This document discusses the connections between the fields of information retrieval (IR) and search engine optimization (SEO). It notes that while the two fields are interested in similar topics around search and user behavior, they rarely interact at conferences or within their communities. However, attending IR conferences has provided the author with many learnings that have helped improve their SEO work. Both fields also face ongoing challenges, such as dealing with non-structured data and modern web frameworks, and continued collaboration between IR and SEO could help address problems in web search.

1. Connecting)The)Worlds)of)IR)&)SEO
Dawn)Anderson)< Bertey

2. My#First#IR#Conference

3. A"Banquet"in"
Winchester"
Cathedral

4. SEOs%do%not%
attend%our%
conferences

5. Anyone&would&
think&SEO&had&
a&bad&
reputation

6. Anyone&would&
think&SEO&had&
a&bad&
reputation

7. Anyone&
would&think&
SEO&had&a&
bad&
reputation

8. Anyone&
would&think&
SEO&had&a&
bad&
reputation

9. Sandcastle*
stomping*
SEOs

10. Don’t&even&get&me&started&on&the&hats&thing

11. SEO$is$beginning$
to$‘grow$up’

12. The$Web$Conference$in$San$Francisco$2019

13. About&Me

14. Also…Meet)Bert)and)Tedward

15. Infinite'loops'
&'dirty'
architectures

16. The$World$
of$Crawling

17. Crawl&
‘budget’&
noseyness

18. URL$
Importance$
Optimisation

19. A"knowledge"‘turning"point’

20. I"came"to"grow"my"
knowledge"of"how"
search"REALLY"works

21. Both%SEOs%&%
IR%want%to%
know%this%
stuff

22. Both%fields%are%very%
interested%in%search%(user%
behavior%&%ranking)…%
obvs

23. But$rarely$cross$paths$
(conference$&$community$
wise)

24. …"Which"is"
unfortunate

25. Because'both'IR'and'
SEO'have'GREAT'
communities

26. Good$Times

27. ESSIR%2017

28. Learnings…*
Huge*
amounts*
including
• Duplicate*&*near*duplicate*content
• Web*crawling
• Query*intent*detection
• Query*intent*shift
• Conversational*search
• Natural*language*processing*&*computational*
linguistics
• Recommender*systems
• Contextual*search
• Result diversification
• Human*in*the*loop
• Loads*more
• Similarity*&*relatedness*(coDoccurrence)

29. Some%of%the%
learnings%
from%ESSIR%
2017

30. The$Zipf$Mystery$Blew$My$Mind

31. At#ECIR#2018#
Still#More#
Learnings#
Important#for#
SEOs

32. I"turned"into"
a"superfan at"
SIGIR"2019

33. SIGIR%2019%Banquet

34. Watching)IR)
developments)
helps)with)SEO)
myth)debunking

35. Watching)IR)
developments)
helps)with)SEO)
myth)debunking

36. A"few"of"my"thoughts"
to"date

37. Both%IR%&%SEO%fields%
appear%to%be%becoming%
increasingly%
fragmented%with%
specialisms

38. Some%SEO%Specialisms
Local%SEO
Technical%
SEO
International%
SEO
Javascript
SEO
Schema%
Specialist
Content%
Marketer
Outreach%
Specialist
Digital%PR

39. I"am"sure"
there"are"
loads"more"
IR"
specialisms"
too
Mobile"IR
Contextual"Search
Natural"Language"Processing
Conversational"Search
Similarity"Search
Recommender"Systems
Library"Science
Temporal"Search

40. Collboration*
is*king*in*both*
fields

41. Learning(about(IR(
concepts(makes(me(
infinitely(better(as(an(
SEO

42. All#of#these#
topics#
matter#to#
my#work
• Duplicate#&#near#duplicate#content
• Web#crawling
• Query#intent#detection
• Query#intent#shift
• Conversational#search
• Natural#language#processing#&#computational#
linguistics
• Recommender#systems
• Contextual#search

