new rules of seo: rankbrain, links, & content

THE NEW RULES OF SEO: RANKBRAIN, LINKS & CONTENT

ANDREW DOBBS

Sr. Manager, Business DevelopmentLAUREN BLECHER

Director, Marketing

THURSDAY, MAY 26TH, 2016

WE OPTIMIZE LEAD FLOW FROM

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DEMANDWAVEIS THE PREMIER B2B DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY.

SEO

SEM

CONTENT

DESIGN

ANALYTICS

76% of marketersbelieve marketing has changed more in the last 2 years than in the last 50.Source: Adobe, “Digital Distress: What Keeps Marketers Up at Night?”

Source: Washington Post, “Google Turning Its Lucrative Web Search Over to AI Machines”

Google updates its search algorithm

500-600 times each year.

Source: Moz, “Google Algorithm Change History.”

71% of business purchase decisions start with a search engine.

Source: Google/Millard Brown Digital, B2B Path to Purchase Study

Source: Washington Post, “Google Turning Its Lucrative Web Search Over to AI Machines”

“RankBrain has become the third-most important signal contributing to the result of a search query.”

Source: Andrey Lipattsev, Google Search Quality Senior Strategist, Google Q&A, March 23, 2016

“I can tell you what [the top two factors] are. It is content. And it’s links linking to your site.”

THE PROPRIETARY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE USED BY GOOGLE TO PROCESS AND RANK SEARCH QUERIES.

WHAT IS RANKBRAIN?

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Processing the 15% of search queries that Google has never seen before.

Improving search results for long tail keywords. (Think voice search!)

What is RankBrain’s role in Google search?

3 Helping to better categorize pages based on overall content – not keywords.

1. Make sure schema markup is on point.

Source: Google, “Learning the Meaning Behind Words.”

Schema tells Google what data actually means rather than what it says.

1. Make sure schema markup is on point.Schema tells Google what data actually means rather than what it says.

Source: Kissmetrics, “How to Boost Your SEO by Using Schema Markup.”

vs.

1. Make sure schema markup is on point.Schema can help optimize the following entities:

Source: Kissmetrics, “How to Boost Your SEO by Using Schema Markup.”

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Articles Book reviews

TV episodes and ratings

Restaurants

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Local businesses 6

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Software applications

Movies

Products9

Events

1. Make sure schema markup is on point.Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper can guide you through the code.

Source: https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/

1. Make sure schema markup is on point.Then test with Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.

Source: https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/

2. Optimize for user intent. Google is smart enough to track whether or not searchers like your website based on their behavior.

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Bounce rate2

Click-through rate (CTR)

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Frequency4

Pages per session

“Google has designed and patented a system in charge of collecting and processing of user behavior data.”Source: Dan Petrovic, Moz, “User Behavior Data as a Ranking Signal.”

2. Optimize for user intent. Boost organic CTR by optimizing page titles and meta descriptions to win more clicks.

Source: Moz, “Queries & Clicks May Influence Google’s Results More Directly Than Previously Suspected

2. Optimize for user intent. Boost organic CTR by optimizing page titles and meta descriptions to win more clicks.

Meta descriptions

Page titles

2. Optimize for user intent. Decrease bounce rate and lift pages per sessions with engaging content.

2. Optimize for user intent. Decrease bounce rate and lift pages per sessions with engaging content.

Clear call-to actions drive engagement and conversions.

2. Optimize for user intent. Create standout content on a regular schedule to encourage return visits (frequency).

Google knows which sites receive multiple visits and how often.

LINKS STILL MATTER

“Despite rumors to the contrary, the data continues to show some of the highest correlations between Google rankings and the number of links to a given page .”

Source: Moz, “2015 Search Engine Ranking Factors”

Be careful to build links the right way. Invest in content marketing. Nurture relationships with influencers.

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Get a list of your inbound links from Google’s Search Console.

Ask the link source to remove the link.

Use the Google disavow tool on all bad links.

Conduct a link profile audit to identify bad links.

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Resubmit your site for Google reconsideration.5

Be careful to build links the right way.Invest in content marketing. Nurture relationships with influencers.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR CONTENT?

Align content creation with user intent.Create a content creation roadmap. Align new keyword themes to your funnel.

Buyer Stage

Awareness

Evaluation

Purchase

Content Type & Topic Search Query

Educate prospects on the value of your product & foster thought leadership.

Build the business case for why the prospect needs to invest in your product or service.

Give the prospect a reason to choose you over your competitors.

Product Page: “Search Opportunity Forecasting: Measure & Predict the Financial Value of Content..”

BrightEdge cost

Blog: “Understanding Share of Voice in Digital Markets.”

Share of voice advertising

Product Page: “Competitive SEO Analysis”

Competitor analysis SEO report

There are endless content creation possibilities!

Align content creation with user intent.

Source: Distilled, “4 Types of Content Every Site Needs.”

Win more customers by mapping keyword themes to user intent. Are these transactional or informational keyword themes?

Buyer Stage

Awareness

Evaluation

Purchase

Content Type & Topic Search Query

Educate prospects on the value of your product & foster thought leadership.

Build the business case for why the prospect needs to invest in your product or service.

Give the prospect a reason to choose you over your competitors.

Product Page: “Search Opportunity Forecasting: Measure & Predict the Financial Value of Content..”

BrightEdge cost

CTA

Download our SEO eBook.

Watch the video

Request a Demo

Blog: “Understanding Share of Voice in Digital Markets.”

Share of voice advertising

Product Page: “Competitive SEO Analysis”

Competitor analysis SEO report

Align content creation with user intent.

Check if your content aligns with Google’s interpretation of intent by simply searching.

Align content creation with user intent.

“cloud security” “cloud security solutions”

WHERE WILL THE FUTURE TAKE SEO?

RankBrain is prepping search for the Internet of ThingsBy the end of 2020, Gartner expects 25 billions “things” to be connected to the Internet.

Devices will be searching, too. Including Google Home.

Image Source: Google Home, “home.google.com.”

RankBrain is prepping search for the Internet of Things

IoT will impact B2B marketers.

Source: LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog, “B2B Beat: Why the Internet of Things is Crucial for B2B Marketers” by Sean Callahan.

IoT isn’t just for B2C. In fact, 40% of connected devices are in business or manufacturing. Use cases include supply chain analytics and robotic machinery.

RankBrain is prepping search for the Internet of Things

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Audit your website for proper schema markup.

Earn links, don’t build them.

RankBrain is shaping the new rules of SEO.

3 Give users the best experience possible with standout, relevant, consistent content.

READY TO GET MORE OUT OF DIGITAL?DISCOVER HOW TO START DRIVING MORE SALES-QUALIFIED LEADS TODAY.

1 How to measure your revenue opportunity from search.

Actionable steps you can take to drive more sales-qualified leads.

Get a free SEO and content analysis from our team. We’ll cover:

2

How you stack up against the competition.3

800.619.1570 results@demandwave.com