Death of Page One Position One - The Fragmentation of Search

The Death of Page One Position One

(the fragmentation of search)

Chris Green SEO & Content Manager

@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk

In 3 years time "Search" as we've known it will

cease to exist


Oh really?



The role of search and the way we search is

changing


It'll become embedded into our day-to-day life

without us noticing


Technology's role in our life is changing


Google are welcoming this change with open

arms


Mainly because it's their doing!


Search used to be simple


Take some keywords


Page 1 Position 1



Page 1 Position 1



The higher up results got more traffic than

those lower


But that was kinda shitty, because…

@chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk @chrisgreen87 www.strategiqmarketing.co.uk


Cheating the system was easy


It was all us SEOs fault!


Search didn't have to go this way...


Ask Jeeves



... and the rest



The technology just

couldn't handle it



Meanwhile ...


Google did a great job of teaching us to search

unnaturally


Why write keyword?


Because searching "semantically" is

difficult


Apple?



Or apple?



Ironically in was Apple who started the change



We were ready to start a conversation


"Siri, where is the nearest flourist?"


"Siri, how do I change the headlight on my...?"


"Siri, what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"


CONTEXT is now KING



Google now "gets" context


Where you are



What you've searched



What underwear you prefer


(maybe)


Scary right?


You can see the results of this "semantic search" at work around you today


Knowledge Graph



Answers



Local



"Okay Google..."



"Okay Google..."



Wait... haven't we already seen this?



It isn't just Google & Apple at it, is it?


"Cortana, remind me to..."



But what about this "fragmentation of search?"




It IS the death of page #1 as we know it


Because it just isn’t what it was or even where it was.


We're now looking for

(& expecting) knowledge


Something much more complex than keywords


Rise of the machines



Google now "learns"


Builds/cultivate its indices


Mines data and creates connections


We're good at this

sort of thing


...but our brains simply can't handle this volume

of data


[Artist's Impression]



Google consumes and understand data faster

than ever


and it'll only grow from here


But back to semantic search which is...


Understanding search intent



Providing the best response



On mobile



Google Glass



Wearables



Android Auto



Google Cars



What do we do now?


Google thinks in "audiences", so should

we


Start targeting audiences!


How do we do this?


REMEMBER: What is the number one goal of search?



Providing the best results to that person at

that time


Become the best result!


Easy

(the end)


If only!


Sadly it's much more complex than that


You need to understand what people are looking

for


Know your customer/end user


What's their motivation, what do they need?


How can you help them attain that?


How can you get them to see it?


If you build it...


Give Google the information!



Make a Crawlable Website



App Indexing



Deep linking


Ranking Signals


Times are a changing


Knowledge Vault



Knowledge Vault


"The quality of web sources has been traditionally evaluated using

exogenous signals such as the hyperlink structure of the graph. We

propose a new approach that relies on ... the correctness of factual

information provided by the source.... we believe a new approach is

necessary to further scale up knowledge base construction... [to]

automatically extract facts from the whole Web, to augment the

knowledge we collect from human input and structured data sources.”


Which means, being...


Talked About


Authoritative


Relevant


Recent


Factually accurate


And how do you reach this?


Give people what they want


Do some good ol'fashion marketing


Ensure all roads lead back to your website/app



Where is your audience, where do they hang

out?


What story can you tell to get them to engage

with you/your product?


How do you survive in a post-page #1 world?



Build a business that can move with it



Or even better, build a business that doesn't need it!



Be findable where you audience are, now and in the

future



Any Questions?

Marketing

Death of Page One Position One - The Fragmentation of Search