The Death of 'SEO Content' - Dublin, January 2019 The world's biggest businesses go into forensic detail in their branding strategies. And yet, their landing pages show no sign of these carefully crafted brand voices. As we move into a more sophisticated era of search, simply stringing keywords together with a few prepositions will no longer suffice. With voice and visual search on the rise, the SEO industry is in danger of being left behind in the content space. The branding specialists will take over if we don't up our game. This talk will look at how businesses can inject some personality into their content without losing their SEO rankings.

1. THE DEATH OF
'SEO CONTENT'
C L A R K B O Y D , C A N D I D D I G I T A L
P I N T - S I Z E D M A R K E T I N G M E E T U P , J A N U A R Y 2 4 2 0 1 9

2. The following 3 slides each contain the introductory paragraph from the
credit cards page of a major issuer in the UK.
Try to guess which piece of content is from each company.

7. Basically: keywords strung together by
prepositions, often written by a junior SEO.
SO, WHAT IS SEO CONTENT?
LANDING PAGE COPY
CREATED WITH THE
PURPOSE OF RANKING
VIA ORGANIC SEARCH.

8. The SEO Content block is typically filled with something
like the below:
"Our Converse styles range from sporty, retro or classic,
to bold, daring and individual. A variety of collections is
on offer in our shoe sale including the All Star, One Star
and Jack Purcell all of which come in a selection of
materials and colours. Take advantage of the Converse
sale and get stylish trainers at a discounted price!"
This can also appear at the bottom of the page, or
sometimes in the sidebar. No-one talks like this and no-
one likes to read this content. It is written 'for SEO', but
SEO has changed.
In this context, the SEO content can be ignored. The
presence of striking imagery or a pleasant site design
can draw attention; the user experience needn't
necessarily be impacted.
SEO Content
LOGO
PRODUCT
DETAILS
PRODUCT
DETAILS
PRODUCT
DETAILS
THE SEO CONTENT PAGE

9. HOME
CATEGORY
PRODUCT
THE TRADITIONAL, LINEAR JOURNEY
THROUGH A WEBSITE

10. HOME
CATEGORY
PRODUCT
A VOICE-ENABLED JOURNEY DRAWS OUR
ATTENTION TO 'SEO CONTENT'
Is an Amex
card
expensive?

11. "A credit card is a convenient
and flexible way of borrowing
money, which lets you make
purchases that you can pay for
in the future.
Before you take out a credit
card, it’s important to be
aware of the potential costs
and ensure that you only
borrow what you can afford to
pay back. To get the most out
of your credit card it’s
important you’re able to meet
your payment dates and
ideally pay in full every month."
Should I get a
Barclaycard
credit card?
....Ok. That was
weird.
Bye, Google.

12. WHY 'SEO
CONTENT'
HAPPENS
There is an understanding within
companies that the SEO team knows
how to get content to rank. As a result,
SEOs are given the freedom to create
landing page copy.
SEOs create content based on their data
sources, which other teams typically do
not use. Content is written based on
search trends with the aim of
communicating with search bots.
The assumption is that the benefits 'SEO
content' brings (better SEO rankings;
more traffic; more sales) will outweigh
the negatives of placing below-par
content on landing pages.

13. WHY IT ISN'T
GOOD ENOUGH
ANY MORE
First impressions count
Particularly on a mobile screen, there is no space to waste
with repetitive keywords and synonyms.
SEO has changed
SEO content was vital for rankings. However, those days
are gone; Google's NLP and computer vision capabilities
have improved significantly.
Consumer behaviours are
shifting
Schema.org formats like Speakable point to a future
where content will be read out. Having a 'brand voice' is a
genuine requirement now.

14. HOW TO CREATE CONTENT
FOR PEOPLE AND ROBOTS

15. PROCESS FOR DEVELOPING
BRANDED SEARCH CONTENT
Messaging
and
positioning
Search teams
must work
alongside brand
marketers to
develop the
brand voice, then
decide how to
imbue content
with this tone.
The right
metrics
We need new
metrics for a new
age of search.
Work to develop
an overarching
metric such as
'Brand
Touchpoints'.
Crafting a
story
Develop a map of
the brand touch
points a consumer
will encounter,
then decide how
to synthesise
brand with
performance at
each stage.
Use search
audience data
Content should
still be informed
by search trends,
of course. Use
paid search and
Analytics data to
deliver on
audience
expectations.