43. I"have"yet"to"find"
an"ecommerce"
platform"which"is"
perfect"for"SEO

44. The$‘natural’$
challenges$of$near2
duplicate$content

45. Canonicalisation*
problems*with*
many*facets

46. International*
SEO*
challenges

47. Potential)for)ambiguity)&)
disambiguation)necessity

48. Even%though%I%find%the%
field%of%IR%utterly%
fascinating

49. I’ll$never$be$an$
engineer

50. I’m$not$a$
computer$
scientist

51. And$part$of$what$
makes$SEO$so$
interesting$is…

52. SEO$Connects$To$Many$Fields
SEO
Web'
Dev
PR
Marketing
Data'
Science
UX
IA
Content

53. And$I$am$interested$in$them$ALL

54. Brands'need'ALL'of'the'
connecting'fields'…'
Rarely'does'“if'we'build'
it,'they'will'come”'apply

55. It#seems#Web#search#
IR#still#has#many#
unsolved#challenges

56. Adequate(
precision(
seems(elusive

58. Words&are$polysemous…$
synonymous…$homonyms$
and$homophones

59. Huge%growth%in%unstructured%data

60. Web$search$seems$
increasingly$complicated

61. Search'engines'
appear'to'be'still'
struggling'to'fill'in'
lots'of'gaps'between'
structured'data

62. Which%does%not%bode%well%for%conversational%
search%into%the%future

63. Perhaps(IR(is(
getting(
harder,(not(
easier(too?

64. Reproducibility.
issues

65. Certainly*SEO*is*getting*
harder…*not*easier

66. The$1996$table$of$ranking$factors

67. 2019%>%200%
ranking%factors

68. Each%Section%Has%Many%Factors%Now

69. And,%of%course…%
we%also%have%ML%
in%the%mix%too

70. BLACK&BOX&
ALGORITHMS

71. SEOs%may%need%to%wear%
many%hats%nowadays
• Image&Attribution/ShareAlike&2.0&Generic (CC&
BY/SA&2.0)&/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcopako/27874
63889

72. SEO$is$
definitely$not$
dead

73. Both%IR%&%SEO%Help%with%
Natural%Language%
Disambiguation

74. Since&SEO’s&Assist&
with&
Inconsistencies&&&
disambiguation

76. SEOs%continually%make%
recommendations%to%
clients%to%improve%
search%engine%
understanding

77. Growth'of'Structured'
Data'Implementation'
since'Google'
adoption

78. Ruining&SEO&
can&hit&the&
bottom&line

79. “To$stay$competitive,$the$retailer$launched$
200$versions$of$its$website$depending$on$
which$country$the$customer$is$in,$which$
had$a$negative$effect$on$Asos'$search$
engine$rankings.”$(BBC,$2019)

80. I"haven’t"seen"a"lot"in"
web"search"IR"about"
the"challenges"
presented"by"
modern"JS"website"
frameworks

81. Search'
engine'
friendly'
pages
need'to'be:
Discoverable
Understandable
Contain'quality'content'
that'provide'value

82. Modern'web'frameworks'complicate'relevance''
matching'further

83. Javascript*SEO*is*now*a*field*in*its*own*right

84. Or#the#newer#
challenges#two#
stage#indexing#
holds#for#brands

85. There%are%still%a%huge%
amount%of%areas%
where%search%engines%
need%help%to%find%the%
right%&%understand%
quality%content

86. “…only'46.71%'of'
mobile'pages'
used alt attributes'on'all'
of'their'images”'(web'
almanac,'2019)

87. Despite'the'importance'of'on'page'headings'for'structure'and'context'
over'10%'were'not'using'them'(web'almanac'2019)

88. Performance*is*a*
ranking*factor

89. Yet…%“48%%of%sites%were%labelled%
as%slow”%(using%CRUX)%(Web%
Almanac,%2019)

91. “Just&under&half&of&
websites&still&haven't&
migrated&to&HTTPS&and&are&
serving&non;secure&pages&
to&their&users.”&(Web&
Almanac,&2019)

92. I"suspect"like"IR"
research…"SEOs"have"to"
be"patient"for"findings"
to"be"implemented"in"
practice

93. Sometimes(we(wait(a(long(time(too

94. BERT%moved%from%research%into%production

95. BOTH%IR%AND%SEO%
WORLDS%ARE%
EXCITED%BY%BERT

96. BOTH%IR%&%SEO%
FIELDS%ARE%
EXCITED%BY%
MACHINE%
LEARNING

97. Both%IR%and%good%SEOs%
see%user%happiness%as%a%
primary%goal

98. Web$pages$that$don’t$
meet$user$information$
need$PROBABLY$won’t$
rank$well$for$long

99. Good$SEOs$know$
that$too

100. By#the#way…

101. A"lot"of"IR"conference"
websites"are"missing"
easy"win"SEO"
opportunities

102. The$previous$
year’s$conference$
outranks$the$
current$one$for$
ages

103. They%mostly%don’t%
‘grow’%a%single%target%
URL

104. HTTPS%is%also%an%issue%often

105. And$often$fail$mobile$friendly$tests

106. And$we$know$
these$things$
are$ranking$
factors

107. SEOs%are%becoming%increasingly%interested%in%IR

108. SEOs%are%collaborating%
with%engineers

109. SEOs%are%Contributing

110. SEOs%are%
Researching

111. SEO$is$
beginning$to$
‘grow$up’

112. IR#may#be#
‘The#Upside#
Down’#world#
of#SEO

113. But$the$learnings$have$been$
phenomenal$from$stepping$into$it

114. Expect'more'SEOs'to'
attend'IR'conferences'
soon

115. Keep$in$Touch
@dawnieando
@BeBertey