01WORLD IA DAY 2016 PRESENTATION TITLE HERE

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, USA

JACKIE BURHANS

DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH & MARKETING

@ascediajburhans@ascedia.com

The most important thing I do at my agency is educate my clients about their visitors and help them

understand how user experience (UX) and content architecture is connected to conversions

EmpathyIn my 11 year career I have attempted to understand

my audience and engage them. The key has been empathy.

There are several tips here to apply this concept but what I hope you leave here inspired with a new

perspective on how to approach digital content.

The web is a utopia of information and ideas. I like to direct the infrastructure of that information. I like

getting people from point A (a search query) to point B (information). That’s possible today more than ever

That hasn’t always been the case.

I got into the industry in 2004.Much of the internet’s organization was figured out.

The internet used to be a mess.

The internet is like a library with no catalog where all the books get up and move themselves every night

Search engines made content accessible and organized. Google quickly became an industry leader,

dictating more so than anything else how content should be structured on the internet. This was

massively based on matching keywords in queries to keywords in content.

Businesses strategically researched keywords that their target audiences were searching on and placing

them into their websites in an effort to rank on search engines and drive traffic to their site.

• Don’t be evil

Google made sure businesses didn’t deceive search engines or users. If you played nice you could rank.

Content consumers demanded content creation and the internet saw an influx of content.

Blogging became a way for businesses to put out more content about more keywords and drove a lot of

traffic to their sites.

But the internet grew quickly and it got more and more difficult to find the information you were

looking for.

90% of the data in the world today has been created in the

last two years alone.There was a lot of noise. Search results were less and

less relevant as content exploded. Google wrote algorithms to identify content that was spammy to

find the most relevant content.

Google has made literally hundreds of updates to their algorithm every year in an effort to keep search

results relevant and useful to searchers.

QUALITY CONTENT

The most significant algorithm update for content architecture became known as Google Panda which weeded out low quality sites. As content architects we had to start being deliberate in the content we

created focusing on quality and uniqueness.

Several things happened• The amount of content on the internet skyrocketed

This worked for a long time. Marketers and copywriters could research keyword opportunities

and write copy that their audience was searching on. It was very straightforward.

But then, several things happened.

An explosion of connectivity

• More ways to connect to the internetThere were more ways to connect to the internet

Mobile searches skyrocketed

MOBILE searches skyrocketed• Mobile stats here

Subsequently, mobile searches skyrocketed and last year mobile searches surpassed desktop searches.

Time spent on social media increased greatly

Social media • New ay to consume media

As users were more connected to information, there was a demand to be

more connected to each other

User Generated Content

This led to an influx of user generated content. Users were contributing product information and driving the

conversation

Voice Search

Voice search• Natural language

Voice search introduced searches based on natural language. We speak differently than we type. So this

changed the game.

• We need to accommodate them.

Attention spans are dropping- if we don’t architect content how users want to consume it, they will move on.

So what does all this mean?

When the world became constantly connected to each other and to real time information, users

demanded a new way to access information (and even new information to access)

This shook up marketers. No one knew the future of SEO and success had been redefined. Everything we

knew about ranking was no longer accurate. Conferences are filled with marketers threatening

“SEO is dead”. I think in a sense that is correct.

Instead of optimizing for search engines, the power has shifted from content

creators, to content consumers. Accepting this is

the difference between surviving this industry shift

and not. This image is a great example of what is

happening. Previously we could pave the path for

users- pave it, make it wide enough for 2-way traffic, light it. But users are now

savvy enough and empowered enough to

create their own path. They will take the path they want. We need to accommodate them if we want to remain

relevant.

A complete algorithm refresh I said Google was leading the charge so let’s look at

how they responded. The “Hummingbird” algorithm update was a complete overhaul. Other changes were tweaking the algorithm. This one completely changed the game to accommodate natural language search.

Natural language searches are constructed differently.

Google Hummingbird knew how to understand search context. Let’s say you want to go to brunch

with your friends. If you sat down at your desktop and opened Google, you might type “best brunch

restaurant”. That’s a great keyword. Google can understand all of those words and as a marketer I can even create content about “best brunch restaurant”.

But when you ask “OK Google” or “Siri” you might say “where’s the best place to get brunch?” Google now

needed to understand that “place” means restaurant. Google can also understand where you are to provide geographically relevant results. And Google will scrape

review websites to find the best places rated for brunch. And, they’ll give you wait times.

This sums it up well (from Search Engine Land). Google is looking less at queries and more at understanding the context of search. From a

business’s standpoint and as a marketer, if you want to drive traffic, you need to change your approach.

