1.
Connecting)The)
Probable(Dots
Disambiguating+strategies+for+entity+
oriented(search(and(natural(
language'understanding'
Dawn%Anderson
@dawnieando #FOS20

2.
The$probability$
of#rolling#an#even#
number'or'an'
odd#number#is#
1:2

3.
This%is%‘Equiprobability’%!
Both%odds$and$evens$are$
equiprobable+outcomes

4.
“Assigns'
equal probabilities+to+
outcomes(when(they(
are$judged$to$be$
equipossible”"
(Wikipedia)

5.
In#URLs,#content,#
locations)&)entities)
equiprobability-can-
be#problematic

6.
This%could%be%in#The#
Web$of$Document$
(content)(or(The(Web(
of#Data#(entities,#
including(locations)

7.
Where%two%or%more%domain%
assets,&surface&forms,&or&
entity&determinations&are&
considered)equal)a)
representative*is*‘the*chosen*
one’%(canonical)

8.
Equiprobability-is-like-‘See-saw-SEO’

9.
Nearest'Neighbours

10.
All#the#pluralities#
are$clustered$
together'
(neighbours)"and$
one$is$picked

11.
LaPlace’s)Principle)of)
Indifference

12.
Where%there%is%equipossibility
there%is%a%need%for%further%
confirmations+beyond+the+
content&itself

13.
One$must$
beat%the%
other

14.
Sometimes(‘bits’(
are$picked$from$
multiple(
‘equiprobable,
outcomes’

15.
Today’s(Topic:(Disambiguating(
equiprobability-for-improved-
search'performance

16.
WHO
IS
DAWN
ANDERSON
@dawnieando
dawn.anderson@@move-it-
marketing.co.uk
move-it-marketing.co.uk
linkedin.com/in/msdawnanderson
Meet$Bert$&$Tedward
@dawnieando #FOS20

17.
In#an#ideal#
world&
‘precision’+and+
‘recall’(would(
be#perfect…#
but…%it’s%NOT

18.
So#search#engines#must#
also%work%off%probability%
determination

19.
Using&‘The&Law&of&
Large&Numbers’&
(Educated)guesses))–
Progressively+learning

20.
Google&Uses&(some)'Machine'Learning(for(Crawling,(Indexing(&(Ranking

21.
On#the#‘long#tail’#
there’s'often'
very%little,%or%
nothing'in'it

22.
Low$to$no$page!rank%pages%
(but%that%is%also%now%just%
one$of$very$many$things)

23.
See!saw$SEO

24.
When%the%canonical%
balance'tips'from'
equiprobability-
slightly

25.
Your%ranking%flux%might%well%be%transferring%equiprobability

26.
Several'types'of'
equiprobability-
ambiguitity may$cause$
your%project%to%
perform'less'well'
overall'in'search

27.
Different(
types&of&
ambiguity)
can$impact$
SEO
Exact&duplicate&content
Near%duplicate%content
Natural'language'ambiguity
Generational*cruft*based*ambiguity
Machine(learned(ambiguity(‘lag’
Dot!to!dot$ambiguity
Semantic)heterogeneity
Location(based(ambiguity

28.
Exact&duplicate&
content

29.
Google&
probably(
chooses&the&
one$with$
highest'
‘probability’
Most%linked%to%internally
Most%linked%to%externally
Included(in(XML(sitemap
HTTPS
Prettier&URLs
Important)parent

30.
Maybe&one&or&
several'of'many'
‘importance’-
factors

31.
Google&works&this&
out$VERY$quickly

32.
Near!duplicate*
content

33.
It#starts#off#well#
enough…(but(over(
time

34.
Google&realizes&
these%pages%are%
‘mostly’)the)
same%as%others

35.
Some%
reasons
Many%matching%shingles
Quilting
‘Borrowed’)content)at)scale
Feeds
Big$Boilerplate$/$little$main$value
Data$driven$sites$with$little$value

36.
Sometimes(these(are(sites(
trying'to'make'a'URL'
footprint(well(beyond(their(
contribution)to)a)positive)
‘Network)Effect’

