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PRACTICAL TIPS FOR THE FUTURE OF SEARCH
WILL CRITCHLOW
Tactics to cope with changeGrouped into 4 strategies
Strategy: desktop is the poor relation to mobile
1
We’ve been too focused on this:
vs.
-- old computer science sayingvia Ben Evans
a computer should never ask you a question that it should be able to work out the answer to
While forgetting:
It can take photos
While forgetting:
It knows where it isIt can take
photos
While forgetting:
It knows where it is
It knows who your friends are
It can take photos
While forgetting:
It knows if you are walking, running, etc
It knows where it is
It knows who your friends are
It can take photos
Never mind that...
It interacts with the world (beacons, pay, NFC)
Never mind that...
It’s personal, signed-in, and taken everywhere
It interacts with the world (beacons, pay, NFC)
Never mind that...
It’s personal, signed-in, and taken everywhere
It interacts with the world (beacons, pay, NFC)
It has natural multi-touch
Never mind that...
It’s personal, signed-in, and taken everywhere
It interacts with the world (beacons, pay, NFC)
It has notifications
It has natural multi-touch
-- mobile firstby Ben Evans
it's actually the PC that has the limited, basic, cut-down version of the internet … it only has the
web
LET’S TALK TACTICS
It knows where it is
How can these things help you?
It knows who your friends are
It’s personal, signed-in, and taken everywhere It interacts
with the world (beacons, pay, NFC)
It has notifications
It has natural multi-touch
It knows if you are walking, running, etc
It can take photos
I talked about mobile content marketing last year (link)
We have to do something about download sizes
this article is 250 words
-- Amit Singhalat Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference talking about this article
that's under 2kb
-- Amit Singhalat Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference talking about this article
-- Amit Singhalat Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference talking about this article
you know how many bytes someone had to download from
recode's server to render this article?
-- Amit Singhalat Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference talking about this article
2.5 megabytes
For every byte of content
You have to download 1250 bytes
Not just re/code (see this NYT article)
Apple News and Facebook Instant Articles are walled-
garden responses
Facebook instant articles very similar (dev resources)
Launched with tons of publishers on board
What is AMP and how does it work?
Try out Google’s vision by going to:
g.co/ampdemoon your phone
Click on thumbnail
“Instant” page load
Swipe between pages
What is an AMP page?AMP HTML is a subset of HTML with only specific JavaScript “components” available, and using a standard JS toolkit.
Start here: Guide to creating an AMP page
Cached on gstatic URL
Designed to be cached aggressively
Cached on gstatic URL
Designed to be cached aggressively
Initially render only the viewable area
Cached on gstatic URL
Designed to be cached aggressively
Initially render only the viewable area
amp-img replaces imgLoaded by JS
Cached on gstatic URL
Designed to be cached aggressively
Initially render only the viewable area
amp-img replaces imgLoaded by JS
Behind scenes, 100kb .js file saved locally
Debug on the desktop by using inspect element and opening the mobile emulator
Canonical and amphtml links connect themhttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet-apple-macbook-pro
Desktop web
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet-apple-macbook-pro/amp
Canonical and amphtml links connect them
rel=“amphtml”
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet-apple-macbook-pro
Hosted amp
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet-apple-macbook-pro/amp
Canonical and amphtml links connect them
rel=“amphtml”
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet-apple-macbook-pro
rel=“canonical”
Hosted amp
https://amp.gstatic.com/v/s/www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet...
Canonical and amphtml links connect them
Cached amp
https://amp.gstatic.com/v/s/www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/07/microsoft-surface-book-laptop-tablet...
Canonical and amphtml links connect them
rel=“canonical”
Cached amp
Try out AMPThe downsides are smaller than Instant Articles
Should be easy dev on a good CMS
You generally make things on computers
Buzzfeed leads the wayWith mobile-preview in the CMS by default
Preview
-- Jonah Peretti, founder of BuzzfeedTalking about (among other things) their CMS - from his strategy note
We build the whole enchilada
Understand app search
2
Watch Amit Singhal on stage (link)
Mobile, mobile, and mobile
“App search” is really 3 things
1. App Store Optimisation (ASO)
2. Public index - searching app content
3. Personal index
“Hello Vipul”. From the personal index
3. Personal index
3 things
LET’S TALK TACTICS
ASO is the least interesting
ASO is the least interesting
App searches are like searches for websites not web pages
ASO is the least interesting
App searches are like searches for websites not web pages
It’s more like Yahoo directory than Google - brand names and categories
ASO is the least interesting
You can’t dominate unless you are very successful and if you are extremely successful, the upside’s small
App searches are like searches for websites not web pages
It’s more like Yahoo directory than Google - brand names and categories
Still, you should do it (see this presentation)
The public index is the big opportunity
For all the usual “long tail” reasons.As well as typically being non-branded
At simplest, just extends web search
Note web URL
A note on information architecture
www.
