- 70. #1: Ask Rand;He’s Not Busy ;-)
- 71. +1!: Follow theMoney Backwards
- 72. SEO is Biggerthan SEO
- 73. And We Havethe Skills, Knowledge, Experience and Adaptability to Win.
- 74.
- 75. Thank you! Gillian Muessig Founding President of SEOmoz | @SEOmom | [email protected]
Editor's Notes
- #3 The King is Dead! Long, live the King! This refrain rang out from the halls of governing courts around the world for millennia. It still does. It signifies a change that affects all subjects, neighboring countries and sometimes the lives of people halfway around the world It also signifies consistency: the monarchy is not gone. It is changing. Likewise, in the past months, we have repeatedly heard the refrain, "SEO is Dead!" Most of the pundits fail to continue the refrain... long live SEO - or search marketing.
- #4 SEO is not dead! It is changing. If it were not, it would, indeed, die. So we should heartened to see the rapid changes as they come. We also need to heed the changes, so we can succeed in the new environments.
- #5 In the late '90s and early aughts, search algorithms were just beginning to sort out how to catalog the pages of the web and bring relevant results to searchers. Links were the first powerful signals and they remained so for a very long time. In many respects, they still are powerful - so as we talk about other signals and metrics over the coming days, please don't forget the ongoing power of links or ignore them in your work.
- #6 The algorithm was simple. Keyword Use + Anchor Text x PageRank = Success
- #9 But links are a pretty simplistic signal. Unless your name is Rand Fishkin, your Mama doesn't link! Mamas, in general, don't know how to link. Especially in 2002, they didn't know how. Neither did Grandpapa or your 12 year old niece.
- #10 Links were easily gamed - we're marketers! We know what to do! So links were created by only a few tech geeks, who pretty much governed the flow of info on the first SERP pages.
- #19 These days, SERPs look dramatically different. Search for a sports schedule and you’l get the schedule right in the SERP results – a no-click fulfillment of your search request. Talk about instant gratification!
- #20 If you’re looking to buy a laptop, you’ll find video, images, and prices in your results. Local search offers one of the most dramatic changes to the SERPs. 7-packs and 10-packs may push all other results below the fold. Maps are clickable to get instant directions, all while keeping you on Google properties.
- #21 Looking for a restaurant? Personalization and social sharing dominate pages when you’re logged in. And they’re auto-geo-located – again, so long as you’re logged in.
- #23 Rich snippets provide ever more information to searchers without so much as a click. Check out Rich Baxter’s excellent post on Schema.org here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/schemaorg-a-new-approach-to-structured-data-for-seo
- #24 Where there used to be rel=canonical, we’ve got rel=author. Recognizing the authority of authors is an important change. Building the reputation of an author requires social marketing, as well as technical SEO on a blog.
- #26 Results annotated with share and social data outrank the otherwise top results.
- #29 These days, searching barely even requires typing. Type the letter “f” and the word “facebook” is likely to pop up. Keep typing letters for some other word and more options appear. You can select your choice anywhere along the process. This presents a serious challenge to marketers. Since the suggestions presented as we search are based on what we searched for and selected previously, in order to be part of this new drop-down suggestion pack, marketers must get attention on the very first visit or risk not being in the drop-down pack the next time the searcher returns for more research.
- #30 Even misspellings are a thing of the past. A few years ago, entire sessions were devoted to tactics for leveraging misspellings. Today, if you – or your searchers - can’t spell, don’t worry! Google will automatically correct you and offer you options to search for correctly spelled products and ideas. Perhaps Google will do what no language teacher has been able to do – teach us all to spell properly every time!
- #31 Instant answers are everywhere. No longer do we build long pages of content for information that searchers will be able to get without clicking through to any site. As marketers, we have to stay much more focused now. Google’s answer and “best guess” results trump all other listings.
- #33 (Vince is also known as the ‘Florida Update’) Overnight, pages with repetitive, inbound anchor text with little diversity disappeared from the SERPs. So did those with heavy keyword phrase repetition on page and in page titles. Same for sites where the keyword phrases are clumped together and there’s no natural dispersion of the usage. And most exciting (for me) pages with a lack of rich conversation around the subject matter – those lacking related and supporting vocabulary – also lost rank in a hurry!
- #34 …which affected‘fat belly’ or ‘long tail’ search results. In ‘09, there were about 550 updates to the algo – more than 1 a day!
- #35 Panda starts off with human quality raters who look at hundreds of websites. Using machine learning, computers mimic the human raters. When the algorithm becomes accurate enough to predict what the humans scored, it’s unleashed across millions of sites across the Internet. The result is super exciting.
- #37 Google was a search engine. Now Google is moving decisively toward becoming a collection of destination sites. This will present a conflict of interest about which some folks are already crying out. And which will soon be discussed in great detail by the US government.
- #38 Links don't divulge sentiment. They don't really tell you whether they are solid referrals or just a scammy attempt to make a page look important.Search results improved. But sentiment and immediacy was still an issue. Old links are good - it means you've been acknowledged as important to someone or something for awhile. But are you important TODAY? Social media signals tell you that.
- #39 When Michael Jackson died, Twitter carried the news around the world in a matter of seconds. Google SERPs carried relevant results in 22 minutes. The radio and TV channels reported in about 1-10 hours. And the newspapers carried the news in the morning papers. It was evident who was the master of the news that day.
- #41 Google pivoted. In just a few days, social signals were showing on page 1 of the SERPs and they have only focused more and more on them ever since.
- #42 Social signals provide us with way to understand what communities are talking about NOW.