37.
Spoofing(the(
‘Network)Effect’

38.
After&some&crawling&
&"sampling"Google"
puts%the%pieces%of%
the$puzzle$together

39.
And$begins$to$
exclude'pages'
from%the%index

40.
Exclusion*still*
happens…(A(LOT

41.
I"ran"a"little"
Twitter'
competition)
with%only%
empathy(as(
the$prize

42.
Some%of%the%
GSC$
‘exclusion’,
numbers(
were$huge…$
millions

43.
And$even$over…$one$billion

44.
Crawl&demand&
probably(
follows&the&
Pareto'Principle

45.
Probably(20%(of(the(
URLs%satisfy%80%%of%
the$demand$&$
contribute*well*to*
‘The%Network%Effect’

46.
Google&will&likely&use&
mostly'‘Sampling’'on'those''
heavy&‘excluded&URLs’

47.
Looking'for'small'
samples'of'
content&&&URL&
patterns…)and…)
‘Discovered,,not,
crawled’)will)be)
high

48.
’Discovered,,
not$crawled’$
in#GSC#is#
Google&
saying…

49.
They%know%what’s%
down%that%site%
section(or(URL(
parameter'path

50.
The$verdict$is$
in

51.
Those&URLs&will&be&
‘starved’*of*crawl

52.
However'many'
times&you&submit&
and$inspect

53.
Natural'
language'
ambiguity

54.
For machines words are$
problematic.--Ambiguous…-
polysemous…*synonymous

55.
In#spoken#word#it#is#
even$worse$because$of$
homophones(and(
prosody

56.
Like%“four%
candles”)and)
“fork&handles”

57.
Word’s'context'
(company)*helps&
enormously

58.
Words&that&are&related&live&
near%each%other%in%
mathematical)spaces

59.
“You%shall%know%a%
word%by%the%
company(it(keeps”(
(Firth,(1957)

60.
Relatedness
First&level&
relatedness
Second'level'
relatedness

61.
Co!
occurrence'
in#content#
helps&A&LOT
In#the#page#itself'(1st'level)
In#the#interconnected#pages&(2nd level)
In#the#subcategorization.(2nd level)
In#the#site#sections((2nd level)
In#the#external#relationships,(2nd level)
In#the#domain#ontology#as#a#whole&(2nd level)

62.
Informational+content+
adds$to$the$contextual$2nd
level$relatedness$of$
transactional*content
Transactional+
content
Informational+
content

63.
If#you#can#help#
with%
‘informational+
needs’&you&can&
‘probably’*help*
with%
transactional*
needs
Add#value#in#rich#
informational*
needs
Contextual*value*
passes%throughout%
the$whole$site

64.
Adding&
Contextual*
Value&Does&
NOT$Mean
Adding&loads&of&content&below&
ecommerce&pagesAdding
Adding&‘LSI%keywords’%in#ecommerce#
pagesAdding

65.
High%topical%
relatedness)
&"context"
vectors
Internal(linking
Not$spam

66.
Utilise conceptual*
‘nearest(neighbours’
well

67.
Utilise ‘Overflow*SEO’*as*
demand&&&content&
naturally(grows

68.
Subcategories are one of the Kings

69.
Merge%content%
which%is%‘too’%
conceptually+
very%similar%with%
no#separate#
demand

70.
Google&may&realise&you&
can$‘probably’$help$with$
transactional*queries

71.
Dot!to!dot$
ambiguity

72.
Who$knows$what$
this%dot%to%dot%
puzzle&is&creating?

73.
Absolutely*
no!one

74.
If#you#chop#away#or#migrate#
half%of%your%website%then%
equiprobability-will-likely-be-a-
problem

75.
A"half"drawn"website"
is#not#the#same#as#a#
fully%drawn%previous%
website?

76.
Although(you(may(rank(‘marginally’(better(for(
fewer%things
Your%domain%‘topic’%
became&overall&more&
about&some&topics&&&less&
about&other&topics

77.
Informational+
content&adds&
to#the#
contextual*2nd
level$
relatedness)of)
transactional*
content
Informational+
content
Transactional+
content

78.
Prune,'Merge,'Improve,'Archive
Prune&– Only%
ballast
01
Merge%– Highly'
semantically+
related'content
02
Improve(–
Evergreen'pages'
worth&the&effort
03
Archive(– Older&
pieces&of&
temporal)content)
(like&a&library)
04

79.
Avoid&removing&or&
hiding&user&
generated(content(
(except'spam)

80.
Cruft&based&
ambiguity

81.
Generational*cruft*
contributes+to+
equiprobability-
issues

82.
Just%a%few%
examples…)
legacy'is'a'
problem
301$redirect$chains
Inconsistent)301s
No#301s#at#all
Canonical(points(to(a(301
Canonical(points(to(a(no!index
No!index&points&to&a&canonical