16. CONSUMER
JOURNEY
MAPPING
BLACK FRIDAY EXAMPLE
Important to develop a
metric like 'Total Brand
Touchpoints' to reflect
this new landscape.
Set up an analytics
framework that allows
you to make strategic
decisions along this
journey.
Same search; different
intent. Should mean
different content.
The 'research-
obsessed' consumer
will collect
information from
multiple sources.
Social media
content surfaces
after they visit the
site. Each interaction
will have a knock-on
effect.
We know they
shop around to
find the best
prices. How does
that inform our
content?

17. Content
Purpose
Primary
Resources
Secondary
Resources
Search
Appearance
Communicate
brand messages;
differentiate from
competition.
Guide purchase decisions;
inform about product use
cases/benefits.
Homepage; social
media profiles;
About Us pages;
videos.
Product/services
pages; local
listings; external
retailer PDPs.
Knowledge
Graph; branded
search; video
search.
Local listings;
price extensions;
reviews;
image/visual
search.
Homepage;
category and
product pages.
Persuade customers to
make a purchase;
reinforce brand USPs.
Product guides;
YT videos; PPC
ads; social media
ads; influencer
content.
Quick answers;
customer
reviews; image
search.
Stay top of mind; encourage repeat
purchases and signup for loyalty
programs.
Email; signed-in
experience;
organic social
media;
personalized
recs.
Product listings;
PPC/Shopping
ads; SEO results
Customer
reviews; user-
generated
content.
Subscribe and
save through
digital assistant;
RLSA - branded
queries.
Homepage;
digital PR

18. LANDING PAGES -
QUESTIONS TO
ASK
Why are we creating this page? What is its one,
core purpose?
What is the first thing we want visitors to see on
the page?
What will visitors want to accomplish?
What is the main brand message we want to
convey?
How do we combine keyword usage with our
brand voice?
Through which other (non-SEO) channels will
visitors reach this page?
Which competitors will they also visit?
How will our content appear in search results?
(Text/image/video/quick answers/audio?)
How have they interacted with the brand
previously?
How will we know the page is successful?

19. Search
m
arketing
team
Productteam
C
ontentdepartm
ent
Brand
team
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
WHO SHOULD WRITE
LANDING PAGE
CONTENT?
Recent research (Era of
Ecommerce report,
ClickZ/Catalyst) found that
most product page content is
created by search marketing
specialists, rather than
content, brand, or product
teams.

20. TEMPLATE FOR PLANNING LANDING PAGE CONTENT

21. Teambit uses its
homepage to tell a
story through visuals
and clear text, all
infused with the
brand's personality.
The homepage
develops the narrative
as the user scrolls,
covering a range of
intent stages from
initial awareness
through to pricing.
BEST PRACTICE
EXAMPLE

22. CONTENT CREATION TECHNOLOGY
SEMrush Conductor Phrasee

23. IN SUMMARY: OPPORTUNITIES TODAY
The quality of landing page content is
mediocre, at best. Review and rewrite
content across your site, your app, and
any content hosted on retailer websites.
Plan content at a broad scale and ask
questions before approaching any new
landing page.
LANDING PAGE TEXT
Digital culture is increasingly visual.
Consumers navigate, compare, and shop
visually - just as they have always done
offline. There are no shortcuts here;
brands need to make imagery central to
their experience to rank highly in
search.
VISUAL CONTENT
Conversational search is a huge
opportunity, but it will be missed if
marketers keep writing for Google
alone. Listen to your content through a
text-to-speech transcription and
consider embedding audio clips on
landing pages.
AUDIO CONTENT
The future of search lies in personalised
experiences - an area that has been slow
to develop, due to its complexity.
Brands must use behavioural data to
create dynamic experiences that can be
communicated through digital
assistants.
BEHAVIOURAL DATA

24. GET IN TOUCH
/in/clark-boyd-
digital
Clark@Candid.digital@ClarkBoyd

25. Questions? Let me know!
THANK YOU!