Too many used to think of websites like this
m.(totally
different URLs)
m.www.
Now most map or share URLs:
rel=alternatemapping
m.www.rel=alternate
mapping
app views
But we still too often think:
m. app viewswww. rel=alternatemapping
Which evolved to
Deep linking
Same URL works on desktop,
mobile web, and in your app
Now we should be thinking
Right now, Google search is the most interesting
opportunity
Make sure your app can open links
As of iOS9, the recommended approach is http links on both platforms
1
Register your appiOS9 uses CocoaPods to add GoogleAppIndexing supportAndroid only needs to be associated via Search Console
(if http URLs map to web URLs)
2
Used to requireschema.org(*)
(*) or rel=alternate, or applinks, or sitemap
-- Vincent Wehren, Bing, May 2015[Emphasis mine]
“we’ve already started analyzing the web specifically for App Links and actions markup”
Bing still needs markup
Introduction to app indexing APIs
Reveal users’ activity in your app
Three good reasons to use the indexing API:1. App-only views2. Personal index
3. Reveal app engagement(4. add meta information)
It’s not really about Android M
...or
On Android, it’s the Google API that’s interesting
// Define a title for your current page, shown in autocompletion UI
String title = "App Indexing API Title";
// Construct the Action performed by the user
Action viewAction = Action.newAction(Action.TYPE_VIEW, title, WEB_URL, APP_URI);
// Call the App Indexing API start method after the view has completely rendered
AppIndex.AppIndexApi.start(mClient, viewAction);
The API has changed since last year
Source: Google
Indexing actions rather than just views (docs)
This extends into voice actions and much more(Did you know you can hear all your voice searches at history.google.com?)
OK, Google
Now on Tap cuts both waysDriving people into and out of your apps
Source: Google
Yelp and OpenTable are here because they have indexed deep links to this entity
We expect there to be both a Google & an Apple API on iOS
There are actually two Apple APIs
CoreSpotlight(indexes content for you alone)
NSUserActivity(indexes “bookmarks” public and private)
From personal index
CoreSpotlightPersonal index only - content-focused
Personal index: not just about mobile
NSUserActivity:Closely related to Handoff
a lightweight way to capture app state so that it can be
restored later
Apple developer docs
eligibleForPublicIndexing Property eligibleForSearch Property
Private by default
when users engage with your app’s public activities in search
results, it indicates to Apple that public information on your
website is popularApple developer docs
which can help increase your ranking and potentially lead to
expanded indexing of your website’s content
Apple developer docs
I think this mainly shows that Apple hasn’t met any
blackhats yet
Watch out for these pitfallsEnsure users can get straight to app content without registering (first click free)
Watch out for these pitfallsEnsure users can get straight to app content without registering (first click free)
Enable the new iOS9 back button to allow users to go back to the SERP
Watch out for these pitfallsEnsure all appropriate app view URLs are allowed in robots.txt
Ensure users can get straight to app content without registering (first click free)
Enable the new iOS9 back button to allow users to go back to the SERP
Checklists
Must-have
Avoid pitfalls
Recommended
● Support deep-linking● Use web URLs for app views where possible● Register the app in your Search Console
● Allow appropriate URLs in robots.txt● Ensure first click free in the app
● Add markup to pages or sitemaps● Use app indexing API to:
○ Index personal user content○ Add meta information to app views○ Enable activities such as voice actions○ Expose popularity of app views to Google
Checklist for Android app indexing
Watch this space
Avoid pitfalls
Must-have
● Support Universal Links○ Add your domain(s) to associated-domains in app○ Add URLs handled by the app to apple-app-site-association on domain
● Use web URLs for app views where possible● Add GoogleAppIndexing registration to your app
● Ensure first click free in the app● Enable the back button
● Watch out for Google announcing an iOS app indexing API○ Enables indexing of personal content○ Allows usage information to be sent to Google○ Adds meta information
Checklist for iOS app indexing (Google)
Must-have
Recommended
● Support Universal Links○ Add your domain(s) to associated-domains in app○ Add URLs handled by the app to apple-app-site-association on domain
● Use web URLs for app views where possible● Add markup to web pages and / or use NSUserActivity API
● Use CoreSpotlight API to index personal user content● Use NSUserActivity to:
○ Add meta information to app views○ Expose the popularity of app views to Apple
■ Designate public or private as appropriate● Add Smart App Banners to your website● Avoid interstitials in the app
Checklist for iOS app indexing (Apple)
How to perform app auditsWe have a blog post coming. In the meantime, figure it out from this post
Bored of mobile now?