83.
301$Should$
Mean%The%
Resource(
Moved

84.
You’re'saying'
things'(tokens'
(words),)topics,)
concepts,)
entities)'moved'
so#they#can#be#
re!filed

85.
But$often$
there%is%little%
or#no#match#
at#all

86.
Borderline)or)
true%‘soft%404’

87.
Also,&any&legacy&canonicals&
are$now$defunct$by$the$
redirect'status

88.
Cruft&&&migrations&
are$like$a$game$of$
rugby&as&the&ball&
(signals))is)passed)
between&URLs

89.
A"sign"of"this"is"a"
temporarily+wrong+target+
ranking

90.
One$URL$is$going$up.$$One$is$
going%down%as%signals%pass%
from%one%to%the%other%over%
time%– See!saw$SEO

91.
Machine(
learned'
ambiguity)‘lag’

92.
ALL#of#the#above#==

93.
Crawl&Budget&
Woes%/%Learned%
Quality(Patterns

94.
Your%
reputation*
precedes'you'
– You$are$
being&judged&
on#the#past

95.
Your%quality(&(crawl will$be$
‘machine)learned’)by)‘Large)
Numbers’)over)time

96.
Probably(you’ll(struggle(
to#get#enough#crawl#for#
Google&to&catch&up

97.
You’ve'probably'got'
URLs%which%have%not%
been$crawled$for$years

98.
Search'engines'realise there%is%
no#‘demand’#for#your#poopy#
pages’

99.
Your%performance%will%be%based%on%what%is%indexed

100.
Fear%not…%Small%
Wordpress(site

101.
You$need$to$lure$
a"Grumpy"
Googlebot(with(
tasty%quality%
content&morsels

102.
You$MUST$substantively,change,
the$ratio$of$poor$quality$to$high$
quality(in(the(site(as(a(whole(&"
add#more#value#OVERALL

103.
Regain'the'crawl&and&get&more&
demand

104.
Watch&for&
patterns((clues)(in(
GSC$Coverage$&$
take%a%demand!
driven'approach

105.
In#transactional#pages#
identify(valuable(content,(
features(&(attributes(your(
audience(wants(

106.
Pro!tip:%Adding%moooaaarrr
words&to&transactional&pages&
does%not%always%add%much%value

107.
Plus…&There&is&often&a&
mathematically*natural*
ordered%pattern%to%things%
ranked'by'frequency

108.
Like%word%
frequencies*
many%types%of%
‘ordered’'
popularities+will+
have%a%Zipfian%
Distribution

109.
Where%the%frequency%of%
n"is#inversely#
proportional)to)its)
frequency)table)rank)–
1/n

110.
Zipfian'
Distribution*
occurs&in&
many%other%
rankings(
unrelated)to)
language
Population*of*cities*in*a*country
Corporation)sizes
Income'rankings
No.$of$people$watching$same$TV$
channel

111.
Nurture&internal&link&graph&
popularity*that*mirrors*
‘real&life&popularity

112.
Popularity+&+Zipfian+Distributions
Is#it#really#
popular'in'
‘real&life’?
Does%it%follow%
‘The%Network%
Effect’?

113.
Or#are#you#manipulating#it#for#
things'you'want'to'rank'for'
(which&aren’t&really&popular&at&
all)?

114.
Building(genuine(
topical(hubs((Hub(&(
spoke)'(Strongly'
connected'
components)

115.
Google&puts&the&pieces&of&the&
puzzle&together&slowly&but&
increases(with(quality(
improvements

116.
Equipossibility goes%well%
beyond'duplicate'content'too

117.
Semantic)
heterogeneity

118.
Mis!matching)data)types)or)
equivalencies+in+data+tables+
from%same%or%other%domains

119.
Linked'Data'has'been'around'for'a'long'time

120.
There%have%historically%
been$several$ways$to$
implement(linked(data

121.
Some%Types%of%Semantic%Web%Technologies%&%
Their&Markups
RDF SPARQL OWL SKOS
RDFa JSON!LD Microdata

122.
Several'linked!data$types$&$web$
sources'come'together'causing'
equipossibility

123.
Implementation+
Inconsistencies)Prevail)
(ed)

124.
The$Knowledge$Graph$
&"Its"Data"Sources

125.
The$majority$of$Google’s$entity$
types&reference&the&Wikipedia&
URI$or$the$Knowledge$Graph$MID

126.
But$Now$Anything$Structured$Might$Be$Used

127.
We#already#know#conversation#search#fills#gaps#via#web#information

128.
The$web$is$a$‘Data$Lake’

129.
Public'Datasets'(e.g.'Kaggle)'>'27k'datasets

130.
Enter&Data&Search&by&Google&AI

131.
Disambiguating+Data+
Sets%(is%hard)

132.
I"asked"for"some"examples"on"Twitter

133.
Example:)
Philosophers*Dates*
of#Birth#different#in#
Wikidata &"DBPedia

134.
The$community$responded

135.
'Mashed!up’$
Knowledge)Graphs)
(Two%Don%Cherry’s%
and$his$dog’s$name$
! ‘Blue’

