This is the presentation deck presented at the New York E-Commerce Meetup on November 8, 2017:
“2018’s Digital Marketing Landscape Through The Lens of SEO”
The Search Marketing Landscape through the Lens of SEO
Anthony Lavall – VP of SEO
WHO?
- Name: Anthony Lavall
- Role: VP of SEO
- Company: Croud
- From: U.K.
- Lives in: New York
- In SEO for: 6 Years
My Journey
New York from Sydney via London
Kick off Questions
By a show of hands, what types of marketers do we have in the room?
- work at the agency side or as and independent consultant
- work at the client side
- work for a technology service provider
- none of the above
Kick off questions
How much SEO experience do you have?
- loads
- some
- what the flip is SEO?
The Purpsoe of this talk…
- To better understand the current state of the search marketing eco system
- To understand what service a company should expect when working with an SEO agency
- To understand the most important elements of an SEO campaign and how to address them strategically
Current state of Search
The Modern Google SERP – Desktop
- 4 PPC Ads are ubiquitous
- Organic real estate has shrunk
- local search continues to present a big opportunity of relevant brands
The Modern Google SERP – Mobile
The Modern Bing SERP – Desktop
- 4 PPC Ads are ubiquitous on Bing too
- Bing’s desktop ads are arguably more aggressive than Google’s (they didn’t relinquish side ads)
The Modern Bing SERP – Mobile
Google and Bing both invested in the strategy of yielding featured snippets for relevant searches (more to follow)
Question!
By a show of hands, how many people here would say they:
- Frequently click on PPC results
- Sometimes click on PPC results
- Never click on PPC results
- Don’t thin about it
Mobile Searches Continue to grow
U.S. local mobile search vs. Desktop search
Google Moving to Mobile first indexing
- testing has begun
- a single index, mobile focused
- bottom line for marketers; it’s mobile metrics that will factor SEO:
- site speed
- content
- links
- etc.
More Mobile = Change in Search Trends
Examples of growing “best” searches on mobile
- Best umbrellas (over 140%)
- Best travel accessories (over 110%)
- Best deodorants (over 60%)
Mobile searches for “best” have grown over 80% in the past 2 years
Google SERP Changes – How we used to search
old way to search Google
- Enter your query
- Click on the website relevant to your search
- Browse that website and fulfill your request
Google SERP Changes – How we search NOW
New way to search Google
- Search for what you want
- See if Google has the answer
- If not then click on a result relevant to your query
Mobile SERP Changes on Google
Google is ganging our perception of their model so we feel more at ease in it’s ecosystem
Mobile SERP Changes on Google
And now they answer our queries themselves (or with your data) more and more frequently
Keeping Users on Google.com – Featured Snippets
By leveraging content from your website in the form of featured snippets, Google offers a preview called featured snippet
Featured Snippet growth over time
Wh is Google doing this?
Why is Google doing this?
- Voice search suits the “question and answer” or “command” format
- To facilitate answers via Google home you need snippets of answers across a plethora of categories
Keeping Users on Google.com – Google AMP
By getting publishers to allow Google to host their content in AMP format Google can keep you longer on Google’s properties and control your interaction with it’s web properties better
There are obvious AMP advantages, of course
AMP gives Google the framework to promote it’s own ads effectively (they look pretty cool too)
Why Google’s Desire for Control?
There’s a constant power struggle for consumer attention
- More mobile searches
- Lot’s of affluent people use iPhones
- Apple wants to diminish Google’s ad business
So what does this mean for marketers?
Take advantage of SEO while the opportunities exist
Shift to Paid – Integrated PPC & SEO is critical
More PLA placments and ads resulting in more ad spend for ecommerce
Embrace Google’s changes
Embrace AMP / Featured Snippets | Optimize for voice search / mobile users
- invest time and resources into building conversion friendly AMP pages
- optimize your content for featured snippets
- optimize for voice search with question and answer style support content
- Optimize for mobile users with “impartial” comparison insights on mobile friendly pages
Become the digital master of your industry
Content continues to be of pivotal importance for any brand who can afford to produce it
“44% of people go directly to Amazon to start their product searches, compared to 34% who use search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to search for products” (MarketingLand, 2015)
The Death of SEO… not quite
Google will never be able and has no desire to dominate search results for every query
Google will continue to grow into new sectors but a few truths remain:
- Google will only continue to be the best search engine, as long as it provides the best results
- Google’s ongoing SERP changes, while initially hindering, can provide opportunities for those quick to adapt
- Google’s search algorithm is likely the most heavily invested commercial algorithm of all time
What’s needed from an SEO agency
Increased demand on SEO professionals
- technical SEO
- content marketing
- reputation management
- defensive SEO
- link building
- influencer outreach
- digital PR
- social media optimization
- server log file analysis
- site crawls
- mobile optimization
- AMP optimization
- Featured snippets
- voice search optimization
- app store optimization
- HTML & CSS
- in house training
- reporting and analytics
More Specialisms = Steeper Learning Curve
This results in:
- Shallower talent pool
- less time to invest heavily in single discipline
- less visibility on the entire SEO marketing ecosystem
The agency shift
The Old:
- People & Skills
The New:
- Process & Technology
What is the role of an SEO agency to clients?
- An SEO agency should be able to show you the full scope of opportunity in your industry, using search volumes, grouped by keywords
- An SEO agency should maximize content and development resources output through process and technology, based on the level of investment
- and SEO agency should do all of this using a combination of best practice and SEO testing in a bid to constantly better understand search algorithms
- an SEO agency should be able to report and feedback on the results of most SEO initiatives, creating a services of case studies for both themselves and for the client
What’s needed to achieve this?
- Tools & Automation
- Robust process technology
- Cutting edge reporting technology
- Access to cost effective human resource
- the ability scale
How to address SEO strategically?
Understanding and Tracking your Keyword Universe
Great tools include:
- SEMrush, SEOmonitor
- conductor
- Brightedge
- searchMetrics
Automating the unearthing of key opportunities
Great tools include:
- keepcrawl
- Sitebulb
- Screemingfrog
- botify
Building a roadmap for every tactic & opportunity
Explicit Deliverables & Fluid Communication
And finally… a data aggregation reporting suite is key
Great tools include:
- datorama
- Google Data Studio
- tableau
Thank you!
Questoins?