Strategy: optimize for what would happen if you ranked
3
Anyone remember this chart?
In 2009 I was pumped to be surveyed
(I’m British so it was more like)
I was pumped because:
(a) yay, validation
(b) I knew the answers
I could be useful
More recently, it got hard
Which has a bigger effect on rankings?
“Uniqueness of content across the whole site”
or
“Use of responsive design”
Too often, the answer was “it depends”
That’s the bad news
The good news is this is less and less true
Feb 2012
As a result of all the machine learning
Optimize for what would happen if you did rank
Do I click?Do I like what
I see?Do I get what
I want?
It’s possible Google is testing your site directly by dropping it into SERPs
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#1
#2
Your site
#4
#5
A B
Which SERP makes users happier?
But even if it’s not that direct, these are the user
signals that Google is optimizing for
LET’S TALK TACTICS
Use techniques from CRO
You can mock up SERPs and do your own split-testing on snippets
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#1
#2
Your site
#4
#5
A B
Which gets more clicks?
Or apply lessons from PPC
Hunt down “short clicks” - see Justin Cutroni’s post
Figure out how to track “intent complete”
for as many intents as you can
Use Qualaroo for “intent research”
There are some pitfalls
Google’s proxies for “quality” aren’t perfecte.g. duplicated content can be a great user experience
Strategy: use testing to figure out what Google
wants from your site
4
Check out this post from Pinterest’s engineering blog about building an
experimental SEO framework
They found winners
And avoided bad ideas
Previously this might have found exploits or loopholesLike keyword repetition or hiding = better rankings
Now we are using Google as an oracle
It really doesn’t matter if we’re pleasing algorithms designed to please people or pleasing people directly
LET’S TALK TACTICS
Correlation doesn’t imply causation?
Further reading for those interested:● Predicting the present with Bayesian
structural time series [PDF]● Inferring causal impact using
Bayesian structural time series [PDF]● CausalImpact R package● Finding the ROI of title tag changes
Consider typical traffic data
Read Ben Estes’ blog post for more
We can extract:
Read Ben Estes' blog post for more
Seasonality...
We can extract:
Read Ben Estes’ blog post for more
...and trend
We can extract:
Then we can make forecasts(Dotted line = forecast, blue area = confidence interval)
We can detect anomaliesWe use this on our client-only ops platform to spot unexpected changes
Forecast is correct Beats the
forecast
It’s not all roses
It’s hard to make these kinds of changes:
And we haven’t worked out how to test internal linkingWhere the effect propagates throughout the site
But it is powerful
Optimize for actual Google preferences
(rather than guessing how Google will interpret user preferences)
1
Avoid wide scale losses from unsuccessful tests
2
1. Desktop is the poor relation to mobile2. Understand app search3. Optimize for what would happen if you ranked4. Test to figure out what Google wants from your site
Round-up
Oh, and one more thing
It is possible to test changes with a proxy
And we’ve built one
We have an early private beta of a product to do SEO split testing. Come see me afterwards if you are interested
Speak to TA for a demo
@TomAnthonySEO
Speaker photo goes here
WILL CRITCHLOW
CEO and Co-Founder, Distilled
@willcritchlow
Supreme courtEurope by nightMonitorPhone in handTim HenmanNadalRaised handsMetadataHotel CaliforniaPull upsAxl RoseHead in sandComputer in warehouseTom Anthony - foliovisionApp storeApp indexing
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