This approach is also how Google populates the Knowledge graph.

• Knowledge graph

The knowledge graph contains snippets of information scrapped from the most reliable sources. This area was created for mobile users. The idea is to

provide mobile users with answers to their natural language searches without needing to navigate to a webpage. Often, this information takes up 100% or more of a mobile user’s screen. Organic results are

less relevant.

Much of this information is provided with mark up language that you can identify in the code of your

webpage. Schema.org is the resource for understanding this markup.

Search engines are getting better at identifying this information without markup so providing accurate,

valuable content is the best way to get into the knowledge graph.

So understanding the information your users want to access is key.

Empathy.

So, there is still a keyword component, we want to know the terminology our audience is using but its more about understanding

their behaviors. How they access information, from

what devices, where they are located, how much time do they

have to consume your information, what other information are they

exposed to, can they access the info you offer somewhere else more

conveniently? (because they will)

We must create value.

"Subscribers, fans, followers, leads and customers choose when and where to interact with your brand. They do not

differentiate between marketing departments and channels.”

-pr2020.com

So how do we structure information when Google keeps changing their algorithm and users keep consuming content differently but we still have

content we want exposure to?

Be thought leaders

It’s a played out buzz word, but we need to be thought leaders. The only brands that

will survive are the thought leaders. According to Google Panda we must be

relevant & valuable.

Make content Accessible

Make it responsive.Mobile accessibility is a

ranking factor along with engagement statistics like bounce rate. Google won’t

send users to a site with poor experience.

Marketers should always work with UX professionals

because our goals are aligned.

Design for mobile first and it will force you to ask tough

questions about what content is valuable.

Design it for them

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course if you dig deeper, its really how it works.

“”

Design for your users. If you are creating web experiences and don’t have a ux professional

Don’t expect marketing conversions A good UX professional knows design and knows

marketing and knows your users. Tie user behavior to your aesthetics.

Provide the content they ask for

Hairstyle.com discovered that their users searched for and “pinned” on Pinterest things like “date hair” or

“wedding hair” so they created an entire new website around these content demands. They created

valuable content from user research as opposed to simply filling their site with these keywords.

Determine the data your audience needs on demand

Search engines are providing on demand information at the top of search results. Use

markup to communicate important on-demand information to search engines like product photos,

prices, reviews, author information etc. (schema.org)

Be where your audience is

Be on social media, Yelp, blogs. Not a single organic result for “best headphones” was a brand website. Its “pcmag” “tech radar” and “digital trends”. You will not

beat these sites organically so provide valuable content on your site for them to scrape and link to.

This includes any industry niche sites or publications that may be relevant to your brand.

Make it easily sharable

Your users want to share. Make it easy. Let them be your brand ambassadors.

Let’s Meet Diane

Let’s get in our audience’s shoes:Diane wants to cook dinner for her

family. She will have many digital touch points to do so.

Diane might Google recipes. In this example you see markup on the

recipes – the cook times, the reviews, the photos, the yield information is all markup. This provides dynamic search results with higher click through rates (schema.org)

She might use voice search to find a grocery store. She might ask Google to “Navigate to natural grocery

store”. To be relevant to this search your physical address must be up to date on your Google page, on

your website, on review sites like Yelp.

Diane might price check on her phone at the store. This means being where your audience wants you to

be. If she is price checking on an app, your brand information better be accessible and correct on the app. Check apps and industry tools for your brand.

Diane might user her iPad while cooking. If you want her to use your site for her recipe, you must

understand her limited ability to interact with your site while she cooks. It should be responsive. It should be easy to navigate from one step to the

next while she cooks. She may be flustered or multi-tasking. Make it easy for her. Consider what

she is doing when she is accessing content. Empathy.

Diane may review the products she buys based on her family’s reaction to her meal. If she can do that directly on your site, you can own that content and that conversation and provide support wither responses or additional content on your site. If

she can’t do it on your site, she will go elsewhere to do it and you won’t have control, but Google will index that content with your brand name so searchers will find it.

Its important to provide methods for user generated content.Don’t let others dictate your brands conversation.

She might want to talk about it on social media. Let her. Make it easy. Let her be your brand ambassador.

Digital content is now a part of every aspect of our audience’s

lives so anything irrelevant won’t be tolerated

Unsolicited pushed messages are just noise on the vast open air of

the internet

We aren’t simply selling brands. We’re architecting the internet of information, cultivating thought,

catalyzing ideas. We have a responsibility to provide value.

And Google will make sure you do.

If you forget everything I said

The internet isn’t just a marketplace. Its communities, its connections.

Empathy

Understand your user.