- #43 Yesterday, Google updated the algorithm again. Focusing on QDF (query deserves freshness) or recency. The short of it is that Google assumes that if we search for a subject, we want the most recent info about it.
- #44 The latest tweak builds on a Google initiative called Caffeine that provided 50% fresher results for searches than Google’s previous index. Carrie Grimes, a Google software engineer, outlined the reasons for the continued focus on recency in aDecember 2010 blog post about the completion of Caffeine, She said, “People’s expectations for search are higher than they used to be. Searchers want to find the latest relevant content and publishers expect to be found the instant they publish.”
- #45 We want reviews that are the most recent on the web, not old reviews that may no longer be relevant. And if we search for reviews today, we don’t want to see the same reviews we searched for yesterday. We expect there to be new ones. Google expects it too, and will give preferential treatment to the newest ones.
- #47 Social fragmentation is already here. We’ll see a period of fragmentation, which we cannot ignore, and then a consolidation, just as we see the same patterns in offline industries. Look at the growth and development of the airline and phone service provider industries for good examples of patterns to watch
- #49 Search no longer works in a vacuum.
- #50 Earning a click is merely one step in the great game of inbound marketing. It’s no longer enough to be found in the SERPs… you need to be found everywhere.
- #51 The broader inbound funnel includes all the elements of the classic AIDA funnel (Awareness Interest, Desire and Action). It’s beautifully illustrated by Eloqua’s content grid. See it here: http://media.eloqua.com/images/The-Content-Grid-v2.jpg
- #59 Unless the rest of the funnel rocks. Work backwards. Follow the money backwards. Understand what people who convert are doing on your website and determine where folks who ‘fall off’ get lost. Choose the right goals for your business. One size does not fit everyone: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-6-goals-of-seo-choosing-the-right-ones-for-your-business. Make sure all the component of your sales funnel are operating at peak performance. You won’t rank well if your landing pages are irrelevant or poorly designed. High bounce rates negatively affect SERPs as well as waste conversion opportunities.
- #60 Search has a whole new look.
- #62 Over the coming months, you will hear more and more about social credibility. Just as PageRank gave way to MozRank and MozTrust as search engines looked for ways to determine the trustworthiness of a website, you will find companies creating tools to rank the value of Tweeters, Facebook users, and other social media personalities. They are ranking the value of tweets, and posts, based on the reach and depth of engagement of the personality (the person posting or tweeting).
- #63 Focus on Data as content – share infographics, coalesce difficult ideas in graphic formats. It’s the new linkbait.
- #64 Video rules! More people click on video results regardless of whether they are 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th in the search results. Video provides us more info than words or pictures and they’re not going away. But with so few marketers leveraging them, you still have an opportunity to win big here. Also use video in your on-site conversion process. Are you selling a product? Replace the product image with a how-to-use-it video and watch your conversion rates. Grab a bottle of champagne. You’re going to need it.
- #65 Influence search through branding. Bigger brands have a better chance of being part of the Suggest Pack. Build your brand by increasing tweets, facebook, and other social mentions of your brand to increase your chances of being part of the Pack.
- #66 Leverage the social networks. Don’t be salesy – that’s just dumb. Get deeply involved in posting, sharing, and promoting via social platforms. Remember, social results are trumping other organic SERPs more and more. Social will drive your rankings and CTR. Good page design will take it from there – remember; nothing exists in a vacuum: it’s all connected.
- #67 Even in Kharkiv, I can see what others think of the restaurants I’m considering… and I don’t even speak the language! …but I can translate it. Being active in social networks will also mean you’ll be there when those you’re connected to are searching while ‘logged in’. Personalized search means seeing what your friends are up to and what they’re thinking while you search. Create share-worthy content, share it socially, earn a rankings boost, get natural links because you’re more visible now, earn more social followers as a result, your network amplifies and extends your reach, more searchers are biased to see your stuff when they search, you win!
- #68 Build links with your social followers. Check out Export.ly and and Klout, and read Wil Reynolds excellent post: http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/using-twitter-and-backlinks-to-build-links/2011/07/28. Use vLookup in Excel with the LInkscape ® API to see if your social followers are linking to you. Read Will Critchlow’s how to post: http://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/getting-started-with-the-free-linkscape-api/
- #69 Attack Long Tail SEO via gamification. It’s all about points and levels – we want to complete our profiles, increase our standing, get to the next level. Quora does an extremely effective job of luring us in and engaging us so we continue to build their property. Also check it out these platforms to see how the ‘game’ is played: http://stackexchange.com, http://dribbble.com, and even SEOmoz’s own http://www.seomoz.org/q.
- #70 Thought leadership. Whatever field you’re in, if you can provide better, deeper, more actionable info about your subject, you will become known as the thought leader in the industry. With your “public figure” icon photo beside your SERP result, you’ll happily get a much higher CTR than those ranking above you.
- #71 Leverage other thought leaders to build content for your own website. Here’s a good example: http://blog.folyo.me/post/10723370923/how-much-does-a-website-cost The concept is simple; identify leading influencers in your space, recruit them to contribute something small, such as one or just a few survey answers. Then aggregate and share the data. They’ll help it spread.
- #72 Work backwards. Follow the money backwards. Understand what people who convert are doing on your website and determine where folks who ‘fall off’ get lost. Choose the right goals for your business. One size does not fit everyone: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-6-goals-of-seo-choosing-the-right-ones-for-your-business. Make sure all the component of your sales funnel are operating at peak performance. You won’t rank well if your landing pages are irrelevant or poorly designed. Bounce rates affect SERPs as well as waste conversion opportunities.
- #75 SEO is not dead… long Live the King!