136.
Image&Search&Got&Don&Cherry’s&Dog&Right

137.
Wrong&price&included&in&images&from&other&sites

138.
Images'from'
Direct'
Competitors

139.
Edgar’s(Were(Comical

140.
Van$Diesel$–
Death&– To#Be#
Advised??

141.
Does%An%Ice%
Cube%Have%
Parents?

142.
Teenage&
Mutant&Ninja&
Turtles(paint(
works&of&art

143.
Wikipedia(Made(Their(Point(Well

144.
A"six"legged"horse?

145.
Somes&Reputable&
Knowledge)
Repositories)are)
Just%Plain%‘Wrong’

146.
“Simply(saying(that(a(horse(
has$five$legs$doesn't$make$
it#true#– calling'a'horse's'
tail%a%leg%does%not%make%it%
one.”&(Wikipedia,&2019)

147.
Equivalency,
between&data&
sources'is'sought

148.
Efforts'Are'Underway'
to#Resolve
Since&2011&major&search&
engines&have&been&
focusing)on)Schema)
commonly

149.
Google&
Deprecating+
Data!vocabulary*
Schema

150.
Your%
Breadcrumbs+
Markup'May'
Be#Impacted

151.
Entities'often'have'
many%surface%forms

152.
Schema:SameAs and$OWL:SameAs

153.
SameAs'Seems'To'Be'Effective

154.
BE#consistent#in#ALL#
mentions(of(your(brand(
name%&%ALL%THINGS%
GENERALLY

155.
Utilise'‘known’'
(popular))public)
datasets&&&knowledge&
repositories

156.
Avoid&conflict&with&
‘known’'(popular)'
public'datasets'&'
‘knowledge*
repositories’

157.
Realise well$
known%
knowledge)
repositories(
may$be$wrong

158.
But$they$may$
conceptually+still+
be#‘right’"– They%
will$PROBABLY$win

159.
Location(based(
ambiguity

160.
Semantic)Heterogeneity)
is#a#problem#locally

161.
Entity&
Address&
(location)*is*
a"VERY"Big"
Problem(
with%entity!
oriented(
search
street%number
Locality)! city%or%town
street/route(name,(if(detected
postal'code,'if'detected
country,)if)detected
broad_region+! administrative+area,+such+as+the+state,+if+
detected
Narrow_region+! smaller'administrative'area,'such'as'county,'
if#detected

162.
Narrow_Region,
is#VERY#
Problematic
Inconsistent)data)from)
knowledge)repositories
Inconsistent)data)from)websites
Inconsistent)data)from)searchers
HUGELY'SPLIT'EQUIPROBABILITY

163.
Which%
County'is'
Bristol(in?

164.
Bristol(is(
BOTH%a%
county'and'a'
city

165.
In#Scotland#and#Wales#
it’s%worse&(They&work&of&
a"different"regional"
division'system)

166.
Google&Does&Not&
Understand)the)
Word%‘Historic'

167.
What%about%
counties)that)
don’t&even&exist&
any$more?

168.
At#least#this#
one$mentions$
London%as%well%
as#Middlesex

169.
Everyone...)Is)
confused

170.
Older&humans&
probably(keep(
ambiguous)
county'+'town'
combinations*
alive

171.
In#location#focused#pages#adding#a#
postcode(could(be(much(more(valuable(
than%adding%lots%of%words

172.
Contextual*relatedness*
in#local#spaces#is#
proximity!based

173.
AreaServed Schema'&'Internal'
linking&by&Proximity&(e.g.&lat (x)$
&"long%(y))%is#powerful

174.
Google&sometimes&puts&
the$pieces$of$the$puzzle$
together'sporadically

175.
Align&ALL&the&
dots

176.
Remember:'Consistency'is'one'of'the'Kings

177.
Leave%no%room%for%
ambiguity

178.
Keep$in$Touch
•@dawnieando
•@BeBertey

179.
Some%Take%Aways

180.
Go
• Watch&for&‘impact’&patterns&to&maximise upon%in%GSC%‘coverage’%reports
Optimise
• Be#careful#you#don’t#prune#away#second#level#relatedness#signals
Map
• Consider)Pareto’s)Law)when)identifying)issues)to)fix)in)GSC)coverage
Optimise
• Check&for&‘wrong&page&ranking’&due&to&cruft&&&lag&passing&signals
Get
• On#location#sites#consider#internal#linking#on#proximity
Identify
• Add#value#to#improve#on#‘The#Network#Effect’#in#attributes#&#informational#content
Use
• Make%it%obvious%you%can%‘probably’%help%with%transactional%needs%through%other%content